JohnnyJammer, Yesterday, 07:39 PM
. . . "I know God is on our side" . . . false and starts arguments . . . you instantly say that god is looking out for us. . . fact that does god exist.
God . . . will never be on my side . . .through some extremely hard times in my life . . .
. . . using religion to push their own beliefs and use a book as evidence to justify.
. . . here in Australia. . . we see on TV . . . full hard core religious folks down in the deep south . . . America was a "Christian nation in the beginning and will always be a Christian nation" . . . over run by british settlers and invaded and slaughters the natives . . . natives were not Christians.
. . . if you ready (sic) the same exact book over and over . . . you will believe anything that the book has to say . . . Surround your self with like minded people . . . who refuse to accept any other argument . . .
. . . extremists . . . forced to submit to something none of them have ever met.
The day . . . Jesus . . . comes to earth and says ". . . stop killing each other in my name" . . . i cannot believe something so great would allow something so horrible . . .
. . . isnt an attack on you . . . but with all the crap i see . . . i just shake my head thinking some of these people are actually mentally ill and need help.
Johnny,
Do not apologise to me for the content of your post. This is a free and open discussion.
I do, however get the impression that you have a lot of pent up frustration. Venting is one of the best things for that. It helps to express it, rather than keep it all inside.
Please accept my regrets at the hardships you have suffered in the past, and I hope that your life has improved. One of the things I was taught, as a young boy, was that every human being deserves enough to eat, a warm bed at night, and a safe place to live.
After reading your post, my first reaction was to post counter arguments to many of your statements. Then I read it again, and slowly changed my mind. Allow me instead to propose three statements that we can all discuss, based on your post.
The full title of the thread is "I know God is on our side, but who is on the side of God?" It is a statement, followed by a question. Nothing more. To only quote part of it, takes it out of context. I read so many things in the news that are partial snips, taken out of context, and used to incite or twist the facts for the reader.
The United States of America is a country that was founded by slave holders. (They fought a very bitter civil war, that eventually ended, mostly, slavery in the then 36 States.) To be a slaver, and call yourself Christian, goes against any of the teachings that Jesus gave. Jesus's main message was one of Pacifism, something conveniently ignored by most extremist "Christians."
I agree, somewhat, about "the book" thing. Whether it is the Tanakh, the Bible, or the Koran. Don't burn the book, because the interpreter chooses to twist the message. I read Mein Kampf three times, as part of a Political Science course, and it didn't turn me into a Nazi. (Did you know that the English version of Mein Kampf, published in the US in 1933 was abridged, and excluded most of Hitlers rants?)
Cheers!
Naught