KennethWLawrence

We might want to note that they spent a lot of their energy getting people to get along, and accomodating a lot of different types of people. They were focused on worshipping God by listening and to helping each other.

I may be a bit late to the discussion but: 1. Some people can only believe in a world that can be demonstrated by observation and controlled experiment. Other people, based on their own experiences and on unlikely events that have happened to them, or experiences that others have testified to, believe in things that disappear when you try to observe them. 2. The testimony of the apostles has been verified by the experiences of many people and the extremely unlikely success of Christianity. Jesus' power is shown not only in the New Testament, but in the way Christianity has spread. We should believe that He is Lord. The testimony of so many people deserves consideration. Ken

There are certainly atheists who seem to enjoy either a good intellectual discussion, or wish to go to court over what seem to be trivial issues. I am not convinced they are all looking for a fight, but they all seem to be very aware of whether their rights are violated. I tend to believe that we should not force people to pray, but we should be willing to share our experiences. They seem to attack all religions. Christianity is first on the list because this is a Christian country. Rather than fight with them, we may wish to say, "We will not force you to agree there is a God, and we will not force you to pray. We would like to convince you." The Lord seems to handle the situation better than we do. I would not wish Madelyn Murray O'Hair 's (a noted atheist) life and death on anybody. We should regard these folks with compassion rather than as enemies. Ken

Hi Fez, By coincidence, I was discussing this recently with a Catholic. They do not worship Mary, that would be unscriptural. But they reason that: - Mary is in heaven. - Mary has access to Jesus. They do pray to her to interceed for them. This is like asking somebody here on earth to pray for you. You do not worship that person, but you reason that God might listen to their prayers. They sum it up with the saying, "If Father says no, then ask Mom." My understanding is that it is Christian, and not a serious doctrinal problem. Worshipping Mary rather than God would be a problem. Ken