"By the way, if our beliefs are so wacky, what, may I ask, are /your/ beliefs?"

My beliefS: 1. To each his own. 2. Life is short but Ben Affleck movies are long. 3. Never spend more than 32 minutes of your short life debating a Christian's wacky beliefs with them.

And i have to bring this up again, what about the old testament? Why do you people always ignore it? Why not strike it from the sacred texts if it's so unimportant?

Look forward to your thoughts.

It's not that it is unimportant; it is just that many of its direct rules of life are not applicable to our modern world.

The covenant of Moses is not applied to Christians because we are part of the new covenant.

The new and everlasting covenant (as we like to call it) supersedes the covenant of Moses and the Israelites. Where as Moses' laws where intended to ensure purity for the Israelites as they entered into the Land of Canaan; the covenant of Christianity grants no earthly rewards, and as such asks for very few earthly demands (dietary, clothing, etc.). The rewards of the Christian covenant come in the next life, and so its demands are fairly transcendent.

The demand of Christ is that we love one another as he had loved us, or to be more specific to love one's neighbor as oneself. At the core of this belief is the embracing of all peoples as your brother, and to forgive all your enemy's as you would ask for forgiveness. In this recognition of universal humanity we come to know and serve God, and thusly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The laws of Moses are not undone, in fact they are as true a method into heaven as any, however they are superseded by the law of love, which is God's final word on all things.

Why is the Old Testament still in the book? Because it is the beginning of the story. Slavery is the beginning of the American Story, as is colonization, genocide, and any number of other evils. Do we strip those pages from the history books? Do we take Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill because he was an evil man? No, we do not, because in the evil, there was also good. In the Old Testament, even as the Israelites had to make a harsh way in a harsher world, the peace of God's love shines through. It can at times be hard to find, and is often hidden behind the very real horrors of the world in which this faith was born, but it is there, and if you seek it out you will find peace in those words also.

Most Christians, and virtually all Catholics are not biblical literalists, we understand that the Bible is subject to interpretation and the words are written for different people at different times. We know that there are myths and legends, and parables through out it, and that it is not meant as a map for life, but simply a guide. For Catholics, the Bible is neither the beginning of our religious texts nor the end. It is centrally important, as our American Constitution is, but without the writings that came before and after it, it is an incomplete document.

In fact the purpose of The Pope's entire speech was to stress the extra biblical nature of Catholic Faith and its Hellenistic roots.

We don't toss the Old Testament because it has things to teach us, but it is not whole of the story.

Religious laws, as they are given now, are likewise guides. The Catholic Churches general ban on "hedonistic" behavior, (gluttony, drunkenness, masturbation, extramarital sex, etc.) seem harsh but are meant to guide us to the law of love, and also to remind us that we are all sinful. And because we are sinfull we must forgive in order to also be forgiven. When we engage in these behaviors, our actions are rarely those that bring us closer to God, and so they are listed as being sins. Not in that they offend God, but in that they destroy us. It is the self-destructive tendency of Hedonism that is the sin, not the action itself. You can say that we the Christians pick and choose which laws to follow, however that is not the case. The laws are universal, loving one another and that includes yourself. Working to come to terms with a heart that has no hate, and no self loathing is a task that is beyond most people. And so we have God to help us, and religion is the guide to help us talk to God.

I hope that clears it up, though some how I doubt it.

"The pantheon of gods, called loas or mysteres, associated with the religion of Vodoun is enormous and is forever increasing with local deities and ancestral spirits. Vodounists recognize a Supreme Being, called Gran Met, who made the world, but he has long ago completed his work, and is believed to have returned to other worlds, or perhaps to eternal contemplation. His remoteness precludes active worship.

"Devotees are those "who serve the loas," and depending on the rites observed, the loas can be kind, beneficent, wise, violent, sexual, vindictive, generous, or mean.

"Danbhala-Wedo, or the Grand Serpent (also called Danballah or Damballah), is the "father" of the loas, which brought forth creation. Before the days of slavery, Africans worshipped a large python, called Danh-gbwe, as an embodiment of the gods. The snake was harmless to humans, and devotees believed that any child touched by the serpent had been chosen to be a priest or priestess by god himself. After being transported to the Americas, the blacks found a substitute in a type of boa. Danbhalah is the oldest of the ancestors and does not speak, only hisses. Langage the sacred language of Vodoun, which represents the long-forgotten African litungy, originates from Danbhalah's hissing. Danbhalah governs the waters of the earth and is also associated with Legba the god of the sun and the way of spiritual communication.

"Aida-Wedo, the Rainbow, which arouse out of the waters of the earth serves as a many-colored way of the gods' message to the earth and is the wife of Danbhalah. She, also, is a serpent: a short-coiled snake that feeds upon bananas and lives principally in the water. Her bright spectrum decorates the Vodoun temples, especially the central support pole. Aida-Wedo is only one manifestation of the goddess Erzulie, the deity of beauty, love, wealth, and prosperity, who is normally referred to as Maitresse Erzulie, the lunar wife of Legba, the sun. As the moon, Erzulie is pure, virginal. The contact with her heated husband burned her skin, so Erzulie is usually depicted as a beautiful dark-skinned Ethiopian. Erzulie is thought of in a variety of ways, which do not always encompass the better virtues of love and good will. It is believed that she can have the vices of jealousy, discord, and vengeance. She can be vain, likes pretty jewelry and perfume, and angers easily.

"Vodoun, like other religions, has a creation myth; and according to it, Danbhalah, the Serpent, and Aida-Wedo, the Rainbow, taught men and women, how to procreate, and how to make blood sacrifices so they could become the spirit and obtain the wisdom of the Serpent.

"Even though it is believed that Danbhalah represents the ancestral knowledge of Vodoun, it is acknowledged that no communication may occur between the gods and worshipper without the offices of Legba. He is the Orient, the East, the sun and the place the sun rises. He controls gates, fences, and entryways; no deity may join a Vodoun ceremony unless Legba has been asked to open the "door." He governs all actions of the spirits. Legba is depicted both as a man sprinkling water and as an old man walking with a stick or crutch. He personifies the ritual waters and the consolidation of the Vodoun mysteries. He is called Papa; and through syncretism has become identified with St. Peter, the gate keeper, the man to whom Christ gave the keys to the Kingdom. Still others liken Legba to Christ, a mulatto man born of the sun and moon. He also guards crossroads, and as Matre Carrefour (master of the four roads, or crossroads) is the patron of sorcery.

"There are other important deities in the pantheon all of who display manifestations. They include Ogou Fer or Ogoun, the god of war and armor, iron and metalworking, wisdom and fire, and is associated with St. James; Agwe or Agoueh, the spirit of the sea, who presides over all fish and sea life and those sailing upon it; Zoka, the god of agriculture, who manifests himself in the clothes and course speech of peasants; and Erzulie Freda, the goddess's most feminine and flirtatious persona. As Venus was the lover of Mars, so Ogou takes Erzuli Freda. The entire Vodoun pantheon includes hundreds of gods and goddesses and increases each time an ancestor becomes divine. This is very important because a central feature of Vodoun is spiritual growth through communication with ancestors and serving the vodou gods.

"A separate classification of the loas is the Guedes, the various spirits of death and dying, debauchery and lewdness, graveyards and gravediggers. Also, as sexual spirits the Guedes govern the renewal of life and protect children. Depictions of Guedes, usually referred to as Guede Nibbho or Nimbo, Baron Samedi (Saturday, the day of death) or Baron Cimetiere (cemetery), show the loa in a tailcoat sand a tall hat resembling an undertaker. His symbols are coffins and phalluses. Individuals possessed by the Baron Samedi tell lewd jokes, wear dark glasses, smoke cigarettes or cigars, eat voraciously, and drink copious amounts of alcohol. Entire sects of Vodounists worship Guedes."