Reply #120: Like others here, I do not feel any need to make someone else change his/her mind

[MikeH]

I might say what I think about a particular topic or matter, and if what I say influences someone else to do some thinking, great. If not, no problem.

Incidentally that is one of the nice things about not being a Christian, particularly not being a fundamentalist Christian like Zebedeo. A fundamentalist Christian has on his or her mind the thought that other people are going to go to hell for all eternity if they happen to not "accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior" in this lifetime. I just don't see how anybody can get any of the normal joy or enjoyment out of life, or relate normally and naturally with other people, if they really think that.

I would consider myself to be a Deist, and just on the believing side of agnostic. I feel that there are reasons that believing in some reality or intelligence higher or greater than ourselves is not absurd or ridiculous. However I am not so positive about the reality of God that I feel I need to be bothered if other people feel that their reasoning leads them to believe in no God, and are happy about not believing.

Deists do not accept any alleged revelation from God as actually being such, and I am with them about that. I think that there are serious problems with considering either the Bible, or the Koran, for instance, as being actual revelations from God.

However if somebody else does adhere to one of the "revealed" religions, such as Islam or Christianity, and the person is happy with his or her particular faith, then I respect that person's faith -- as long as the person does not tell me that I am going to go to hell if I do not accept his or her faith, or otherwise say that his or her faith is right and anything else is wrong, and does not feel that it is his or her business to impose rules or laws on the rest of society based on his or her particular religious beliefs (such as Proposition 8). I feel very strongly about separation of church and state, for instance.