YNKYH8R

That is an extremely remarkable statement. And I can agree with quite a number of things you pointed out. I’m not sure about Bush acceptance speech, because I didn’t see it, but if anyone would care to refute then by all means. I’ve heard, I think, just about every reason why we have religion in society. From the prevention of certain acts that we against public health and decency codes, to the first beginnings of explanations for events in nature that could not be explained scientifically. Either way religion is not something that is going to go away any time too soon. I also believe that if someone was to come up with some irrefutable evidence showing a non existence of a deity, it come under fire, be disregarded, and some people would even go so far as to worship something else.

Mankind, for the most part, has an extreme fear of being alone, and dying. Most religious figures give, for the most part hope. Have you ever seen someone worshiping a God they did not want to? No, people worship higher powers to gain something, whether it be wisdom, eternal life, a trip to heaven, or power. And the wonderful thing is that you never have to prove it. Some people say that life around us is proof of a God, or the Bible or other holy writings are proof; although in the end you never have to prove it. Because most of the population will tell you one believes out of faith. Faith is acceptance of things unseen. It works both ways, I had faith that the sun would rise this morning, and it did, because nothing disturbed my faith in nature, or the sun, or repletion of events, or whatever.

The one point I find the most fascinating is, if you profess a belief in a God that bestows upon someone the ability to perform miracles, or be involved in events, that benefit a person or people no one will argue. If you profess the same belief in court, you may be found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Even if the benefiting miracle or act results in the death of someone society looks down upon or could do without, such as a rapist, murderer or a drug dealer.

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ARMPIT

YNKYH8R

Actually the amount is 21 grams; it is said to be the amount of weight that is lost when the soul leaves the body. Three pounds could be the bowels releasing, which is known to happen after death.

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ARMPIT

Njean31

21 grams-3 pounds, whatever the amount.....if it's true, (and i say this with my best saturday night live church lady voice)..." where is it going?????" and not everyone loses their bowel/bladder. none of the deaths i've gone to have yet, although they all have been very sick and elderly and haven't been eating

YNKYH8R

That may very well be the case. If being religious or believe in Christ works for you, good. Then you have a sense of peace that others get doiong something else, there is nothing wrong with that, you have every right to. In fact I would probably go so far as to say that you, or anyone else for that matter, has a leg up on the situation. I'm a visual person, I like intanst replay I generally need some type of assurance. Then again I don't think about dedath too much, or all too often, except when I have a 'moment of clarity'.
I can understand why you feel that having no faith or belief in a higher power before death can seem pretty depressing. Consider though how death for some people occurs. If you were, or anyone else was, in a car accident, that you could see coming, some people aren’t as likely to believe that this was the instant in which they would loose their life. Therefore there is no depression to set in. Now consider a person lying a bed for long periods of time, dying slowly, knowing the end is nearer every day. The stress that can cause must be crushing, and depression sets in. So, like some Catholics, last rights are read when death is near to ease the mind for what is yet to come, or the fear of it at least.
Look at what religion has to offer. A person is to live by a set of rules, doing good, leading a good clean wholesome life, and contributing to society in a positive manner; the reward is a life in heaven. Or, even some times mentioned is ‘eternal life in heaven’. Notice, that the reward is what is important; especially the ‘eternal life’ which sounds great, to anyone who fears death. Being able to achieve everlasting life, therefore there is no fear of death because at that instant you begin a ‘life’ in immortality, the Bible is littered with this concept; then again how else do we keep society in line with laws? Naw, people break those. But if you promise life eternal in Heaven after you pass, then a person is more likely to want to do as much good for fellow man to secure a place in Heaven when they die. Is it a bad concept? No, it seems to work pretty well, since the majority of people who elected Bush into office felt they were doing so to ensure a more moral society in which to live in. There fore a more moral society will more likely be ensured a seat in the throne of Heaven. Now, if anyone reading this says I’m full of it, ask yourself why else do you serve who you do but to be able to see your maker in Heaven? And you know that you can’t do that living an unclean immoral life.
I can understand why you feel that having no faith or belief in a higher power before death can seem pretty depressing. Consider though how death for some people occurs. If you were, or anyone else was, in a car accident, that you could see coming, some people aren’t as likely to believe that this was the instant in which they would loose their life. Therefore there is no depression to set in. Now consider a person lying a bed for long periods of time, dying slowly, knowing the end is nearer every day. The stress that can cause must be crushing, and depression sets in. So, like some Catholics, last rights are read when death is near to ease the mind for what is yet to come, or the fear of it at least.
Look at what religion has to offer. A person is to live by a set of rules, doing good, leading a good clean wholesome life, and contributing to society in a positive manner; the reward is a life in heaven. Or, even some times mentioned is ‘eternal life in heaven’. Notice, that the reward is what is important; especially the ‘eternal life’ which sounds great, to anyone who fears death. Being able to achieve everlasting life, therefore there is no fear of death because at that instant you begin a ‘life’ in immortality, the Bible is littered with this concept; then again how else do we keep society in line with laws? Naw, people break those. But if you promise life eternal in Heaven after you pass, then a person is more likely to want to do as much good for fellow man to secure a place in Heaven when they die. Is it a bad concept? No, it seems to work pretty well, since the majority of people who elected Bush into office felt they were doing so to ensure a more moral society in which to live in. There fore a more moral society will more likely be ensured a seat in the throne of Heaven. Now, if anyone reading this says I’m full of it, ask yourself why else do you serve who you do but to be able to see your maker in Heaven? And you know that you can’t do that living an unclean and immoral life.

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ARMPIT

Jolie Rouge

Religion-baiting
The elite media declared open season on the President and his supporters
November 8, 2004
Joe Scarborough

A nasty streak of religious intolerance is rearing its ugly head in America.
And it's coming from America's cultural elites.

The election of George W. Bush has exposed an ugly anti-Christian streak in many of those who work in America's most powerful newsrooms. A flood of vicious opinion pieces over the past few days have generalized Christians who helped elect the President as a group of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals whose aims are nothing less than anti-American.

Not surprisingly, some of the most offensive and bigoted rhetoric came from the opinion pages of The New York Times, a paper that at one time embraced diversity of thought and belief. But apparently, those positions of convenience are closeted away when it comes time to opine on conservative Christians.

The day after George Bush's victory, the Times ran an Op Ed by famed historian Gary Wills, who questioned whether a people who believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus can be called an enlightened nation. Wills suggested that because of those Christians who helped elect George Bush, America now shares more in common with al Qaeda and Saddam's Sunni loyalists than modern Europe. Wills wrote, "Americans wonder why the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous... They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed."

So according to the Times Op Ed page, if you believe in the Bible's account of Jesus' birth, you are at par with those terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on September 11th. Strip it down any way you want, but that is what lies at the base of Wills' jihad argument.

Thomas Friedman, long one of my favorite columnists on all matters foreign, concluded that Mr. Bush was elected by Christians who are hell bent on legislating social issues and "extending the boundaries of religion so hard that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution and not electing a president."

Rewriting the constitution? Just because George Bush carried Ohio by 100,000 votes? Talk about one of our most gifted writers losing all perspective.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne swung wildly at windmills blasting away at the "exploitation of strong religious feelings" and the "radical efforts to destroy the achievements of progressive government."

George Bush and Christians radicals want to destroy American government? Oh really? I guess I missed the debate when the W. laid out that plan of attack.

Michael Moore blasted the President, of course, for pandering to the Christian conservatives, while Maureen Dowd accused Mr. Bush of taking America into "another dark age, where we replace science with religion and facts with faith."

The Pulitzer Prize winner concluded that "The new evangelicals challenge science because they have been stirred up to object to social engineering on behalf of society's most vulnerable: the poor, the sick, the sexually different."

Dowd also accused the President of running a "jihad along the fault lines of fear, ignorance and religious rule."

Never in my life as a practicing attorney, a newspaper publisher, a Congressman or a news host have I witnessed America's cultural elite become so unglued over any historical event. And most distressing is the fact that these opinion leaders are singling out a group of Americans for no other reason than the God they worship.

To paint all Republican Christians as angry, hate-filled, science-loathing, right-wing beasts only helps explain why the Mainstream Media continues to lose market share and why those Democrats who take solace in their bigoted anti-Christian screeds remain out of power for another four years.

It leads me to wonder, can we only be good Americans if we turn our backs on our faith, or become champions of abortion on demand, stem cell research without reservation, and marriage defined in a way that conflicts with the spiritual beliefs of a majority of Americans?

Isn't it interesting that when pluralism and diversity of thought become politically inconvenient, it is the cultural and media elites who become the most close-minded and bigoted?

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

What would Bubba do?
November 11, 2004
Joe Scarborough

I have been in touch with Democratic friends in Washington over the past few days to see what stage of mourning they have entered.

We are told there are, what, four, five stages of mourning?

Well, whatever the number, my friends are in the stage where the victim is really, really ticked off. (There is another word that is far more appropriate than "ticked" but the Justice Department probably reads these blogs, so the homogenized version will have to do) .

For those mentally healthy Democrats who are ready to put conspiracy theories behind them and start preparing for the next election, may I suggest you take a listen to one of the lone voices for moral values in the Democratic Party— Bill Clinton.

I will leave it to you to determine exactly what it means to the Democratic Party that a formerly impeached and disbarred politician is the voice of moral reason in his own party. But all that ugliness aside, right now William Jefferson Clinton seems to understand better than most what it takes for a Democrat to win votes in states like Missouri, Iowa, and Florida.

And no, my elitist, lefty friends: People in Kansas City don't want to launch a jihad against gay men. They just don't want appointed judges in Boston, Massachusetts passing orders to their Kansas leaders on the subject. Bill Clinton understands that better than John Kerry. That's why Mr. Clinton was called "Mr. President" for eight years while Senator Kerry's own Senate peers now call him "loser" behind his back.

It's not fair treatment for a man who just pulled in tens of millions of votes in such a way, any more than it is fair for MSM elites to dismiss all of us who live in flyover space as Jesus freaks.

Mr. Clinton knows that the stereotyping has led his once proud party to the edge of a cliff by creating a cultural divide between Us and Them.

How exactly does one respond to a New York Times opinion piece that suggest Christians who believe in the biblical version of Jesus' birth are on par with al Qaeda terrorists? What smoke signal does a Democrat living west of Manhattan send the Mother Ship explaining that insulting millions of voters' faith in God may not be the best way to win elections? (New York Times website subscription only— free but required)

James Carville claims the 2004 election was a "born again" experience for him, and that he now understands the importance of values to Americans living in Red States. But soon after making that proclamation, he boiled the entire GOP message under Bush down to this: "We will protect you from terrorists in Tikrit and homos in Hollywood."

Maybe you need to get back on your knees, James.

As I explained after the Times opinion page compared those who believed in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ to Islamic fascists, there are many middle Americans who believe in the virgin birth who also drink vodka— just as there are those who go to church on Sunday morning and watch "Desperate Housewives" Sunday night.

Interesting isn't it, that a year after bashing George W. Bush for living in a world of black and white, it is his most vicious critics in the elite media who are incapable of grasping nuance?

Manhattan and Hollywood insiders have spent the past week dismissing 90 percent of America's land mass as "Jesus-land," while Bill Clinton and a scattering of Democrats begin their efforts to save the Democratic Party by mainstreaming it. But the task won't be easy.

Just as elites convinced themselves that the Democratic Party lost its foothold on the South because of some secret racist strategy adopted by Richard Nixon, these same political losers are now blaming Jesus for their worldly woes.

But religious bigotry and stereotyping won't save the Party of FDR. Instead, their leaders should be asking the one question I continually urged John Kerry to ask himself throughout the 2004 campaign: W.W.B.D.?

Yes, my friends— What would Bubba do?

Ask that question, listen to the former president's answers, and those same clueless Democrats who once again find themselves out of power may actually get themselves locked up in a competitive election with Karl Rove in the next few years.

And if they can stop from looking down their noses long enough to ask for our votes, they may even win a race or two west of New York City.

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Denial and Isolation

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

http://www.greaterswiss.com/mourning.htm

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Damnifiknw

My life is far from depressing. I actually have a wonderful life, who do I have to Thank for my life? My parents..They are the ones who gave me life, raised me to be the person I am.

Have you actually read the bible? Have you understood what you read? Have you also noticed all the contridictions? Why believe it?? If you read the bible from a dufferent view, you will see how foolish it all sounds. I could go on about this crap but I won't..

What I find depressing is how religion has destroyed this world. Every religion believes their way of living is the right way, other religions are wrong in their beliefs. In turn it causes nothing but pure heck..Most if not all the wars were based around religion. Why is religion such a good thing if it does nothing more than cause people to kill one another? Look at it on here (or anywhere) - people bickering because their religion is better than the next persons..It's all a load of crap if you ask me.

Those you mentioned are proven facts...God, on the other hand is not a proven fact. At any rate believe in whatever cranks your chain....It's all good..

Njean31

yes, i've read the Bible, yes, i've understood most of it and if i didn't i'd ask someone who knew to explain...just as i would if i tried to study physics or the like. yes, there may be contradictions especially between the Old Testament and the New Testament which are really not contradictions at all, just things changed after Christ was born and died. You have your right to not to believe and i was not saying that your life must be depressing, i'm saying it is depressing to me to know that there are so many people who think that life ends with a rotting corpse. i also would like to note that when i was growing up i was taught that the only unforgiveable sin is Blasephemy (sp) which i believe goes beyond just Non believing.......i think it means like mocking, belittling, etc GOD. calling it crap would fall under that i would think, but that don't matter to you since You don't believe anyway. i think i'm right, you think your right...........in the end of course we will all know and if i was right there is reward, if you were right there is nothing. what i guess i'm trying to say is something to the effect that "i'd rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it." and your right, it is all good

btw, where are you in NC? i am from there and miss it terribly mainly just because of family/friends

YNKYH8R

I find it disheartening that some news columns would write articles in such a way that would make look Christian’s looks as bad as terrorist Jihadists. There are some overt parallels between the two and it is only in their zeal. (Which has seem to become a bad word these days, I have a lot of zeal for my marriage and my child is that bad? )

As we move into a new era, one filled with those who would put stickers on text books to declare Evolution as a theory (Which is about right it is a theory, a very strong one I might add) and 11 states would ban same sex marriages one has to wonder just what is going on in our country? Some people may see it as an escape from the rational and descending into the dark ages. I will not jump on that band wagon just yet. So far all I have seen is boundary testing. While some make claims that this administration road in on the same donkey Jesus did (and the conservative right are making a mad dash to refute the claims) Christians and Republicans alike are taking steps to ensure what they see is their vision for the future, leaving a lot us democrats in the cold.

Will the Democrats and the liberals allow for this country to continue to make, what some see, as a step back or will they try to harness the public to go boldly into a future where Roe v. Wade is completely intact, homosexuals will have civil unions and equal rights regardless of bedroom antics, and stem cell research is put to the forefront of modern medicines that might usher in an era the likes of which were only seen once through the discovery on penicillin?

Time will tell; it always does. As Christians fight to make their voices heard; this country’s true colors are starting to show. It will be a battle for the ages and one that will not only be fought upon capital hill but also in the streets. People are starting to take sides, win at all cost, raise the banners and sound the battle cry.

Or this could all could be nothing at all……

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ARMPIT

YNKYH8R

Why do you find this to be a drepressing statement? Some people view death as the last natural step in the course of life, just as birth is the first natural step.

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ARMPIT