hey sharmoota.... ‘god is in all of us’….where’d you get that idea???...did you come up with that yourself???.....talk about an ego....can't take it that someone else was a messiah...learn to bigger than that... Finally someone who gets it on this board...I am stunned....great post.
Our nation's founding was driven by a deep desire to workship. That doesn't mean a desire not to worship, but a desire to worship. It is ingrained in our culture and there are those who would root it out so that we fought more like the French, had the compassion of the Germans, had the effeciency of the Italians and ate like the British. I posted this joke once a good while ago...
Just to clarify...because I believe in God...because I read/study/and seek to follow the Bible...because Jesus Christ is the model for my life (one I fall far short of) and because I worship Him as my Lord and Savior...I'm part of the problem? Just clarifying. It's a bad thing because I believe those things? Because I live my life that way? Because I'm not personally more "secular?" All that's bad/negative/undesirable?
Max, its us Christians who give Islam a bad name... it has nothing to do with the people with bombs strapped to their chests, or the millions of muslims that hate freedom for women, freedom of religion or freedom in general... the sooner you realize that the sooner you can go on practicing scientology with Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. I find it amazing that the peaceful muslims who ask for our understanding don't stand up the the other half of them that live lives disregarding the true teachings of their Holy book. I have NO problem with Americans who choose to practice the muslim faith, but I am sorry, I am not going to embrace the ideas and views of their religion. This is the religion that I see covering women from head to toe and making them walk 15 feet behind their male counterparts. Is Christianity perfect? No, we have our fair share of horrible people, but we also have the guts to call them out on their failures and wrong doings over and over and over... We won't sweep it under the rug to "keep the peace" within the religion. Regardless of what is said on US soil a great number of muslims aren't like the ones we see between the Pacific and Atlantic... and meanwhile the muslims of the world are embracing the radicals, not the American/European muslims that they should be.
not what i meant when i said "the problem." my post came from the message said here in this thread that i'm less intelligent or less desirable or less worthy of whatever...because i'm not a secularist. or, if you listen to DaDa, I'm just an idiot, incapable of my own thoughts. muslims are in that boat with me, apparently. as is anyone who holds to the tenets of a faith tradition.
Other then the first few lines my post was just a general ranting, not really directed towards anyone here... guess I should have clarified.
I am glad you are happy in your faith Max, as I am about Adeel and Tiger..... Whatever works for each person as long as it doesn't infringe upon others rights as far as I am concerned. And the Muslim faith, or more poinently the Muslim theocracies infringe on people's rights each and every day. Hell the Catholic Church won't let women be Bishops and that is dicriminatory...... Religion needs an overhaul, it is old and outdated........written by man when man was even more ignorant than he is today. DD
MadMax, I completely sympathize with you on this. The real irony here is that while these "secularists" keep hammering away at ALL religions for being "oppressive and repressive" and "intolerant" of other views, all you need to do is listen to the average "secularist" and you will know that they are just as "intolerant" of the religious people they demean so often. They, too, want to impose their own beliefs if they could on the rest, they despise the faithful and look down on them as some "r****ds" who refuse to join the "rational scientific" world; they see the religious people as nothing more than a backward bunch stuck in the "12th century". You can see the hypocrisy here... At the same time, I do understand their concern about people using religion as a tool of oppression and violence, which one can't deny does happen from time to time, and is a problem that should be addressed. But people have the tendency to get defensive and start lashing out once they feel like their beliefs and values are under attack, this is a normal part of human nature (see the 2004 elections in the US last year, with the average American lashing out against "blue America" and their perceived "assault" on conservative values, and instead voted based on moral values rather than other major issues like the economy or the war in Iraq), and so one has to be careful to not offend others or an otherwise reasonable argument would be lost in the whole thing. Civil discourse without resorting to name-calling or finger-pointing is the best way to go IMO. I just think that there needs to be a certain level of mutual respect and tolerance if people really want to have a reasonable debate about any given topic, this way all sides benefit. In this respect, you will never see a Muslim on this board demean Christianity or Jesus or even Judaism. You won't hear a Muslim on this board take Jerry Falwell's or Pat Robertson's statements/actions and say, "This is what all Christians believe, and how they all act; this is representative of all Christians". You won't ever read a post of mine that points to the KKK or Hitler or slavery as "Christian" phenomena, because I know better from dealing with my Christian friends that those people are but a fringe and ill-guided Christians, who manipulated the religion to support their own actions. You haven't probably read anything I posted that demeaned Christianity or someone else's beliefs, or their holy books. Even secularists are respected. So at least myself and other Muslims on this board seem to be a lot more tolerant of others' views and less inclined to lump people together in stereotypes and generalizations that are designed to blur the difference among the most diverse group of people in the world, who span every continent and every culture and ideology one can imagine. At least I refuse to be as simple-minded, which is more than I can say for some other posters. That's my personal rant...
Sadly for you, the secularists are the ones dying off and not reproducing. It looks like the secularists are not into procreating, I guess women just don't find guys without "soul" worthy of having their babies. Maybe secularists will all die and leave the rest to focus on life AND the hereafter
