Samthing

As I understand it, atheism is simply the denial of God's existence. It isn't a faith in itself (that would be somewhat ironic). I know some people who believe in atheism because they don't like the idea that they're not in control of their life, or because they believe that it's possible to be a good person without God. I'm not going to criticise either here, because I don't believe that I - as an imperfect human being - has the right to find faults with another, but on the latter point, I will say that I don't think being an atheist inherently makes you evil. It may not be correct, but it doesn't make you evil. I know that some people think that atheists are friends with the devil. I knew one girl who was an atheist and yet she treated me with kindness and never looked down on me because I believed in God. I think people who are atheists are on that trail of thought because, for them, there isn't enough evidence to say that God exists so they assume that He doesn't. Atheism does seem to take pride in things like the laws of reason, rationality and logic. Indeed, several atheists don't believe in anything supernatural or that cannot be explained in logical terms, while some don't believe in God, but may accept the belief in some kind of supernatural power. Either way, as a former atheist myself, I didn't believe in God partially because I felt science had "disproved" Him, and partially because I was afraid that I would be punished for my sins in Hell and wanted to deny that by choosing atheism. However, one of the things that turned my viewpoint around was what I like to call, as silly as this may sound to some, "The Almighty Franchise's Idea". There are two lines in Bruce and Evan Almighty which I have found to be truer than people think. "A single mother who has two jobs and works seven days a week, but still finds the time to take her child to soccer practice. That

So, you celebrate religious freedom by banning Bible giveaways. That's like tying a frog to a perfectly good BLT. How does it make any sense?

Is it a sin if I gave a chuckle at that? Atheists, who claim that all religion is based on myth and stories, that it causes all wars and discrimination and suppresses people's opinions are now themselves suppressing people's rights to prayer when Barack Obama becomes the President. I think the word is "hypocrisy".

I honestly can't think of anything that could be except words of wisdom from The Lord Himself. I'm still young and so I don't know much about being a parent, but I interpret that as a sign that no matter what troubles that ourselves and our children get into there is always the chance for us to climb that ropeladder sent to us by God.

Thank you, everyone. I've been trying to avoid her for the last few days. Although it's still very difficult to put her out of my mind, as I still feel I have some romantic feelings towards her. Nevertheless, I shall try to follow your advice as best I can. Thank you so much.

I've run into a dilemma regarding my life and my relationships. Not just with other people, but also my relationship with God. I feel like I might have made a mess of things and I want to try and put things right and find the right course of action to take so that I don't stray too far from the path. That's partially why I came here: because I knew it would be full of good people who would be able to help me. Towards the beginning of the summer, I made the foolish decision of telling God that I wanted to "live without consequence". I'm not even sure I understood what I meant at the time, and I'm not sure I understand what I meant then even now but I think that I was essentially telling Him that I wanted to indulge in the same levels of sin as my peers at school had done previously. I'd never been particularly popular, and I can remember feeling envy that people who did "bad" things ended up more popular than I did whenever I tried to do anything "good". I suppose that it was my envy and lack of understanding then that caused all of these problems for me. Later regretting what I had said, I decided to take a vow of abstinence. Even so, I do not believe it to be a coincidence that a few days later, during my holiday in Rome for my eighteenth birthday, that I developed a fear of death that I battle even to this day. Whenever my mind wanders, it usually comes back to my own death and I find myself questioning my faith or whether or not I am worthy of any salvation after how selfishly I acted all those months ago. I believe that it is my just punishment and I do not deny that I deserve it. True to my vow, I did not get involved with anyone sexually and constantly keep the decision to save myself for marriage in mind. However, I do feel immense regret at my actions, which were made purely in a fit of selfish and arrogant behaviour that was completely uncalled for before God. I no longer feel any kind of reassurance about Him and His presence and have never felt more alone in my entire life. I do want to be redeemed and I do want to have God back in my life, but no matter how much I ask I can never seem to remove the fear or knowledge of death from my mind. To make matters worse, I have recently laid eyes upon a woman that I feel strangely drawn to. I don't know what it is, maybe some kind of charisma, but I can't seem to put her out of my head. The problematic part is that she identifies herself as a "cougar" (which is, to the best of my understanding, an older woman, usually in her thirties or more, who gets involved in relationships with younger men, almost always of a sexual nature). Despite knowing this, she is frequently in my thoughts and I feel some kind of attraction towards her (and I don't often become attracted to people for some reason). I'm not sure whether this is another trial I'm supposed to pass or whether I'm meant to be with her or what to make of this. Part of me wants to be with her, but there's another part of me that constantly tells me that if I do I might end up breaking my vow of chastity until marriage (and I do not believe that I have fallen in love with her, so marriage seems off the cards). I know that if I do get involved with her it will might be fun for a while but there's a high chance that I would break my vow and worsen my relationship with God even further, but despite this I can't help but be drawn to her. Even so, I don't think I want to involve myself with her if it would mean souring what is left of my relationship with God, I don't think I could live with myself, it would just be proving that I hadn't learn anything. Honestly, I don't know what to do or what to make of this. No matter what I do, my fear of death persists and I find myself constantly questioning whether there is a genuine attraction towards her or whether it's just my darker, more lustful, emotions taking over. I don't want to be a slave to my base desires or to my fears of death. I just want to know what the right things to do are, but I don't know what they are or how to do them. All I know is that I need guidance so that I don't make the wrong decisions. I truly regret my actions and I need guidance to make sure that I don't make things any worse. Please help. God Bless.