Religion & Spirituality - 14 February 2007

"one is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it... You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world...
My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I can not, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization. It helped in early days to fix the calender, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others" Bertrand Russell

2007-02-14 11:56:35 · 23 answers · asked by alsimpson1234 2

!

2007-02-14 11:54:13 · 15 answers · asked by AVATARD 2

Or are you lonely and surfing the web?

2007-02-14 11:54:13 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

how bout if they're too far gone to understand what religion is?

2007-02-14 11:52:23 · 39 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-02-14 11:50:33 · 33 answers · asked by Anonymous

I believe that Jesus was married to the other mary and sadly and tragicaly their love story was written out of christianity. But my question is How would this revelation coming to light change the face of christianity as we know it and how would it change the view of women in the world. I belive that it would change somethings and not chcnge somethings. It would deffinetly make Jesus a "mortal" but would not change the fact that he was a great man who did great things in his life time.

2007-02-14 11:50:12 · 18 answers · asked by Mrs. Priss 1

2007-02-14 11:49:10 · 1 answers · asked by Anonymous

I'm doing a Theology 10 paper on the Fall of Man and i remember my teacher saying something about the reason the devil chose to trick Eve with the fruit instead of Adam. i honestly cant remember. I remember that it makes so much sense and it required a bit of thought to think of. My one friend actually was the only one that figured it out. Any ideas? thanks!

2007-02-14 11:45:33 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-02-14 11:44:51 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-02-14 11:44:17 · 22 answers · asked by kevin f 1

when i was like 11, i came across a section in the bible about women who already have children and get remarried, and i remeber it saying something about that the woman should value her children from the previous relationship above her husband. my step-father feels that the exact opposite should happen, he also likes to go around spouting off scripture and i want to be able to present this evidence so i can put an end to at least some of his stupidity.

2007-02-14 11:43:14 · 3 answers · asked by lil joe 1

2007-02-14 11:41:39 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous

what magic or spells have you done so far?

2007-02-14 11:41:23 · 7 answers · asked by Toby 1

period 1950 - 2007

2007-02-14 11:38:52 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-02-14 11:37:29 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous

My Mom: Never kicked me out on my own.
God: Kicked out Adam and Eve for using the free will he gave them.

My Mom: Never killed any of her kids.
God: Has killed millions of his creations in the Bible alone.

My Mom: Helped me whenever I was in trouble.
God: Let his only son die on the cross

My Mom: Taught me how to be a man and respect women.
God: Made a world, and insiped a book in which women are second class.

My Mom: Communicates with me whenever I'm in need (or even when I'm not)
God: Has never said a word to me.

Get where I'm going, God is supposed to be this all-loving, perfect creator, but my Mom is a better parent than God. God has his "children" starving in Africa when he could easily create food. Is it our fault that the barren lands of Africa don't supply enough resources. I guess it's because we sinned right? My Mom would never let me starve. Even if I hated her, murdered, and loved other moms she would love me unconditionally and never send me to "hell".

2007-02-14 11:36:25 · 29 answers · asked by Anonymous

I read in a yahoo section that someone believed that spelling things backwards was a sign of Satan. I've never heard of anything like that in the bible. Is that just a myth? Thoughts?

Mine? Sounds ridiculous. Like spelling things backwards is evil.....puleeeease

2007-02-14 11:33:44 · 24 answers · asked by Chef Susy--Cookin it up! 4

Perilous Times, Witchcraft and The Occult
Witchcraft brings murder to Pacific paradise*
By Nick Squires in Goroka
Last Updated: 09/02/2007
Once hailed as an untouched Shangri-La, the mist-shrouded highlands of
Papua New Guinea are undergoing a dramatic resurgence in sorcery and
witchcraft.
Age-old beliefs in black magic and evil curses are back with a vengeance
in jungle-clad mountain valleys which were unknown to the outside world
until the 1930s.
Papua New Guinea tribesmen, Witchcraft brings murder to Pacific paradise
Tribesmen resort to old ways and rituals to 'ward off evil spirits',
including the murder and torture of those believed to be witches
Suspected witches – mostly women but including some men and even
children – have been subjected to horrific torture before being hanged
or thrown off cliffs.
A growing Aids crisis and the collapse of health services have sapped
villagers' faith in Western medicine and prompted a return to ancestral
beliefs.
Barely educated villagers living in remote mountain valleys are blaming
the increasing number of Aids deaths not on promiscuity or a lack of
condom use but on malign spirits.
When Raphael Kogun's uncle died two years ago, his family blamed a
middle-aged married couple who they were convinced had become possessed
by evil spirits. "We chopped their heads off with an axe and a bush
knife," said the 27-year-old farmer from Goroka, in Eastern Highlands
province.
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"I felt sorry for them but they were witches, they deserved to die. If
they were still alive they could hurt people with their magic. We buried
the bodies but then the police found out and started digging them up."
Two of Kogun's brothers were arrested under the Act of Sorcery
incorporated into PNG's criminal code, but the case collapsed because
witnesses were too afraid to testify. The number of witch killings has
been estimated at 200 a year in the neighbouring province of Simbu
alone, although definitive figures are impossible to come by.
A report by Amnesty International in September found there was a
"conspiracy of silence" surrounding the murders. Belief in evil spirits
is ubiquitous throughout Papua New Guinea, where more than 850 languages
are spoken by 5.5 million people.
In the highlands they are known as "sangumas" and can assume the form
not only of humans, but animals such as dogs, pigs, rats and snakes.
A surge in the illegal growing of marijuana in the emerald green valleys
has contributed to black magic paranoia, experts say.
A patient dying of HIV-Aids in a Papua New Guinea hospital, Witchcraft
brings murder to Pacific paradise
A patient dying of HIV-Aids in a Papua New Guinea hospital. Villagers
blame the deaths on malign spirits
"We're seeing a big rise in witchcraft cases. We hear of a killing
almost every week," said Hermann Spingler, a German Lutheran pastor who
heads the Melanesian Institute, a cultural study centre in Goroka. "They
take the law into their own hands and torture people to make them
'confess'. They drag women on ropes behind vehicles, burn them with hot
wire, chop off hands, fingers. People have been buried alive."
He expects more witch murders as PNG's Aids crisis worsens. The country
has the highest rate of Aids in the Pacific region, with the government
estimating that around two per cent of the population is HIV positive.
That is almost certainly an under-estimate. "The problem is far worse
than the official statistics show. In some ante-natal clinics 30 per
cent of women are positive," said Claire Campbell, an Australian Aids
campaigner working for the World Health Organisation.
"It's only 75 years since the first white man walked over the hills,"
said Mal Smith-Kela, PNG's only white provincial governor.
"I've flown into villages where they tried to work out what sex the
helicopter was by looking at the exhaust pipes." Last month police in
Goroka uncovered the grisly killings of four women accused by villagers
of using sorcery to cause a fatal road crash.
After being tortured with hot metal rods and made to confess, they were
murdered and buried upright in a pit.
"The villagers believe they have to kill the 'witches', otherwise the
whole clan is at risk from black magic," said Jack Urame, 38, a member
of the Dom tribe who has researched sorcery killings for the Melanesian
Institute.
"What is disturbing is that children are witnessing these things – the
belief in sorcery and witchcraft is being passed on to the next
generation."

2007-02-14 11:32:41 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous

And if so, what's your part in all of it and how it unfolds?

2007-02-14 11:28:49 · 18 answers · asked by Silva 6

Who has been the most influential person in my life?

I can’t just specifically talk about one person.
As I stepped into new situations, I have confronted new people, and each of them has thought me a new, unique lesson. However, there are always some people in everybody’s life who are the most influential people.
In my life, those people have been my parents. My father, with his great heart, endeavor, honesty, and tolerant; and my mother, with her kindness, morality, and strength as a feminist have become my pattern.
Even though I haven’t roughly gotten what they tried to teach me, over the years, as things have come up in my life, I remember things they thought me that pertain to what I am going through now, and I try to apply it, and it helps me.
I still think that I have got many things to learn from them, and I try my best to do that.

2007-02-14 11:27:17 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous

2007-02-14 11:27:06 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

I have been a christian all my life(my dad's a pastor) and just last year I totally recommited my life to christ. I was baptized, I went to a youth conference in August that got me on fire for God, I fell under the spirit for the first time, and began speaking in tongues. For most people your fire for God tends to fade, for my friends it has a lot, and for me 2 but not as much as them. But, it always seems like that when I pray I dont hear God and he doesnt answer my prayers. I know He's there but its so hard, when prayers dont get answered. I know with God everything happens for a reason, but lately I just dont undestand

2007-02-14 11:25:51 · 59 answers · asked by Blaire 3

Why did God expel her from Eden for wanting to get down with Adam cowgirl-style? Why didn't Adam count his blessings and consider himself lucky? I would've.

2007-02-14 11:25:47 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able to? If so then he is not omnipotent
Is he able to prevent evil, but not willing? Then he is malevolent
Is the both able and willing? Then why and how is there evil.
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God

2007-02-14 11:23:21 · 14 answers · asked by keaton f 2

2007-02-14 11:21:46 · 19 answers · asked by marty w 1

And if you think I'm crazzy why dont you tell that to the Demon that stung me. Sent waves of fire threw my soul.

2007-02-14 11:20:01 · 6 answers · asked by chucky 3

2007-02-14 11:19:58 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous

I see a lot of peopls that have trouble with speling and gramer.

2007-02-14 11:18:53 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous

If God is good, then it does not want us to suffer. God should immediately put every thing in Heaven. It would end all suffering, eliminate all evil, and put a stop to all sins. There is no sin in heaven, no transgression, no bad things, etc. If free will is good, then everyone in Heaven has free will, but also everyone is happy and nobody does evil. This is because evil doesn't exist in heaven: it's not possible to act badly just the same as it's not possible, on Earth, to sprout wings and fly around at will. If being in Heaven is the ultimate good, then God would gladly put everyone in heaven. There is no disadvantage of doing this. If God wants to, it can. Why doesn't God want to put everyone in Heaven? If there was an omnibenevolent god with free will existing in heaven, then, all people should automatically be in heaven too. That this isn't the case means that either god cannot do it (is not all-powerful) or doesn't want to (is not perfectly loving), or that God simply doesn't exist, or that Heaven doesn't exist.

2007-02-14 11:18:47 · 17 answers · asked by keaton f 2

2007-02-14 11:17:49 · 8 answers · asked by indigolight 2