PS - ExpressoKid, I wouldn't have bothered had I seen your post. I wrote mine this morning but became involved with something important and just threw it in when I got back. Amazing.

if you believe in God, by default, you can't believe in another God, therefore you are correct, you can't be another religion.  But gay, democrat, communist... all welcome.  Which is what I said.  Not sure why you keep thinking I've said this.  I think you're hearing it from somewhere else and attributing it to me.

Christianity is perfect.  Christians are not perfect in behavior.  Why did you think I was saying, "Christians are perfect in behavior?"

But if Christians are not perfect in behavior - How come the Christians spread their imperfection to all corners of the world? Seriously - wouldn't it make more sense to first have the erfection and spread that? 

Really?  That's what you guys got from that?  You guys are both so confused about what Christianity is.

No behavior change needed indicates that imperfect people can still be saved.

As for Old Testament law given to Jews, that's Old Testament law given to Israel - a country that existed then, that exists again, but they no longer have that law either.  Christians don't need to follow those laws for several reasons.

One, we're not living in Israel from the OT.

Two, we're not Jewish.

What the law DOES tell us is that homosexuality is wrong and wouldn't have been allowed in Israel of the OT because it was contrary to what God wanted for His people.

So, you keep on misinterpretting scripture based on what it says out of context.  But you don't know the first thing about Christianity.  Whatever you do know is wrong, or you wouldn't think of it as a religion of terrorists.

God miraculously made a virgin named Mary pregnant.

Also, the Israelites these days are mostly atheists.

No behavior change means exactly what I said.  No behavior change.  That doesn't make the person perfect.  It means imperfect people can be saved.  I can't believe you can take "No behavior change" and think I meant "They're perfect already."  See, the thing about English is that if I meant they were perfect already, I would have said that.  That's English.  Again, you're arguing against something I don't believe and didn't say as if I said it.

Now, I've known some very intelligent and reasonable atheists who I really can respect because they have good arguments and good questions and they at least understand what I'm telling them, even if they don't believe it.

I like having those kinds of people around because they make me think.

You two just make me upset because you don't listen, you make stuff up as if I believe it, and then argue against that instead.

Please leave my blog until you can stop creating fictitious things to argue against.

Ok, let me give this another try without taking things quite so personally.  I do not understand why or how you feel that Christianity is being persecuted? Or why this political stuff in the works somehow doesn’t involve everyone else too, except for the ones responsible of course? We all live in the same country sort of anyway and are pretty much in the same boat legally. What other religion has more displays of their faith in America assuming ~80% Christian? How does losing the public venue affect you, your church, your religion or your beliefs? I don’t buy your argument that you don’t want to pay for this or that because of something covered because we never know where our tax dollars go except away never to return??? They may not ‘give’ the church money (which one would they give it to?), but they sure do provide a very lucrative tax shelter for religious organizations. But you don’t realize that any more than I do because we are just people in the end and we are all getting kicked in the throat.

You may not believe this, GFT, but there are people out there who believe that any faith at all is dumb, and that the people following Jesus or any other person are idiots.

There is a certain superiority complex that these people have, because they intrinsically believe that they are automatically better than any person of faith.

These people can't accept that to a Christian, prayer isn't just something we do - it's our direct connection to God.

While I can't prove the existence of God to you, I don't have to prove the existence of God to other Christians, because they are also directly connected to Him.

So, when those people who believe they're smarter and better than Christians come to a public meeting and say they don't want prayer to be a part of it, they are coming directly between the officials and their God.  This is the God who Christians rely upon for wisdom.  So, when the officials need to be wisest, the atheist is attempting to cut off that connection between the Christian and wisdom.

Freedom of religion is not about the ability to stop others from doing religious stuff in public.  Freedom of religion is about the ability to continue doing religious stuff in public, despite those who want to stop you.

The persecution the church in America is feeling today is nothing.  It's nothing.  The church in America is barely doing anything at all anyway.  It's not praying, it's not believing, it's not evagelizing.  For the most part, when that new mega-church is growing, it's because other churches are shrinking, not that new believers are coming to Christ.

The atheist community is just taking advantage of a situation that the church has allowed to happen to shut down prayer even further.

Why is what other people think important to you because this is a difficult concept for me to wrap myself in? I am one of those people who see no need for any religion but it doesn’t have anything to do with being dumb, smart or even intelligent, it has to do with ones beliefs only and it doesn’t matter where the programming comes from. Everyone seems to have a ‘superiority complex’ today, but on what grounds do you not include yourself (Christians) here? I don’t believe there is a god to pray to so it is difficult to grip the purpose of prayer in any real sense, surely you can understand this?

You do not have to prove anything to anyone else and neither do I, so I don’t even try anymore. Everyone is just as capable as I to pick up a book and read it. Unlike you I have lived the life of a Christian (atheist for you) for many years and I was just as obnoxious about it as most Christians appear to be today. If prayer is your ‘channel’ to god, when has he ever communicated back through it? There is no ’atheist’ community per se, just the religious (not just Christianity) and the nonreligious. I have never been to a gathering of atheists because I fail to see what I could learn there, same for religious gatherings, nothing there for me. I know what an atheist is, end of the story.

This is the paradox as I see it. You and I were not born Christian; we were born into a Christian family and were taught to be Christians. I have posed this question before and have never received an honest answer from any dogmatic Christian I posed it to. If you or I were to have been born into a good Muslim family and brought up in their traditions, what god would we pray to if any and what would we think of Christianity then”? I don’t have the luxury of picking one religion over another because I view them all in the same light which just happens to be the same light you apply to all other religions too, as well as my lack of one. I don’t really understand the motives of people who live such petty lives as to think having religious symbols placed where others can actually see them is some kind of insult. For the same reason I don’t understand the Christian insistence for having them there either. I just don’t see how Christians feel that they alone are being singled out somehow and persecuted.