Yeah, my spelling is atrotious (sic). I think my freshman high school English teacher would probably have me strung up by the you-know-what's if she read half the stuff I posted in here.
Did a search on Google of Catholics vs Protestants and that was one of the results. Lil Pun did ask why catholics and protestants don't get along. This is in the first paragraph of the description of the web site: The purpose of this network is to offer free, unassisted, history courses from a Biblical perspective. Content within a Christian worldview of history believes that "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son..." (Gal. 4:4). From creation to Christ's return, history pivots on His resurrection. A believer with this perspective may submit academic content to supplement this site. http://www.hyperhistory.net/index.html
1) God helps those who help themselves. Or, in the case of evangelists, God helps those who help themselves to the collection plate. 2) I don't feel any need to give money or attend a rhetorical lecture and listen to someone who is far less qualified than I am to tell me how I should live my life. It is very hard for me to take a minister seriously when they tell me I should be giving money to the church and helping the poor while they themselves are driving a lexus and living in a nice four bedroom house in the suburbs. Men of god they claim to be, but humble they are not. 3) There are common rules for a successful civilization. It doesn't take a relgious person to figure out that you shouldn't rob your neighbors, sleep with your neighbors wife, have sex with minors, kill your neighbors, etc. 4) I reiterate my position that I believe in a higher power which for all intents and purposes we can refer to as god. But I don't believe that it is God in the traditional christian, muslim, judaism point of view. I tend to think of God as a power that starts the evolutionary ball rolling so to speak and then goes off to start the next experiment. 5) The belief that God takes a direct hand in human affairs is an argument that has a lot of holes. If your life sucks and everything is going to **** then God must be testing you but if your life is going great then God is rewarding you for some unknown service you must be performing in his name. Which is fairly interesting considering the populations of 3rd world countries tend to be much more devoted to religion than the United States, although that could easily be explained by the overall lack of education and literacy. Saying the meek will inherit the earth is a nice way of telling poor people to be content with their station in life because they'll get to heaven faster. 6) The reference to heroin addicts was interesting. Perhaps you've heard the old Marx quote, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." 7) It's true that there is no definitive proof of life on other planets but claiming that we're the only intelligent life in the universe is a leap in logic comparable to attempting to jump a pinto across the grand canyon. 8) It's easy to say that God is on your side when speaking of military conflicts but as Napoleon once said, "God is on the side with the best arillery." 9) I'm getting a strong vibe that God doesn't care if teenagers are having pre-marital sex, if adults choose to consume mood altering substances, if adult women choose to become prostitutes, or if teenagers are listening to heavy metal music. If God didn't want us to do partake of any of the above activities then we wouldn't have born with the free will to choose how to live our lives. If an activity or lifestyle choice brings you happiness that doesn't come at the expense of others then I'm pretty sure the christian/muslim/jewish god gives it the divine thumbs up. 10) I'm pretty sure the christian/muslim/jewish god isn't very keen on the activities of people who attempt to limit the inalienable right of fellow human beings to pursue a lifestyle of their choice as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Does homosexuality, responsible drug use, responsible prostitution, or responsible pre-marital sex cause physical or social harm to anyone but the parties involved? Those activities are considered to cause social harm by the moral majority and religious right but that is an emotional and cultural repression on their part and no fault of the "sinners." For instance, the only harm prostitution causes is damaged reputations when respected politicians and evangelists get caught partaking of the same acts in private that they denounce in public. These are all just my opinions of course. I'll go ahead and add the final statement that I believe that the concept of a God is not misplaced. It is the innate fallibility of mankind to attempt to ascribe human motives, morality, and agenda to an all powerfull force in an effort to feel a sense of signifigance when faced with the unknown.
I often wonder if there is a single quote that is more frequently misconstrued than this one. At the time when Marx said this, opiates were thought of as calming healing substances. When Marx said religion is the opiate of the masses he meant that it heals people, not that it numbs them and makes them into drones. Heh, and this coming from a devout athiest.
