From: Pele@yabbs
To: dmonger@yabbs
Subject: re: Religion, natch
Date: Fri Jul 22 22:23:58 1994
I'll give you that there are a great number of similarities between the 
stories of the Bible and the myths of ancient greece and rome.  However 
you have to look at something else.  The Bible has many different aspects 
to it. 

I'll be the first to admit that there is a great deal of poetry to
the Bible and it is probably full of symbolism and that it has a very 
mythological nature to it's Old Testament stories.  However, if you read 
the rest of the Bible, like the stories of Jesus and his dicipiles you'll 
find them quite unique.  In fact if you were to read the Koraan and the 
other religious books of different religions, you'll find that they all 
have things that separate them very much from myths.  

All in all...however, being that I can only speak on Christianity,  I find 
that the purpose of having faith is so that you can be faced with these 
doubts and these questions and not faulter.  It is very easy to give up 
and say that there is no God or that religion is bogus when you see what 
happens around you every day but I personally find it much easier to 
accept that a supreme being is responsible for the creation of the earth 
and the people and animals that are on it (the big bang can't be explained 
resonably to me without attributing it's occurence to God).

Religion has it's faults, I admit, and I can understand why there are 
those who don't want to believe in a God.  In the end, however, I believe 
that we all need to believe in a God.  God gives our lives meaning.  The 
concept of a heaven and a hell gives us something to aspire towards and it 
comforts us in our times of pain and suffering.  Religion brings people 
together in love and fellowship and that is something that should be 
encouraged and not put down

My $0.02

-Pele-