Arnie, you just gave me 2 new arguments for me to battle my Family with.
I have been learning to improve my case, instead of raising my voice.

why do you feel sad for athiests? I don't feel sad for people of religion.

(Although religious people scare the crap out of me with all their hate and wars and stuff!)

Beaty, from what I see too much of from the MEDIA-RIGHT STORM myself, I wouldn't believe in a GOD either. Now I call Him the great spirits.

That's what I call my friend Jack Daniels......

If I feel sorry for anyone, it's for those who believe that theirs is the only way. They're missing a lot (and I believe that's the root of the wars and hate and stuff).

... What Shelley said!!!

DAMN! Now I know who took the brain cell!

I think I'll line up behind Shelley, too, she wrote what I've been saying for a long time. Good job!

Didn't she also write "Frankenstein"? Or was that the other one?

Well, it could be this Shelley, I'm still fairly new 'round these parts so I don't know you folks very well. I was thinking maybe she was feeling "Some of Shelley's Blues" and needed a little support.

Way back about 35 years ago, a couple of friends of mine gave me the book "Seven Arrows" by Hyemeyohsts Storm. I think it's still in print. Right at the beginning, he gives the example of people sitting in a circle. And if some one placed a painted drum and an eagle feather in the center of the circle, everyone comprising that circle would see it from their own unique perspective. And even those perspectives are affected by a lot of factors: one's own eyesight or lack thereof, the direction you're looking, whether or not there is something in between you and the objects (totally or partially obscuring your view), whether or not you choose to look at the objects, etc. All can look at the drum and feather but all will see them differently. If the feather is behind the drum you may not see it. To some one on the opposite side, the feather is before the drum. But no one person will ever see the whole picture. It gets even more confusing when you're talking about abstracts.

Like the blind men trying to describe the elephant, we are all correct but all wrong. Whether you believe in one supreme being or many or none at all, the laws of nature, the songs of the cosmos or whatever, it's all from your own perspective and made up of what has made you who you are. That includes coming to conclusions on your own or being told/taught what to believe. Our own puny, individual attempts to explain something that is, essentially, unexplainable may only get a small part of the whole picture, if even that. It's so easy to let some one else tell us that what they know is the "one truth" and so easy to go along with them. But in reality, we are all on our own paths or, at least, should be. Feel sorry for Atheists? On the contrary. I know that such a person has taken that path because they have actually thought for themselves.

I think religous people are scary too. I am sad for them too. They've done more to turn people away from God than anything else. I certainly would never think that my way is the only way, it's just the only way for me. I have learned and evolved in my own beliefes throughout my life and am still learning.

I think it was John Flynn that made me aware of another native american bit of wisdom. To Paraphrase: " Religions are like fingers pointing at the moon, and everyone debating whose finger to look at instead of looking at the moon".

Though I hate heavy metal, after Black Sabbath, not Jimmy Hendricks had a baby, as the blues had a baby named Rock and Roll. Anyone who ever hangs out with me long enough... will figure for themselves that Rock Music came down from above. As Rodney Crowell/who was married to Cash's daughter said, "The first time I heard Johnny Cash sing I walk the line in 1956. It seemed like the whole thing came down from out of space."-so to speak. Take a guess what Rodney and Rosanne went home to do the night they figured it was over?

Wow, that's fabulous!