>So long as web-sites and personality types have entereed the
>discussion, I might add that I am a 15 year old student, female, who
>writes science fiction. If I ever get published, I’ll send everyone a
>copy- and don’t worry, it’s not the sappy sci-fi that CS Lewis put out.
im still the youngest on this list so no bragging rights for you (14) and i am a musician with a cd pending final release in 1 month, of course im independant and cant afford to send free copies so go buy one: other list members already have (read my .sig - shameless self-promotion ;-)
>While the way people react does influence me to make generalized
>statements, personally, I’m very happy as a Christian. My best friend,
>imagiary or not, know everything, and everything about me, but loves me
>just the same.
do you truly feel a spiritual connection with god? i tend to believe (belieph?) that i (and hopefully others on this list) do not object to a person that is religious bother but rather to how some use/contort their beliefs. contrary to the some-what aggresive and angered ideas of some people (and hopefully/probably no one on this list) most religions are/were meant with good intentions. there are some that preach hatred in the name of a deity, there are some many that listen: its a very sad contortion of the intentions of the founders of a religion.
>I feel like for everything that hurts another, I must make restitution.
>In any given situation, I usually have guilt (self- damage), another
>human who has been the victim of whatever I’ve done wrong this time, and
>God, who loves the other person, and me and is deeply offended that I’m
>messing up his creation. It’s easy enough for me to forget or
>rationalize what I’ve done to myself. I can usually make up for what
>I’ve done to others, but God has to keep the gears of cosmic justice
>running smoothly, and must have a reason to forgive. I can’t provide
>that, but I have a Friend who can, (and did 2000 or so years ago.)
this is what i never understood of christianity (i was raised jewish...) where does god come into the picture of human relations? when you have wronged (which is my term) another person, why is it not enough for you to apologize?
the only true guilt and regret for me is not being able to apologize. a person i know once moved away (i think in 4th grade) and i was talking about him and said "good, no one liked him here anyway" and he heard me... well he moved away... notice that i still remember it?
>To be perfectly honest, if I had to die for someone, I’d probably want
>something in return, and I’d want to get the most for my pains. All
>Jesus wants out of Christians is for us to be good people, as best as
>our fallible personalities can be, and for us to tell others, that they
>may find the same comfort.
all i want out of all people and all you should want out of all people is that they be good people. during my jewish education (what a chore it was to goto a school somedays after school...) one of the topics we discussed was: "is it more important to be a good person or a wise person" of course the end of the discussion was the teacher saying "god wants all people to be good people, because... etc..." it doesnt matter anymore to me what "god" wants, rather what i would want of myself and of others (do unto others as you would etc.)
the only real question is what is good?
>I might add, my enlightened friends, the source of the word ‘sin’, at
>which many shutter, and a few laugh.
>It was an English archery turn for anything other than a bull’s eye.
>Sin simply means “To miss thee mark”
>Any of you who thinks you’re perfect, please let us know!
we often talk about semantics, etymology, connotation and denotation on this list. i choose to use the word "wronged" instead of sin because its is only sinful to wrong another person (i feel an urge to write IMHO, but im not incredibly humble). according the bible, not keeping kosher is a sin... but i doubt you have wronged another person by not keeping kosher... self restraint in religions is mostly what i disagree with...
similarly (in my perverted mind i have thought this up): i can replace orgasm for climax... but youd never hear me write about the orgasm of a book :-)
peace
~the great tinkerer
tinkerer@tinkerers-workshop.com
http://www.tinkerers-workshop.com/
http://www.tinkerers-workshop.com/order/form.shtml