Free Republic

Cavuto and Fox deserve to be called out from time to time... especially when good folks here think they have a corner on the “truth”.

Sorry... been here since 1999.

Just a couple of on-line articles for you to peruse at your leisure. I'd challenge anyone to show that sustainable agriculture is bad for the land. If anything, (and this is just my belief) the pesticides and herbicides used today have leached our soil of any value. Bad analogy - let's say you eat an organic apple. To get the same nutritional value from a non-organic apple, you'd need to eat 3 of them. Yes, there's no question that organic food costs more. But, I've kept my gorcery budget the same. I may bring home "less" food, but the food I do bring home is of much better quality and much more nutricious.

http://www.nutiva.com/nutrition/organic.php
http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/polyphenolics031203.cfm
http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Organic%20and%20Vegetarian/frost47.htm
http://www.texasep.org/html/lnd/lnd_2agr_susdev.html
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/health/

I'm an absolute believer in the benefits of sustainable farming and also the nutritional benefits of organic vs. non-organic food. I think a lot of the problems that we have with diseases today can be attributed to the garbage that's fed to us by the multi-national food companies.

http://www.house.gov/budget/update090804s.pdf

I absolutely don't think God is a liar. You'll notice that my belief that one of the attributes of God is that He is Truth. And I also agree that Christianity does not stand or fall on the bible. It's just taken me a little while to come to grips with that. Truth happens to be important to me because all of the major religions claim it for themselves. I want to know where it truly lies.

The available evidence that I was drawing on was scriptural teaching that by definition, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all pray to the God of Abraham.

You've really hit on the crux of one of my questions: does it make a bad Christian if I don't believe in the story of Creation as told in Genesis? Or is it more important to place your emphasis on life today since that's where we are.

I don't know if this inconsitency makes me doubt Jesus or not. It does make me question whether or not my original beliefs about the Bible were correct (that it is infallible).

I guess that my quoting of the Mishnah was not meant to imply a loss of faith in Christ per se, but more of a questioning of the God of Judaism and Christianity. Not sure if that makes sense or not.

I know that I'm treading on rocky ground, and yes it does make me uncomfortable.

I was baptized at birth. This is a small part of my search though... and I think one of the problems with Protestantism. Yes, I understand that grace is a free gift and there certainly isn't anything that we can do to earn it. But it's been my experience that many Protestants take that as an excuse to be lazy about their faith. "Jesus did all of the work, so I don't have to do anything".

In a conversation with my sister-in-law, she said that it sounded like I was trying to find a way to earn my way into Heaven. I know that no one can do that. What I *am* looking for though, is the best way to honor my God and my Creator.

In the sprirt of disclosure, my Freeper name isn't exactly accurate anymore as I'm no longer homeschooling exclusively. I do have to say though, that the days that I was were some of the best days of my life. My hat is tipped to you too, for providing the care that you are for your dad. It's encouraging to me to see that there still are people who do the right thing.

Thanks to all for the thoughtful posts; this is exactly what I was hoping for. There are so many philosophical questions here, not the least of which is, "do I blindly accept the bible as it's written, or do I use the faculties that God has given me to ask and to search"? If God didn't want me to think and to question, why make it possible for me to do so?

Because I've been making supper! :) I'll write more in a bit.

Sad to say, but to me when I hear WMD, I think of Colin Powel giving his presentation to the UN showing all of the pics and diagrams and vials. THOSE are the WMD's that were never found, and the reason that so few people trust W.

Upper Heyford? Hey - you didn't work on the F-111's by chance did you? MHAFB ID vet here ;)

You're right - thanks. Tolkien lost most of his close friends in the war(s) and I think there are many tributes to them in his works.

The relationship between Sam and Frodo was a take on the relationship between a WWII British officer and his assistant (the title of which escapes me at the moment).

Well, I would say that when she put my hand over her heart and I felt her entire chest cavity convulsing, that was proof for me. But you miss my point. For her, the Vioxx was a GOOD thing, and despite what it did to her heart, it gave her more pain-free days than she's ever had. If it were available, she would still be using it.