The Black Vault

Not for everyone Greeney, not for everyone, just those types who follow or get involved with Pink ribbons only after cancer hits close to home. Such is life, that's what makes it so interesting, is it not?

Not being critical just saying that there are plenty on people capable of making hard choices based on logic and accepting those choices along with the pros and cons that that decision will ultimately produce without the situation being or becoming personal.

Would you shun a homosexual Son or Daughter? Not until they come out of the closet, or would your arms be wide open no matter what? Yet I bet you have an opinion on another Parent, Father/Mother's situation don't you. " Wow I can't see that, would never do that ETC " " The Bible says it's wrong " Really~~That book is some set of stories!

Debate over such things is usually a one way street for most and that's the main reason they say" You wouldn't know what you would do until you were faced with such a decision " Why can't people accept the fact that some people actually do know what they would do given a similar circumstance?

Take corrective eye surgery for instance. Some people love it, some would never do it because they are scared of all that might go wrong, so they fumble with glasses. I guess this means too each his own! You prefer the Steak, I can eat the Chicken.

Had a beautiful awesome Siberian who developed rectal cancer, vicious vicious experience not only for me but for my pet. I put him down after it was clear that the surgery didn't do anything to make him the least bit better. Tough choice, doing the right thing, despite the pain, IS NEVER A TOUGH CHOICE for well grounded people I cried like a baby when I dug the hole to bury him outback and miss him to this day but I've never ever questioned whether or not I did the right thing.

The only thing you truly ever know in this life is that YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW! Only your character can truly guide you, that from within absent the facade of what SOCIETY and the pressures of such say you should be given certain circumstance. I will never bend to such BS!

I rest my case!

Cole

I think everything is connected to experiences you have had.
Personally, the less you have seen of the world and of the different types of people the less you know.

Completly stupid however is when someone only wants to live in their own little world without wanting to know how the real world functions at all.

For example the pope, has he ever ever met and spent a day with a gay guy?
No absolutely not, and so he doesn´t know a god damn thing other than what he sees and worse he doesn´t want to change his mind as most humans do.
Atleast I`ve spent my days with very very different people over the years,religious,gays,disabled you name it.

When it comes to abortion however, It´s the woman´s choice, end of story.
I don´t give a rat´s ass what anyone thinks about it, her decision is the only valid one in the end.

For example the pope, has he ever ever met and spent a day with a gay guy?

I quite sure he spends most of his time in the company of gay men! Every waking moment, unless they keep him in some sort of special cage or something, only to let him out for photo ops and such.

Cole

Maybe, who knows?

I think everything is connected to experiences you have had.
Personally, the less you have seen of the world and of the different types of people the less you know.

Impossible to disagree with the above in any way, shape, or form, it's damn spot on and 100% FACT.

I love the question usually posed by my wife when she's ignorant of something in general: " Why do it that way, what's difference does it make ?"~~ Oh if only she would learn through the process of trial and error and REMEMBER IT.

I have too many stories that validate the above quote and not nearly enough time to post them.

A common experience is travel by car. Once I go somewhere, anywhere by vehicle I remember without fail how to get back without a map of any kind, semi-photographic memory helps but I can't imagine people not being able to do the same. Pay attention, but that is impossible for some.

Hail storms, Stay in your vehicle, a life experience that played out in Kansas. Huge T, Storm caused us to pull over/off the road, hell you couldn't see anything for the rain. I was afraid of getting rear ended so I pulled off behind a car with Mass, plates When the hail the size of golf balls started falling the idiot in front gets out with his camera and starts snapping shots. He takes one on the bean, instant blood and down to his knees he goes.

After the storm passed and the hail stopped I got out to check on the guy, he had a pretty good lump and broken skin from the strike. He asked if I saw it, I just chuckled. He said I never imagined hail could do that to which I said, " yeah, amazing isn't it "

Further he says " What's it look like " " Oh you'll be okay just put some ice on it for the swelling "

I remember it like it was yesterday and it's been year and years ago. I-70 west just outside Hays~

Yes life experience can teach you everything if you're willing to learn from it.

Cole

Impossible to disagree with the above in any way, shape, or form, it's damn spot on and 100% FACT.

I love the question usually posed by my wife when she's ignorant of something in general: " Why do it that way, what's difference does it make ?"~~ Oh if only she would learn through the process of trial and error and REMEMBER IT.

Great example of how maybe there are more than one perspective and maybe an even better way to do things, instead of the one way that works for you. Its about being open minded and listening sometimes, and not thinking you know the only way.

Expericences are always learning. but new experiences may alter what you always thought before was right or the only answer.

Yeah kind of like walking on the moon in the sixties, walking on water way way before that, and Arabs with box-cutters / well you finally get the open minded end of all that drift, A silver lining in every cloud. Welcome aboard Mate!

Cole

I will tell you very simply what is sin and what is not.

Not that I am an authority...take from it what you will.

Sin is not a laundry list of items handed down from on high, from a white bearded old angry man ready to whap you on the head with a stick if you dont do as he says.

Sin, my friends, is nothing more than going against logical life principles...even beyond whether or not one wishes to believe in God....these principles go beyond that....they are built into the very structure of the universe and nature itself.

One does not wish to murder, because murder is the selifsh taking of the life of another for reasons that are typically not logical or justify-able (except perhaps in the case of self-defense).......one typically commits murder (except perhaps in the case of self-defense or mental illness) out of a sense of pure selfishness or feelings or vengence...all misguided...

One does not wish to steal, why? Because if one cannot afford a thing or work for a thing, then one does not deserve a thing....one does not take a thing someone else has worked for.

and so on and so on.

Sin, is rooted in selfism, selifishness, or generally speaking holding ones self and ones own value or worth in the universe as higher than another....this is illusion and folly.

I isn't that God has dictated this, so much as it is simply a truth and a logic built in to the very nature of existence....you violate this and you are "sinning" against nature and yourself and your fellow man, ..... and as the bible says....what you doest to the least of these, you do to your very God....and this is very serious and important....because as far as God is concerned we are made is his image...quite literally, what you do to your fellow man, you are doing to your God....or to your Self....you steal, you are stealing from yourself....you kill, and you are killing yourself.

This transcends Christianity, or any other thing...this is simply a truth.

Sin is this....forget all the rest of the mumbo jumbo.

Sounds like what you are saying is all sins would come under the catagory of "wrongs", therfore anything right can not be considered a sin.( that may conflict with many laws ) People who commit wrongs, and repeat it, seem to have no conscience about it, or have no strong sence that sin or wrongful act, carries with it some kind of punishment. We know laws have defined penalties, and most religions teach there are penalties for most sins to higher authorities. Those we can not escape, becasue we all die, and the concept is afterdeath accountability. Most sins in religions, are not forgiven without Confession, before death. The concept of forgiveness, and wanting to be forgiven is something that may separate all these things. OUr laws only prescribe a penalty, but some forgiveness is also part of the system. True remorse and wanting forgivenesss, must always be with the intentions of redeeming yourself in some way for the wrongs or sin. We forgive for reasons of remorse in the form of probation, with conditions attached. A from of grace and lienancy.

Our system of justice defines its forgiveness of a crime complete when a sentence has been completed, but forgiveness of a Sin is complete upon true Confession. Did a person who died the first day in jail and one who died after 75 years not serve the same "life" sentence? Both carried the same burden of Sin, broke the same law, and both had the same opportunity of Confession the first day. Nobody knows for sure what afterdeath brings, but if our religions are correct, sins do have accountabilty even after we have answered for our laws while alive.