If you refuse to donate your kidney to someone, is that a sin? If you don’t regularly give blood, is that a sin? By the way, how often do you give blood?

How about this analogy (a little sci-fi):

Imagine a person was very sick. The doctors would hook that person to your body (sharing vital organs, blood…) against your consent. Then they tell you that you have to stay hooked to that person until that person gets healthy, which will take several months.

Are you morally obliged to postpone your life and stay connected to that person? Should you be _legally_ obliged to stay connected to that person?

Di, you might find “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis an interesting read. Also, “The Case for Christ” – I’m not sure of the authors name but he is a Chicago reporter who, as an atheist, set out to write a book titled “The Case Against Christ”. After several years of research, he came to the conclusion that if he is to be truly open-minded and honest with himself, in light of all of the evidence he compiled, he had to accept that there was a God and that Christ is his Son.

Also Di, it sounds as though your family is as intolerant of your conversion to agnosticism/Christianity as many so-called Christians are of non-Christians. As a Catholic, I encounter a tremendous amount of intolerance toward Catholics by non-Catholic Christians. I will pray that your family will open their hearts and minds to God as you have.

Nathan, you sound just like me 15 years ago … history ever repeats itself. All I can say is, keep an open mind and never stop searching for the truth, you will find an answer – you may not like it, but it’s there (hint: it will set you free).

1. Disagree with all of those who make sense and wish to kill them.
2. Cover your women in tents.
3. Strap a bomb to those who you have bamboozled so that they will be a martyr yet you are a cowardly Imam and can not do this yourself.
4. Ignore the real facts of history and make up your own.

These are the base requirements for Islam as shown and proven every day by their words and actions.

One of the ‘mentors’ said the biggest sin of all was fornication. So, rape must be the worst sin to commit as it is 1. fornication and 2. complete violation (physically and spiritually) of the unconsenting party.

So, if a baby is conceived through this horrific ’sin’, how can it be mandatory the woman keeps the child? I appreciate your view that the child is a being and a product of ‘God’, and that it has no choice, but neither did the woman during the act, or indeed after the act when she became ‘with child’ (not through choice).

That religion finds no way of empathising and making an allowance in this situation baffles me. We are all gods people, no? So what about the right of the woman to choose not to be reminded of this for the rest of her life?

Therefore many of the laws of the Old testament have been done away with. For example, we do not still sacrifice animals for sins do we?

You will also take note of Acts Chapter 10 and specifically Peter’s vision which I have recounter below.

Acts 10:9-16:

9. About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

10. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

11. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

12. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.

13. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

14. “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

15. The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

16. This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

Peter went on to visit the house of Cornelius’s, who I might add was a Gentile, and in the midst of him proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, Peter witnessed the Holy Spirit fall on Gentile people.

Two things that we can learn from this: 1.) Unlike the Old Testament, salvation is no longer restricted to Jews only, and 2.) Pork is no longer a forbidden meat.

Pork may not be the healthiest choices of meat but eating pork is not going to hinder someone becoming a Christian.

Leviticus 11:7
And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
Leviticus 11:6-8 (in Context) Leviticus 11 (Whole Chapter)

Deuteronomy 14:8
And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
Deuteronomy 14:7-9 (in Context) Deuteronomy 14 (Whole Chapter)

I wonder how these priests are going to do this???

You mentioned something about the bible and Christianity teaching great morals … I said the same thing 20 some years ago when I had my first kid. I told myself, and anyone who cared to inquire, that I was quite capable of teaching my kids how to live ‘right’ without the church or God to say so. And I’m sorry that you had the guilt pressure imposed upon you for ’sinning.’ So I’ve come full circle, or in route to completing the circle cause I’m not dead yet. I was where you are, and now I am where I am. My raising my kids without God has come back to kick me in the butt though, because neither of them (age 21 and 17) are the least bit happy with where my journey has taken me. Neither is my husband for that matter.

But your comment about having no regrets is relevant. I have no regrets. It’s been just about a year now since I have accepted that I believe in God, and when my family had a problem with it, I knew that there wasn’t any way that I was going to be able to say “Oh, that God thing? nah, just kidding.” I am on this path, and will ride it to the end. My husband has threatened divorce, my kids have said they can’t trust me if I believe in such ridiculous notions. But here is where I am, firmly on my journey. They’ll come around. I trust God with that.

Being ignorant to what the Bible says, knowing what I know from hearsay, or from my youth (having grown up with some Christian exposure, church and church camp – I was even a preschool sunday school ‘teacher’ in Jr. High. That whole experience is what put the dirty taste in my mouth over Christianity in the first place. Yet again, I digress….) Being ignorant to what the Bible says, I am very skeptical when someone tells me it says ‘this or that’ most specifically if they are making negative connocations about what it says.

I feel almost exactly the same way Di. I suppose I can’t argue against the Bible entirely since I’ve only had hearsay and read various childrens Bibles. I too was in Sunday School and did attend many church camps. I never really felt like I fit in though when they did Bible study. I don’t really have a defining moment on when I “clicked” into Atheism, but I do have a feeling it had to do with me actually realizing how small and insignificant we are compared to the other planets. I also think it had something to do with dinosaurs and carbon dating. I’ll let you decide your own fate Di. Just make sure you’re happy with your choice and that you have no regrets choosing it.

When someone (like your comment Nathan) tells me something negative, I don’t want to believe it, I don’t want to trust it. So often I ask my friend. My study of Acts, and any other reading notes I’ve taken, I find myself asking “explain this to me” – I feel like I am searching for the ‘believer’ to explain what it really means. I don’t want to believe the negative stuff.

See and that’s exactly what it comes down to. I’m not sure what to believe in (although I tend to lean heavily towards Atheism). All I know is to trust myself and make sure that I can be the best person I can be. I believe that the Bible and Christianity can teach great morals, but at the same time, I really don’t believe we need God in the equation to get such morals.

Oh, and as for the “do what makes you happy” and “listen to who you are”. I meant it as simply not being bogged down by religion. I don’t want everyone to go out and have all the premarital sex they want, and start killing people. I just want you to enjoy life for what it’s worth and not feel like you’ve committed a sin that hopefully God will forgive you. I used to feel bad about masturbating. Someone (well several people) said it was a sin. I would feel guilty after the act and pray that God would forgive me afterwards. I was also told by numerous people that it’s completely natural and it’s something that is done by boys my age…but due to my religion, I felt it was still a sin and felt bad after the act. I knew after a while, that wasn’t the life I wanted to live.

I had more in my head, but I lost it. If I think of it again, I’ll be sure to post more. I’m having fun with this conversation. Very enlightening.