Re: Any comments? (Answers to Pete)

Holly wrote:
Hey Daniel! Now you've gone an opened up a can - here goes my diatribe
- but please know that from reading your posts and willingness to help
people and discuss ideas I do respect your beliefs and can tell you are
a genuine person (as much as anybody can know from these posts).

I appreciate that. :)

I
don't know how it is in Montgomery but here in Tennessee Mother Nature
is pissed off now and I can't sleep thinking I'm going to wake up in a
torn up trailer park landing in a bathtub stuck in a tree. I think I
have really angered the gods with my posts so I suddenly feel like
discussing religion and coming to Jesus.

heh - I don't think that's it. I think that you got what we were supposed to. Last weekend, my two older sons and I missed out on a camp-out that they had been looking forward to for a while. So, I thought that last night, I'd set the tent up in the back yard, and we could "camp" here. However, the forecast was for "strong storms" and the possibility of tornadoes; so, we decided to "camp" on the pull-out sofa in the living room instead.

I woke up around 4:15 this morning, and didn't hear or see any rain. I checked out weather.com, and saw that the line of storms was mainly concentrated from Birmingham up. We've had a few storms, and a couple of short, quick, heavy showers, but other than that, we dodged it.


I hope you and your family
are safe - luckily everyone here is ok in my area but I was a bit
worried about my cousin who lives near where all the fatalities were
from the massive supercell tornado that hit Gallatin. I think the
weather now is better so I am going to take an Ambien so that if the
tornado does come to take me away I'll sleep through it all the way to
mainframe paradise.

I hope your family is safe - and I'm glad you're safe. Gallatin is middle TN, between Nashville and Knoxville, right? (I was born in Knoxville, moved to Chattanooga when I was 15, and lived there until I joined the Air Force when I was 23. Go Vols!) :)

I think the reason why I am nervous about fundamentalist christianity
which seems to be the norm here where I live - is that creationism was
taught in my school "unofficially", which by the way was a public
school, and we actually had a science teacher who preached to us in
class. When some of us complained, the principal who happened to go to
the same church dismissed our concerns. and invited youth group leaders
to sit with us at lunch. I even remember having my friends tell me
they didn't want me to go to hell and to please go to their church.

Well, from the friends, I can understand. I also don't think it's necessarily wrong to have a Christian teaching science, or even as the administrator of a public school. They do need to remember, though, that they're not teaching Sunday School. :) In fact, folks doing stuff like that makes people more reluctant to even include a bit of "other views".

And I was an Episcopalian - which I guess in their minds was some sort
of evil liberal conspiracy.

I had never really looked into the Episcopal church all that much until I got married - my wife's mom and step-dad are members of one. I didn't really find anything in their core doctrine that's any different from what I believe.

but what does bother me is hypocrisy (sp?)

I agree.

It is not that I don't think that parents kids shouldn't be able to
learn creationism if they want- but I don't think that religious
beliefs should be mandated by government, in the public schools - we
still are supposed to have a separation of church and state.

The actual intent of this phrase was to prevent the establishment of a state religion. The way it's been twisted today, to keep people from praying before a high school football game, for example, is ludicrous (IMO).

And, if you saw my response to Mr. Tees, I don't really see this as government mandating beliefs - just presenting two "theories". Whichever one you choose to believe, there is value in knowing the other.

We just can't guarantee a moderate viewpoint when religion is involved,
because it is not science, fact or indisputable truth and it doesn't
mean the same thing to everyone.

Neither is evolution - that's the entire point of presenting a differing viewpoint. "We don't know *how* we got here - but here's one guy's take on it." Where's the balance on that? What makes Charles Darwin any more qualified than you or I to decide how we got here? :)

I don't need
anybody to tell me what to believe, my parents encouraged us to seek
our own answers. They did a wonderful job leading by example, because
they are kind, intelligent, beautiful people who try to live by the
principles they believe in instead of just talking about it.

That's great!

I hope you and your family are safe tonight - and that we can all log
on safely tomorrow and think about our blessings - whatever they may
be.

Peace be With You!

a-a-and a-a-a-also-o-o-o wi-ith youuuuuuuuuu (in my best chant) :)

or to some of you, the Force.

Use the schwartz, Holly!

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ / \ / ~ Live from Montgomery, AL! ~
~ / \/ o ~ ~
~ / /\ - | ~ daniel@thebelowdomain ~
~ _____ / \ | ~ http://www.djs-consulting.com ~
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"Who is more irrational? A man who believes in a God he doesn't see, or a man who's offended by a God he doesn't believe in?" - Brad Stine
.

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