uh...togepi45@hotmail.com is my address

this topic is so different from the original state. first it was about viola jokes and then it somehow weaved to an argument than suddenly it began to be a "how good are you?" forum.

that was really stupid!!!

Some Christians are afraid to feel pride in playing the viola for extremely convoluted reasons involving citations from the bible. This is superstitious nonsense. In fact , all religion is superstitious nonsense! It`s high time people woke up and took 100% responsibility for their own lives. Blaming or crediting the good and bad things that happen in life on `God`s will` is just a big cop out. We each have one life to live and playing the viola is one part of a good life. More important ingredients include getting over the notion that it is all about `YOU`, contributing to your community, practicing social skills, and especially working hard to be a good parent and in my case, grandparent.

hi.. doesn`t looks like anyone has been in here for awhile..
i`ve been reading the last few messages.. about God and stuff.. and i kind of makes me sad.. that some people would actually CHOOSE to live a life without God. O yea by the way i am 14 yrs old and a Christian. I think that if you really knew who God is. and had an actual relationship with him.. you would think otherwise. ..well i guess it all comes down to that God IS real.. and I love Him for all that he has done for me. and i know where i am going when i die...... do you??

Dear god believers, It is astounding, even after 60 years of experience, that so many people still cling to the delusion that they have a personal relationship with god. And that anything but putrid rot happens to you or your `soul`, a truly medieval concept, after you die is idiotic. I`m not objecting to the reality that considerable emotional comfort is found in maintaining such delusions. It`s just that even greater comfort and mental health can be found in taking personal responsibility for one`s own fate. It seems to me that only laziness and irrational fears are the reasons that god believers so eschew taking the blame for their life outcomes. Yes it takes more moral courage to reject the delusionary god-loving path, but the rewards for doing so are here in your corporal life, rather than in a fairytale called heaven.

How did we get onto the subject of God on a viola page anyways?

Anyway, violas are cool. Yeah. They rule, but so does orchestra in general. Uh, yeah, bye.

Just letting you know, with all due respect that you are entitled to your opinion, that last comment about God made me a little angry.

Now that I`m over my anger, listen to me on this. God is not something to pin blame on, okay. He is a place of comfort. When a person dies, and people say it is God`s will, it`s thier way of coping with thier sorrow. I myself believe in God and Jesus, and I find comfort in my religion. I take responsibility in everything I do. God does not control what we do, but I think he can if he chooses. I understand this is hard for you to understand, Nannylynn, but it`s true, at least, to me. God does things for a reason; nothing He does is without pupose. Heaven is only a fairytale to people who do not believe and a reality to those who do. May God bless you and have a good day.

dani,
about your comments about people not believing in God....... God is in almost every religion. God is everywhere........ in the trees, in the wind, in the sweet sounds your lover makes as they make love to you, and in the music you play. GOD existed before Christianity. It is fine for you to believe in what you wish, but do not try to say that your religion is better than any other. THAT is not what god is about. If anyone has any problems about what I have to say, you can e-mail me directly.

Normally I wouldn`t get involved in a religious debate, but I just wonder what goes through the heads of people who don`t believe in some sort of a God.
I know what it is like to be human, and the idea that an experience like that could come from some sort of random explosions of particles is so preposterous as to be beyond belief.
People are not just machines guided by chemicals and neurological impulses. Things like curiosity and the appreciation of beauty cannot be simply a chemical reaction.

Also, God is not a copout. The person who said that obviously has no knowledge whatsoever of the content of the Bible or of Christianity. God gave humanity free will very early on. If we screw up, we are responsible. Just like an employment contract where if you stuff up, you`re fired.

Also I know you didn`t mention this, but the "accepting Jesus and repenting" part of it is NOT a way for people to behave badly and feel better about it. It is an acknowledgement that people are never going to be perfect, but that most of us are not so fundamentally evil as to deserve eternal torment. You have to be GENUINELY sorry for what you have done wrong, not just give a token surface apology.

Ok, since this is a viola forum, I`d better say something about the viola.
I started it a couple of weeks ago, and it is really, really cool, but the size of it after playing the violin is taking a lot of getting used to. But I love the low C-string- it has a really deep, rich singing tone.

"and the idea that an experience like that could come from some sort of random explosions of particles is so preposterous as to be beyond belief.
People are not just machines guided by chemicals and neurological impulses. Things like curiosity and the appreciation of beauty cannot be simply a chemical reaction."

Why not?

How can you say that? Have you ever taken a biology class, or just sat and watched nature? If you have ever seen a diagram of a single cell, the simplest thing in all of its complexities, and have gone through what it all does; how, when put with many other cells can work perfectly together to carry out it`s predetermined task. And even getting back the music that we play, how can something so harmonious and beautiful be a result of a "machine", an accident, chance? I don`t know about you but when I hear something as beautiful as the music that we can produce, I can`t help but to thank God that we have the ability to hear, to make, to appreciate, to feel the glory, if even only by some small fraction, of his goodness;for He is good...I didn`t mean to go on like I did and I`ve already erased quite a few lines because, I`d be rambling on and I don`t want to seem like I`m forcing my opinion and beliefs on anyone, so I guess all I wonder now is why would be even want to ever be just a freak accident, not even wanted, just wondering aimlessly through life with no purpose?

Vi- because chemicals do not have thoughts or feelings, that`s why. In fact, I`m surprised that science hasn`t declared them not to exist- it seems to be uncomfortable with things that it can`t measure. It`s already tried reducing emotions down to chemical reactions, which in some cases they probably are- one case in point being bipolar depression (if that is still believed to be chemical, I`m not up-to-date with current writings on the subject). I myself have had moods that I could recognise as being the fault of a disruption in my brain chemistry.
But that is not all that there is. A cell does not have the ability to reflect on things and argue as we are doing now. Humans are more than the sum of their parts.