Mornin all, no fresh snow here in northern Indiana. Where are these spring like days we're supposed to be getting about now??

I had a chemical addiction for quite a few years, maybe it was an addiction to the lifestyle of money, power, women. Only by the grace of God is my addiction in remission for almost four years now! Altho now I'm broke, my "friends" moved on (or are in prison), and the women went with em, I have a great life now and wouldnt want to go back to the old days for anything

Hello fellow Hoosiers!! Lake Wawasee area here ... lots to do in the summer but winters sure are boring

Good morning Miller Actually, if you study the founding of our country and the history of putting together our form of government, you will find that this country was not built on a christian foundation, but a humanist foundation. There was a great belief in God, but they were not referring to necessarily a Christian God, nor Muslim, Jewish nor any other particular faith. One of the great foundations of this country is religious freedom, not just freedom for Christians. Our founders deliberately separate church and state, which is what they still attempt to do. They are not trying to "stamp out Christianity," just keep the two (church and state) separated. And, if you look at the situation in the Middle East and many other parts of the world who are ruled by their major religion, you will understand why they felt this was necessary.

I hope you don't take offense to what I just said. I respect everyone's viewpoints but just felt that some historical facts needed a little further clarification.


Afternoon Suzin! Ive been doin some research on the founding fathers and their beliefs and got mixed results. I did find that 27 of the 56 founding fathers had Christian seminary degrees. That would indicate that there was at least a christian persuasion present in the writing of the Constitution and the aforementioned documents. Another interesting thing I found is that nowhere in the Constitution is the words "seperation of church and state" mentioned. The idea of church/state separation came from a letter penned by Thomas Jefferson."Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State". This is not on an official government document either. This was proposed to protect the church from the government, not the government from the church as its often viewed today. What I view of the government stamping out christianity is the degree of moral decay in our society. Removing God from our schools, look at all the violence thats now present, shootings, gangs, etc. I'm not that old but wow! how much things have changed since I was in school. There is nothing about the views of true christianity that promote violence of any kind. Read the Beautitudes in Matthew chapter 5. What would have been considered taboo 20 or 30 years ago is now considered mainstream in America. But its a changing world, they say. yes it is, but does that make it OK??
Just some things to ponder, no offense taken Suzin, and hope you dont take any either. This is an interesting website worth checkin out.
http://www.creationists.org/churchandstate.html

The Lord's name is mentioned at least twice in the Emancipation Proclamation and also several times in the Declaration of Independence and also on our money it says "In God we Trust". So yea I would say our nation was built on a christian foundation. Too bad the government is trying to stamp out christianity now, just read the bible to find out what has happened to other nations thru-out history that turned away from God. It wont be a pleasant experience.

This is a very interesting subject and I by no means have all the answers, but heres my theory. The ten commandments were given to the children of Isreal while they were wandering around in the wilderness for forty years. In Exodus 24 The Lord called Moses up on Mt Sinai to give him tablets of stone with the laws and commandments written on them so he(Moses) could teach them. Then in Exodus 32 it says Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain (he was there for forty days).The people got impatient and they made a molded calf out of gold and worshipped a created object. That was a common practice in the world among other cultures at that time, but these were the children of Isreal, Gods chosen people. They were to worship only the one God.
Now to put this in todays perspective, we dont hardly carve objects out of wood or gold and offer sacrifices to it as the people did in that day and age, but we have many other gods in our culture today also. The god of money is a big one, also fame, pride, you name it, if it gets between you and your total reliance and worship of the one God then it is a god to you.

I grew up in an overly religious family which turned me off from all religions for many years. I strayed as far from religious as I could possibly go. But there is no outrunning the Holy Spirit and I'm making my way back to His good graces again. Just the fact that you non-believers feel the need to try to "convert" us Jesus freaks shows the power of the Spirit at work in your lives. What if there is a God and the only way to spend eternity in Heaven is thru Jesus just as the Bible says? We will all find out someday when we die and if we werent prepared then its forever to late.
I am also a big fan of science. To me it is a demonstration of God's power

Why is it that so many people that say they dont believe in God spend so much time in religious forums???? Never could understand that.

Very well put.

Thanx for the welcoming, I now know what Norm must have felt like whenever he walked into Cheers !

Just droppin in to say hi, its been years since Ive used the computer for socializing, but hey, why not!! Might be a better time than down at the local pub!