WOW! What beautiful sad faces. It almost hurts to think of the suffering.

Somehow, "Merry Christmas" just isn't enough for this.

Russ

I was always wondering when do we loose it as humans?? I mean, how do we become what we are. Kids are not born racist . They have to be thought to be that way. Where is the line where we loose our innocence ? I refuse to believe that we are all born in sins . That is one of the stupidest things when it comes to religion. But when do we loose it? Who teaches us these things? Is it our society, or our Churches or Mosques? Is it our parents, or our family? Is it our government that is doing some sick experiment on us to see how far we'll go to do stupid things in the name of who knows what? And I don't mean racism between colour of our skin.Rich and poor..etc.. I do always say that as species that came from primates we did get really far. Not far enough yet. I do hope it will get better. But, as a species created by some God, we do fail miserably in our humanity . At the end it doesn't really matter how we came to be , but what we will become in future. Is the survival of of our genes that evolved for so long made us to kill each other and to be cruel to each other. Or are we paying for our God's sins?? After all they say we are created in his image. And if this is true than why is always more important to us our external beauty or ugliness than our inner ones. Both in us and in our felow human beings regardless of their skin colour or which God we pray to. Or not .
Who distorts our view on society ? We created governments to serve us people , or at least that was an original idea, but we become one hair short of slaves. Why can't we look at different systems like capitalism,communism, socialism...etc, and take the best from each to serve us better, to protect us from poverty ? Are we that much " BRAINWASHED" to hate everything from one system without even realising we pretty much don't know anything about it. Are we that scared to think for ourselves and not be prejudging to anything new even if it means it will be better? Are we that lazy to do things? To take that shovel in and to something with our own hands . To get them dirty , to sweat a little bit. It does feel good afterwards.
When do we loose it?

Just a thought for holidays.

Mirza, imagine how advanced our society might be if some of the great minds who sought answers OUTSIDE of the church had not been killed off as heretics. It seems that for every great scientific advance, there is an equal leap backwards in superstition and ignorance. BTW, God didn't create us in HIS image; quite the opposite, WE created God in OUR image.

You ask, how did we come to be this way? I think it started as a way to explain the things we didn't understand but soon evolved as a way for a savvy, powerful few to control the many. Yep, in the end it's all about POWER. "Power to the people", NO, Power to the few.

There are many good ideas, concepts, philosophies, etc. contained in MOST religions. Stripped of it's baggage (horrific threats, supernatural beings, ridiculous rituals, unrealistic promises ie. 'everlasting life', etc.), most religions could easily be a great 'code of conduct' or model for how to live one's life and how to treat his fellow humans, but somehow, that doesn't seem to be enough. We seem to need to have some sort of 'humanoid' figure with the power to heal, destroy, punish, and reward. Just "being good for goodness sake" doesn't yet seem to be attainable. Perhaps some many centuries in the future, provided we haven't killed each other off, but probably not likely. And when the last wisp of nuclear smoke clears, we'll have one thing to thank, RELIGION.

chas