In article , wrote:

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 13:33:42 GMT, escape
wrote:
I didn't mention the word conservative. I was expressing my aghast at
how this
country is turning into a religious state where masses of people are swaying
politics because of their god. That scares me.

And before you go into another one of your anti-religion rants,
remember who you're talking to.
http://www.pantheism.net/paul/index.htm In case you don't understand
my point, you quite frequently put people into neat categories. Many
people do. It's amazing to me how many claim they don't when caught.

I didn't have time or desire to read the website, but I don't think
religion has
any place in politics or government. No place at all. That is not the same
thing as anti-religion ranting. I am a very active practitioner in my
tradition, but I would never want to see it govern anyone. It's a personal
thing, not something to use against people.

You are an ignorant bigot. Its fine for you to vote for what you
think is right, but not for religious people. For your information
religion has always been influential in politics in this country.

Swyck

You make religious people sound like morons. But as escape & greg are by
no stretch of the imagination bigots, I'm sure neither will draw the
conclusion that christians are morons merely because of one pitifully
hate-filled sod who angrilly pretends to worship a god of love.

Most of us hang out with christians a great deal even if we're not
christians. So we well know you represent only a crazy-ass fringe & not
the real deal. If anyone thought you personally represented christianity,
THEN we'd be bigots.

As someone who has for many years studied comparative religion, whose
personal library includes everything from the Babylonian Talmud to the
Zohar and Targums and Midrash Rabbah, to the Upanishads to the the Devi
Mahatmya to Kojiki: The Record of Ancient Matters, to the complete works
of the AnteNicene fathers, five translations of the Bible, the Ng Hammadi
texts & every conceivable scrap of Pseudepigrapha, to the Koran and the
complete works of Rumi, ad infitum, & having read this entire library more
than one time through, I can say that my interest in religion goes as deep
or deeper than yours. Good chance I even know more about your faith than
do you, unless you too have Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria within
arm's reach. And I know this: At the mystic end of all religions there is
common ground, there is poetic philosophy, & there is wisdom devoid of
divisive hatred. You've only gotten as far as the divisive, damaging,
hate-justifying part of what it means to be relgious. I may not see in you
the capacity to ever become spiritual, but who knows, maybe you'll have
more than one life to work it through, & you'll become a credit to your
faith to everyone's great amaze.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com