LOL.....you'd do very well in India.

My thoughts on religion:

Organized religion is, and always has been, a tool for controlling the masses and really nothing more than that. My personal beliefs are my religion and they do not 100% agree with any organized religion that I know of.

gpa-

you really have absolutely no clue do you?

it must be fun for you to sit there and just make **** up about me.

That you take the time to do so makes me feel special.

Ohh, my poor poor parents....HA!!

You've passed YOUR evil ideals onto succeeding generations all the while indignant in your reightousness.

Consistently on this board you resort to denigration and insults when your arguments fall short.

When you start with the insults genius, I win.

Here, here stlhd!

This quote isn't verbatim, but I think it's close enough to convey my point:

"The one thing ALL organized religions have in common is the belief that their's is the one TRUE religion, and ALL the others are wrong."

"religion is the opiate of the masses".....

quick !!!
who said that?
come one stlhead....H2O...I know you know...

so do you obviously. Does that make YOU a pinko?

America needs to let 'radical christianity' quit dictating its values and get back to the center, that is the point of this thread.

RA3-

On fishing stuff we usually agree but on the role of women in the Christian church...well if you want to start quoting the bible brother the quotes of how a woman should be subserviant to her man are many. I know you don't need me to point them out to you but i suppose if you'd like to we could engage a war of bible quotes...

Let's just look at recent history first before we go there...

Women didn't even have the right to vote in our 'Christian', 'equal' society until less than a hundred years ago. How is that not subserviant?

This is not to say that women have not occupied significant roles in or made significant contributions to society but that they have had to do so from a position of disadvantage.

Carrying it even further than that the major churches have had a propensity to put down, marginalize, and terrorize those that would dare to believe other than whatever the approved dogma of the time, no matter how wrong.

This, I believe, is precisely the reason to keep christian idealism out of the US government.

As late as the '60's women weren't allowed, by law, to sit at a bar and drink beer here in Washington.

What do you suppose men did with all those one-liners before that?

Remember Aunty that in India it is a general practice to abort female babies. Ultrasound is really big business. I'm not sure they do this due to religion just from plain stupidity.

And , yes, H2O it is fun to make **** up about you....you make a very good victim. Besides, even though I respect your intelligence, I disagree with most of what you pass off as absolute fact. A serious debate would require so much foil I might collapse from the weight.

Aunty M I didn't mean any offence at all. I think what you'll find is that What Christ and his Apostles taught is a very far cry from what you see in the lives of thoes who claim to be christians. My point is about what God teaches vs what the church does.
Men and women both are sinful and need of redemption and once death takes us there is no distinction between the sexes. The bible and history are full of examples of men dropping the ball and women picking it up and running with it.
Jesus to my recollection never gave specific commands for how women and men were supposed to behave differently. Paul only said that he didn't allow women to teach or have authority over a man, and in fact had on numerous occasions great things to say about women who were faithfully doing Gods work.

again my point was the difference between what God says and what people do.

On the other hand there is a law in the books in Montana that a woman cannot fish alone on Sundays.

gee Rob you are a very good debater on this issue ..I'm surprised that H2O hasn't labelled you an extreme right wing religious fanatic...As usual the passion for your beliefs comes shining through...and without any name calling.
good for you.

Aunty M now I would say that Christianity has had very little impact on any political party. They are all selfish money and power grubbing corrupted jerks.
Now we are all corrupted individuals and there is no one who is blamless least of all me but we can certainly look at individuals and by what they DO ( not say) we can tell what they believe. I think it more accurate to say that the Political right is taking the religious right for a ride. They are using issues important to the religious right to get their votes then ignoreing thoes issues altogether or at least not doing anything meaningful about them. Take abortion for example. Everyone knows that Bush ran on an anti abortion platform but has he done anything meaningful on the issue? or the republican controlled congress for that matter. The truth of the matter is that the republicans are useing the issue of abortion to get the vote of the religious right then not doing anything about it for fear of losing the few cross over voters that they do have. I guess what I am saying it that it's a scam and it leaves the religious right out in the cold like the rest of us..

I never did answer the question so here goes.

Yes we do have a national faith its called money.

Now that's the first thing you've said recently King that makes any sense! :p

King

I will also agree with you on that one

The Golden Rule:

He who Has the Gold Makes The Rules