Why a person feels the need to belittle others for their beliefs is what I find odd.
Someone like Barry will say, believers in God deserve this because of blah, blah, blah. Well, time on earth is a testing ground. We get it wrong a lot, but hopefully we move ahead. And people who feel the need to lord over others do not advance that purpose. It really only serves to hi-light their own pettiness. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fleetwood_macncheese@...> wrote : Belief is a thought, that moves us through the gap, from one experience of a subject, to another. For example, we believe the earth is round. This belief remains in place, and helps our world make sense, though there are few times, when we actually observe the curvature of our planet. So it is, with a strong belief in God. Often it becomes the belief in God, that is pursued, instead of a close, immediate, ongoing relationship with Him and Her. I cannot honestly say that I believe in God, yet He and She make their presence known to me, moment to moment, and the relationship is always vital and alive. I did not think up God on my own, just as I would not know how to write, or speak, or drive a car, or try to treat people well. It was taught, this idea of God - many different aspects, over a lifetime. Running the spectrum, from static definitions, with no direct contact; a remote, authoritarian God, to a universe brimming with God, in all of Her and His creativity, endless expansion, and love. A creation that brings so many aspects, so many dynamics, of God to light, that it makes belief in God, irrelevant. Like believing in air and sunlight. So, Barry, I too, do not believe in God, but only one of us is richer for it.:-)
