adamsgi

Sorry all - I made quite a sweeping generalisation in my last post - I just wanted to clarify a few things and make some more comments. Every moment of every day people have a choice to make. Whether to eat, drink, go out, stay in, go to work, call in sick etc. Then there are other choices like whether to improve your lot by education, getting a job etc. I agree with this sentiment, however, still stand by the fact that you can choose to listen to it or not, and choose to live your life by it or not. I am repeatedly told that being gay isn't normal and I should be straight, however, I choose to ignore it because I know it is rubbish. I agree with this comment too. However, laws such as this give "weak individuals" someone else to blame when things go wrong. For example, if my grandfather was in hospital and needed a life saving operation, and there was complications resulting in my grandfather dying, I can in theory sue the hospital for negligence and failure to save his life. This in itself is absurd. Also, when it is snowing, I can walk outside a shop, slip on the snow and hurt myself, and it is either the council's or the shop's fault for not gritting the pathway. Not my fault for not walking carefully, or not going out because the was snow on the ground. Sorry, losing my thread a bit..... the current legal situation gives weak individuals an easy-option, rather than admitting their own failings. If you can blame someone else, you do not have to face up to the fact that you can do things wrong. However, it is not only weak individuals who do this and unfortunately this type of behaviour is on the increase, to the severe detriment of society as a whole.

I wanted to pick up on point number two there. You say Jesus knew he was going to be crucified and then be ressurected, however in Luke 23:34... Why would God need to forgive the Jews when they were following the plan that God and Jesus had? If anything they should be thanking them because everything was going to plan. And then whilst on the cross, in both Matthew and Mark (Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34) Forgive me if I'm wrong but this doesn't sound like someone who's mission on this earth is to die for the sins of human kind. If I was in his shoes I would be overjoyed that I got the chance to wash away all the sins of every living being. Back to the subject of the Shroud, I agree with Majestic Tree Frog - if the Vatican want nothing to do with it, then it has to be a fake.

Hmmm - It does look too good to be true. I guess that as there is only 25MB of disk space and 1GB monthly BW, there are limitations. You can also only use MS Frontpage Extensions and Perl. No php or asp.I use https://www.123-reg.co.uk/ (being a Brit) and have had no problems with the service at all. They have the option to renew your domains in advance so you don't accidentally forget and lose the domain. Lots of add on options too like Webmail, pop3 accounts. They also do paid hosting.I must admit it does annoy me that people register these names and just hold on to them to sell at a profit. Mid you, if I could have got hold of microsoft.co.uk before they did, I'd be a very rich man by now.....

The point being missed here is that there has never been a truly Communist or Marxist country. Communism was described as being spread from person to person; a gentle awakening to a new way of living. Not armies forcing this way of life on to people. When discussing what was happening in newly soviet Russia, Karl Marx said "If that is Marxism, I am not a Marxist."Capitalism is basically flawed due to the fact that Money breeds money. The people at the top need to keep the people at the bottom where they are. There is also too much emphasis on profit-making. What is the point of making a profit? If it isn't redistributed, it is useless. There are too many stories about employers making several million (or even billion) in profits, yet they still have poorly paid employees and begrudge giving them a payrise of over 3%.If there was a country who properly embraced the Communist view, and had open borders (so people who wished to share this way of life could just move there) it would become a great power in the world. People would only go there for one of two reasons - to live a lifestyle the want to live, or to try and exploit it. The exploiters would soon be discovered and shipped out.Hey - I like the idea of equality. It's the only way Fair Trade will work. Fair Trade cannot work under Capitalism because the muti-nationals will not allow it.

A great example of this is "The Children that Time forgot" by Peter and Mary Harrison - It's the book that made my mother change her views about reincarnation. In my own beliefs, reincarnation is a definite. As for regressing to past lives, I'm not so sure. Remembering past lives I have not problem with (as with the above book) but deliberately seeking them out seems a little dubious. After all, I know two separate people who both claim to have been Henry VIII. (They both used hypnotic regression) The best way to know what happened in your past life is to look at your life as it is at the moment. Every action has a reaction, and your present existence is the best indicator of your past existences. Therefore, if you want your future existences to be a pleasant experience, maybe you should start doing something about it now...

I half agree with you webguide, but definitely half disagree too.Society seems to be blamed for a lot of things nowadays, when it is quite obviously the fault of the individual. Howeve, I do disagree when you say things such as alcoholism and gambling aren't illnesses. I see your point in one resepct, I would rather suffer from alcoholism than TB, but nevertheless, they are still illnesses, albeit mental or maybe even social.Ultimately, everyone has a choice. They can either take responsibility for their own life and actions, in which case they can pretty much create their own destiny, or they can sit and whinge that society owes them and wait the rest of their life for society to change. The compensation culture that we see has grown from this. If I walk up the street and trip over, why should the government have to pay me compensation when I wasn't watching where I was going? It was my own fault. People need to start taking the blame. They will be surprised at how liberating it is.

I'm in Europe and I can't wait! However I am concerned about one thing: Note the orbit of 323 days. So ever 323 days it orbits round the Earth and the Sun. What is going to happen to it to change it's orbit to make it come so close in 2029? I did laugh at the statement about the "Current Risk Analysis". In the past, most risk assessments forget to factor in one variable or another. Lets just hope it's not anything too drastic, or in 2030 could be an interesting year....

I think herein lies the answer to the question - if the Vatican for one minute believed that it was not faked, they would be in there like a shot claiming that it proves the existence of Jesus. Which Church wouldn't? It's not often you can provide absolute proof of your religious beliefs. I also think that firedoor may be correct about the crusader theory. The face is quite western european in appearance. It was also quite common for Europeans at the time to have long hair and beards. To me the face doesn't look particularly Middle Eastern. I don't think it could be 100% proven that it is the face of Jesus anyway, as even if the cloth does date from that era, what proof is there that it really is his face? Of course, if it was possible to extract his DNA from the shroud we could... oh yes, he didn't have any children. Unless you listen to the other theories that are out there...

Ok, I don't know whether any of you guys discussing this topic are gay/bi/tri or whatever, but I am gay. I always have been. I was brought up by straight parents in a straight village with no direct gay influence. Going on the nature/nurture argument, I should be straight. But I'm not. I have had girlfriends. Almost all of my friends are female, but there is no sexual attraction there. That is the difference. It's not about being perverted, it is purely that I have a genetic make-up that means I find the same sex attractive, just like most of yours will probably mean that you find the opposite sex attractive.I have a degree in sociology, and therefore understand the whole nature/nurture debate. Some things are nature - race, gender, sexual orientation, others are nurture - morals, religion, etc.Now I could force myself to sleep with women, but that would not mean I am not gay. Just the same as if you force yourself to sleep with someone of the same sex, it doesn't make you gay. Sexual orientation is which sex you prefer to have relationships with, which is also why it is called a sexual preference. This term prefer is not as in "I prefer Green Day to Slipknot". It is a genetic preference - something your system is geared towards prefering. You can't change it because it is genetic. It's like hair colour - if you have borwn hair, it doesn't matter how much you tell yourself to be blond, or how many times you die your hair, you will always have brown hair. It's the same with me. It doesn't matter how many times I tell myself to be straight, or how many women I sleep with, I will always be gay.Hope this helps the discussion!

But isn't one of the commandments "Thou shalt not kill"? Murder is murder, regardless. I have always believed that murder is wrong. Personally I am a Buddhist. I was raised by an atheist father and an agnostic mother. I went to a Church-funded school and even sang in the church choir. I also happen to be gay. From the age of 14, I started to pray twice a day every day for about 2 years for God to make me straight. I asked for His help to not be this way, as it was in the Bible as a sin (Lev 18:22) and so he had to help me because I didn't want to sin. After two years I gave up and came to the conclusion that either: 1. Being gay is not a sin 2. God doesn't exist Either way, it caused a problem because if the first case was true, then the Bible was flawed, which ultimately led to case number two. I then began looking at other religions and tried some of their practices (including charging batteries with spiritual energy for alien spacecraft to use to increase happiness on the planet ) When I was 17, I read about an International Buddhist group called the Soka Gakkai and went to a meeting. The practice involves chanting a mantra and a piece of the Lotus Sutra in ancient Japanese. I gave it a go and within 30 days I had got a new job that I wanted, and split up with a partner. I was devastated about the partner, and was told to chant the mantra with these feelings in mind. I soon began to realise that the partner I was with was completely wrong for me and that I was indeed in a better position without him. I can't explain how the process works, all I know is that through practical experience that it does work. Other people have noticed the change in me. Buddhism is not really a religion. There is no God, Buddha was just a man who was awakened to the true nature of life. As for arguments about how the universe was created, the Buddhism doesn't have an opinion. It simply states that life and death are different aspects of being. I take this to mean that the universe will eventually die and then come back into manifestation again. It doesn't matter who or what creates that, it just does. Before I go, I'd like to point out that Barabbas, who the Jews freed when given a choice between said Barabbas and Jesus is Aramaic for Son Of God. Did the Jews release the right person after all?