[PedOncoDoc]

Originally Posted by Saoirse

Ped, I am not sure if you are trying to be "thought provoking" or just provoking. But I am not contradicting myself when I call God a Him. Jesus, was born a male, the Bible refers to God as Him and if you have not guessed, Sir, I am a Christian. And while you may see the Bible as NOT the only holy writing, it is for me. And I fail to see the irony in my statement.

Sorry I missed this earlier. I wasn't intending to provoke, and I apologize if my posts came off that way. I will have to respectfully disagree with your view. Dogma - whether it be in religion, politics, or anything else under the sun, leads to intolerance which, in turn, can lead to hate.

Let me take your quote and change a few words - this will probably be provocative and I mean no disrespect - I'm only trying to explain my response, and I'm prepared to take my licks on this one.

If you can't guess, the words I changed are in red.

But I am not contradicting myself when I call Allah a Him. Mohammed, was born a male, the Koran refers to Allah as Him and if you have not guessed, Sir, I am a Muslim. And while you may see the Koran as NOT the only holy writing, it is for me. And I fail to see the irony in my statement.

What feelings and thoughts do you have when reading the above statement?

Again - I mean no disrespect and I do not mean to offend you.

The labeling I am referring to is the labelling done in the article that Richard shared with us. If you look at the society we live in, we label everything and everyone. If a child is a bit hyper and the parents don't want to control him/her, the child is labelled as ADD or ADHD or whatever the shrink deems necessary.

I agree with you whole-heartedly - we label people/things/ideas way too much.

The writings in the article, as I read it, sounds like it was written by a person(s) who does not understand God and is trying to fit HIM in a nice, neat lil box of labels instead of reading the scriptures. And that sort of behavior is one that is usually exemplyfied by liberals or progressives.

I agree that trying to fit God in a neat little box of labels is inappropriate, but I will have to respectfully disagree with the statement about learning through scriptures. Texts are written by man and are therefore inherently flawed IMHO. A lot CAN be learned from the scriptures, but not everything. The divine gets filtered (and altered) by man, his ego and the limitations of our language(s).

A lot can be learned without reading scripture as well. I experience and learn from God every day - I never expect to understand God - the old proverb about trying to pour the ocean into a dixie cup comes to mind immediately - I cannot comprehend the infinite - but that does not mean that I do not learn all I can.