I hate harpers and druids.

[Yorick]

Moiraine I think the problem is intrinsic in human nature and not the cause of religions - which seek to placate the more aggressive sides of our being, into harmonious existence. As long as an individual fights with THEMSELF how can we expect no conflict with others.

I've been dealing with the subject closely as it affected my own life and marriage. How could two people that loved (and still love) each other have so much conflict - to the point that co-existence is impossible?

Churches/Synagogues/Temples are filled with imperfect beings whose beliefs are often threatened by opposing opinions. Rather than having the faith to doubt and thus seek truth, many agressivly defend their position through fear and/or ignorance. (Yes even in young Australia, and even within the one church.)

However, remember that true tolerance tolerates even intolerance.

Perhaps it is our total dominance of the planet and lack of needing to fight (literally) for daily survival that compels us to create situations where our instictive survival aggression has an outlet (sports for example). Who knows?

In Australia we may have much land, but the best bits are in narrow strips along the coast. There are autonomous Aboriginal areas (Northern Territory). But Australias situation was distressingly the classic clash of cultures.

If you look at history, all the 'Cultures of the Earth' or semi-nomadic subsistance cultures, have been decimated by the expanse of - and conflicting needs of - agricultural based, city building, growth obsessed cultures like yours and mine. This includes the Native American, Celt, Lapp, etc etc. It comes back to 'evil' as being the completion of your own agenda at the expense of others.

I had a Deutsch friend who had theories on racial intolerance in Deutchland. He mused that the tendency for people to stay in a relatively small area most of their life lead to fear of the unknown and a lack of understanding others cultures and ideas. This would seem to relate to: ignorance = fear = hostility would it not?

This is so frustratingly limited and not really the forum for such a discussion. Oh how I have simplified, generalised and not even covered much ground. I'll email you Moraine so as not to hog board space, unless others would have me continue....

Angry lil man, email me at chanteur@bigpond.com for an explaination of Panthiesm theory and my subsequent rebuttal if you like. I'd be happy to share my views.

I'm gettin sorry I started this up. Well, Not really but still I wish the topic would just die soon.

[Yorick]

Following on from my previous reply, (sorry about the grammatical errors.)

Moraine, I empathise with your Gay Christian friend. Christianity doesn't 'allow' divorce either so I can relate to the conflict within.

It comes down I think to acceptance that life is full of good and bad and will never be perfect, and that's part of the fun in the ride.

For me, I maintain that there is more positive in our life than negative, it's just that there's so much positive in our life that when some bad things happen we say
"oh damn I had a bad day".

This is assuming that positives include being alive - walking, feeling wind on your cheek, eating, lieing down and resting, using your eyes, smelling a scent. All of our actions are miraculous in the extreme and it's not until they're taken away that simply walking down a hall seems wonderful. (I was near death in hospital a few years ago)

Maintaining that perceptional balance and acknowledging that the negatives give the positives their worth (Sleep is so much nicer if your tired, and food so much tastier when you're hungry, and life so precious 'cause we die) is my key for choosing happiness rather than depression.

What I'm saying I guess is that yes there is so much intolerance and hostility, but there is also so much love, friendly communication, co-creation and connection between us all, on a day to day level. Still, the news of the day will be bad BECAUSE IT STANDS OUT. When will we ever have the headline "Six billion people survived today..." instead of "Sixteen were killed by a lunatic".

The glass is half full? I guess so.

[Yorick]

Guess you opened up a can of WORMS eh lil'man? (Sorry about the pun)

Snort, I would of taken the same pun. I just didn't like harpers and druids because they where nosey know I don't even know half of whats going on under my post.

[Moiraine]

Ahem.

Of course, I know that things are not as simple as I stated them. But I did not want to post a 70 pages message is all ... And I apologize for bolting a bit, but it was out of love for our beautiful world.

I would really like to discuss this further with you by mail, Yorick. Too far you are for us to share a glass of whisky, alas. I should not complain, my grandmother has never talked to an Australian guy during all her life, after all. Meanwhile, how about switching to the 'Dodgy off-topic poll' ? It is much more accorded to the BG II spirit ...

And, Lil'man, sorry don't be. We are all humans after all.

Adios to this topic !

Some things are better left unsaid, mate. I think my boss is a balding, dickless fatarse, but I wouldn't go up to his face and say so, now would I? Alright, I've said my bit, now back to the beer and sex.

[Moiraine]

Depends on what it is you really want.

Both, with any luck. Well, that wasn't fair, you didn't catch me modifying the post. I want to keep my job, it's not that terrible.

It really just started as a joke and I wanted to know where the scimitar "Shazzilem" that hurts Harpers more so. Frankly its only Memmoch that helped me by stating that the harpers where not entirely neutral but really nosey.