Michael Joel wrote in
m:

Han wrote:
I am not mocking God, or you. As an individual, I believe that each
of us should be free to believe or not believe what we want to
believe, or are used to believe.

I was referring to posters who have made posts that openly and plainly
were doing so.

I realize that, I just wanted to make my position clear(er).

But in my case that means that I expect the same
kind of respect from you.

I think respect is a hard word in this case. I do not respect other
religions in that I do not equate them to be True (if I did - or you,
or anyone else did, then why not just believe what they believe and be
at peace). But I do recognize that I have no right to try to force
others to believe what I believe. I am always willing to try to help
others see the Truth (or at least what I have been given to understand
of it) but I do not force others to listen. That is as much as I can
do.

This is an important point. For yourself, you may claim that you have
found the truth. But it is my opinion (emphasize my) that anyone can
claim that, no matter what he or she believes. Otherwise God would not
have allowed so very many different religions. That implies that others
may have found truth for themselves in ways different from you. See
further down.

I have no idea whether or not there is a God,
it doesn't matter to me. If there is a God, I hope that he or she
will just(ly) look at me and my deeds and judge whether I am or have
been a good person. Whatever that judgment means. If there is no
God, than I still believe that I should act responsibly and with
compassion as well as righteousness.

But how would you know what is compassion or righteous? Without rules
set by God's Word those terms are just whatever we feel like today. As
we have seen in the human past some have felt it was perfectly
righteous to kill others (Hitler was religious - "third reich" look it
up). ** I am not linking you with him **

I don't know absolute truths. But I am (for instance) against killing
others (with few exceptions, such as 1 person killing another as proven
with absolute certainty, and under very aggravating circumstances). And
I am glad for your exception.

I do not wish to force my view on you, I don't want to
accept your view, but neither view should disrespect the other.


Agreed - with disrespect meaning I am not out to force you to change.
I *want* you to change to believe what I know (though as a human I
have hard times) is the Truth but I have no right to try to force you,
and I must still be willing to show Love and provide any help I can
when you need it.

When I am asking (like this) for discussion, I am willing to discuss, to
ask me when I am not ready to discuss, I will "hang up".

But I'd very much like you to admit that others might have found truth in
circumstances and under religions different from you, since there could
very well be universal human values that everyone could and should strive
for.

Sorry, got to go to the gym now.

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid