I'll get to your potentially-heated question last, ray.

The story you mention is one of the things that bugs me about Christianity, and specifically any religion really, but I'll focus on Christianity. There's something wrong when a beautiful church is built next door to some of the poorest people in the world. There's absolutely nothing wrong with building a beautiful church as long as you are giving to the community. How many lives could've been saved (I'm talking physical not spriritual), how many small homes rebuilt, how many mouths could be fed with that money that built that beautiful church. Now on the other hand, maybe that church reguarly reaches out to the people in many different ways, including food and money and even housing. But is this loss of faith in God, or loss of faith in man and the priorities of "Christian" men adn women?

Now your potentially heated question: what about the people who rebel against God?

So let me ask, "what about them?" What happens to them? Why? I'm not sure the question yet.

But I'll throw out there - as a Christian, I believe ALL of us have rebelled against God. Every single living person has rebelled against God. It's our very nature to rebel.  It's sometimes moer fun to rebel agaisnt God than not. C'mon now - how many times have you heard people say something like "Christians are so boring" or "Chrsitians have no fun" etc. Precisely - it's often more fun to reject religion than be constrained by those religous beliefs and morals to a certain extent. We all rebel in different ways, and to different degrees of rebellion, and I would argue that the rebellion is often based on our growing up years.

Jordan .

One issue for me is that since I was not brought up believing any particular set of religious dogmas, my preconceptions in that area are few, and are formed by whatever independently spiritually-interpreted experiences I had in early life.  As a result, finding a place to invest whatever faith reserves I have and need to express becomes a tricky proposition, since every candidate becomes subject to intellectual filtering, which is like the bug-zapper of faith.

Result: I'm attracted to ideologies that are vaguely or negatively defined, like agnosticism, or that serve aesthetic purposes, like Discordianism (about as close to Dada religion as you can find), or that push certain of my cultural-fetish buttons (the Gurdjieff and Crowley cults, Satanism, Chaos Magick).  I even tried to spiritualize a kind of blank, ultra-subjective, radical nihilism -- but it was really hard work, and it didn't really do anything but alienate and depress me. (And as my grandfather used to say, that's not a drive, it's a short putt.)

A nice thing about Satanism, though, is that it has a strong, ubiquitous symbolic opponent -- Christianity -- and that's a good dynamic for energy when it comes to belief systems.  Lack of such is a weak point of a lot of the 'alternative' ideologies, at least with the ones I've drifted through.  But to really take proper advantage of the fire of Satanism, I really think I'd have to have faith in the Christian God conception, and if I could do that I probably wouldn't be complaining in the first place.

I was raised Roman Catholic but I'm the only who never got confirmed out of four kids. My maternal grandmother was Jewish but she converted to Catholicism when she married. My mother, who was raised Catholic, converted to Judaism in her fifties. All, of this, by the way, apparently makes me Jewish, too. In the mid nineties I became a Buddhist (my Tibetan Buddhist name is Karma Rinchin) but I haven't been practicing for several years. Chanting a mantra during a little meditation for the focus it lends me and for relaxation is about the extent of it now. I think that, as a child of the Western World, Judaism, Catholicism, Islam all resonate in me deeply. Perhaps they are all so firmly rooted in the traditions of the West that they play on me in subtle ways I don't always consciously grasp. Perhaps they are a part of a collective memory that's forever quietly whispering in my ear.

My interest in religion as a practitioner has waned over the years although I've turned to more than one in the past with gusto. Now I'm more interested in it from what I suppose is an anthropological point of view: as a window leading to greater understanding of the human mind and spirit. Every time I read about religious experiences I am struck by their power and the myriad ways in which "God" is perceived as being made manifest or the "godhead" experienced. The ultimate goal of religion, according to Huston Smith, is this communion (in the West where we stand in relation to God as opposed to the East where atonement has a very different meaning: at-one-ment). Huston Smith himself became a practioner of Islam in his later years. I could have been quite happy as a historian of religions. It ties in nicely to my other scholarly interests.

The Buddhist meditation is, for me, something very practical since it usually has a noticible affect  on my mood and stress levels. I am terrible at the visualization and I'm much more interested in the (possibly) random images that pop into my head of their (possibly) own volition. In short, I suck at being a Buddhist. Besides, I hunt and that right there is a big no no in the Mahayana school of Buddhist thought and practice. I don't like practicing religion. I do, however, like learning about it.

Mike, your 2cats

I think my religious beliefs changed my culture.  I grew up in a very nonreligious home.  My dad was so wounded, abused and hurt by the religious world that he wanted to keep me away from it.  Even though my mother and father loved me very much and treated me with love.  Some in my family were Baptist and others Church Of God, but I wasn't really around them much and they seemed to go to church on Sunday, when they would go, and then be home to rest of the week.  Their relationship with the church seemed to not really have much of an impact on their life.  I then began to dabble in somethings like Wicca, New Age, Candle Buring, Devil Worship, etc....  Not too much but I did dabble in it and then see the Supernatural manifest in many ways and it almost killed me.  I did go to church some when I was young, like Easter and Christmas, but I didn't really feel I had that much of a relationship with God.  I would talk to Him every once in awhile and that was about it.  One night a friend of mine was about to comment sucide and he said if there is a God, I need a sign.  I need something.  The moment he said it.  The lights began to come on in the house.  Kind of an eye opener for me.  He didn't kill himself, but we continued to live like we did in our addictions.  My was showbars and his was drugs.

In the late 90's I was talking to a porn star about moving Las Vegas and making porn films.  I was also becoming hungery for God in an unusual way.  The job I had was where I pretty much got paid to watch TV all night working the night shift at a group home of old people.  Then one night I heard footsteps come into the room and no one was there.  I was reading a book called Understanding God And His Covenants.  The footsteps circled around me.  I could hear Him but could not see Him.  I know this was a different Spirit than others I have spoke with through the Ouja board.  He felt clean pure and holy.  I then felt a hand lift me up, grab me and throw me into the kitchen.  I wrestled with this man for a while on the kitchen floor.  It wasn't a presence but a man, that I could not see.  Stronger than any man I know.  I got tried of fighting with Him and then I felt like he was going to leave.  I tried to grab His leg and said I will never let you go, until you bless me.  I then felt Him wrap His arms around me and heal my soul from all the wounds I had deep inside.  Heal me from childhood abuse of sexual molestation, etc...  I then felt something in my belly and I said "Give it to me"  I then begn to speak in other tongues and speak prophetic words.  He would visit me again and again throughout that week and some really cool things happened.  I then had a passion to go to the streets and spread the love of this man -- Jesus.  I have stumbled and fell many times along the way, but He always just picks me back up and heals me again.  He is the most kind, loving, real, person I have ever met.  And I have been filled with Him with fresh fillings throughout my life from that day.  I have seen people give their lives to Him, people transformed, people healed and free from addictions because of Him.  Sometimes I feel Him inside of me flowing through me.