Frankie

All the stuff you guys are talking about has nothing to do with religion or faith itself. You know, people forcing their opinions on you and whatnot...that's just how the vast majority of people are in general. You don't agree with someone on something, and who knows, they migth shun you. I used to work with this guy who was atheist, and he listened extensivally to rap music. When he found out my taste of music was widely different then his, he was all pissed off, and he never acted the same. Just goes to show...

Interesting list. At first I quickly responded to myself that that's not true, but only because I don't think of myself believing that way (although I am a Christian). But I looked it over again and it does eerily describe the way my parents think...which has always been very frustrating.

For some people, there is a logical reason. Have you read my post? That's just one reason why some Christians believe in what they do. There is no mathimatical equation that convinces people to believe in God...that doesn't make sense, so there are many other logical reason for people to be Christian, like what I posted before. You don't have to believe it, in fact, you don't have to believe anything. For all we know, everything they tell us on TV is a lie, everything you learn in school can be a lie, religion can be a lie, but for different people, all those things have logical explanations that help us understand why it might be true. You can believe in what history tells us, or you can think it's all a bunch of lies (some people do by the way), what does anyone know about anything beyond their direct experiences, for all we know you might be living in a dream world, I would like to see anyone write down on a peice of paper, how you know for a fact, or your logical explanation that you do infact exist in your present state, and you're not just living in a dream. Because if that's the case, everything you believe goes out the window. People have no idea. Ah, the religion and war connection always reappears. The fact is, we would probably be having the exact same wars with or without religion in the world. People are funny, that they think if religion goes away, they're will be peace on earth. What's really going on is that there probably hasn't been a war purely based on or instigated by religion in the past 4000 years. There's always a reason that nations and communities have gone to war, beside that of religion. If used at all, they would use their faith as a mask for the war, but if that's the case you can use anything....I mean people have created thousands of their own Gods anyways, if the pressumably true faiths (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) didn't exist, we might just be using other dieties or our culture to defend our way of life. As for children being born into religion, and it being forced upon them and enlisting their kids into a holy army of God....I just don't see it happening. At least for the majority of North America. My experience to this kind of stuff, is children brought up in a christain church by their parents so that the parents give them the opportunity to have something they think is worth while in believing in and can benefit their lives. But none of that matters, because the majority of kids seem to abandon their parents idea of religion when they hit 17/18, and outright reject it. Most parents anyways take a nonchalant attitude towards it, and their kids don't recieve that much pressure from any sides....so in that case the odds are falling in your favor...or anyone else that might want kids to abandon religion. You're winning.

The Christain faith is not about doing good on earth to be rewarded in heaven, or living in fear and doing what he says so that you won't go to hell...The teachings of the Christain faith are simply about living the best life possible, and helping or telling others about how to live the best life possible. Not physically, but metally peaceful. The Bible says that God is always in control, but for the time being, satan owns the earth, because techinically, human kind chose it that way (through Adam and Eve). And ever since human kind chose him to be in charge, there will always be death, hatred, pain, wars, perversion and all that other bad stuff (untill EVERYONE chooses God), because the devil with do everything to the opposite of the will of God. What God wants is the whole earth to live in peace, and he teaches people how to live the best possible life, and peacefully, apart from the evils in the world, but at the same time, trying to help others to live how he tells people is the best way. It doesn't matter whether you believe hell is a lake of fire, or a cold prison, or if there is no eternal damnation, or heaven is made of gold, or if your favorite things willl be in heaven, or you'll be up in the clouds....none of that even matters to your christianity, ultimitally, if you don't believe that the main goal is about striving for peace with yourself, God, and everyone around you. I think you might be reading it wrong... I am the Lord your God: Reasonable thing for a God to say You shall have no other gods before me: Having created the universe, the science of it, and yourself, he's probably pretty confident about his ideal makeup for the best life to live on earth. Believing in another god might defeat the purpose of what he thinks is the best way, if you're listening to someone else's idea. You shall not make for yourself an idol: Sort of ties in with the one before. Also worshiping objects that might not be alive at all, or people that have the wrong idea of what life is about can have a negative effect on the idea of peace God decided to be the best one. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God: This one probably is meant more for actual followers or teachers of God's teachings. As it would be troublesome for someone to misrepresent God or using his name for their own purposes and gains, as has been done in the past, and constantly today. More obviously than before there seems to be a problem with this, as more people seem to be complaining about God and how awful he is, by hearing what other people have to say about him, or by misinterpretation, representation or images potrayed by christain teachers or people claiming to know who God is, and giving the wrong impression. It might cause some people to get the wrong impression and turned off the whole idea. This is related to slander, and gossip, which are also said in the Bible not to be instigated, encouraged or taken part in. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy: Literally translated to "a time of rest". Which is something that Jews and Christains are guilty of misinterpreting, as it did not intend to mean a saturday (or to some sunday) of exceptional sacredness and a day to give to God. It was really a day for people, where he tells us to set aside a day of the week or a reasonably extended period of time where people can rest from work and their troubles as to not burn themselves out or get stressed out, and also to allow a time to slow down, and rethink of how he tells us is the best way to live, and not forgeting to practice it throughout the rest of the week. Put simply: A time to rest and time to think about God. Just an interesting video of what some Christians(the one speaking in the video) think about the vast majority of Christians. The Christians most people hate and depise, are the ones that make up the majority of Christians in North America. The common image people have of Christianity is portrayed by people that are opposed to preachers like this guy, and who this guy opposes too: (He has been banned from many churches)

I think we're just asking for more problems when people start paying for organs, or selling theirs. Just think of all the "accidental" or "natural" deaths in hospitals after they start taking out organs from those dead patients, to sell to others. It's already happening I'm sure in many parts of the world, and I know in China. All these rising "accidental" deaths in the Chinese prison aren't just any coincidence when they match the rising sales of organ transplants. Just go to China and ask for a heart, they'll tell you it came from a prisoner. As for blood, I think it might come to the same thing. But for hair and semen, you might as well make some money, I mean they've already been doing, and it seems to be working out.

Right on man! I find more and more people who are starting to agree with me on this whole rap crap. It's dead music, it is a completely usless bunch of soundwaves that contribute nothing to art or entertainment. Noise polution. By the way, Belinda Stronach should be put down...

Yah, I guess you're right. Although Christianity is a faith built on evangelism, and he is probably doing what he is supposed to be doing, which is getting his message across to as many people as possible. As long as he's not running the country.

It funny how some of you are getting upset at the popes views. I mean, I don't like the catholic church, and you might disagree with what he says, but he has the say those things, he's the freakin pope! If he didn't have the views he did, he probably wouldn't be the pope, and he probably wouln't be catholic. You can't be Christain if hate or disagree with what your own Bible says. Infact, you can't be any religion if you disagree with the books of that religion. He's obviously catholic, so he's obviously going to say those things, that's his opinion. By the way, he's not anti-tolerant, he didn't say he was against it. He's saying the country is using the word tolerance for their own purposes. Obviously he thinks what people are doing has nothing to do with tolerance.

I think a lot of the times it's not about race, but the way a person presents themselves. If a person looks like trouble, or has an image related to trouble, or even they way they talk or resond to authority can affect a persons judgemnt towards them. Like all these dumb stories I hear about Muslims being held up at the airport and checked more than other people, I don't buy it. I know what's going on, these people are waiting in line thinking, "Stupid officers, their gonna think I'm a terrorist...blah blah blah." And then get there, and they might be acting rude and talking rude or whatnot, or maybe huffing and puffing. Then the authorities decide to check them out. I have an arabic friend, who is Muslim and is actually from Iraq. He goes on vacation with his family almost twice a year, and his dad takes business trips more often then that. He said they've never had a problem with security or anyone, leaving the country and coming back. His dad is also very respectful, clean cut, and undoubtably Arabic, as you can tell from the way he looks, and his accent...yet never has he ever had a problem.

Hey man, as long as they behind the counter at Tim Hortons where I can see them, serving me coffee and donuts to fatten me up, and not running the country or Tim Hortons themselves, they're fine by me. Hahaha! Just kidding.

Interesting point you made. It's funny that your teacher thinks one way, and you think the other. But personally I think it might just be a point of view. I mean unless they draw up some real statistics on this, who would ever know. (but really, I think almost all statistics people read about are all garbage...possible made up. Scientist my ass.) My point of view is that I don't think all this mixing stuff matters. I mean, you got ugly people everywhere, mixed or purebred, and you got genuises who might be half black & half chinese or who's parents might be cousins, I think it's all over the place. Who ever you love, and that's it.

Yah, I kept hearing about this show on the commercials, and it seemed like an interesting idea. Although I wasn't sure if it was going to be any good, because most reality shows are just not reality and they suck. I don't know why most people watch them anyways, I hate them all. The only reality show I've ever enjoyed was a show called "The Mole", I think it was one of the first to start his whole reality trend, and to me I thaught it was really good. Every other reality show, including Survivor and American Idol, just appauled me, and I could never sit through 5 minutes of any of those show, they are so unbearable and seem fake to me. Fortunally, everyone here seems to give this show a good rating, so I guess I watch it next week and see how it goes.

I've often been confused about Liberal thinking, trying to sort out all the facts on exactly what they believe in. This John guy seems to be right on. If any of you liberals are hurtin', it's because the truth does infact hurt.

The way she's acting has nothing to do with Christianity or her claims of being a Christain. She is what the Abrahamic religions might call demon possesed or demon oppressed. Thats probably what most of those religions would classify her as. Some other people who don't believe in that or in religion, just might call her a crazy person.

I have certain mild preferences and tastes, but in general I don't see why I wouldn't date/marry a certain person. Like for example, I personally have a zero level of attraction for most black woman and east Indian. But most other races are ok by me. But aside from physical preference, who knows, I might just end up with a black woman, or indian. But for now, I wouldn't get into that.