You have got to be kidding. “big thinkers”, this is your answer. I love the last line, “time will time”? time will time what? This does not make any sense whatsoever.

I suppose you believe in fairies, goblins trolls and dragons as well. The notion of the earth being only 5000 years old has been proved to a huge hoax over and over and over again. Yet the born again christian ideologues of the world hang on to this fantasy. They call this blind faith. You offer no proof, no scientific information other than religious humdrum. The ‘big thinkers’ you mention are cherry picked scientist who have let there beliefs cloud their rational thoughts.

Religious belief is a personal thing.
That’s why we have the separation of Church and State.

It’s great that you find so much comfort in your religion. To think that it’s and absolute is foolish in my view. It’s false promises and exaggerated claims, that’s what it is to me. The idea that some all powerful being who sits in the sky and has a list of ten things he does not want you do is absurd.

George Carlin sums it up in ways I never could.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

The bible is nothing more than a nice story filled with tales and parables and a lot of sex and violence.
Some good dietary laws as well as some common sense civility laws.

The thought that all this oozed out of nothing or ground or the ocean is a insult to our intelligence.

Ahh there’s the rub, you’re upset that life can exist without human endeavor. Yet for 150 million years dinosaurs roamed the earth without a thought about humans. Why, because there were none. Bit of a problem that, the hundreds of millions of years that life existed on this planet without any humane intelligence or design. By the way there was no design, no intelligent being sitting space making executive decisions about what the world should be.

Do you have any empirical or scientific proof of that?

If God is so almighty then why are things so screwed up?
If he and I suppose it is a he, (as George Carlin has said; no woman would screw it up that much) is that powerful then why do peoples prayers go unanswered?

I know, I know, God works in mysterious ways, which brings me back to magic.

Having faith or belief in spiritual things is not the same as being religious.

While I understand the context of your misgivings for the extremist in the Muslim world I would remind you that extremism exists in other ideologies as well.
I think most people want the same thing for themselves, their families and children. They want hope, a safe environment to prosper and to live in peace.

I find it hard to believe in magic, angles or some large man in space who is sitting in some mystical kingdom looking down an contemplating my existence.
I find that a bit presumptuous that people actually think that this chap sitting there on some cloud or something is deciding your fate. Why your fate and not that of the shrew? Do shrews pray?

I don’t think using metaphors such as ‘rabid dogs’ helps the argument.

More Americans die from car accidents caused by drunk drivers then from the hands of terrorists.

You want to talk about terrorism all you want, what about the damage that Wall street and the banks have done to our country?

If you ask me our nation is on the brink of collapse, and this was caused by Americans, not terrorist.

By the way it was not only Christians who died on 9/11, there were Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, and Agnostics.

As for the poor homosexuals and their rights,they have every right that is granted to each American. What they do not have is: to become the gender they despise to be attracted to naturally, to have sex in unnatural ways and to try to legalize what in practice is sin. What they want by historical accounts is one of many signs of a decaying society. Check your history, we are following in the same steps as all the great societies of the past who fell,we are about 3/4 of the way to our society making the same mistakes as they did. Freedom to do what ever I want was at the core of their failures. I am not a homophobic, I am a follower of Jesus Christ,the Son of the Living God, whom our country is so recklessly trying to deny. If we try to fight against God and His precepts, we will lose!!

I grew up in New York and my mother worked in special ed in the NYC school system, hey maybe I should move back and run for Hilary’s seat. One small problem, I’m not rich and I’m not a Kennedy… Come to think of it I’m not qualified either.

As for being against even a commission on torture and the rule of law, well, I don’t even know what to say there when the position is being advanced by a journalist. Doesn’t look good for accountability and the rule of law.

I also find it somewhat ironic that in this context, the invocation is in fact the ending prayer of the nation after the Bush years while the benediction is in fact the “Go forth” prayer of the new era!

The only thing more interesting would have been to have Jeremiah Wright do both prayers, which would have been more “Christian” from my point of view, but more polarizing. And politics is about finding both possibilities and limitations that we may not always delight in individually but which can hopefully help each of live better collectively.

In stead of railing against preachers like Warren, perhaps we need to advocate more lucidly and rationally for social justice. The guy has a following which must be reckoned with…all we can hope for is that truth ultimately wins – and that we in fact, have it on our side!