Overstaged

That is not true, I have known loads of masons that are catholic, and I suppose it´s catholics who cannot be masons and not the other way round, they make no restrictions for religion. But they don´t accept women. When asked about that a mason told me they don´t accept woman because being a mason is seeking the perfection, and woman are already perfect so they don´t need it, but I find that a cheap excuse and perhaps he must think woman are too "dumb" to join the club, or maybe they think the institution won´t be serious enough if there are women among it. From what I know masons seem to be very influent, but they NEVER tell anyone what´s about... Well, maybe that´s the reason they don´t accept woman because they can´t hold a secret! I have always heard stuff about things that "happened" to men who decided to left masonry, and about the "rituals" they make and more conservative people have a very bad idea about them and usually link them to satanism and stuff. More lunatic people think they have conections with aliens. I think these are only legends, but it makes a good fun reading about. Anyway, if it was such a good think they woudln´t want to hide it from the public... Or maybe it´s just an organization that wants to cause curiosity about themselves but they just reunite to drink tea...

No, it´s just called freedom of religion, they can choose which way they want to worship, from sleepy orthodox liturgy to energic pentecostal exorcism cults. The rituals are different but they agree on the basis of the religion. I´m not sayng that Christianity is the incontestable truth, I´m just pointing it´s not bad for society. I´m not convinced that there is a whole pro-armagedon conspiration, that´s like sayng the USA government hides extraterrests and stuff like that... It´s not the entire christian world that things USA will be the "good" side in armagedon, in fact many people actually believe USA is the beast. I´m not sayng I believe this apocalyptic stuff, just pointing. So your issue is actually with fanatism. Fanatism doesn´t happen only in christianity, but in marxism, leftism, even sports, hell... Here in Brazil there are people who actually KILL people because of football disagreement. Fanatism can happen in any mind, christian or not. I´m not against stem-cell research, but I think it´s pretty disturbing to let any woman legally practice abort without any condition. Any intelligent human being knows how to avoid getting pregnant.

Next your grandmother will be listening to Slayer.

Where I live I´m surround by loads of catholic, lutheran, baptist, adventist and presbyterian churches, not to mention kardecist centers, and so far none of them have done any damage to me or the population of the city. I know loads of atheist persons, and none of them think it´s "uncomfortable" living among christians, they certainly have never been attacked by their convictions.

I find it incredible how open minded people in UK seem to be (I don´t live there). In many other countries, a band like this would never be sucessful because homophobia. Maybe that explains why they aren´t sucessful in their own country (USA), and even tough their last album was huge in UK, it didn´t have such sucess in any other country of the world. But I think it´s sutpid that some morons always say "this band only sells records to gay people", "these artist only sells to 30-something women", THAT`S STUPID, because they usually say that about huge selling artists, so it must be exactly the contrary: to sell millions of records you need a wider public, acts who only sell to 1 small public would sell in less quantities.

Come on, you´re just pissed off that in 7 days they will have sold more then Oral Fixation sold in months....

The Christian West is an illusion simply because we don´t live in a Christian world. Most people were baptized in some church, and will want to marry inside of a church, but that hardly means being christian. The islamic world doesn´t hate the Western civilization for being christian, but for being an atheist civilization, in their words. The conflicts you mention were "predominant" catholics attacked muslims hardly have any connection with religion, isn´t it? Catholicism or protestantism cannot be blamed for every crime comitted by a so-called catholic or protestant in the world. To kill people and destroy civilizations is not a teaching of christianity. I cannot say the same about Islam. If women are treat worse then dogs and anything that is not muslim is hated, it all comes from their religion´s teachments. If you decide do become a muslim in England, USA, Germany, or anywhere in the "christian" world you will be free to visit your Mosque every week. Would you have courage to visit a church in Arabia? (if, by a miracle, you found one). Could you celebrate christmas in Indonesia without fearing an attack? Well, that´s one of the most "open" islamic countries, not to mention the most radical ones. Would you be comfortable if islam predominated in the world?

And what is Plato famous for? The theory of the ideas, the defense of the immortality of the soul of Socrates, the search for the truth, and all this stuff that matches perfectly our "christian" philosophy. I have to mention none of the philosophers you mentioned ever came to the conclusion the God didn´t exist, even tough none of them had heard of christianity or islam. It is also interesting that, while the common religion in Ancient Greece was politheist, the Greek philosophers always came to the conclusion the universe as we know was the work of 1 God. Plus, they were full of their own prejudices. You know the treatment that women received in Athens, right? And what philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle thought of women and slavery. Not too different from what judaism and islam preach. I can´t think of an ancient civilization that existed without any type of superstition or religion.

Your statement is pertinent, but don´t confuse christianity itself to a particular institution. It was a sad decision of the Catholic Church, considering virgin Mary, the apostles, Moses, Jesus and all those guys they veneer were jewish.

Well, imagine a world where evil was not allowed in any form. We would be basically trees. What makes us human is the possibility of chosing between good or bad. Otherwise there would be no need for heaven cause we would already be in it.

This is an human way to treat women: http://www.dantas.com/realidadebr/rn/muculmana/imagens/m04042004/garbage.jpg This is a fair punition for a woman who is not obedient to her husband: http://www.dantas.com/realidadebr/rn/muculmana/imagens/m04042004/girlacid2.jpg This is a peaceful way to preach your religion: http://www.dantas.com/realidadebr/rn/muculmana/imagens/m04042004/nickolas.jpg And a good way to spread peace: http://www.dantas.com/realidadebr/rn/muculmana/imagens/m04042004/paljihad.jpg

I´m not on the side of the Catholic Church, I just said that I agree 100% with what the pope says, and catholicism is nowhere near as brutal as fundamentalist islam. (Well, you can talk about the Middle Ages, but here we go, I´m talking about today). You are right, but the "millions" part I meant about Stalin only, Castro is a more moderate murderer. I don´t know about the supposed relation between the church and nazism, but it sounds like an hoax to me. Even if there was some kind of "support" it comes nothing close of deliberately killing people. The Church is not a militar institution, they cannot fight against dictactors, Hitler was fully suported by the German population, which is 75% non-catholic. The Catholic Church has minimal influence in Germany. And if you just pronounce the world "muslim" to a jew he´ll probably run and hide. It´s a nice dream, but only a dream, it will never happen. It´s much easier when it comes to books and philosophers then when it comes to real life. Look at the perfect world imagined by Marx and compare it to the reality of comunist countries? Look at the dream of ilumisnism and compare it to the death cause by the French revolution? And blaming God for human acts and omissions is not a very nice thing. We should spend more time combating the evil then searching for its causes.

Robbie - will have the bigger 1st week sales because of fanbase. 300k at last. Scissors - more then 220k, but in the end will outsell Robbie. Killes - 160k first week.

Dan Brown is still alive. If he had written a similar book about Mohammed he would have been exploded ages ago... Don´t compare civilized protests to criminal actions. If we were in an islamic society your comments on religion would already be enough to bring you death. "Pro-armagedon" christians are not catholic, but mainly penthecostal and other "new" christian denominations. The Catholic Church still denies Birth Control, which I think is stupid, but they will not explode you and your family if you don´t do what they preach. Jesus is much more criticized then Mohammed, not because Mohammed was a better person, but simply because you´ll be killed if you criticize Mohammed, and if you criticize Jesus, at worst, you´ll see church goers protesting at your door. If christians had the same reactions as muslims whenever Jesus or virgin Mary is criticized, people like Dan Brown would already have exploded, and you wouldn´t be able to go careless to the cinema with your friends watch the Da Vinci Code, fearless of not being able to leave the place alive. Joseph Stalin also killed millions in Russia, as Fidel Castro in Cuba, and they´re both atheists, in atheist countries (instead of non-religious country, which is a different thing), which proves atheism isn´t necessarily "civilized", or the bright side of humanity.

I´ve heard they killed a nun somewhere... Must be awful to be a christian, specially a clergymen, in the islamic countries. In christian countries islamic people are free to profess their faith and reunite in mosques whenever they want. These atrocities damage "prophet" Mohammed´s image 100 times more then a Pope statement.

Some people hate themselves so much that it makes totally impossible to love something that created the objected of their hate in his image.

The phrase was totally taken out of context. Anyone who reads the entire speech will notice the Pope has said NOTHING wrong, except the fundamentalist muslims. I agree that the Catholic Church have done a lot of atrocities in history, but come one, you can´t balme them NOW for things that happened CENTURIES ago. With Islam is totally different, because people are being killed TODAY. Oh, and the Pope acuses your religion of being violent, and your response is to sent death threats, lol, what a nice way to prove your enemy wrong. I so detest people who kill in the name of God, that´s a million times worse then insulting God or any of his "prophets". On the other side, I feel really sorry for islamic people, for having this type of "human beings" as their representants, and for not being able do to nothing at all. It must be really disgusting. Unfortunately, that is the image that the Western World is building of the islamic people: a bunch of non-civilized people, fanatics, murderes, terrorists, ignorants, and I feel sorry specially for women in the islamic countries. Christianity has passed trough a similar period on the Middle Ages, and I hope the Islamic world can recover from this disgusting situation quick. At last in the Middle Ages atomic bombs didn´t exist.

It´s a great song... And good that she is not only releasing marketable urban. But I think confirming at this time doesn´t mean much, the 3rd single is not even out, anything can change.

It´s fine by me, as long as the woman is not a damn jewish... No I´m just kidding.

But past doesn´t exist anymore, and future doesn´t exist yet, so time is basically a combination between the present, the memory of the past and the expectations of the future.

What about a black woman, 62 years old, lesbian, HIV positive, 160kg (fat), dating a 19 years old blonde girl, thin as Hilary Duff, from a traditional presbyterian family. THAT is what I would call taboooooooo.

Bizarrely, I was just watching a TV show which was talking about it, and aparently, if you have a twin brother, and he goes travel to the space at a very big speed, like 10% the speed of light, when he comes back he will still be young and you´ll be using geriatric underwear.

Well, I don´t know if this question is pertinent, but does anyone actually knows what is time? I searched in the dictionary and stuff, and I only find they have definitions for weather, the passing of time, rhythm, etc, but not time itself. It´s a weird thing, because people never learned anywhere what is time, teachers in school don´t tell it, parents don´t tell that to children, and also is something you don´t capture with your senses (time is not dark or colourful, you can´t touch it, taste it, smell it or hear it), yet, everybody in the inside seems to know what it is. But does time really exist and how is it possible?

Some of the brightest minds of humanity are/were christians or religious, not that I am saying they´re the majority, but there is intelligent life inside christianity. What´s your concept of intelligence? Do you think God should reveal himself only to Phd and instructed people? That would be the way if God had to be perceived only by intelligence. The same way, you complain that you never saw God, but if God was visible that would be unfair to the blind people, isn´t it? Blessed [are] the pure in heart: for they shall see God. What do you think is a "pure in heart" person? Is that your intelligence, your habilities, your money, your beauty that makes someone "pure in heart"? "You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Ooohh I´m acting like a preacher now, what have I become!!!! I remember in an old topic I said there was no God, but I always have to be the contraty opinion, lol.

I think there is no difference, to say that everything would come from nothing without any cause is as irrational as any religion in the world. Not that I´m saying there was no big bang, but it was caused by something we don´t know / understand. IMO both explanations are tied, atheist believe the universe came from nothing, and religions say that the universe came from God, whose origins are unknown. Both stuck at some point where they can find no answears. The difference is that some people believe the universe is too complex, that it must have been ordered by an intelligent "being" (even tough God is not a "being" in the strict sense). Why do atoms have this form, and the gravity is this way, not that way, why do things in universe have forme when they could simply be an infinite block of matter? If the universe came from just one point that exploded billions of years ago, then all sides of the universe should be exactly the same, everything is pre-defined, things that happen in our little world are still consequences of a physicall event that happened billions of years ago. But why when you look at the sky you see huge empty spaces and stars of the most varying sizes and colours? They should be all the same, homogenous. Just like it´s descripted on Genesis: the earth was empty and shapeless.