This is exactly why I don't try to push my faith on anyone. I don't read the Bible much and the only time I did read it on a regular basis was when I had to go to religious classes every week when I was in school. I don't even go to church on a weekly basis since I moved out of my parents' house-although my parents are always bugging me about it. I'm a firm believer in live and let live for the most part.

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Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness ~Thomas Paine

If you really want to feel ignorant wait until you have a 17 year old like mine. He's currently writing two books which he hopes to be published, one as a companion to the Bible. One is a book explaining the contradictions and confusions that people find in the Bible (apologetics). The other is about denominations and how they stray from the Bible (refutations). He's also working on Biblical genealogy. Suddenly, the tutor became the tutee.

Heck, I could hardly answer the questions he came up with when he was 8!

Seriously, I don't go to church either. It has little to do with my personal relationship with God.

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"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." ~Ronald Reagan

A 17 year old writing two books? You already make me feel ignorant. I don't even want to talk about what I was doing at 17.

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Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness ~Thomas Paine

If you want me to talk about what I was doing at 17, we'd have to get out of the religion thread and go back to the Drunken Thread. It'll take more than a few margaritas for me to tell.

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"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." ~Ronald Reagan

Have you not heard "Go forth and make disciples of all nations"?

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I'm moving to Canada

Mr-Soviet

Have you heard the old saying about flies and vinegar?

If you live a Christian life then those who know and respect you, and see things in you that they want to emulate, will ask about your beliefs when they are ready and willing to accept them. Trying to convert them before then likely will just annoy them.

Pushy people are annoying, whether they're believers or not. Having what you consider an important message doesn't make you any less annoying if the hearer doesn't agree.

So from my perspective believers should not withdraw from the world, nor should they evangelize it. They should be *part* of it, setting an example with their life, and let their example bring converts to their belief.

I say believer, but the same holds true for nonbelievers. If you want people to be atheists, then demonstrate through your own life why atheism is the superior path.

Agnosticism. All the thorny questions, none of the ulcers.

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Man up.

Ah, raytri, if only everyone had such common sense. (I just made an oxymoron, didn't I)

The 'outside' of what?

Sounds like you should be approaching the governments.

Not according to the Bible it's not. Somewhere along the line the God of Judea was smoothed over into a Christianized version. If it's the same God as in the OT, than it is most certainly not a religion of love and peace; it was a strict & often cruel religion with heavy Machevellian overtones; it was the religion of an enslaved people, designed to help them survive as a race.

If you think it's about peace & love, talk to a primitive fundamentalist. If you are not adhering strictly to the Bible, than you have already imposed your human views over the 'word of your God' and created an acceptable version of this religion.

I've had this discussion in another Forum. What it boiled down to was that some people have a need to feel safe in what can seem to them a frightening and chaotic world; Christianity provides 'answers' they can hold onto, and a sense of a parental figure watching over them, and issuing rules for their life.

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'Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules' -unknown

They don't. Like a lot of Christians, you just got suckered into a lie. AGAIN. That's why there's so many hucksters in Chritstianity--they make the best SUCKAs.

It might interest you to know that the broadcasting empires out on the airwaves are all Christian evangelists, not atheist. There is no Athesittrinity Broadcasting Network.

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I shall continue to be an impossible person as long as those who are now possible remain possible.
HuffPo's Off The Bus campaign coverage project....Off The Bus Blog

Maybe somebody should explain that to the people who seek global democracy.

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It is more patriotic when you don't ask questions