Rhuiden wrote:I believe the Bible to be the inerrant, infallable, complete and perfect word of God.
I am not saying this is not the case, but are you referring to just the Torah (Pentetauch [Five Books of Moses]), the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Old Testament (Christianized ordering of the Tanakh), these including the NT, or just the NT? Is there a specific translation of these which you prefer? If so, are you aware of the different MSS which make up this version, and which textual variants it places preference on, and in turn those it omits?
I do apologize if I am being a tad inquisitive or something akin to such, but I wonder how out of the many variations in the NT manuscripts, one can come to an absolute certainty as to which of these is the "complete and perfect word of God." Nevermind the synoptic problem.
Although I know you would not call me Christian (anything beyond the four gospels gets to be a bit dogmatic, IMO), I have nothing wrong with Christians (or any other ideological belief system) on a whole. As long as they 1.) do not throw logic out of the window 2.) cause harm or put restrictions upon others.
And this is where things start bothering me, primarily with Christians. It's abortion, I must say. I have met numerous of them who will vote for Bush for one reason alone. He's of the "it's a life, not a choice" school. This I can accept if it's not being imposed on an entire nation. Pro life but pro war, makes sense...
While governer of Texas, Bush had both the highest amount of prisoners on Death Row, and the highest
execution rate in America. To think that every last person executed was guilty is wrong (
Gary Graham).
I'm not going to get into the reasons for the war, but the latest
statistics for American deaths lies at 1101. Contrast this to
Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq, which lies somewhere between 13278 and 15357. Mind you, that says
Civilians. So, for every 1 of our soldiers we have lost, there have been approximately 13 civilian casualties. This, along with our support of Sharon (as PeterD has mentioned), our dealings in Colombia, our attempt at demonizing Chavez and controlling Venezualean media and getting somebody into presidency who would be more willing to part with oil, just to name a few.
Sorry for the digression. Now, I'm not a fan of Kerry (lesser of two evils [more like has yet to be determined]), I agree with what PeterD had to say: "Anyway, the election will be over in a couple of weeks. The American people will deserve the government they will have chosen: Bush or Bush lite (Kerry); the rest of the world will suffer for it."
However, about Kerry, his take on abortion, some may not care for it, but some are rather fond. Here's some of his words:
''I oppose abortion, personally," Kerry told a reporter for an Iowa newspaper. ''I don't like abortion. I believe life begins at conception."
He continued: ''But I don't take my Catholic beliefs, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant, on a Jew, or an atheist, who doesn't share it. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."
Makes me think of when Michael Moore was in town Saturday night, speaking of what will happen when the majority (Democrats) win the election this Nov. stated "we will not allow the long arm of government to touch a woman's reproductive organs." I am a firm believer in this, the same should go for the long arm of religion, or whatever else it may be that inhibits one's freedoms.
I guess my question is, how do you justify your support of somebody whom is anti abortion, yet pro war, and pro death penalty (both of which have caused the death of innocents)? Rhuiden, if you wish to respond to this privately feel free to do so, but I think these are questions that have answers that others may have interest in, too.
Did not mean to offend (if in fact this has happened), and to the rest of you, sorry that I haven't participated much in any forum yet (waiting for Pharr-B to start up).