" Poor Donna, you tried to spread a little love and joy but but the far left wing haters, have spewed their vindictive anger and intolerance against anyone who dares mention the Bible or God. "

" Well-spoken, OA...here's something I could never get over--apologists will dismiss those seemingly archaic rules and laws of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and profess that they were simply products of the age, but isn't the whole Bible supposed to be without error, ie, the "word of God"? If you dismiss ONE thing, or hold it up for questioning, then you must be prepared to admit that ALL of it can be called into question and/or doubt, and there goes your "divinely inspired" alleged infallibility. Of course, the learned apologist has their mental gymnastics and hoops they jump through in order to attempt to explain away these manifest contradictions! "

" Gee, Atlopinion, I'm guessing that you don't read your Bible very often. Let's see.... we have God destroying whole cities, telling his worshippers to kill witches, gays, non-believers, people of other faiths, adulterers, tells parents to kill their cursing kids, floods the entire world, has a bear kill kids for laughing at a bald prophet, etc. It doesn't sound like your supposed God has a very nice personality, does it? Do yourself a favor, read the Bible every now and then. I suggest you start with Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. There's a heck of a lot of funny laws in there that you've probably been overlooking. You're not wearing a garment made out of multiple materials are you? Tsk Tsk. "

" Oa...If you are going to respond to letters please do it with a little bit of an educated or at least thought out opinion and not the words that are of complete opposite of what is written in the bible. Funny, at church saturday we talked that if you have anything and it is without love you have nothing. sounds like a horrible beginning to a god to me. Man is what makes choices. God laid the road to what is good in life. It is those who are "lost" that say that what they do is for God and it is not what is written. I will give one thing to Karl. At least he backs up his points with what he believes is true. I will never judge but I will never put out what is not true to try to make a point of which with the littlest of biblical education you would know is completly and horrifically wrong. Matthew 7:13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. "

" It was a nice thought but can we please stop writing this stuff to the paper? Not everyone is religious. "

" Donna, God doesn't exist. If it did, and it was anything like the being that's depicted in the Bible, it'd be a vicious monster not worth worshipping. "

" The Amish people are very religious and faithful to their god. The difference is they keep it to themselves and only preach by example not by getting in your face. The Citizen needs to start a new forum called "two sins" for you zealots to preach. Leave us alone and keep your faith to yourself. "

" Well, a letter which strives for a "nice result" in the end, but I wonder, Donna, if you realize that back in the "Bible days", what you call God's "perfect will" included the slaying of entire villages--innocent women and children included. Many times this was done for the pettiest of reasons, for stupid things that offended the petty, jealous "Yahweh". Don't forget that the same "perfect will" of a supposedly "omnipotent" God decreed that because his "perfect creation"--humankind--had apparently gone so awry (Hmmm--you'd think an all-knowing god could have seen that coming?! Or fixed it all with a nose wiggle?!) that he "perfectly" drowned everybody--again, innocents all--in the "Great Flood" Can you see how YOU have failed to use the intelligent capacities of YOUR own mind, Donna? Also, if you'll study your history please, you'd know that a MAJOR compelling force behind the wholesale, guilt-free slaughter of the Original Americans was because they were perceived as "heathens" or "savages" who were beyond the "saving grace" of the Christian God! It's supremely ironic that you would end your letter with the idea that "God has made us all of one blood", because if there's one thing that History has shown, its that Religious leaders and pretenders have NEVER seen it that way--if you were not of the predominant FAITH, you mattered not--or worse--you would be explicitly condemned to death as an infidel, nonbeliever, or heretic. I hope you see that you would be well-advised to "lean on your own understanding" a little more, and use your critcal mind to ask the hard questions of your philosophical approach, and demand more than the pat, easy, comforting dictums that you've been trained to parrot. "