OG4GP

Thanks for the very,very,very,very,very, long reply...lol I loved it, I have always had a thirst for knowledge and love to learn about everything, new people,new places, new ways of looking at things. What I have problems with is people who think they have all the answers and try to force their opinions and beliefs on me and that is usually done in a condescending manner because they are sure that they are right and that your just naive,stupid or both if you don't think as they do. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences without doing it in a condescending manner, as Aristotle once said :"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it".
I would never ridicule someone for their belief, I say if it helps them and causes no harm to anyone else than who am I to question it, but if it does harm to someone else than I have a problem with it. If the only person it is harming is them well more power to them because I will fight any one or anything that tries to take away my right to do what I want with my life and defend that right for someone else. What I also have a problem with is blind faith, believing something because you were told by someone or something when you were growing up and not investigating it further especially if you have doubts is to me just plain wrong and I don't buy into the whole: "That's the devil planting the seed of doubt in you" I think that is a cop out and they use it to scare you to keep you in line and also so that you do not look further into it and see the cracks and wholes in it and maybe just maybe see that it's all one big bullshit story.
You wrote that you know that there is a god and the devil does exist because of what you have seen and experienced and I don't want to challenge that belief, I merely want to pose a question. Can it be possible that since you already believed that they exist that the things you saw and experienced, you attributed to them, which only furthered that belief ? Just asking a question and showing you a different way to look at it is all, since I do not know what you saw or lived through I can not comment on those things, what I can say is I to have lived through and saw things but did not attribute them to either one of them but merely to man's capacity for both great good or evil.
I may not be able to respond to you in a timely fashion as the holiday season is upon us and we celebrate Christmas as I was raised Catholic, some habits are hard to break...lol plus I love presents...lmfao but most of all being older now I love to see the smile on the faces of my nieces and grand nephew as they light up when they open their presents, it gives me just as much joy as it does them and no being able to feel that joy I do not attribute to god either. There is an old saying: "For those who believe no proof is needed and for those who do not no proof is enough" I am sort of in the middle but leaning to the later, meaning that short of god him or her self showing up at my door I will doubt there is one and again no, just because I see something beautiful or wonderful or even what might seem miraculous, I don't see god in there. To me it's why people long ago worshiped the sun and the moon because they could not explain or understand what they were and what they did so they attributed godly powers to them but once they understood that our sun was a start like so many we see in the night sky and that other planets had moons to, they stopped believing that they were gods and had supernatural powers.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year only because that is what my family and I celebrate and wish you and yours all the best in the coming days and years.

Will try to be on when I can.

P.S. if you haven't seen this I found it informative
Please forget the title of it and watch if you haven't already and let me know what you think when you have time. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISg6j7BF02Q&feature=related