Subj : Re: New Wine
To   : Warp 4
From : Angus McLeod
Date : Mon Sep 12 2005 11:41:00

  Re: Re: New Wine
  By: Warp 4 to Frank on Mon Sep 12 2005 04:29:00

 > However, I now realize that I came to the wrong place to ask for such 
 > advice when the REAL place I need to begin looking for advice is 
 > sitting on my reading table with the words THE HOLY BIBLE embossed on 
 > the front.

I'd like to make a suggestion to you.

*Before* you turn to the words of "THE HOLY BIBLE" for advice, spend a 
while looking elsewhere.

Find a quiet place where you can be comfortable and relaxed and aren't 
likely to be disturbed for a while.  Look inside your own head.  Think 
about who you are.  Who you've been your whole life long.  Think about it.  

Are you a bad person?  Have you done terrible things?  Have you stolen 
candy as a kid, or gone for a joy-ride in someone's car?  Are you cruel to 
animals, or unkind to little old ladies or rude to strangers? Are you
untrustworthy to your friends?  Have your felt remorseful for the 'bad' 
things you've done?  

What brings you happiness in life?  What do you enjoy?  Do you smoke 
cigars?  Drink rum?  Drive fast?  Jerk off in the shower?  Love your cat?  
Listen to (gag!) C&W music on the radio?  Eat asparagus on toast?  Is 
there any reason you *shouldn't* enjoy these things?  Is there any reason 
you *shouldn't* be happy?

/Fix/ those parts of your life that YOU think need fixing.  Visit your 
parents more.  Eat fewer saturated fats.  Watch less TV.    /Relish/ those 
moments that bring you happiness.  Ride your mountain-bike more.  Sing in 
the tub.  Buy the new (gag!) 'Dixie Chicks' CD!

Still have a problem you think "THE HOLY BIBLE" can help you with?  Go 
ahead and read it.  But remember -- it is *NOT* the word of God.  At best, 
it is the word of God filtered through 2,000 years of self-important 
priests and shamans who have altered it and changed it time and time 
again, to suit their worldly purposes, and to fit their own personal 
designs.  It may be full of valuable advice, but some of that advice is 
now obsolete.  Warnings about pork and shellfish are of no value in an age 
of widespread refrigeration.

So you have to *interpret* the bible.  Does this passage sound like 
something that makes sense to you?  Is this advice useful, or is it 
outmoded, out-dated, and probably the work of some self-serving 16th 
century arch-bishop anyway?  Make your own decision -- don't let anybody 
interpret it for you.  Ask opinions of others, but in the end, the 
decisions are yours to make, because YOU have to live with them.

I personally don't believe there *is* a God.  But if, for the sake of 
argument, there was, I doubt he would deliberately make people in such a 
way as to deny them any chance of happiness and condemn them instead to a 
long life of loneliness.  Anyone who tries to tell you different, you can 
safely ignore.


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 þ Synchronet þ Oh God!  It's HIM again.....

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