IHOP!!!!!!!!! I didn't notice that!!! That's awesome!

"Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people."- Heinrich Heine.


That qoute is scary...and true.

Yes, precisely Lozza & SK!

okay, I do not want to step on anyone's toes here. I do realize that the majority on this board are still religious...I'm not trying to piss you off.

But, there is a very real reason that politics & religion can and will never be seperate (although, in the perfect world--I would have them be for sanity's sake). The reason that they will not be seperate is precisely what SilentKnight just said in the above post. Faith in a leader. Human beings put an inordinate amount of wishful type dreams/aspirations in whoever they deem to be in charge. Whether that person in charge is the president or god. They look to leaders to take up from where their frailties/inadequacies leave off. We do not like being limited (as a species), so we make up a greater power if need be (and this is my opinion on where religion came from). So, with this in mind...this is the "god shaped hole" that we talk about occasionally.

Hang in there...bare with me...I'm going for a specific point, I'm NOT going on an atheist rant (please keep that in mind).

See, we have absolutely no proof of a higher power (with the exception of things in nature science can not YET explain--and absence of proof is not proof despite what Kirk Cameron and his banana friend says). Gods have "powers" that we as humans wish we had...inordinate compassion, ability to cure illness, rich, purity, ability to forgive sins, superiority, vengence, etc. All of these qualities are those that we want/lack/need, but do not have...so we have made up something that possesses them so that we do not feel inadequate and hopeless.

So, back to the original thought...

Religion & politics (government) will never be seperate because they are essentially the same thing when you get to the root of it. We look to leaders to "save us"...from taxes, famine, war, etc etc etc. We base the worth of a "good" president on his/her ability to keep up from economic recession, famine, war, etc etc. It's the same thing really...

Why do you think elections like the presidential one gets so heated and nasty? We are talking about electing the "god" of the United States...and the U.S. is the leader of the world in many things...so we are in effect talking about electing the "leader/god" of the world. Of COURSE, it is going to get nasty and people are going to get emotional and illogical, etc.

I hope (sincerely) that I have no offended anyone...this is such a sensitive topic, but SK made an excellent point and I really wanted to elaborate on it.

Great!