> While I'm open to suggestion about the flaws in my "beliefs", I'm not willing to hear someone blast me for not believing what they do. It annoys me when people call their religion the "truth", and disregard any other religion or belief system.
> I'm athiest, or whatever, but I don't go around saying you're stupid if you're a Christian/ Muslim/ Hindu/ Whatever. I may think that privately, but I'm not going to try and force my views on you, unless you ask.
> Almost all religions have the problem of fanatics who follow their religion blindly, without question. And these fanatics are very dangerous people, as we have seen with the terrorists of Islam, and the idiots of Christianity, like Jerry Falwel.
>
> B"I'm right, and you disagree. Ergo, you're wrong"o

A few comments:

Now, I'm the last person on the earth to want to defend Jerry Falwell. He made an inappropriate statement about the WTC attacks which he later apologized for after talking to the president and others. It's one thing to say that our culture is in need of God's grace, another to point the blame on specific groups. The Bible says that we all are sinners, and you can't single out events as judgement against specific sinners. However, that was just one statement he made, and you can't characterise somebody by something they said that they regretted later.

Most people these days seem to think we need to seperate our religion from the rest of our lives, not take it too seriously, and not to be "fanatical" about what we think. For me, my faith and my daily life are related. We had a speaker here come talk about the need to acknowledge different perspectives, different religions, and not to be so sure we're right.

I just don't buy that. I can respect a muslim, jew, or hindu and live with them, but I'm never going to think their perspective is as valid as mine. Whether they think they're right or not, there is a truth about reality, God, and the universe outside their own ideas, and where they stand will affect them in inevitable future.

I can't force someone to see that truth, and I don't want to alienate people who disagree by refusing to talk rationally with them. But I also think I do have to stand up for what I believe, and see that everyone has a chance to at least hear about what the Bible says.

Mark"Si ego sum dextrus, et te cogitas non similis mihi, tu es non dextrus. Hic est unum veritas."N