debdodd

it wouldn't surprise me if he was a tad militant in his agnostic/atheist views ... I haven't heard any specifics on this particular person but I never had any problems ... It's like any belief .... you get too loud about it and you tend to piss people off .... unfortunate but true ...

what do you think ..... should you announce that you are agnostic/atheist and risk loosing your job or keep quite?

I know I said on another thread that I lost a job because of my beliefs .... Indiana is an employment at will state and they worded the termination correctly so that it was a religious oriented termination ... bottom line is I lost the job and there were girls praying for me while we were all at lunch and such .... of course I egged them on thinking I was protected ...... I'll never make that mistake again .... hell I'll hold hands and pray with them if it keeps the jesus freaks off my case!

__________________
"Ubi dubium ibi libertas."

"We are all lone souls. It pays to know humility, lest the delusion of control, of mastery, overwhelms. And indeed, we seem a species prone to that delusion, again and ever again ....."

buzz2

OK Deb,
Final round... I hope. I tried to address the points you brought up. Yet you still seem to want to be combative. Not once did I bring up religion. I said before, I wouldn't do that unless I was specifically asked something about it. I mentioned the Marine Corps League only in response to your remark about "putting my money where my mouth is". And what do I get for that? Just no pleasing you is there? Now my volunteer work isn't up to your standards. Is it safe to assume that you just don't like anything I say, just because it's me saying it? You should get rid of that chip you're carrying. Follow your own advise and you try having tollerance. I'll do so as well. I would hope to be able to get along with all yall in here and have some intelligent debate. No matter which side of the fence we are on. So, can we bury the hatchet or what?

duck

Kind of the gist of the issue that I was able to interpret from watching the morning news.

Moderation and keeping some things to yourself seems to be a lesson a lot of people are missing out on.

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Religion: The ultimate definition of verisimilitude

xexon

I am a spiritual person first and foremost. How I see the world is quite different than how most will see it.

For me, it's all a part of the passing show. I can involve myself in it or I can just be a witness to it. When I flog the government, I do so for my own entertainment. Not that I hope to change anything. To me, this world is dust in the wind.

The state of the world is a reflection of the people who allow it to happen. You can't think yourselves out of these problems, because it requires that you feel instead. You must learn how to have a heart.

The best tool for that is compassion. The best way to provoke compassion in people who are stubborn is to rub misery and suffering in their face. Only then do barriers of race, or color, or religion begin to fall.

So what you see as a harsh world, I see as a good school for young souls who have to master their human selves.

Its tough down here. Because its tough work to polish a diamond.

If you want to change the world, politics ain't going to do it.


x

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Destroyer of Worlds

StuckInThe90s

Well OBVIOUSLY he deserves the criticism. Just like that guy who described himself as being Pagan.

Seriously, that's pathetic. The man wants to serve his country and others treat him like this? Why should anything else make a difference as long as he obeys the law, doesn't set a bad name for other soldiers, and just does his duty? Doesn't serving your country usually deserve respect in itself ?

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"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
~Marcus Aurelius

shadowind

it's been intresting to me that serving your country demands respect, sure i guess it does. but theres a line that most people seems to not point out. the nazi soldiers were serving their country. they were following orders.

any ways as a american citizen he should be allowed to practice his beliefs, so long as hes not throwing virgins into volcanos he should be good.

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remember "for mere impulse of appetite is slavery, while obedience to a law which we prescirbe to oursleves is liberty"-rousseau: the concept of the general will "if we can not reconcile all opions, then let us endeavour to unite all hearts."-?"to be is to be perceived"-? "‘We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know’-Robert G. Ingersoll

dameedna

I completely agree.

When the war was announced, I was chatting with a couple of young army blokes, and expressed my view that I was totally and utterly against the war.

They literally EXPLODED AT ME, and I suspect if it wasn't for the fact that I'm female they probably would have hit me. One of them stormed out, but thankfully the one that stayed I finally got through to.

My disgust over the war, wasn't based on my lack of respect for the military, it was because I have SO much respect for their lives, that there isn't a chance in hell I want them risked, for anything other than a totally unavoidable war. I don't want any military to die ever, but since it will happen during a war, it had better bloody happen for a good, VERY good reason.

I had him in tears in the end, and I think there was at least one soldier, who knew that the protesters were protesting for him, not because they disrespected him. I'm so angry , still over the manipulation of young, patriotic passionate men and women that occured when this government decided to invade another nation.

This wasn't over God, it was about Money, and gaining a prescence in the ME, imo. Though we won't ever really know WHAT it was about, until the history books are written and those that are in the know, come out of the closet.

It is interesting, that Suddam was going to start selling oil, in Euro's not US $$. That would have tanked the US economy. Another conspiracy theory? perhaps, but I think you have to follow the $$ on this one. God, and 'saving the iraqis" was the meal dished up to entice the pallet of the average american.

dameedna

I feel sort of like this some of the time, although I don't actually see all that is happening as necessarily terrible in the long term.

The more we know about our world, IE we can now travel, the media and internet show us each other wether we want to remain ignorant or not, and we are realizing just how much we impact each other.

It was GOING to happen..this clash between the ME and the West, it was only a matter of time. I just hope that we don't blow up the planet in the process.

This, I disagree with. There is not enough competance in this world and a large part of the reason is a lack of thinking. Thinking is not easy, it is hard which is why most people don't do it very well.

We can presume that people who cause problems don't have a heart, but that's not true. Some of the worst acts against humanity were done for altruistic motives.

We need to do both. We must think before we act, and humble ourselves so we may see when we are wrong. We must be able to face things when we are wrong, NO MATTER how we feel.

And, we must also use our hearts, our intuition. Think it through, then feel it through, both ways are beneficial when trying to come to a decision.

I'm sorry, but I really, really am opposed to the idea of only feeling and not thinking. Feeling is easy, it's what we do naturally. THINKING is hard, especially when it requires a loss of ego.

Actually, I think by showing compassion you are most likely to spread it. You can't teach compassion, but being incompassionate.

Yes, I agree with this and it's often how I see the world also. People are under the mistaken impression that we are alway's here to be happy. We are not, imo here for that reason alone, even if that is sometimes how we feel.


Sadly, on this I do agree. But, Politics is necessary since we need a governing body. It's up to the rest of us however, to make sure we get the politicians we need. To achieve this, we can't just go with what we feel, since more often than not what we feel is self-serving and not ultimately the right thing.