Pagan dies and, to his great surprise, he finds himself standing before some pearly gates. St. Peter asks him, "May I help you?"

The Pagan asks, "Where am I?"

Peter says, "You're at the gates of heaven."

The Pagan says, "But I don't believe in heaven."

Peter frowns at him. "You're one of those Pagans, aren't you?"

"Yes. I believe I'm in the wrong place; I'm supposed to go to Summerland."

Peter says, "Sorry. We took over Summerland, and it's temporarily closed for remodeling."

"What should I do now?"

Peter says, "Well, since we don't allow Pagans in heaven, you have to go to hell. Sorry. Just follow that path that leads downward and to the left."

The Pagan walks down to hell, where the gates are standing open. He walks in and finds beautiful meadows, happy animals, and clear streams of water.

He walks on in and begins exploring, and after a few minutes a courtly gentleman walks up to him and bows politely. "Hello, I'm Satan. You must be the guy that St. Peter phoned me about. Are you a Pagan?"

"Yes, I am. What's going to happen now?"

Satan says, "Well, the fishing's pretty good, if you enjoy that sort of thing. There's a little refreshment stand down the road. And I believe the Pagan meeting grounds are right over the next hill."

Suddenly, a hole opens up in the sky above, and a yawning chasm opens directly underneath it. The stench of sulphur fills the air. Hundreds of screaming, tortured souls drop down into the flaming pit, which immediately closes up with a thud.

The Pagan, hardly believing what he just saw, asks Satan, "And what was THAT ???"

Satan rolls his eyes. "Oh, just ignore them. They're Christians; they wouldn't have it any other way."

If they say you are ugly I will punch them in the face

While I don't trust the History Channel to give entirely accurate portrayals and information, I do find their videos to be good starting points for learning general information about a subject.

Last night I watched Voodoo Secrets. I knew Voodoo was a religion, but I really had no idea what they actually believed and what the purpose of their rituals was. Here is the copy and paste from the History Channel website:

IN SEARCH OF HISTORYTM reveals that Voodoo is one of the greatest achievements of people of African descent. Travel to Africa to uncover the origins of this vibrant, enigmatic practice. Voodoo roots are in the ancient religions of Yorubaland, Dahomey and Kongo. Infused with a major dose of Roman Catholicism, and tempered by the arduous experiences of the slaves, it is widely practiced in Haiti, Cuba, the West Indies, Brazil, and the United States. Get an intimate look at its colorful celebrations, deep-rooted beliefs and modern practice at the Le Peristyle Haitian Sanctuary, one of the world centers of Voodoo. And explore the misconceptions and reality of Voodoo with Wade Davis, author of The Serpent and The Rainbow.

My own personal warning: they do show animal sacrifice so, if you are squeamish, beware.

It's a shame that humanity as whole didn't develop to hold the perspective that humans are indeed sacred, and also teach this to their children as they raised them.

By teaching our childern that sacredness belongs to some external deity we've deprived them of being able to view each other as being sacred.

The real irony stems from one of the most popular religions in the world today; Christianity.

Christianity is supposed to be based on the teachings of Jesus. And the doctrine holds that Jesus taught that whatever we do to our brothern we do to Jesus. Yet, Christians can be quite nasty and violent toward their fellow humans. Historically they've been known to disrupt and destroy the spiritual temples of anyone who doesn't appear to be worshiping Jesus. They burned midwives at the stake in Jesus' name in the belief that they had sold their souls to some evil Satan, another spiritual character in their religious doctrine.

To this day they continue to denounce and harrass same-gender lovers, and basically anyone who does not embrace their bigotry in the name of Jesus Christ. They reject the knowledge of modern science in favor of ancient myths of a jealous God who turns people into pillars of salt, floods the entire planet, and who is so desperate and helpless against an evil Satan that this God ultimately must sacrifice his only begotten son to save mankind from the unruly Satan.

Yes, I do indeed believe that we'd be far better off had we simply been taught to view each other as Gods. That would have made for a far better humanity.

If we could only help those who worship the jealous desperate gods of ancient mythology to actually treating and viewing their brothers with divine respect we'd be much further ahead.

That's an uphill battle to be sure. So many people seem to actually enjoy condemning their brothers in the name of their jealous mythological Godhead.

It's truly sad.

pantheism is possible

There's a beautiful face and body...with an ugly nature...

then there's a beautiful heart and nature housed in an ordinary face and body....


A woman who calls you ugly, and is referring to your looks, is showing more about herself, through her own words...

Very true...and a realistic outlook.

As to the first part of your post...

Ugly compared to who?

If a woman finds you attractive....that's her choice....her view.


And it really is in the eye of the beholder....