133 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
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<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20>
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<EFBFBD> <20>
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<EFBFBD> UG#666 <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>Zhit Axis Nation presents<74><73><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> W () W <20>
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<EFBFBD> Does God have a girlfriend? \||/ <20>
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<EFBFBD> (and other apparently stupid questions) || <20>
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<EFBFBD> Written by: White Lightning _/ \_ <20>
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<EFBFBD> Dated: 6/20/91 <20>
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<EFBFBD> <20>
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<EFBFBD> Greets to: All you kinky, mad, insane people out there like me <20>
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<EFBFBD> <20>
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<EFBFBD> Ying Yang BBS The Baron's Bistro FuNHouse BBS <20>
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<EFBFBD> ZAN Promised Land ZAN Mosque#001 ZAN Mosque#002 <20>
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<EFBFBD> SysOp: CoP SysOp: The Baron SysOp: Erasmus <20>
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<EFBFBD> <20>
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<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20>
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Almost everyone has probably read Guido's little anthologies on religion
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and atheism, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in... actually I can't even
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afford to throw two cents in because I have a rotten crappy job that pays
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minimum wage! But alas, that's another story for another time......
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This little blurb/essay/whatever focuses mainly on the Christian
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religions, specifically Catholicism, because I don't feel I have enough
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knowledge of any others to speak with authority. However, religion in general
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has left me quite disappointed, which is why I am so quick to see its flaws...
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This is basically as a footnote to what Guido said, but just from another
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point of view.
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Religion is always a topic that has fascinated me ever since I was a
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young child. Perhaps I can attribute this to my parents' lack of interest in
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religious activities (my dad was raised in a strict Catholic background and he
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hated it, and my mother's family didn't practice any religion), but the fact
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that I was an EXTREME skeptic had a lot to do with it. I wasn't merely the
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child who doubted the existence of Santa Claus...I was the kid who, after
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hearing the story of Christ, would raise my eyes in disbelief, and say, "But
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how do we know if they were telling the truth when they wrote it in the Bible?
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What if he's made up, just like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth
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Fairy?"
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A very effective parallel can be drawn in this sense. Young children are
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told about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and are to "assume" that they
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exist, and told not to question. Ask any parents WHY they told their kid to
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believe in Santa - "It's a nice story that, well, it's just tradition, part
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of childhood...Never heard of a kid who didn't share the magic of Santa."
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Religion works the same way. We are taught things, told to believe in some-
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thing, told that those who believe otherwise are going to a nasty place called
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Hell where a nasty man called Satan lives. In theory, most all of Christian
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religion can be compared to a childhood story, or as Guido put it, it's mostly
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all myth!
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I learned at an early age to keep my mouth shut about my disbelief in
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religion, because according to most, IT IS WRONG TO QUESTION THE EXISTENCE OF
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GOD, and those who do, are BAD and are GOING TO HELL. At least this is the
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impression I got from it. Well...ummm...Jesus is supposed to love us all...
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Huh, do I see a catch in there? You will only be forgiven and go to Heaven
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if you believe in God? But... something doesn't really make much sense there!
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Atheists and agnostics don't have it easy in the world. When I was a very
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young child of about five, I was with my grandparents who are both devoutly
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religious (they're strict Catholics), and I asked them if they've ever seen
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God... "I've seen him with my heart, dear," Grandma replied. "But you've
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never seen him in person? What's his name? Does God have a girlfriend?"
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And my grandma got flustered... didn't know what to say... so I went on:
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"So he's probably like the Easter Bunny then, everyone SAYS he comes on Easter
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Morning, but it's really just your mom putting the candy in the basket?"
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She was offended, apparently, by my lack of belief in the blatant FALACY,
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because I later learned that this conversation was the reason my parents
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enrolled me in a 6-week long "Bible study" group at our local church.
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I didn't learn much. In fact, my skepticism just grew.
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"If Jesus loves everyone, why are there people who are starving? Why is
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there air pollution and extinction and disease and poverty? If God controls
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the universe then why did he have my Grandpa die when he was only 45?"
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So many questions, so few answers... except what seemed to be the
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universal one..."It was the Lord's way."
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BULLSHIT!!!!
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Religion has left me disappointed. Is there something wrong with me?
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I've gone to church several times, and not one time did I understand or agree
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with the sermon. Somehow I got the delusion in my mind that religion was like
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school, where if you had a question, you could raise your hand and get a
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straight answer from someone who was supposed to "know"... And if the teacher
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didn't know the answer, he or she would let the class discuss it... Religion
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isn't open to discussion... it's all cut and dry... THIS is what you believe,
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these are the Ten Commandments, THIS is how you're supposed to act... They
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leave out something very important - the WHY involved...
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Which is exactly why none of it makes much sense to me. The loose
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definition of religion is "Something to explain the unknown." (Which, for
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that matter, is almost the exact same definition of a MYTH, as Guido pointed
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out) ... Well... Someone please explain the UNKNOWN in religion itself... I
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don't get it...am I missing something? Are we ALL missing something? Is
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there something that the world just isn't telling those of us who don't...
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or just simply CAN'T....believe?
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I am extremely confused now.
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Or maybe my eyes are just open...because I haven't put faith into some-
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thing I'm not at least 90% sure of... No, I'm not an atheist, I'm what they
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call an Agnostic, because I'm not sure whether there's a God or not...is there?
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Who knows. We'll never really know, because we're mere mortals, if there is a
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God, then I sure as hell wish he or she would show himself to us... What
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color hair does God have? Does God go to church on Sunday? What religion is
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God? Does God like Top-40? Does God have a girlfriend? (among a thousand
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other stupid questions I'm sure everyone would be interested in knowing.)
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Well, here's to all the agnostics and atheists in the world... Don't
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go jumping on a soap box preaching that we should all believe in NOTHING,
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because that, in essence, is believing in SOMETHING... if you go around
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telling everyone that you don't believe in God, you might lose some friends
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that way, sad as it is... (YES, this is true, this has happened to me) Just
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go on living your life in quiet desperation like the rest of us, and thank GOD
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(or whoever) that we aren't alone in our lack of faith in the "system"...
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Don't sit around condeming those who DO believe, because it's all relative,
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what we believe and what they believe are two different things, yet they are
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both BELIEFS, which is the important thing... Everyone's entitled to their
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opinion, no matter how invalid it may seem to you... That's exactly what's
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cool about ZAN... You can speak your mind without the rest of the world
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coming down on you proclaiming that you're a bad seed who's going to hell...
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I think not. We're not going to hell. We're the enlightned ones who
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are going to a comfortable afterlife where no man/woman has gone before, and
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our lives are what WE make of it, not somebody else.
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See you on the dark side of the moon....cloud nine...
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White Lightning
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Aww hell, I'm hungry...all this philosophizing has fried my brain...
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Anybody wanna meet me at Little Caesar's in 15 minutes? Hasta...........
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