I am sorry to hear that. Sorry, but not surprised, considering that christians are only human...and, well...God is just hard to understand sometimes. I'm assuming you mean that people here have had unpleasant experiences with christians.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by saying that people have had unpleasant experiences with God and the Bible. I'm thinking maybe you mean that they disagree with the Bible...and choose not to believe in God? Please correct me if I'm way off base.

At any rate, I understand the gist of what you are saying. Life is hard. Period. I'm sure we all would like to make some sense of it. For some of us, belief in God brings not only sanity in the midst of chaos, as well as peace in the midst of impossible circumstances.

...sorry 'bout your slow whatever it is... (I know just enough about computers to make me dangerous...)

Correct.

Should I trace my lineage so I can find someone who wronged my ancestors and demand something in payment from then? Absurd.

Quzah.

(slang blinks at the monitor......squinting, reads Quzah's last post....then falls out of his chair, bumps his head.....lies babbling, and twitching on the floor)

I actually agree with Quzah

I dont have a vcr or dvd player and I just googled it and I dont understand how this relates to the current conversation.

On top of that, my cable connection is almost as slow as smoke signals and I just heaved my couch out of the window in frustration.

Can you give me a summary?

The little head tells me.;)

I think the reference was probably to agressive missionaries and zealots who imposed their will in the name of God and the Bible. Torquemata (sp) for example.:)

Re: For what it's worth...
 

Why? Nobody is trying to force Christians to marry gay. It is against strict Catholic doctrine to eat meat on Fridays. Would it be OK, if the Catholics gained control of the government, for them to forbid the sale or consumption of meat on Fridays? Or for Jews or Muslims to forbid the sale of pork altogether? Or for scientologists to ban the psychiatric profession? You have to realize that not everyone has the same beliefs. It is OK for Catholic clergy to admonish Catholics not to eat meat on Fridays. It is Ok for rabbis and clerics to forbid their followers to eat pork. It is OK for scientologists to discourage their followers fom seeing a shrink. But it is not OK, should any of them get into a position of political power, for them to attempt to foist religious requirements on the general public.

That's the difference. If someone was trying to prevent you from practicing your religion, you would have an issue. But instead someone is trying to give people more rights - people who do not share your beliefs. Why should your religious beliefs trump theirs?

Re: Re: For what it's worth...
 

No, it's not. But your point stands. Government cannot determine the will of God.

there is a certain irony in a fundie called Happy Monkey.

Re: For what it's worth...
 

I respect your opinion, but I just want to point out to everybody else here that this does not represent the opinion of all Christians.

Why should I believe this reason when you don't believe it when it's offered up by gays?

Sorry, I still think heterosexuality is a choice.

I'm not sure what makes you think I'm a fundie. I'm not religious at all.

jaguar can't read, Happy Monkey, so he just makes stuff up. Don't let it bother you.

Correct. It's nobody's business what they do to each other.

Say what? Who cares about HOW they killed off the Natives. The fact that they did and WHY they fought them and tried to kill them off was wrong.

The Trail Of Tears ring a bell?

Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the "cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.

Kenneth C. Davis, from his book Don't Know Much About History

See also:
A Brief History of the Cherokee Nation

It wasn't all about just "fighting". History tells us that Europeans had a habit of "fighting" the Native cultures of many lands that they invaded. Try "attempting to eliminate" by intimidation, slavery, internment camps, and the outright murder of native people all over the world.

You may feel that my logic is "absurd", but history doesn't lie.

No NOT absurd to some. That's up to you if you don't want to persue that option. If you do, then you do. If not, then oh well. *shrugs*