And McCain chooses...

hmmmm, I had not been getting my e mail notices. Wow, I have like 5 pages to get caught up on. Be back later tonight, I hope...Sheesh..

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Originally Posted by christiansoldier

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Separation of Church and State as it is applied (and unevenly applied, at that) has jack to do with what the founders intended.

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Even if it isn't want the founders intended, I want it. Isn't it ironic that the U.S. lectures the middle eastern states on secularism, but then there's those (senators, congressmen, etc) who want to U.S. into a quasi-religious state? Let's know our boundaries, folks.

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Originally Posted by GB1

Even if it isn't want the founders intended, I want it. Isn't it ironic that the U.S. lectures the middle eastern states on secularism, but then there's those (senators, congressmen, etc) who want to U.S. into a quasi-religious state? Let's know our boundaries, folks.

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No religion should be thrust on the people by federal mandate.

But, things have gone over the top. For example, should a class valedictorian have the mic plug pulled and be dragged offstage (either figuratively or literally) for saying something about giving God or Christ the Glory for their success in school? Should students be harassed for reading a bible quietly on school property?

How do you feel about elementary or high schools mandating Islam studies but disallowing Christian studies?

Just wondering...

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Originally Posted by christiansoldier

No religion should be thrust on the people by federal mandate.

But, things have gone over the top. For example, should a class valedictorian have the mic plug pulled and be dragged offstage (either figuratively or literally) for saying something about giving God or Christ the Glory for their success in school? Should students be harassed for reading a bible quietly on school property?

How do you feel about elementary or high schools mandating Islam studies but disallowing Christian studies?

Just wondering...

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I'm totally against any schools mandating religious studies at all, whether it be Christian, Muslim, Scientologist, whatever. I am personally OK with the teaching philosophy-based beliefs like Confucianism and maybe even Buddhism, but I guess this is very debatable.

The valedictorian issue is grayer. I don't believe that God is a 'taboo' subject at all. But I wonder why this person felt the need to start lecturing others his or her religious belief (a captured audience, I might add)? Reading the Bible on school property should in theory never be a problem as it is no different than reading any other book.

I guess extremism will always sound outrageous -- left, right, whatever. You can take any thing or any subject in the world, and too much of it will probably be a disaster.

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Originally Posted by christiansoldier

You seem to fail to realize that full term babies are ripped out of the womb. Do they qualify as clumps of cells? Are you attempting to equate adult stem cells with the harvesting of embryonic stem cells by slicing and dicing human embryos?

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who ever said i supported full term abortion? which isn't even legal (at least in most cases, i believe unless the mother is at risk) now. cause i don't. and no, i was implying that stem cells have jsut as much potential as embryos to form life.

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Originally Posted by christiansoldier

Oh, really?

Did jetrim take this photo????

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Point of clarification - Jetrim did NOT take this photo, but Jetrim did include this link to clearly show the owner of the copyrighted material DIRECTLY BELOW the image:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_14520.aspx

Something you failed to include when quoting my post (and not by accident, I suspect)
I'll be happy to remove the photo (not the linked news article) if you feel as offended by it as everyone else felt by the photo you used. There was no intention to "link" this animal with Sarah Palin, merely an illustration of her position regarding the the choice available to his next victim (or more properly, lack of choice)


Back to the bleachers ;)



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Originally Posted by christiansoldier

No religion should be thrust on the people by federal mandate.

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Oh that is so funny that you said that. Because, your interpretation of scripture, your proclaimed orthodoxy hails from a state mandated version of your religion. The Nicean council was just this - the state mandate of a religion, the orthodoxy, doctrine, methodology and canonization was all done as a state function. I agree that religion should not be thrust onto one by the state, the state should have no involvement in religion whatsoever. As far as I can see, the Nicean council, the state sponsorship and endorsement of the Christian religion, was the worst thing that could have happened to Christianity. 1600 years later, its venemous impact has spiraled into one of the most shallow, superstitious practices on the planet. It marked the point in history when Christians went from being the oppressed, to the ones who were doing the oppression.

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But, things have gone over the top. For example, should a class valedictorian have the mic plug pulled and be dragged offstage (either figuratively or literally) for saying something about giving God or Christ the Glory for their success in school? Should students be harassed for reading a bible quietly on school property?

How do you feel about elementary or high schools mandating Islam studies but disallowing Christian studies?

Just wondering...

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Modern fear of religion is a problem too, I'll agree with you here. A lot of people think that seperation of church and state means that religious academics must be totally seperated from public academics. I think thats nonsense too, religion is an important, even vital aspect to human history. When the founders wrote about 'seperation of church and state', they had visions of the churches which functioned themselves as government bodies, and the clergymen were also the state politicians.

I do not understand why you question the rules of a forum site after joining, sir.
People have previously posted photos not their own and then apologized when it was pointed out that it was not acceptable.
This is a place for photographers to share and even in off topic we abide by the rules and don't mock them.
By mocking the rules set forth and accepted by the members, you mock us, yet you want to belong.
A bad example in my opinion and rather hypocritical for you to expect others to follow your rules when you do not follow theirs.