Karen

Yeah it's funny Joe, I was watching a show called American Horror Story the other day and this couple moves into a house and the neighbor comes in to introduce herself and the first thing she says is "I'm a good Christian, but...." and basically gives off a really bad first impression of herself. I wouldn't have noticed had my friend not said, "I really hate how the first thing she said was that she was a Christian, writers seem to like to do that...". I've never really had an issue with how Christians are portrayed in the media because I know that not all of them are like that but now that it

And that is the most important thing Thank you, Will.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIE!!! GD bless you!!! you are amazing <3

Boston is known as the "birthplace of the american revolution" because many of the events leading up to the start of the american rev started in Boston! Many things that happened during wartime happened here as well, so it is all around a very historical city. Boston is also called Beantown because beans were very popular way back when - people would put then in to stew overnight saturday and they would be ready when people got out of church services on Sunday (which were generally very long). The song "My Country, Tis of Thee" was first sung in Boston at the Park Street Church then titled

I love this series! I had heard about it but my friend showed it to me and I LOVED IT. I loved the ones from the 80's with Jeremy Brett and I really liked the modern spin they put on stuff, with the texting and everything. I don't think the Robert Downey Jr. movie was totally awful, I think they put a different spin on Sherlock Holmes and although it wasn't totally accurate, it was an amusing movie. However, I just love the tv series. I can't wait to see the next part but america has to wait foreeeeever to get the BBC stuff. :'(

This is such fantastic input! I've mentioned before in other topics that if I were athiest, personally I'd give my own life meaning just as I have meaning now. It might not be to a higher power but I think a common misconception among religious people about athiests is that their life is meaningless. I don't think this is the case at all, and you have just proved it! Faith is definitely an important point of anything - religion or not. I think that religion is, a lot of the time, waiting for things to get better and having FAITH that God will come through for us. It becomes really complicated

Arie thank you so much for posting this! Sorry I didn't get to it earlier I hope that you and all the other jewish members of this forum have a very blessed rosh hashanah, and thank you so much for sharing your history with us! Oh, and if you could please pray for my friend Becca as she faces all sorts of personal difficulties in her life and that she can learn to accept herself, and for my campus so taht we can become enlightened and work together to making a better future for us all. And also for me, that I make the right choices and continue to discover and get to know myself

That's a really good point Will, people don't necessarily have to follow a religious denomination in order to have a connection with God or a higher power. Hmm, but then it gets into the discussion if gay people really can change - I think it's an inherent thing, people don't really choose it. I don't know if anyone will ever really know, though, it's still being debated about. I like your thinking, Dina, that God is love. He really is, no? To be religious can be a tough thing to follow sometimes, there are so many rules and regulations and I agree with you that even though I'm

I love this! There are soo many misconceptions, I feel in Wicca especially because so few people practice and it's not very well known/EXTREMELY misunderstood. I think a lot of people see Wicca as a female dominated religion, I mean of course there are guys that practice, but so many Wiccan books are written by women, I mean the concept of a guy witch is very strange to a lot of people - cuz women have been seen as witches in movies, books, folklore for a long, long time. Salem, MA...well...hahaha it is definitely VERY wiccan oriented. I love salem, I go there all the time, but during hallo

Keep it back on track, Joe, we're not talking about being believing in God or not. Everyone has some interesting points here, especially about the Bible and the time it was written in. It's interesting to see about how being gay translates into a religion and that always goes back to the holy book. Ok, new question - what do you all think about people who are gay, AND religious - do you think a lot are conflicted? Do you think they are getting the support they need from their religious place? If you were someone who is gay and religious, how would you feel? And if there's someone here who

Hahaha, you did much better with the history than I did. I would have googled it last night but...I was too lazy I'm a lot more patriotic now than I was before about the national anthem. I used to not really care but now I pay attention to it and at least give it the respect it deserves. I hate most modern singers' versions of the national anthem - JUST SING IT, they don't have to make it all fancy! It really bothers me lol.

Lol well us americans took it and made it the song "my country 'tis of thee" so I guess...sharing is caring? This is the american national anthem, it's nice I guess but you all wouldnt BELIEVE how many people IN AMERICA a.) don't know the lyrics or b.)forget them whilst singing. -__- it's not THAT hard to remember, I don't think. ANYWAY. Our anthem was written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812 and the song was taken from an old english pub song. The lyrics were inspired when Key was seeing some of the action going on during the war and through everything (and the rocket's red gla

This is the same thing as being transgender, right? I did a research paper on this my frosh year of college I wrote about the support systems for gay, tranvestite, and transgender peoples! It was really sad actually - those groups have a higher rate of suicide and depression because they aren't getting the right support system. I have a friennd named Zack, who used to be Michelle - she slowly changed over the years, first changing her sex on facebook then putting Zack as her middle name, then fully changing her name...etc. He's great! we speak spanish together when she was still a woman (

Well I got up very late so I kinda had a combo breakfast, lunch, dinner thing I had a honey wheat bagel with plain cream cheese Fruit!! (I love the fruit at my school) :Purple grapes, and green grapes raspberry ice crystal light and now i'm sipping some coffee wif cream and sugar

First off, what a great topic! I don't think my eating habits have changed much, but rather I have more choice at college as to what I CAN eat, so it's always a struggle to try to eat balanced meals and get my veggies and fruits in At home, it's kind of an interesting eating situation for me because when I was younger, my gram would do the food shopping and get LOADS of junk food. So I grew up with a sweet tooth, which I still have...which is a good and bad thing at the same time (lol). She would also get a surplus of stuff we didn't need, so a lot went to waste and it wasn't the best fo

You're always welcome to post her Demian! Especially if you want to talk or challenge people, everything in the forum is open for discussion. Questions about why a certain religion does something? Go ahead, post it up! EVERYONE is welcome here! I've heard some bad stereotypes of atheists, but these come from really religious people - like CRAZY religious, not the good involved in the religion. You know, like Bible Belt religious. A lot of those people say that Atheists are going to hell (that's the most obvious one, I think), they're possessed, etc etc etc. It just goes on and on. Ya

All of these are really interesting, you guys! What do all of you do to overcome these stereotypes? Attempt to explain to people? Education programs? just do the opposite of what the stereotype is? I think the stereotype of Flanders is an interesting one. It seems that everyone has a common wariness for missionaries and people who try to convert others in general. It can be hard, sometimes, I think, to want to listen to others who want to convert us - I think all of generally reject the pushy people. Personally, if someone wants to talk to me about their belief system cool, we can have a di

Well the title kind of says it all - what are some of the most common misconceptions against your belief system? I use belief system because it doesn't necessarily have to be a religion. If you're an athiest, what are some stereotypes against you? This topic is to address the most common misconceptions and hopefully clear them up. I've been seeing this come up a lot in discussion so I wanted to make a centralized topic for it! Go nuts, people! I'll start - these are the ones that I've heard and have been directed towards me. These are your PERSONAL experiences - what have you heard against

No one has said we hate homosexuals. This is actually an interesting point (and a true one, as well). Most Christians don't hate gay people. They may disapprove because the Bible says contrarily, but I think (and truly hope) that if most Christians practice the way God tells us, we won't hate anyone because God does not hate anyone. In my personal belief, I also think it's not up to us to judge someone - only something greater can do that. - There are proof that the history in the Bible is actually real, not tales (history of Judea, the Kings, Egypt, existence of the prophets). - People l

Aw Joe, I love this! Thank you for sharing your personal story with us I can also really hear (or read?) the happiness and peacefulness in your voice. I got together with a girl from my uni's christian fellowship yesterday and we were working on songs to sing for next week! And Idk, I just love singing worship songs because it makes me feel so good inside! The lyrics are so simple and a lot are joyful. One of the girls I was talking with said something like, our values may be different (for christians), but I think the thing that brings us together is worship. And I think she's right!

Well, I'm a bit biased because I live in Boston, but Berklee is seriously an AMAZING school for music! I don't think people realize just how tough it is! They place an emphasis not only on music but on your schoolwork as well. If you do want to apply there, research the addition process really thoroughly because I'm not sure if you'd actually have to come to boston to audition or if you can send a CD. Definitely research thoroughly! But I can assure you that if you want to do music, berklee is INCREDIBLE.

Good: Kind Funny Sympathetic Stubborn Determined Detail-oriented Smart Faithful/loyal Accepting Open Bad: Stubborn Jealous Self-conscious (working on that though. Much better than I was)

welcome! I'M FROM BOSTON TOO OMGGGG YAYYY SOMEONE WHO'S WITH ME!

Some people don't want to listen and that is a shame because I know that ALL of you have something amazing to share! Now *makes a whooshing noise* back to topic! Hmm, I'm out of questions lol. I'm sure once I actually attend a service I will have loads more questions!

I think (and to histor too) it's hard to listen to generalizations, in any aspect. No one wants to listen to lies but it's important to see where the other person is coming from because to them, it's not a lie it's just what they think or what they've been told. Oh arie, I meant to reply sooner, but you said how interesting it is to listen to an "outsider's" pov for judiasm. I guess it must be! I can only describe what I see but you know all the technical terms, etc. It must be really weird, lol