(Red05 @ Jun. 01 2007,07:01)
(thrasherfox @ May 31 2007,20:45) Once again I find it laughable that only about 1/4 if that of the original post mentioned anything about God, the rest was about other issues non religous, yet all the non Christians start jumping on the religion bandwagon and making it allllll about God and Christianity and religion.
Since I'm the only one to question the initial post, I'll ask you how I ever questioned the validity of Christianity, God or religion. I only questioned the implied joining of church and public schools. The entire first part of your pasted post supports such a joining, unless I'm misreading. Poppy's comment was well timed. I would never estimate myself worthy of judging someone's decision to devote their life to Christ or whichever faith they follow. This decision is a very personal matter which, in my very humble opinion, is only defiled when subjected to argument. The same holds true for agnostics, their decision begs not to be questioned. To have organized prayer in
public schools approaches this. Anybody can quietly pray in school. That is not in question. Please forgive me if my post offended anyone.
Actually it was you and Poppy also made a reference to religion.
There is also a little background that seems anytime the religion subject comes up people start hammering on Christians (guess I am a little sensitive at the moment)
My reason for posting it was primarily for the meat of the post which was NOT dealing with the God issue, however I didn’t feel comfortable removing the God part out just to appease the non believers.
I will address your comment and question about what religion the schools should follow. The quick answer is how about Christianity? I am not just saying that because I am a Christian, I am mainly stating this because Christianity is what this country was based on when it is formed (well when we took it from the Indians, totally different argument and subject) but the country we live in now, its laws and principals were based on Christianity
Our country was founded on Christian principals.
If people do not believe in Christianity and it bothers them that much, maybe they should move somewhere where they will feel more comfortable. But don’t try to change the United States to fit your beliefs.
This is the exact same concept as illegal immigrants coming here and trying to make our country accommodate them instead of them blending into our society.
This country started out very solid and grew. This country gained the respect of the world, we have always been looked at as the savior of the world just about. A free country where all could live and do what they want with out condemnation.
This country has always been the one to pull other countries rear ends out of the fire. And all the time we had prayer in schools, God was not something the country was ashamed to acknowledge and hide.
An American always knew what was right and what was wrong. Children were raised up in loving caring homes (for the most part), taught right and wrong as it pertains to the Christian bible and while you will always have cancer in everything (including organizations, governments, religion) for the most part our country had a good moral compass and all was well.
Anyone, non believers and believers alike can look at our country and its time line and You can map a direct correlation between the removing of God and the bible from our lives and the increase in immorality, loss of moral direction and also the growing lack of respect and appreciation from other countries that we once had.
Take the bible for example. If people took the bible and JUST read it and used it as a life manual on how to live, how to treat others and followed it, our country would get back on track.
I am talking about using the bible as a so called “self help†book. There are ALLLL kinds of books that are on the market on how to live better, how to be happier, honestly, even without God in the picture and without having a belief in God, the bible is one of the best self help books out there.
A non believer could read proverbs in the bible, and if they tried their best to follow everything in the book of proverbs, their lives would be changed and more than likely for the better.
But we have taken this life manual away from the schools, we have taken it out of the homes so without life’s instruction book, families are left to try and figure out what is right and wrong on their own based on how they feel, what they FEEL is right and wrong or what the government tells them is right or wrong.
So in my opinion to answer your original question, allow the religion in the schools that this country was founded on, and what worked for this country and what contributed to this country becoming a super power.
Usually ANYTHING a human does in life, when it starts to go bad, or something doesn’t work, we always do a thing that is called “go back to the drawing boardâ€
We have lots and lots of diseases in this world, pretty much everyone agrees our politicians are all corrupt, we are being screwed by the oil companies, electric companies etc. more and more children are being molested and taken advantage of, more women are being physically abused. Drugs are running ramped, and we have teenagers killing teenagers.
All of the problems we are having in the world and especially in this country is addressed in the bible, the pitfalls, and what to do to fix the problems we have.
Our country is falling to pieces, I don’t think this country has ever been more divided in numerous areas, and more and more people are becoming dissatisfied in their lives, with their families, with their jobs with everything..
We probably have never experienced the lowest respect from other countries as we are experiencing now. Our motives are questioned by other countries and instead of being looked at as a liberator we are being called an occupier. In our countries history Iraq is the first time we have ever for the most part conducted a pre-emptive strike.
Something is broke, no one seems to know how to fix it. So why don’t we do what everyone normally does when something isn’t working and they don’t know how to fix it? Go back to the drawing board, go back to basics, and in this case, go back to the principals this once great country was founded on.
And one last parting comment, the bible is a good thing for Christians to have and read, but all in all if a Christian really has the holy spirit within them and they know how to listen, the holy spirit can guide them through life without the need of a bible.
Moses didnt have a bible, Adam and Eve didnt have a bible, they had God in their hearts, they knew how to listen and follow the leading of the spirit.
The bible in a lot of ways are meant as an instruction book for people that dont have this internal moral compess. It provides all the information needed on how to treat people, deal with crime and to forgive others.
As I said, if non belivers could get over the whole 'God thing" and just read the bible for what it is, lifes manual, I think most would be surprised at how much they could get out of it
