From an Australian whose son is in Iraq ~~~~~

[eye-c]

Welcome back Tori! I remember u from when I first came here! I think fred has got the 'agitatin` and aggravatin' very well covered Tori, in your absence!*S*

[Auntie Freda]

Ahhh but, as Tori is wise enough to know, pearls of wisdom are created in much the same way as pearls from oysters.

A little bit of sand irritates and aggravates the oyster.
After a wee bit of agitation, lo and behold ....... a pearl of rare price.

[suebilly2you]

I just wanted to say that I do know how you feel and I am keeping all of the soldiers in my prayers every night no matter who or where they are from. I am an American and I to have a some over there in Iraq, my son, and i miss him more then I could ever say. This is his 2nd tour and it is as bad feeling as the first. He is now a Sargent and is 29. He went in when he just turned 17 and he did Graduate from school. Your son will come home safe as mine did and will again cuz we have God on our side. God Bless and my prayers are with you and yours......Sue.

[imrose]

Originally Posted by suebilly2you

I just wanted to say that I do know how you feel and I am keeping all of the soldiers in my prayers every night no matter who or where they are from. I am an American and I to have a some over there in Iraq, my son, and i miss him more then I could ever say. This is his 2nd tour and it is as bad feeling as the first. He is now a Sargent and is 29. He went in when he just turned 17 and he did Graduate from school. Your son will come home safe as mine did and will again cuz we have God on our side. God Bless and my prayers are with you and yours......Sue.

Interesting how everyone thinks God is on "their" side. I would imagine that the innocent civilian Afghanis and Iraqis also felt that God was on their side until the bombs started dropping.

[Archer56]

I have a son in the Australian Army and he is off on his second tour of Afghanistan in Febuary. This time he is training the Afghan Army. Myself I doubt that God takes sides in warfare, God has given mankind guidelines on how to live our lives and how to treat others and when you go against these guidelines turmoil and warfare is the result. God created all and all religion comes from God regardless of it's name. Even our Christian religion has great ties to other religions.
We are seeing in this age the death throws of the old world as we know it and a new one being born.
All the best to all those people who have family members serving overseas on active service and a safe return to all of your loved ones....Glenn....

[Cuz]

Archer, I'm sure we all wish your son well !

But I suspect you might find a few who will differ with you that " all religion comes from God regardless of it's name ".
Try convincing a Jehovah's Witness or a Catholic or a Muslim or a Wiccan that they ALL "come from God".

Frankly, I reckon that they all stem from man's fantasy and imagination ...... but that's another story.

You are right that the world, as we know it, is changing.
Religion will always be around for those who need to cling to such stuff BUT with every advance in science and education, fewer and fewer are being sucked in.
And ONE cause of strife between peoples is thereby being diminished.

[Archer56]

Cuz, when I talk about religion I mean Christian, Muslim, Buddisum, ect. When you talk about facuons of religion as far as I am concerned they aren't true to the teachings of the founder. If Christ was to appear today which is what they all seem to be waiting for do you really think they would aknowledge him and and change to his new laws for mankind today, I doubt that very much...Glenn...

[Joyous]

Glenn, my prayers go out for your son and all the military in warring countries.
I await the return of Jesus and I will gladly follow His commandments. When He walked the earth, He commanded us to love God and love each other. I would so like to be a part of a community, a state, a planet where people actually love God and love their neighbor.

[Cuz]

OR ........ mankind can outgrow all that superstitious religious nonsense and eventually realise that no pie-in-the-sky god is ever going to magically appear and solve all our problems.

Eventually, we will realise that it is down to US.
WE have to make whatever changes are needed to resolve conflict.
Only then will peace be possible.

[kd1]

Originally Posted by Joyous

Glenn, my prayers go out for your son and all the military in warring countries.
I await the return of Jesus and I will gladly follow His commandments. When He walked the earth, He commanded us to love God and love each other. I would so like to be a part of a community, a state, a planet where people actually love God and love their neighbor.

Amen to that Joyous

[Cuz]

Originally Posted by Archer56

If Christ was to appear today which is what they all seem to be waiting for do you really think they would aknowledge him ...

If Y'shua the Nazorean came and sat beside most "christians" on a bus, I reckon the vast majority of them would hurriedly MOVE !

Unlike the western depictions, the probability is that he was a fairly short stumpy guy who had never had a shower in his life or heard of soap or deodorant or hair shampoo or toothpaste or deodorant or even toilet paper.

Being a transient, his hair and beard would most likely be shaggy and somewhat matted.
Both he and his robes would most probably be dirty and very, very smelly.
Even his feet would likely be a bit 'ripe' !
Now if he was accompanied by his Sicarri mates with their concealed weapons and that bloke who chopped of people's ears with a bloody great cleaver .........

Then too, he might have one or two "women of the night" hanging around as well.

On second thoughts, most christians would not just move seats, they'd be off that bus in an eyeblink !

[Joyous]

Originally Posted by Cuz

OR ........ mankind can outgrow all that superstitious religious nonsense and eventually realise that no pie-in-the-sky god is ever going to magically appear and solve all our problems.

Eventually, we will realise that it is down to US.
WE have to make whatever changes are needed to resolve conflict.
Only then will peace be possible.

Cuz, maybe you don't know that Jesus was an actual person. There is much recorded history other than the bible concerning His life on this earth.

Jesus the Christ may be "Pie in the sky" to you. He is my Saviour and I find it difficult to fault a man who encouraged people to love one another. We would have a far more peaceful world if we followed His teachings.

Thankfully you have the right to reject Him, but I will miss you in the next life.

[Cuz]

“Cuz, maybe you don't know that Jesus was an actual person.”

Oh I don't doubt that for a moment, dear Joyous.
An actual “PERSON” indeed.
A devout and practicing Jew, named Yeshua, who would have been HORRIFIED at the blasphemous suggestion that he was a god or 'son of god' or any PART of God.
A bloke named Paul invented all THAT stuff later on.
And Paul's story was then embellished in the dozens of 'gospels' which popped up all over the place.


“ There is much recorded history other than the bible concerning His life on this earth.”
ACTUALLY, no there's not.
A few passing tidbits by Josephus and Pliny – some of which were obviously added later.
Very little really. A pile of unreliable, fifth-hand word-of-mouth stuff LONG after his demise – but that does not qualify as “recorded history”.


“ I find it difficult to fault a man who encouraged people to love one another.”
You mean stuff like
“ If anyone comes to me and does not HATE his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple.”


" We would have a far more peaceful world if we followed His teachings."
LIKE
“ Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came NOT to send peace, but a sword." ?


“ Thankfully you have the right to reject Him ..”
I neither accept nor reject him, Joyous. No need to do so.
He was a political rabble-rouser with delusions of messianic glory who thought he was going to stir the people to chuck out the hated Romans and he would take over as king.
He failed.
Just another burp on the pages of history.


“ but I will miss you in the next life.”
Neither of us will have to worry about that, dear. “Dust to dust”.


.

[*sophia*]

"Dust to dust" refers only to our physical bodies, not our spiritual bodies...God says we're getting new bodies in our afterlife.

The fact that the Bible exists and that Jesus existed has already been proven.
The question is whether or not the Bible's contents were inspired by God or not. Either way, that can't be proven.

It takes just as much faith NOT to believe as it does TO believe since it can't be proven nor disproven. With believing faith comes rewards of afterlife and much more. With disbelieving faith comes hell, fire, and damnation. Hmmm, where do I want to place MY faith...no brainer...but that's not the only reason I place my faith in believing...answers to prayer and miracles do it for me. I don't believe in coincidences. I see signs daily. Believers can see. Non-believers are blinded to the signs because they choose to be.

[Cuz]

WELL ........ one can't argue against logic like THAT !





LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

[Mugsy628]

hmmm true- I'd rather place faith in a loving supreme being- you find me one. I remember a line from the movie "Patch Adams". Robin Williams was trying to help people and he got a young woman to trust and love him, one who had been abused and tormented all her life. She opened herself up to his cause and threw herself into it and into loving him... she was killed by one of the people they were trying to help. As Robin Williams says in his monologue with God (amazing how that's a monologue isn't it)... "You should have spent the 7th day on compassion...." Better to have faith in yourself and what you can do because that's ALL the help you get...

[Mugsy628]

and that was being written by a person who believes in helping others, has worked with abused and neglected kids, and is starting help groups for the mentally ill.... yup going to hell for that one..... Hugs Cuz.. miss ya.

[OH2FLgramps]

what a letter...thanks for sharing.

if our media isn't tearing our military down, then they are ignoring them...here in the states, we have reverse propaganda....

from a family with some vets, this is definitely encouraging.

[Auntie Freda]

ONLY if it true, Gramps.

Originally Posted by Uncle Fred

The above missive COULD be genuine - but I greatly doubt it.
Funny that in all of cyberworld, it only appears on a bunch of rightwing gung-ho Yank sites.
AND it purports to be quite recent.
Funny that I recall reading it two or three years ago - or more.

It certainly does not sound like any genuine Aussie I've ever spoken with
INCLUDING a couple of young blokes who have served in Iraq and returned.

Admittedly this goes back a while but I worked very near a large military base years ago and often drank with the personnel.
Those Australian military people exercised often with American troops and participated in various exchange programs.
I can assure you that their assessment of American prowess was FAR from glowing !
Maybe things have changed.

But I'd dearly love to see the tiniest tad of real evidence that this propaganda letter is genuine.

Originally Posted by Uncle Fred

Snopes has FIVE classifications
(1) True
(2) False
(3) Multiple Truth Values
(4) Undetermined
(5) Unclassified Veracity

... to TRUTHFULLY claim that "it's legitimate according to Snopes.com",
it would have to be rated as (1) True.

WELL ...... I can't find that Snopes has assessed it at all.

Because they have not rated it at all - does not mean that it is TRUE !