If the council of Nicea had left out of the bible as we know it all reference to homo-this or homo-that, would you feel differently? Are you Christian or Hebrew? which one is it, Leviticus that has the 'proscriptions'? I don't remember. Suppose King James had left out the Pentateuch, (not a scholar, don't remember the spelling). Would you feel differently? What's it like to think that if you couldn't read, you'd have to trust that someone ELSE was passing on God's Word to you accurately? What's it like getting your morality from a book that scholars ADMIT is full of translational errors? How can you look at yourself in the mirror, and take yourself seriously?

:^)

I think you're right. But in fear, maybe the girl was trying to SAY "Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" ?

God, I can see what the "Shoot the one with the bead on you" guy means... but I can't imagine the feelings behind having someone I care about at direct and deadly risk. I'd shoot MYSELF if they came to harm as I played Harry Callahan...

"What is needed most is for us to return to a foundation of decency based upon an absolute or religious morality." Thank you, Chuck Norris, for that unique qualifier, "...absolute or religious morality..." With one word you have allowed morally sound ATHEISTS, such as myself, to feel that they MIGHT be understood, by the religiously inclined, to ALSO have coherent moral structure in their lives. ...I know *I* do...

I don't remember exactly where I read this, because I've seen it more than once, but I do remember that this is a VERY misleading statistic, and that when you compare babies born with problems that ARE tracked, (I dunnoh', like born with pneumonia, or born with one of a dozen other 'common' birth 'problems', that the statistics get skewed WAY over in our favor, that babies born WITH PROBLEMS are WAY more likely to survive if they're born in this country, FAR AND AWAY better than any other place on Earth...so simply pointing to 'Generic Infant Mortality' is not in any way the way to truly look at the thing...

Also, for the record, for a "Christian", this guy heaps so many ad-hominem remarks into this post that I hope he's Catholic. He's gonna' NEED that confession-and-absolution thingy. Talk about a sore loser. What did he lose? And why so sore that he needs to CONSTANTLY rip on those he disagrees with???

For the record, I'm all for the inclusion of this steel cross as part of a memorial. What's the harm? It'll mean a lot to a lot of people. How can that hurt anyone?

When _I_ die, I will live forever in the hearts and minds of those I've encountered in all my life. That's quite enough for ME, thank-you-very-much.

Cheeze-ice-crust I'm sick of being lumped in with other schmucks as a "Christ-hating heathen". I'm an atheist. I don't hate Jesus of Nazareth. I will, at any time, and under any circumstances, (including being blind stinking drunk), compare, point by point, YOUR system of morals and ethics and MY system of morals and ethics and DEFY you to point out any differences. Save one. MINE follows simply from the nature of Man as Man. YOURS, (apparently), you wouldn't HAVE if you hadn't gone to church. I don't NEED Judeo-Christian philosophy to know that SIX of the Ten Commandments are SIMPLE COMMON SENSE!!!! (The other four may be laudable, but hey, I AM an atheist...) Judeo-Christian philosophy is NOT the do-all and end-all of MORALITY!!!