Is this wise to take away the name of God from our school teachings?

East Timor is not an island, it's just a country occupying the eastern half of the island of Timor. There is also a West Timor, which is part of Indonesia. So the name is not redundant, it conveys necessary information.

SGC: Sorry, but I just can't get past the argument that a god exists (any god), leave alone the notion of "one true god" and all the other baggage of religion.

I have never seen one piece of incontovertible proof of the existence of a god, and believe me when I say I have suffered 8 years of indoctrination and looked around. Theists always resort to circular logic and any number of other philosophical tactics to prove god. No hard evidence whatsoever.

One true god? Even if I should ever concede that an all-powerful being "made it all", what do adherents to one god or another have to prove that their's is the true one? I can't see the slightest difference in claims for primacy of the christian god, the jewish god, the muslim god, the mormon god(s) or any of the rest.

I'm quite happy and fulfilled without a god.

Cheers!

Dan, obviously the Bible is proof that the Christian God is the correct one!! I could cite you a million quotes from the Bible that say the Bible is true. And since the Bible is true, we know these claims are correct.

As for the more general claim about any god existing: scientists still have not figured out how to create a banana from scratch!

I have been asking for proof that the Christian version of reality is a provable fact (provable facts), and that the Bible explains the mysteries of the universe on several posts on this thread, and didn't get it at all. At least Wisey made a valiant (but futile) attempt at it. Oh well.

Tralhob: Yeah, the Bible is true because the Bible says so. With only this type of logic, it's no wonder that fundies are often so hard to reason with. They did use several varieties of hallucinogens in that part of the world, which explains alot. I also know of one poor soul who became a fundy after a bad acid trip. Many of us should never be messing with such substances.

On a completely differant, but obscurely related topic, I wonder if most fundies think that Jesse Helms is in the center of the universe playing harps with the angels because he was such a "good Christian" or burning in hell because he was a hatemongering bigot who advocated mass deaths in many situations (support of many fascist dictators and refusal to fund AIDS research only because of the people it often affects-nice loving Christian he was, huh). The funny thing is that I believe most believe the former. Maybe I'll do a poll about that.

Well, according to Christianity, Helms' actions count for nothing. The only thing that matters is his faith, or lack thereof. It is not what we do, it is what we believe, that determines salvation. It may or may not have been owm who said that if Hitler experienced genuine faith and repentance right before he died, he would've gone to heaven. It says in the book of Isaiah that the LORD looks upon all our good deeds as filthy rags. They do not impress him.

So assuming Helms genuinely believed in Jesus as the son of God and accepted him as his savior, he'd be in heaven right now from a Christian perspective!

Which part of the world are you referring to where they use hallucinogens a lot? I associate hallucinogens with Indians, both old and new world. Not so much with Bronze Age Semites.

I've used a hallucinogen or two in my time, and it didn't fundamentalize me.