I am very upset over a topic called 'Dear God' that appears in the
Current News & Events catagory. It's not just this one topic, and it's
not that this is not allowed to be someone's opinoin. It's the way it
is communiced, the overall tone of it that irritates me. To be fair
this is a topic that has been repeated many times in many of the
Religious posts here and what it says to me is this

IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD, THAN YOU HAVE NO MORALS OR VALUES.

SO HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS - HOW DO WE LEARN MORALS AND VALUES?
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT ONLY FAITH IN GOD CAN GIVE THEM TO US?
and DO YOU BELIEVE THAT ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELONG TO ANY KNOWN
ESTABLISHED CHURCH HAS NO MORALS AND VALUES?

Sorry, but I feel so offended when I see this kind of theory, that
taking the word God out of schools and taking the Bible and Prayer out
of schools (and it wasn't heavily there in the first place) has caused
whatevere appears to be an immoral behavior.

First of all I am a christian, In my opinion I believe that morality
comes from many different sources. Main source being your parents, they
teach us a lot about right and wrong from the moment we are born another
source I think comes from your friends and last I think were born in
part with it, its that voice you hear in your head that say's I shouldnt
be doin this.

I hate to say this as a christian but I know a few people who live moral
live's that are not of any type of faith, they live life even more moral
than some "christians" I know. Sad but that's the reality we live in
today. last but not least some of us need to learn thru christianity
how to live moral live's(me being one lol) some stuff I just didnt know
but now I do and it has made me a better human being. Sorry to bable
but thats just my thoughts on your question.

Somebody once said and I quote " If you don't like what I have to say
LEAVE"

meaning if you're offended don't listen

Rev - you are a lovely lady.

Steve - One problem with your theory, If you don't bother to voice a
potential error, whether it may be in thinkin, in judgement or in ethics
- it festers and the next think you know you have a gun, and then we
read "5 dead in shooting spree". What exactly did that have to do with
ethics? Nothing, execpt for some reason this person did not leave or
could not leave and apparently had no one to voice a potential error to.

Ill tell you one thing.... Im athiest and I highly disagree that if you
dont beleave in god, you dont have morals... I havent beleaved in god
sence my grandfather died of cancer 10 years ago, and yet I KNOW that
murder in any way or manner is wrong in all aspects. People dont need
the word "God" to know whats right and whats wrong. To say something
like that is to be extreamly ignorant. People dont need religion to be a
good human being. They need the upbringing of a good parent.

But I agree, to take the word "God" out of the pledge in schools, is to
distroy one of the oldest traditions americans have.

Red: I agree with your frustration. Interestingly, it goes both ways.
The religious conservatives would say that the erosion of religiously
based morality has caused great social problems in our country.

The liberals will counter that its the assertion of the conservative's
views that is causing the strife and dysfunctionality in our culture.

Frankly, I think its television.

We all sit around and fatten our minds on the things we dont have,
fatten our minds on the things we dont do, fatten our minds on the
behaviors we dont dare...

True dat mike lol.

Mike, of course your assertion is correct. Do you see a problem with
it? I do. Here is the problem.

I tell you that, taking God out of public schools has caused major
behavior problems in the students. Now this message starts going out
to the general public. Some religious fanatics get hold of it and say,
hey yea, let's go one further.

Now you are told, that the inibility of students to pray openly and
carry their bible has caused so much confustion in the student that they
are resorting to violence. Now this message get's out and becomes the
touching topics portrayed in a childs poem and ernest desire to pray in
school. Someone says yea, that's right, we need to fight this problem.

Next thing you see, everytime there is a tragic situation in a school,
like school shootings, it's this never happened before they took God and
Prayer and the Bible out of the school.

This theme gets carried on and on until there is an inundation of this
type of sympathetically enticing cry from poor children who only want to
pray in school.

WHO'S CARRYING THE TORCH ON THIS ONE? Who's propagating hate of other
religions who prefer nuetrality at school. Who's getting otherwise
happy, uninterested folks all riled up about the situation?

BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS, Who is making it sound like those who don't want
God, prayer and Bibles in school can't possibly have any morals or
values or not of these things would be happening, it's all THEIR fault,
those non-believers.