ER religious preference

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hey, maybe we could start a new country with a clear separation between government and religion. Oh, wait. We already have that here in America.

Which america do you live in? It appears to me that there is very little separation of church and state in the america I'm living in.

It must be mighty uncomfortable to be a non-christian in the US these days. I get the creeps listening to and watching some of the stuff that comes out of politicians and judges and I'm a christian.

John - Pat Benetar is alive and well and still doing nickel and dime concerts. She was headlining with a couple of other "used to be's" around here a year or so ago. She's not so hot anymore.

I'll say a couple of things about religion. Gives some people hope when they dont have any. Takes a lot of money away from people and sometimes the donators needed the money a lot more. Disappointment over the high rate of crime among these so-called shepherds. More people killed, more wars fought, more tension created over religion than any other cause.

Laurencewill - your best starter kayak is a rental, save that, the cheapest one you can get which is often a used rental being sold at the end of the season by the rental company, save that buy one used out of the local paper. If you spend more than $250 with a paddle, you're doing it wrong.

 

[laurence]

Az - I thought the kayak thing was the running joke on this MB when thread had been beat to death. Chill out!

"(The way christains think, they think if you dont believe in god, you have no morals, which is just plain dumb)."

-so, all Christians think that, eh? I don't, and I'd appreciate you not make gross generalizations about what people think. I'm sorry you feel compelled to lie about your faith to everyone you know, that must be hard. All I was saying was, we get your point, you think Christians are dumb, you pretend to be one solely to advance your career and get more money, got it. Good luck with that.

 

[Hyperborea]

you pretend to be one solely to advance your career and get more money, got it.  Good luck with that.

Actually, it seemed to me that he was saying that he "pretended" to be a Christian to prevent discrimination and ostracization.  That's at least a step up from the historical record where he would have had to "pretend" to avoid painful death.

 

[laurence]

Well maybe the west coast is more tolerant, because I was never discriminated against when I wasn't a Christian. The only people being ostracized on this thread are the Christians.

I thought the thread was asking how many ER wannabes were Christian and if that goal conflicted with their faith, so I raise my hand and get it blown off and told what I think and why I'm dumb. Hey free country, 1st amendment and all that, so it's all good. Fool me once, right?

 

[John Galt]

Hello Laurencewill! You can't be overly sensitive and last
here. You must be able to take it as well as dish it out.
Not everyone finds this "in-your-face" debate and strong
invective appealing. Personally, I like it as long as everyone is honest.

JG

 

[laurence]

I'm learning, but I try not to dish it out myself. I'm always up for a debate, I was just caught off guard. Shutting up now.

 

[johnblake]

This is from today's NY Times.

Physicist Is Awarded the Templeton Prize in Spiritual Matters
By DENNIS OVERBYE

Published: March 10, 2005

Dr. Charles Townes, a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for helping to invent the laser, added another and most unusual prize to a lifelong storehouse of honors yesterday. In a news conference at the United Nations, he was announced as the winner of the $1.5 million Templeton Prize, awarded annually for progress or research in spiritual matters.

Dr. Townes, 89, a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has long argued that those old antagonists science and religion are more alike than different and are destined to merge.

"Understanding the order in the universe and understanding the purpose in the universe are not identical, but they are also not very far apart," he wrote in a seminal paper titled "The Convergence of Science and Religion," published in 1966 in the IBM journal "Think."

In a statement the Templeton Foundation described Dr. Townes as "a unique voice - especially among scientists - that sought commonality between the two disciplines."

The prize was established in 1972 by the investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton, with a monetary value always to exceed that of the Nobel. Dr. Townes is to receive his prize at Buckingham Palace in May.

Dr. Townes often recalls that he came up with the idea that would become the laser while sitting on a Washington park bench in 1951. In his 1966 article, he said there was little difference between such epiphanies, when the subconscious hits on the solution to a problem, and the religious experience of revelation.

Dr. Townes, who described himself as a Protestant Christian, said there was no reason to expect that the Bible would be all correct. Asked about his beliefs, he said, "I have enormous respect and adoration for Christ and what he did," but he added that he did not know whether Christ actually was the son of God.

"He's closer to it than anybody else I know of," Dr. Townes said.