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I just want to say that I thoroughly enjoy your blogs. It's so nice to hear someone speak up for what they believe and not back down as soon as someone challenges that, but goes and educates themselves about it and comes back stronger. I'm so sick of people that are preaching about religions/beliefs/etc. that they only know about 1/3 of what they're talking about and as soon as someone questions or challenges them they back down. I agree with you totally, regardless of what you believe it is all by faith. And no one knows what is true and isn't. I believe in God, because that's what I choose to believe in, it comforts me to know that there is someone looking out for me, someone who I can go to regardless that isn't going to judge, etc. But do I know that God truly exists? Nope. Have I questioned His existance? Many times. There have been so many times that I have fought and fought to NOT believe and to tell myself that He wasn't there but everytime I do, I just find myself more desperate. Living here the past 8 months has been the BIGGEST spiritual challenge that I have ever faced. Growing up where I did, it was easy to stand up for your beliefs and religion because everyone basically believed the same thing and no one REALLY questioned it. But to come up here and have someone tell me, There is no God and, basically, I'm a fool for believing there is, is the biggest difficulty I've ever dealt with because I have always been respective of others and their beliefs just because, as I said, I don't know that I'm right for believing what I do so I'm not going to push it onto you and in doing that I expect the same respect but I have yet to get it. I often wonder if those people who are disputing MY faith have even bothered to fully educate themselves on what they claim to be theirs. Granted, I am no where NEAR as educated as I could be but I know enough to explain why I feel the way I do, but some don't and that absolutly baffles me...how can you claim to believe something and then when asked why you're only response is basically...because it sounded good. I don't get it, I have never felt like I had to keep my mouth shut about my religion and beliefs until recently and to see someone like you who just pushes right through is amazing to me! Keep on keepin' on!! :o)

Well, you guys convinced me. I give up. Good triumphed over evil. I'm going back to church! Then I'll have something to attach these meaningless string of coincidences to. I bet you guys were the 12 year-olds who still got picked on for believing in Santa. ;-)

For the record, I quit believing in Santa when I was 5 after my sister told me that he died in a sleigh crash. Damn, older siblings! :o)

to me, it seems one will never be able to PROVE absolutely a religion. but to be asked to believe something without there being any logic behind it, or any trace-able paths that point to that conclusion seems rather illogical. therefore, if christianity or hinduism or whatever claim to have the truth, then there'd better be something tangible there when i go "searching" around in it. with me, I feel i was a life divinely intervened in. One night, back in my olden days, I was in LoS Angeles and i dropped some potent acid and was listening to LEd Zeppellin and Tool and other bands like them.... These bands are all about , yknow, metaphysical new-agey spiritualism yet have neat tag lines like "believe in nothing" or "beliefs are dangerous..." so i, being full bore into some sort of spiritual quest, was all trying to incant spirits in my super sensistive state (which is what acid does) and, well, I met with some straight evil stuff. Visions of demons, murder, human sacrifice. Audible words in my ears. Physical feelings. I thought i was going to be possessed by an evil spirit and went so far as to take a pencil and stab myself in the hand over and over to draw blood and swear in blood that i wouldnt let it take me over. i cant even explain. it was crazy. and when i was done tripping, I had nightmares for over a year. Every night. And not talking little nightmares, but bigtime DEMONIC nightmares where I'd hear voices and spend the entire dream being chased by demons and running running running. I'd wake up at 2am and sit up in my bed and cry and cry because i was too scared to fall back asleep..... i dreaded night time , and often felt physical feelings inside of my head like PRESSURE whenever it was around. It was like a presence that i invited in to my soul and it kicked down the door and tried to take over. NOw, i know that sounds crazy. And i know someone out there will try and chalk that up to some like mini schizophrenic episode under the influence of LSD. But why do you think satanists use trances, and often times use drugs to induce those trances? Why do you think Jim Morrison was all twisted up like he was? It was acid trance spiritualism - he opened himself up extra wide under the influence of powerful drugs and channeled energy from the spiritual realm. Why would millions of people waste their time on spiritism if there's nothing really behind it all? The majority of the world believes in spirits, and always has. Not just like seemingly silly 'wolf god' spirits, or the spirits in the trees or whatever... but human spirits and spirits of demons and angels and gods and God. so whatever. this stems into a further philosophical debate on polytheism , dualism, monotheism, and naturalism which i'll prolly move on to next. but it's interesting that naturalists (science, big bangers, evolutioners, non-God-ers) cite the Preponderance of "scientific" evidence that points them in the direction of what they believe but sometimes refuse the preponderance of evidence of human testimony that testify to the existence of the human spirit. And if science is more trustworthy and smarter than a human being and therefore we should side with science over man, why does man have intricate things that science doesn't have? Consciousness, reason, love, faith, hope???? We say that science is a system that contains and is responsible for all existing characteristics yet use our own characteristics that science doesn't even have to make that very statement. It takes reason to say that there is no reason at all for existence - which is one of the big reasons why i believe in God. To me, sometimes it seems like we as men set up a big pedestal for ourselves and start shouting at all the known and unknown order of things - much greater than us -and start saying such seemingly hit statements as "There is absolutely no reason for all of this reason!!!" before trailing off into a little "..." as we therefore deduce there's no reason for us to be saying that, no reason for us to be standing there, no reason for us to work, sleep, breath, talk, have friends, care for loved ones, feed the poor, let loose the bonds of the oppressed, go to war, eat, kill, enslave, birth, die, argue, get angry about right vs wrong, give our own opinions, HAVE our own opinions,thought, opinions, colors, numbers, molecules, light, dark, time, gravity, cats, dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, you, me, the pope, orville reddenbacher, medicine, schooling, justice, law, or existence at all. so let's eat, drink, and fuck cuz tomorrow we die.... but let's at least try and keep our mouths shut and our emotions (and consciousness) in check because none of that crap matters anyway. you can hate me, you can love me, or you can be indifferent about me. But don't charge into the heat of battle on a wax horse, because this is the field where many man's logic has been slain - including my own.