Okay, so as many of you know I often have a more strong voice toward the atheist perspective on religion. I work for a pastor and many people in the organization are religious as well. I use to be a Christian but def. am not one now. I am not an atheist i have a belief in a higher power than in me or in humans but i don't know what it is. My biggest problem with religion is the patriarchal tendencies that ... pretty much every religion carries which is why i struggle with it also there are many things in the christian tradition i dont agree with. My current bf soon to be more i expect his whole family is catholic his parents esp. devout catholics but he doesn't attend mass regularly. I asked him how we would raise our children in the future. The quesiton has often plagued me what will i tell my children when s/he asks where we go when we die what will i say when they learn about God/ Jesus and they will in school , what will I say about heaven.... and i often come to a loss.

I respect churches greatly because they do a lot for the community and I do believe that the idea of church really does help support the community members as far as keeping members marriages together perhaps through pastorial/preacher/ etc. marriage counseling or something else like that I do feel that the church is there for its members when they are ill etc... but my bf and I decided that we would , when we have children , when the time is right in the future lol, that we would take them to church, and that we would attend regularly with them ( he is christian) and I talked to him about my own grudge with religion and while I will always ensure my children that a womans choice is a womans choice and that gay marriage is fine, and that a woman is no less than a man. I will never tell them that christianity is false, nor would I ever tell them anything that I feel would put them at strain ( if that makes sense) I will allow them to make the decision to continue to follow Christianity or to change religions or maybe to not even have a religion.

I have always struggled with my want to believe but something )( please dont say the devil) continually plagues me about its submissiveness and its repulsion against the stranger( outsiders) so i just thought i would post this decision since we so often see the continual combats of the atheist/ non-believers vs. the believers.

well shadow we all know you're perfect :)

one of my favorite quotes is " truth is constructed" and " what you say depends upon where you stand"

I have no problem with spider's statement, his statement is to merely attest to the fact that he understands that everyone in this chat has different God(s) or may not have one at all, but that to him his God is what he believes in and when he gives his opinion it is his "truth" that he is presenting... Maybe i have it wrong what he meant but I see no fault in his example I actually think it is a good one that most people can understand. Perhaps they are two very different subjects, the point of the religious thread in my opinion isn't to form a group of the christians, and non believers which is what has seemed to happen and therefore when everone one post a rebuttle from the other party is immediately entered! the point is to acknowledge the differences but to talk about them to come to a better understand of each other.

well I think the point is that everyone's truth is different, but to that person their truth is the truth, even if in this case the other women don't believe the same thing maybe they think their husband is the best ( their God). Everyone has a different opinion, truth, .. eww there's a bug on my desk

nice example spider :)

abraham also was going to kill his son because of a voice inside his head... we now call that crazy.

:( awww very nice.

oops uncle * smacks self* best friends father

why is it that guys fault... the kid shouldn't have taken the drug, let the police handle it, cause i'm just trying to think if this is some big drug dealer and someones uncle tries to kill them if there isn't going to be like a shoot out or something lol... not to mention your uncle could end up in prison.

so no people should not...

haha not to be rude I have standards i have a bachelors degree am working on another , i have a full time job. My bf works with computers and is financially stable, i'm sorry if you want a guy making 6 bucks an hour working at kfc and living at his moms house, then yay for you maybe there's a trailer in the future however i'm not being snobby i'm being realistic that the guys i look for aren't fast food workers in their 20-30's. If you're a teenager it is fine but after that get a real job with a 401k, retirement plans, medical coverage. You need to own your car, own your home, and be able to buy things without suffering. Realistic.

both ... if he doesn't have both hes not my true love.. my true love isn't a dead beat with a 12 pack on the sofa we got from goodwill.

that's called low standards. dude what if he's a janitor, or kfc or something

i don't think anyone should say 5. we all have moments that we keep our insecurities to ourself, or keep a thought to ourself like if we like how you look with a beard, or if we think you look like crap when we're going to the store, or maybe the home improvement you did wasn't an improvement, or just maybe you have a secret.. but i wouldn't say anyone was a 5.

4

hairstylist

women lie... also... we all want to know we are getting with a mentally and financially secure man that is ready for a relationship... jut throw that kind of stuff in.

bragg aobut yourself the more rich you seem the more ladies that will respond.

i like your bush

mteagle .. what book are you reading... your post makes no sense, if you think obama is the antichrist just say so i'm thinking lots would agree with you , but come on lets not make our own scripture up,

yes....