BTW Van, I DIG your Betty Page profile!!!! Congrats on your fantastic success!!!

An amazing book to read, Myths to Live By: How we re-create ancient legends in our daily lives to release human potential by Joseph Campbell. It explains the unfortunate necessity of "society" to have religion to be morally upstanding people. Great book! ~Van

I used to live in a six-unit condo building where I was the association president for several years. I was coming home one day to find a man and two women at our front door (you had to be buzzed in through two doors). They were out proselytizing and had the usual pamplets. I asked them politely to please the premises. The man kept trying to convince me he had to talk to me about something important. I said the building was a condo, I was the association president and I was asking him to leave private property. He got this really funny look on his face. He proceeded to lead the two women to our front lawn where they got down on their knees and he lifted his arms to the sky and began to "pray" for the residents of that building who couldn't see the light of the lord or something like that. I started to get angry. I took out my cell phone and said I was calling the police and they had to leave NOW. So they moved their little performance to the sidewalk. I got the 311 non-emergency operator on the line and let them hear me giving the address and saying we had trespassers *****fused to leave. So they moved out to the STREET! A car appeared down the road so they got up and headed for the next building....

People have the right to think of me in whatever in capacity they like. If it makes them feel useful, the so be it. Who am I to ruin their fun. I know they probably do not anyway. If everyone prayed for everyone they said they were going to pray for, then there would no time for real life stuff. They say it, but not everyone means it. I try to not be offended, because most have good intentions. It does get tiresome though.

Ohhhhhh. The Bible Belt. *shudder* You are a brave soul! I too wonder about those people who just swallow dogma, unquestioned. I don't say this often but that sort of thing tends to make me assume such people are not terribly intelligent. I once tried to ask someone like that if she really thought about her beliefs so that she might understand the ways of her god more deeply and even appreciate her religion more. She thought that was unnecessary. If people want to live that, well OK whatever, it's their life. But when they use that attitude to pass judgment on me and others? Thank you NO!!! I had always had my issues with religion but I really started to think about it in college; specifically when I studied psychology and cultural anthropology. It became plainly obvious to me that religion is a purely human construct, aimed at meeting certain psychological, social, and cultural needs. It perfectly explains why every culture has invented deities since the dawn of time. Good luck with your studies and feel free to post any discussion topics that might interest you!