Now, I'm not exactly what you would call a Religious Person. As in, not at all. My mom was Protestant(Congregationalist to be more precise) while my dad was Jewish. This combined to make me not much of anything. When pressed, I will usually try to answer by saying I am from a Jewish family, but am myself not practicing, eating a big piece of ham or bacon to drive this fact home. If the conversations go further, I plead being agnostic, and try to let it go at that.
I am not uniformed about religion. I have read most of the Bible(Old and New Testament), I have read some of the Book of Mormon, as many of our friends in the Northwest are LDS. Nice people, I just didn't find myself totally agreeing with some of the things I read in their book. And, my big joke is that I like bacon too much to fully embrace Judaism.
I have attended several different churches and services, but at none of them do I feel as close to....'Something' as I do when I am sitting on a mountainside in the fall, watching a beautiful sunset over The World. At those times I prefer to think things do exist for some reason, and it's not all just dumb luck. If I cared less what people thing about me, maybe I would have embraced some kind of Paganism or Wicca...but I am not brave enough to give myself all the way into something. And make no mistake...if I ever did embrace a religion, I would be one of the worst converts out there. I think I managed to convince my wife of this. To do less would be hypocritical of me. Why convert(or be accepted by something in the first place) if I am just going to attended services on Christmas and Easter, or light the first 4 nights candles, but then not fast all day during Passover.
I also don't begrudge folks their beliefs. So it made my eye twitch when I saw this today:
Apparently The American Atheists (www.Atheists.org) paid to have this Bill Board put up in New York City, and maybe a couple of other places based off other pictures I have seen on the Internet.
I have a problem with it. I understand if you want to spark a reaction, the time to put this up in now and not July...but why, and more properly, why is it allowed? I have to think that if someone put up a Bill Board asking Why Jewish people believe the myth and celebrate Hanukkah, or why Muslims believe their myth and fast during Ramadan, somebody would have played the Hate Crime card, and shut it down. But, because Christians are still the majority, it's okay to pick on them? That is what I don't like.
If you want to have a one on one Theological Discussion and tear down someones belief structure to their face...be my guest. I'm just not happy with attacking a whole religion just BECAUSE it is a religion.
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