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Has anyone had any problems accessing this site with Firefox? After trying everything else I have finally managed to read and post to the forum using Chrome. Under Firefox, after a few pages or an attempted log in to the forum, the browser window would go blank, and remain blank for any page...

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Moslems held the Tawrat to be a holy book, and this text includes a version of the Genesis text. God's "resting" is given as the reason for the Sabbath, a holy day for the three faiths. You can't change scripture just so you can disagree with...

I had always thought that Hitler was an atheist. Having read through the Wikipedia article referenced above, I stand corrected. He hated atheists, Christians, the Catholic and Protestant Churches, organised religion in general, and of course Jews. I get the picture of someone consumed with a...

It's a question of degree. Some acts of apparent generosity are done purely to get a kick out of it. Other great deeds are done with only a trace of self-awareness. Once we are sensitive to our need to feel good about ourselves, we can start to get it into perspective. But I agree, it is a trap...

They can't kill you for being kind. (I hope).

Hi Lost, and welcome to the forum. You're in good company, we're all lost here. :) I think your instincts are right. You would need to think long and hard before giving up your life for a cause. Who would this serve? The general good or just your own vanity? What would it prove if you died just...

I don't think it really matters if the Earth is 4000, 4 million, or 4 trillion years old. It is unlikely to have the slightest bearing on my life. What bothers me is that there are people who think the Bible is a scientific text book when it is something far more valuable and useful.

I think preaching in these circumstances will look like racism, even if that is not the intention. It will be interpreted as deliberate provocation, and IMO fall under the "behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace" heading.

The first definition of perfect in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is complete. This is also the primary meaning of the Greek word used in Matthew 5:48. Jesus has just explained how God is not partial in his blessings, bestowing them on the just and unjust alike. So the probable meaning here is...

I was brought up in the Church of England, went tyo Sunday School, joined the choir, was confirmed by David Shepard (which I'm really smug about). Meanwhile my Dad dabbled in Spiritualism, and read people like Blavatsky and Jung. He tried to talk to me about this but I was a teenager and knew...

Most of the biblical quotes above come from the time when the Children of Israel had recently emerged from wandering in the desert and had just started to settle in the fertile land. They were a pretty wild bunch at the time. This probably inspired Richard Adam's work "Shardik" which I...

Yes of course, and at the end of Ramadan there is the holiday we ex-pats used to call 'the big id' (eid al fitr I think), a massive celebration at the end of an exhausting month. What I noticed was how during Ramadan, as soon as the sun set, a complete stillness settled over the town and trafic...

I'd like to see how that correlates to the wealth gap between richest and poorest within countries.

Fasting as a religious practice in any faith is an exercise in self-mastery. It enables you to be master of your body rather than its slave. It liberates you from being at the beck and call of your body functions. It gives you confidence and strength and hence peace. What I have seen of Ramadan...

Compare with this text: Paul is saying that knowledge of the law made him guilty of breaking it. If he knew no law he could not have broken it. Surely this is a myth about growing up and taking responsibility. After childhood there comes a time in everyone's life when they say "I will no...

This is totally specious. You claimed that the USA only got involved in conflict at the request of Europe. You were then challenged with the examples of Afganistan and Iraq, where the USA led the assault, disproving your original assertion. I think it is entirely reasonable to wish for a USA...

Sorry I'm going to have to come back on that. As I said earlier, I'm NOT criticising any American people. I'm not even criticising really. I'm just relating a couple of things I've seen in my life. Under the British Empire, we Brits in our colonies inflicted appalling injustices on the natives...

That really is very interesting. I wonder if you would be kind enough to give your source for this?

I think it would be better to avoid accusations of insanity. The Soviet Union used to incarcerate dissidents in mental asylums on the grounds that you would have to be mad to criticise the Communist regime. If all those with a religious faith were psychotic we would have a very strange world...

Yeah, I used to have a photo of him. This was in the quiet prosperous little town of York Pa. I don't think many of the local whites had seen what I saw because they never went near that part of town. This is what happens, it's like The Portrait of Dorian Gray. I won't go on. I liked the people...