[Hoot Gibson]

I don't know exactly what I believe about God, probably more of a deist view than anything. But, I can promise you I'm not an atheist, although you call me that because I don't believe in your idea of god or how god should/does work. A god I believe in would have to agree with science. For the most part, the biblical god does not, at least to most of it's followers. I do have a pretty hard time accepting what christians think, because most are just as full of disdain for other peoples beliefs, as I am theirs. I was raised in a christian home, went to church every time the doors were open, and saw all the hypocrites two days a week. I guess you could say my disdain for the christian religion has evolved. If christians wouldn't try to force their views on the government, and everybody else that disagrees with them, I wouldn't have a very hard time with that religion. Then you have the new style churches that are all about taking peoples' money(think TBN), and building multimillion/billion dollar enterprises, off of the backs of peoples money, then jet around the world on a church owned jet. What kind of god would let that type of church grow? I think we can all agree on the farce of these types of churches. Like I've said many times on here, if the republicans would get out of the bed of churches(the main reason I switched politics), they couldn't lose an election. I kind of think like Ghandi, " "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." You take up for others infringing on the rights of christians, yet when it's in reverse you are ok with it, I'd say mainly because of having the same politics as them. Anything else? I'll tell you what, you have your religion, I'll have mine. You believe in your god, and I'll believe in mine. Freedom of religion can also be used as freedom from religion too, right? I'll promise to be more tolerant of others beliefs, as long as they are tolerant of mine. This post is all over the board, but I am just rolling from the hip, posting thoughts as I they come to mind. I started to send this as private, but remembered anything said in private will be posted in open forum anyway, with you.

Thank you for answering my questions, RV. You are wrong about what you might send me in a PM being posted in public. It would have been discarded without being read, as the last few PMs that you sent me a couple of years ago were. You are also wrong about me taking up for those who infringe upon other people's rights. That being said, I sincerely appreciate the time and thought that you put into your response.

There is no bigger defender of individual rights than me on this board but we disagree about what constitutes a "right." I see big city mayors threatening to run Chick-fil-a out of town because of their owners' personal religious beliefs as a threat to their constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of religion - you applaud their threats and apparently believe that they are justified.

I strongly believe that individual, consenting adults should be free to do whatever they want in their own homes but I do not believe anybody has a right to demand that society recognize whatever relationship that they choose to be recognized as a "marriage." Marriage is a societal (and/or a religious) institution and it is up to society or the religion to which one chooses to join to define it. If society decides to expand the definition of marriage to include gay people, then so be it, but marriage should not be redefined by a minority and forced upon the majority. Stunts like their planned gay "kiss-ins" at Chick-fil-a restaurants are not winning gay marriage advocates any converts.

I have had many Muslim, Hindu, and Christian friends, as well as a few avowed atheists and agnostics. I have even defended Scientologists periodically in this forum. With the exception of fundamentalist Muslims, I have found that religious people tend to make great neighbors and coworkers. There are hundreds of millions of good Muslims in this world but an alarmingly large minority of Muslims view the rest of us as the equal of the dogs that they despise. So, I exercise a little more care when deciding which Muslims to associate with.

I periodically delve into theoretical physics and most of the current scientific theories of how the universe was created do not seem any more incredible than the explanation in the Bible. In fact, the theory that there are an infinite number of parallel universes that began as singularities with near infinite mass require quite a bit of faith. That is why I asked you about what you believe what constitutes evidence of a deity that is different than God, as He is described in the Bible. The overwhelming majority of people in this world (including myself) will never be able to grasp the mathematics upon which theoretical physicists base their theories of the formation of the univers, and there seems to be at least as much difference between their competing theories as there is between the major religions of the world.

Thank you again for taking the time to write a serious response to my questions about your religious beliefs.