So? What's your point? All politicians get money donated to their campaigns. I'm sure if I looked it up I could find a much worse conman who has given much more money to the Republican party. For that matter, Bush Sr. was on the Enron payroll! But that means absolutely nothing!

I'm not saying it's right, but it happens in our capitalist government. Also, $7,000 is not a lot of money at all in terms of campaign contributions.

So a friend of mine and I were talking last night and came up with an interesting question.

If a man were to come up to you today and lay down a manuscript for a new book he had written, then tell you in all seriousness,"This is the new Gospel. It was orated to me by God himself and written by my hand. This is God's mission for me." Would you believe the man?

On that same note, if you saw a normal looking man walking down the street and it just so turned out that man was the second coming of Jesus Christ himself, would you believe him?

These questions are aimed towards devout believers in the bible.

But what if their name has really bad negative connotations? Like Adolf. Would you date someone named Adolf?

I've never done it. But a teacher of mine back in high school did. She broke her knee, shattered her tibia, tore her ACL and meniscus, and severely sprained her ankle. I have no idea how all that happened falling up the stairs.

The fact that that's ancient history doesn't make it any less historical. Christians have done just as much killing as the Muslim terrorists are doing today. However, to generalize an entire religion based on the workings of a small group within that religion is simply foolish.

That's like saying all Christians are Amish. Or all Israelis are Zionists. It's just a case of perspective.

How does multiculturalism fail on all levels? There's nothing about it that inherently fails. What fails is intolerance. Multiculturalism cannot exist without tolerance. I will, however, agree with you to a point. Islam, like many religions (including Christianity), is very intolerant of other religions.

I wasn't saying that South Park was reality. I was just saying that whenever this argument comes up it reminds me of that episode. And I'm definitely not illegal. lol.

Willing2, I know full well the spectrum of jobs that illegal Mexicans generally perform. What I'm saying is that yes, those jobs would open up to Americans who need them, but Americans expect to be paid a lot more than Mexicans for doing the same job. Suddenly dumping all the Mexicans and hiring Americans in their place would greatly increase the price of those services, almost to prohibitive levels. Now you might not care about a price difference, but those of us who aren't well off do.

The bible has several such verses, willing2.

for example, from 2 Chronicles 34:3-5:

During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and cast images. 4 He ordered that the altars of Baal be demolished and that the incense altars which stood above them be broken down. He also made sure that the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images were smashed and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the pagan priests on their own altars, and so he purified Judah and Jerusalem.

This is considered a good thing right? But how is something like burning the bones of all the pagan priests different from killing all nonbelievers?

So there was an episode of South Park that reminds me of this article. It involved people from the future coming and doing the jobs no one wanted. Then all the uneducated Americans that do these jobs scheme to kill them under the battle cry 'dey took are yobs!'

Now I understand that people are losing jobs to outsourcing. That's one thing and I really don't agree with it. But Mexicans generally come here and do the jobs that no one wants. If all the Mexicans that are 'stealing your jobs' were to leave or get deported, do you even realize the immediate effect that would have on the nation?

Also, drug dealers are going to come into the country whether we like it or not, Quikstepper. There really isn't anything we can do about it without stopping all outsiders from entering the country. Honestly, that won't even come close to stopping it either, though.

Muslim and Mexican nightmare?! Seriously?! Does anyone honestly believe this crap?

A person (or a group of people) can be capable of these exact same acts no matter what their religion. More American deaths are caused each year by other Americans than are caused by Mexicans, Muslims, terrorists, and this 'War on Terror'(which is a complete contradiction of terms to begin with, but that's a story for another thread) combined. The only reason we hear more about these groups than others is because it makes for better headlines. This whole article is just fearmongering like someone else said.

Also, Islam doesn't exist 'solely to destroy America'. It really is just ignorant and dumb to say something like that.

I believe mirror was saying that converting people from Islamic practices to Christian practices isn't worth dying for.

I would say that correctness is never truly the point of religion. That all religions are only an aspect of some 'big picture'. However, how would it be possible to move a person's mind to your religion without taking the stance of 100% righteous correctness?

I personally believe in what I call God. But how can I take the stance of correctness when all religions (except scientology ) have an equal amount of evidence supporting them.

Would I become a martyr for my beliefs? At this point in my life, no, but i would never deny them.

Well the answer to that question is a complicated one. I was born in a Christian household and raised Catholic. However, there is so much hypocrisy in the church that I did my own search for God. The only conclusion that satisfied my logic is that there is(are) a higher being(s) who we can never truly understand. Religions try to bridge the gap between us and this higher being. Therefore to me, in a sense, religion is real. It is man's attempt to understand something that by its nature isn't understandable.

Just my $0.02.

Wow...just...wow....

I just want to say that all religions, at least at some point in their existence, were considered cults. There's really nothing else I can say about this. It's just incoherent rantings with no basis in fact or theology.

Yashafox, before you can say that a book written by mere men wouldn't inspire you, you really have to consider the subject matter of the Bible and the impact it has had on our society. I'm not saying that the Bible isn't an amazing book, or that we shouldn't live by a lot of the things put forth in it. What I am saying, however, is be very wary when making that book your sole avenue for knowing God.

The Bible, in most cases(especially in the old testament), is a collection of stories and parables that were passed by word of mouth long before they were ever written. The people whom they are about are very seldom the ones writing the books. Since it was written and compiled, it has been interpreted(and edited) many, many times. Even though at some point it was the Word of God, through these editings and interpretations, things in the book have changed a lot. The bible, however, is still probably the best starting point for a person's walk with God.

Upon reading this thread, there is just something that I would like to point out. Pagan was a term thought up by Christians to describe any religion that didn't believe in God. It's an umbrella term that technically covers such large religions as Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. My last name is Pagan, so I did do a little bit of research on the subject.

So I was just wondering why 'pagans' would name their own religious practices after a seemingly derogitory term. And I'm very very sorry if I'm being ignorant.

In Christianity, denominations are formed not because of different beliefs, but because of different practices of those beliefs. And each of those different practices is taken from different interpretations of the Bible. The Bible, however, is not directly the Word of God. It is the Word of God written by the hands of man, and therefore is subject to all the 'shortcomings' of man's mind. I brought that up to ask a few questions. Who is it that's going to judge you for interpreting a book differently. Do you really think that your God is so petty that he needs you to worship him in only one very specific way? If so, why do you trust the people who came up with that specific method of worship? And most importantly, in the end, is it really going to matter which denomination you were if you really and truly believed and worshipped?

Something like this has actually happened to both me and my sister. We used to live in a 'haunted' house. Also, my sister used to see her guardian angel.