I have quite an ambililent atitude towards religion. I suppose i could class myself as a christian, but i don't know anymore. Reading the Bible has actually weakened my faith considerably. I just tend to lose interest in a religion where a kind and loving God is stirring up armies to beat babies to death and rape peoples wives (read Isaiah Ch 13, if you're interested). Other parts of the Bible condones treating women as spoils of war, and punishing (ie. stoning to death) children for the actions of their parents. When at school, our RE teacher always told us that God has given us a consience. Well, my consience tells me that rape and child murder are very wrong. Christian people have done some great things, but I don't think that the almost complete destruction of the indiginous people of South America can ever fall into this cateragory. I love old catherdrals sometimes, but they also sicken me. Cobh Cathedral near Cork in Ireland is a fantastic piece of archetecture, and they will proudly tell you that 16 tonees of gold were used in it's construction. I felt physically ill when I found out that it was built in the middle of the potato famine where the people in the surrounding area were starving to death. The attitude of the Catholic Church in Africa also facinates me. Aids is rampant, and overpopualtion will soon be a great problem yet it refuses to accept the use of contraception. I just cannot understand opposition of contraception at all. The Church is encouraging humiliating virginity tests to be introduced for brides, as a way or preventing Aods! Some parts of the Bible seem to make sense, and that what scares me: it would be horrible if it was all true. All religions have their dark side, even the 'eastern' ones (all major religions are actually eastern). Personally, I think the Hindu caste system is utterly abhorrent. OK, that my little rant over with for the day. I was not trying to critisise anyone's beliefs, or to anster anyone's question, just to throw in my opinion, adn maybe receive a little advice. Bye -- Colin +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+