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What do you mean?  ANYONE with a nuclear weapon has quite a bit of bargaining power in the international arena.  We need to disarm them before they get a better nuclear warhead and a missile to carry it to the west coast.

And I know this example has many different factors than this situation, but if the US were transposed with China's world role, how would you feel if China marched a 250,000 man army complete with a mass of ships, and invaded, say, Puerto Rico, or Greenland, or Mexico?  I for one wouldn't want the world superpower setting up shop next door to me.  Even if you aren't buddy-buddy with someone doesn't mean you won't get involved in your hemisphere's affairs.

Look, we're picking our battles about little technicalities.  Let's look at the big picture.

Yes, every faith has its own truths and good rules to live by.  However, there comes a time when you have to believe in only one truth as being the real truth.  What you think is really going on with the afterlife and whatnot.

Faith doesn't dictate the parameters by which we meet our faith.  Rather, it is a uniform means of communicating and expressing our beliefs.

YOU must decide what you find to be a fundamental truth, and that is what is now reality (only in your own mind).  You can believe that other faiths have noble things to follow, but you must decide for yourself what the truth is.

But it does, doesn't it?  No matter how you think that God exists, YOU have to choose, in the end, what you believe and what you don't, and that becomes your reality.  You can't be on both sides of the fence, because it QUESTIONS your own belief in your OWN reality.  To believe in more than one God is to contradict yourself. ???

Yeah!  Like former president Ronald Regan.  What's not to like?  He was California governor, reduced taxes, ensured the fall of the Soviet Union, built the nation's military to a new peak, and ushered in the Space Shuttle.

I mean, the senior citizens, mostly conservative in their old age (unlike myself, a spry whipper-snapper) were the majority age group back when Regan was in office.  Why not?

The Regan Rover... Pioneering New Ways in an Old World Since 2006  I LOVE IT!

Can you consciously believe in two religions at the same time?  I mean, can you hold the belief that two different ideologies co-exist?

Can you believe in God, but think that Allah, Budda, and Yahweh still exist?  I know that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism believe in the same God, but the dispute is over the prophet (Jesus, Mohammed, and ? respectively).

I just can't accept the existence of more than one truth... I know you guys will call me "narrow-minded" and "unwilling to accept the truths of others", but in our own minds we all need to decide that we favor one religion, and we can agree to disagree with other organized religions.  Even if you turn out to be wrong, what is religion if we are not 100% sure that we are right?

It reminds me of the episode of South Park where Satan has a love affair with Saddam Hussein (speak of the devil... PUN!).  Anyway, Satan has to find out how to break it off with Saddam, so he goes to ask God.  When you see him in hell, before all of this, there is a gathering of people getting the "hell orientation".  There are people asking, "well, I was a devout Protestant", and "I was a faithful Muslim".  The head demon says through his microphone, "I'm sorry.  The correct answer was Mormon... Yes, Mormon."

I mean, everyone in the crowd thought that they were 100% right on what they believed, but someone has to be correct, and everyone else is wrong in the end.  I know its hard to grasp, but you HAVE to believe that your truth is the only truth, and agree to disagree with other religions.

Hey soph!  Where did you get your economics doctorate from?

Whsspper...whssper...whisper... OH!  What's that Big Bird?  Just because your parents have a background in something doesn't make you an expert in that field?  I HAD NO IDEA!

And on the Josh Cryer/ecrasez_l_infame SCUD debate point, I've been saying that if Iraq is PROVEN to have no WMDs, we should move onto North Korea.  My main fear was the Chinese, who, if you don't remember their friendship with North Korea, sent a 100,000+ man army into North Korea during the Korean War.

Wow.  All of this unbridled hate for a complete stranger.  Do I support the "ripping out of clitorises" in other countries?  Don't be absurd in comparing my comment to that.

Can any of you guys recommend a particular Celestron model?

Men don't shave their heads and rip pictures of the Pope on Saturday Night Live ???

Have you seen "The Mummy"?  If you have, remember the scene where the guy that ran away from the French Legion in the beginning (Vinny?  The guy with the fez, anyway.)?

When the mummy approached him, he pulled out his prayer chain, with all of the world's major religions having a pennant on his chain!  It's the same way here.  You can't be on both sides of the fence when it comes to religion.  We can interpret the same events in different ways, or study what valuable lessons other religions have to offer.  But when it comes down to it, you have to make up your mind on what you believe and what you don't it's as simple as that.  There can't be dual beliefs.

Hey!  I didn't bring China into this.  I just said that they were a threat to the US operating on the Korean penninsula if we tried to disarm North Korea.  At least we're talking about foreign policy... 

Yes.  That is my point.  In your own mind, your belief has to be the only right belief, and everyone who doesn't share your belief is wrong.  That's why we have organized religion is to make this task easier.  Two religions can't exist parallel to each other.  You must decide, in black or white, what your belief is, and leave all the others behind.

And I was being sarcastic when I said "clarkie" was a cute nickname.  That remark was aimed at Nida.