One thing- I never said or thought or implied that the catholic church was the world's greatest gift. I'm well aware of the hypocracies, but thats everywhere, even in your religion I'm afraid, but I choose not to follow them, and was brought upright. I do my best to not let political motivation stir my feelings, nor history as it would have it.
In truth, I live in the church of today, not the church of the dark ages or the church it seems you grew up in. I can breathe easy, I can worship God how I want to, and I have His inspiration to work with. This is not a false sense of security, nor is any wool over my eyes. I see the truth and the truth is Christ. The Bible never was a book of morals, its a pedigree. A priest mentioned this also in mass a while back. But it's teachings via the word Christ are absolute. There is nothing hypocrital in Christ and his words have not been altered. This has always remained intact, and thats good.
Haven't you noticed that throughout the Bible Jesus is the only neutral character? There are times when he gave Ceaser his dues, and knew when it was right to step up and say something for or against his enemies. He was and is an early day Buddha. As pious and he was meek and humble.
I've said it before and I'll say it again- there is only one God, and I believe God/Jesus, Buddha, and some of the other legitimate ones to be one in the same no matter where they have been placed and in what light. Spiritual enlightenment doesn't come with following a particular religion, it comes with knowing the God figure or head and having a personal relationship with him.
The enemy, in all his forms, will do his best and use people to bring you down, fill you with doubt, and hint out the hypocracies he himself worked hard to create so long ago. God is perfect, humans are not. And its an unforunate fact that even in this day and age splits within a perfectly fine religion(s) such as catholicism or even some sects of Buddism are present in often very subtle ways.
The solice and utter happiness amidst this truth is that God is good and He seems all the more better and understandable when genuine efforts are made to know Him and His. You can't go wrong with Him. I see young catholics and young protestants these days being brought up right and it makes me so happy.
"Catholic" literally means "universal". We are all one universal apostolic church in Christ, and that is good. Thats all it was ever meant to be. The creation of a religion was fine, but things became needlessly complicated. While there are advantages and good points to have set dogma for educational purposes (as simply saying to a child "theres a god, pray to him" isn't enough), there always lies the potential to twist it around and use it for any number of purposes.
People are at war with eachother, not God, not faith, not even religion. They are at war with themselves, when the answers are so clear and right in front of them. They have been the entire time.
The ancient war in the Middle East is a god-forsaken war, and God is not there. They think they are withholding principles of their faith, but thats a farse. They are killing for land they say is rightfully theirs. They are locked in eternal combat over desolate, poor, and meager land that in the end I feel neither side will possess.
Things are better in Ireland, thank God. People are coming to their senses and the evils there are being driven out, slowly but surely. In the Middle East, its much more tricky, but even that will be cured.
This generation will be doing its part and is doing future generations a favor, here, there and everywhere.
Its really a collective responsibility of this planet's inhabitants to create a better world. And it doesn't come in building a better economy, it doesn't come in work-related benefits, and it doesn't even come in creating a better government, it comes in establishing a relationship with the one and only supreme being. As corny as it seems, it really is just a matter of spreading this love so that others can see it, come to know it, and be happy also. Its working, too fast for some, and too slow for others, and for others just right.
That fear of change that I mentioned earlier is perhaps one of this planet's greatest advisarys. It would be much easier if more people would tell that little weiner to shut his trap! 😛 LOL
As for getting the last word, nope. Its not about that for me. My problem is in finding something further to comment about it. Since I'm definitely getting my word across and my fair share of it, theres no need for me to have the last word or to feel like I need it. I don't need to show anyone up, and if it looks like I have showed people up, like you for example, then well, I guess that reputation I seem to have as a skilled debator isn't all hype afterall. 😛 LOL. Like all other topics, as they are discussed they will sooner or later exhaust their potential. We've just about reached that exhaustion. You'll lose interest and so will I. It will take care of itself after that. If you have already lost interest and want to stop, then you can of course. You don't need to feel like I'm getting the last word if you do that, because you've gotten your point acrossed. It would be different if the situation were different or if others got involved in this ammount of detail. Obviously people have been smart and have left us alone to settle this. I honesty believe that if this continues much longer it will be because of outside imput in the midst of discussion that had reached it's conclusion.
