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Mary Ann, Thank you for your concern for my soul. I know in my heart that you mean well. But there's too much in the bible that doesn't make sense. The old testament is just brutally primitive. And while I believe Jesus to be a great teacher, and live by the teachings of Jesus to an extent, I just can't get into the barbarism of the crucifiction. Holding up man's inhumanity to man as some kind of proof of god seems simplistic and illogical, if not perverted. Further, the biblical description of god is from another age, and raises more questions than it answers. Some claim that god has answers for all my questions. I would claim that I have questions for all your answers. I don't mean to be combative. You were kind enough to share your thoughts. I have merely done the same. I feel like we have enough common ground for our friendship to survive such discussions. Do you agree? Enjoy spring! Rick McGirr Email: [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary Ann Ryan" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 10:22 AM Subject: Re: Goodbye and hello- caution -religious. > Caution - contains religious content. Please don't read if you are not > interested in the discussion. > > Rick wrote: > And I thought 'What?!' That makes no sense. Why would the lord want > > to punish you, especially when you, as a believer, want nothing but to > > bring another soul into the world for the lord? > > Rick, the logo of the Christian Faith is an instrument of torture. That > doesn't mean that we seek torture, that God tortures us and we should be > happy about it, or that torture is a wonderful thing. It does mean that God > is in the midst of the torture - living it with us. > > Christ elevated suffering by his death on the cross. No longer is suffering > considered a curse. Life happens - everyone suffers, even the most > innocent. Travail is part of existence whether you believe in God or not. > When we acknowledge that God knows our suffering and we surrender that > suffering to Him, than we remove our belief that we are in control (we are > not). We are essentially asking God to join our journey and to be present > to us in a real way. > > A sacrifice of praise (God, thank for my life, no matter how bad it is) is > the greatest prayer in any religion. > ----------- > God bless > Mary Ann (CG Jamie 65/25) > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn