yeah, I'm sure it would be like Disneyland without the blasphemous mice, or that bible amusement park they're trying ot build in Israel.

And wait, does that mean that every psychotic, born again drug-addicted retard is getting into heaven? Screw that shit I've BEEN to Arkansas, thanks. Fuck it, I'll stick with hell, it bodes more with my sense of humor anyway.

Haha. this is funny, but I am not quite sure I get it.

So to be safe, I have no idea.

nah, only to human life, and then we get to try again

well, since born again Christians are almost without parallel the most fucked up people I've ever known, wouldn't it be conceivable that heaven would be lousy with them?

or do they like die only to find out it didn't matter, they're still going to hell. This just made me chuckle to myself for more than a few minutes.

and also, back to the zombie thing from the book thread, what ABOUT Zombies? I mean do they get into hell? Yeah I know the're "dead", but any anti-choice protestor can see those bastards are moving around pretty well. Any if they're not responsible for the murders they commit then who? Is that God's will?

It's exactly this sort of crap that keeps me out of organized religion. The fictional terror sort.

Moi?

I always thought zombies were undead, just animated corpses. The souls would go to either heaven, hell, purgatory, Asgard, Valhalla, what-have-you.

What would be really funny is if you were an organ donor, and you donated a heart or something, and the recipient was a dirt bag. One day your sitting up in heaven enjoying your ten hours of hang-over-free drunken multiple orgasms, and up comes an angel who informs you that your membership has been revoked based on what the recipient of your heart has done, and it's downstairs for the rest of eternity.

Oh yeah, and GO TO HELL!

are you? I had no idea. i should have worded that the other way around. most of the most fucked up people i've ever known have been born again. i might have exaggerated on the margin there, but in my personal expereince it's been largely true.

not as a whole, of course, but i know, and related to, and have worked with in various places in my life, there's been a strong pattern of them being well, conversational, i guess. especially about religion. and how they weren't always religious, which is invariably the intro to an extremely personal story including (but not limited to) the following: drugs, booze, gambling, prostitution, sex, guns, robberies or just badassin'). and there are plenty of times when the lives that these people aren't so born again, and it creates something of a paradox. and don't get me wrong, whatever it is that pulls somebody out of a situation like that i'm all for it. having faith in a time of crisis can obviously give someone a lot more strength and resolve. it's just that with me born again Christians tend to be much more vocal in their faith than those of other faiths. and that's just something that always rubs me the wrong way. again, i didn't just meet you and you certainly don't appear to fall into this category, and it's your right to do it either way.

Well, given the right circumstances I will talk about it. It's important to me for sure. It's a main part of my life, along with music and sleeping. Not to compare the three. However, I don't just start blabbing about my belief system. It certainly affects my view of the world. Like, when I talk about my lack of sex and the reasons why, rarely, if ever, do I start talking about my religious beliefs from a moral standpoint. There are many other reasons why I don't and so I tend to talk about those. I will referrence them but I won't go into great detail.

A lot of my foundational beliefs are linked to faith and therefore I come up short in arguments on abortion and politics because I don't have enough knowledge on them to truly discuss it fairly. That doesn't keep me from ever talking about them, just ask FU. This is part of the reason why I have never voted. I try to live right. But, I try not to force that on other people.

Unfortunately, I think that the media is largely to blame for some of the stereotypes of christians. After all, three of the main "christians" that get a lot of public attention are Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Jesse Jackson. I respect the three of them as much as I respect a hang nail. But, the media likes to seek them out to get the "christian" perspective on things and a vast majority of the time it is not something that I or most of my christian friends agree with(the teletubbies are gay, we should assassinate the venezuelan leader, everything in this country is about racism, etc.). THe last example referrencing Jesse Jackson, and he bugs the shyte out of me because after being the right-hand man to MLK he has completely and utterly destroyed what MLK was trying to do. He has become a political agendaist just like Falwell and Robertson.

wow. anyway, sorry for that. Ultimately, I cannot argue that there are LOADS of people that are hypocritical and create this "paradox" that you have so astutely recognized. The only thing I can say is that the misuse and misinterpretation of any religion by its followers is not and should not, IMO, debunk the theology and philosophy of said religion. The fault of the people does not make the religion worthless. Like the argument against the radical muslims. They say it's not Islam's fault that some muslims think that blowing people up is right. Just like it is not Christianity's fault that some Christian leaders live hyprocritical lives and then pass judgement on others. you know what I mean?

Holy fuck. Go kill somebody's pet.

Haha. No thanks. I had my fill of that this summer.

no, i know exactly what you mean. every religion has it's followers that lose the point of the message and ultimately help to form others' view of the whole faith. sadly, i don't run into enough examples like you.

it's always okay to talk about one's faith. that 's everyone's right. it's only when people start preaching their religion in the public forum that i get dismissive.