[nath]

Originally Posted by cirrus

It's beautiful when people use their faith to help the needy and improve the world around them, but I don't see why "God" has to be a part of that process.

Cirrus ...I don't think even 10% of the members of Tatysite has read "The Old and the New Testaments"...For eemple, me I have no problem to say I've never read it fully...some years ago I began to read it and I hope in some years I would read it completely...
I'm Catholic , in the meaning I was baptized, but i didn't have my confirmation and I'm not praticant...
Of course, we all know that, during centuries, a lot of people used Religious texts to scare other people (a strong fear of Hell is still very present in some cultures..in muslim culture , for exemple) and get a power on them...but I'm enough surprised by the kind of "hate" , some people could have when the names "Bible" or Religion are pronounced or written..
It's , for some of us , systematically linked to the meanings of Sins and Interdictions ...
which, of course, exist....but in religion , as other things , you could find both things: the good you an keep and the bad you have to left....

So...instead to take the "Bible" and put it directly to the bin without having reading it..may be people could try to read it with another look, with another kind of lecture...not only as strict rules you have to follow if you don't want go directly into the Hell....

I mean you can read Bible with an agnostic vision , even with the angle of ""God" has to be a part of that process"...if you wish...
I say that because it seems to me that "The Bible" is a very interesting book about its Psychological aspect....I mean you find into it all the different behaviours/feelings we can find in our society right now: vanity, humility, ambition, jealousy, love, hate...
It's like a description of a mini society and that's why I have interest for this book...

All I read about religion , here, was most often about Censorship and interdictions...
So i wonder how Religion is installed and developped , for exemple in The States...
So I wonder too what is the Proportion of those SECTES which say speaking the langage of Religion but which , indead, have other goals (as power & money) and deform the original message of Religion!

I said i'm not a practicant; I think Jesus Christ ( I speak here as a Christian) , for exemple, has surely existed ...as a kind of philosopher but not as a supernatural creation...
I feel these prophets or patriarch as (Abraham, Moïse, Mahomet, Jesus-Christ) -First Religious Leaders- more as Philosophers...
So you see, Bible could be read with different angles....not only "Everything is in the hand of God" ..
The other thing I would say about that is what I've met , in France, when i went in different religious offices (when you go to Church) isn't a speach of INTERDICTIONS....i've heard words of Love, words which said you have to be better and attentive to the people who are around you...yes, what i've heard is an encouragement to love better the others...
So Religion is , of course interdictions....but not just that .... ...it's main philosophy is to Love and Respect the others ...isn't it ?

My main wish in this post was just to say : you can have several and different looks/ visions/ ways to read the Bible....in keeping more distance, even without religious feelings....just as an instructive book about the different characters which could build a society and about the things which are the BASES of our present laws and present moral, ethic (with the notions of GOOD & BAD)....
Morever, there are a lot of references with The Bible in Arts & Cullture : in paints, sculptures, books....if you don't know the references are about , you miss a lot in the comprehension of the Cultural things ,
Historical point of view is too interesting: we could explain why the Egypian Pharaons who were so powerfull could diseappear so quickly thanks to the Bible and even discover changements of the climates thanks in reading it,
....and don't tell me that Bible is just "History & Past".......it could even be futurism & Science Fiction: creating an human with the part of another human as it was "done" with Adam & Eve isn't so far from our present "Clonage"(clones)...isn't it ?

Russkayatatu...

What I'm talking about here is something very different: men, and sometimes women, who have been so traumatized that they are unable to accept themselves.....
....
that 'gender identity disorder' ....
....
I think that most people who are against gay marriage are against it for one or both of these reasons: 1) they are disturbed by the kinds of extreme Left attitudes The Death of Right and Wrong talks about, and 2) they think marriage is an institution that should be protected by the church.

..all that is so interesting!!! ....yep....i think too that a lot of "good intentions" from people who wanted that Homosexuality was accepted and not anymore considerated as a crime or an illness, indeed had DOUBLE consequences: of course the things have changed a lot ( now , in some countries , you could be homosexual without going directly to jail or psychiatric hospital or even without be killed... ) but , in the same time, is the IMAGE OF GAY PEOPLE that the "NORMAL" citizen ( who doesn't know directly homosexual persons) could "catch" in seeing tv or by the newspapers the TRUE ONE ? (I think here to the GAY PRIDE and the impact , consequences that it could have above people for whom HOMOSEXUALITY = just GAY PRIDE...) ....Is there just ONE way/stereotype to be homosexual ?....

So much questions for me now....so i go to sleep now and I'll come back after ...hihi-hi....
And sorry for my long post ::::