In a message dated 8/13/2005 7:45:30 AM Central Daylight Time, aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: Religion is vindicated. Crabs and sheep can't stop themselves from being bad without the thought that Father is going to come home and beat the living daylights out of them Dear Andy, Actually, most people follow G-d the Father because they also agree that people are inherently evil and that the only possible way to have people be 'good' is for them to accept that it took the Messiah's death in order to defeat and take away that 'sin' of evilness--both the conscious and subconsious-that is inherent within being human. The idea is that the more one embraces the Christ, the more 'Christlike' or perfect or without evil and doing good that one will be. It is the ones (Christian or not) who refuse to do that who end up still wearing the old garments of evil, sin, imperfection, etc. One of the first steps in becoming a Christian is that of recognizing that one needs G-d in order to be able to change one's behavior. If one does not, then it is pretty much impossible (so it is said--I'm just trying to explain the theory, okay? Please do not attack me personally...I do get a bit tired of that...) There is a lot of merit in the theory--especially if one has embraced the idea that humans are inherently evil and that there is no way to change them oth er than outside force or constraints or internal change. Only through the Grace of God can anyonce change (in this theory). All goodness in a person comes NOT from that person, but from Christ living in that heart... All we like sheep have gone astray We've turned every one to his own way, But he has healed us by his stripes And made us whole again... made us whole again... He bore our sorrows and our pain He took away our sin He has healed us by his stripes and made us whole again... (it's a song, too, to remind one of the only way to become whole, to become perfect, to become 'good'--is to believe and let God in your life, your heart, your soul. It's not just that life will be good and great in the Great Beyond--it is that you won't have the leftover trappings of the inherent evilness that you came to this planet wearing. You will, finally, be what you were created to be--perfect, whole, healthy, kind, forbearing, loving, patient, joyful, peaceful, with the self-control that you long for...so that you will not engage in things like war, meanness, selfishness, etc. Sure--the 'root' of those things was torn out when one accepted one's evilness and need, belief in Jesus--and not only that, but asked him into one's Heart--but the leftover flowering yuckiness is still there and needs to be gradually taken away...but only He can do that. Only with the Grace of God will one be able to live in the complete goodness that one desire... It's why Believers are not yet perfect--but they long to be, they finally know how to get there...and they long for the New Heaven and New Earth often because they do not like the fact that they are not yet Christlike...for they still have to live in this earth... It is a bit different from how I tend to look at the ways people can go about changing the subconscious or belief system via retraining to make the conscious and subconscious minds 'match' is not part of that theory...it IS part of the Theory of the Month Club that I have subscribed to this month...but thought I'd share one of the past theories from That Club to which I did once subscribe. The elements which 'work' in that older theory are also explained in the newer theory esp with the new research on how the brain works...but since we are not discussing that theory right now, I'll stop talking about it with the last thought that it is a much more positive and fun theory to be examining...) Thinking that Andy would make a great fundamentalist Christian with his belief in the evilness of People and that (for him, like them-or so it appears from faraway [always recognizing that I may be misunderstanding him...]) there seems to be no other alternative but a miracle to change people, Marlena, back in Missouri