Cliff's: WWI Memorial is a white cross out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. This is federally designated national park land. Retards who have fought to have "separation of church and state" interpreted to include "no religious symbolism of any kind on any federal land" filed a lawsuit to have this cross removed after 75 years.

Remember, this is something set up in remembrance of our World War fucking ONE veterans.

The feds sign over the land on which the memorial stands to the small veterans group or whatever that's been maintaining the site for 75 YEARS. Now it's not federal land anymore, so everything's resolved right?

Wrong. Sometime in the last 48 hours, some bottom feeding, shit sucking cumstain fucking STOLE the cross.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=69916

Look, I was born and raised Christian. I've come to believe that religion is something of a crutch and is, as a rule, a foundation upon which the weakminded build empires of blind ignorance and vile hatred. Nobody hates Jesus. Nobody hates Mohammed. But Christians and Muslims seem to hate everyone.

But this? I thought the whole reason people were against religion was because religious nutjobs pull shit like this? Way to stoop to that level. Wow. This is why we suck.

__________________________________________
~Chris
03 SRT-4

Penny Arcade fucking rocks. I've been looking for someplace to use that strip for years but Chris beat me to it damnit.

Brian, like you I was raised Christian and I still am. The fundamentalists on both sides seem to be getting more retarded every day. Christians, muslims and atheists alike seem to be escalating the stupid attacks without reason. I really don't know what to make of it

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

__________________________________________
~Chris
03 SRT-4

The only reason people believe that religion is for weak-minded people is that they can't grasp the consept of faith. Believing in something that you can't see is too much for people, so instead of admitting that, they talk shit to make themselves feel better. The way these cum-stains are going, even cross tattoos will be illegal. People like those that steal crosses, put our nation's flag upide down, and do other acts against this country should just leave if they hate it here that much. Hell, I'll even help them out and put them in a crate and ship them out of here myself. And I'll drill the air holes with them already inside the crate. This country was founded on Christianity, and even though our fore-fathers screwed up big too many times to count (they were human after all), this is still the best country to live in. People make mistakes. People, not Religions. By doing these stupid acts, I personally feel it's like spitting in the faces of everyone that died for this country. We have soldiers that risk their lives to protect our dumb asses from true tyranny. And unlike other countries, it's not mandatory. So to all these retards that do this shit, here's a suggestion. Go to another country and try to do the same there. Because you'll either get tortured, imprisoned, or killed. Either way, you won't be pissing us off any more.

I was raised a Christian and no longer am any religion. I believe we need to question everything we don't have answers to and not just "believe with blind faith" It's total bullshit they stole that cross! That is 100% disrespectful and pathetic of them to have done that! “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” -Mark Twain

Ian, you're partly right. This country wasn't founded on Christianity as the founding fathers had the foresight to not single out and give prefrence to one religion. It was founded on many Christian principles and beliefs. The whole "seperation of church and state" is never mentioned ANYWHERE in the constitution. It is a quotation of a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote about his interpretation of a particular portion of the constitution. It's easy to quote the handful of founding fathers that were obviously athiest or agnostic, but where does that leave the remaining majority? That's right, their quotes are something that many of the athiests and anti-religionists would prefer to be buried and forgotten.

Edit: I do agree with Jefferson's statement that the world would be better without religion. Religion (at least as far as christianity is concerned, I'm sure the others are quite similar) as a majority goes against Jesus' teachings by applying rules and legalism that he DIDN'T TEACH. Christianity is supposed to be about a relationship with God and Jesus, not some bullshit that makes you hate other people. Jesus taught that we're supposed to love one another above all else. It's also my understanding that the Qua'ran teaches pacifism, but that doesn't stop assholes from blowing up our troops either. Fuck religion.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

I'm a pastor's kid, so believe me, Christianity isn't for everyone. I questioned many of the core values after I ran away for getting hospitalized for not being 'book smart'. To me, beliefs and religion are two very different things. Beliefs are what we have after we question everything around us, and are something personal to us. Religions are blind, mindless traditions. Being religious without having any true, personal beliefs makes you a prime target of corrupt people that use religion to control and manipulate. But regardless of personal views, the things that happen in this country because of intolerance and people's need to piss on memorials because they are offended for whatever reason need to stop. We, as a country, cannot survive if people refuse to get along. That is aimed towards everybody in America. Religious people blame non-religious people for the problems in this country and visa-versa. I say "Who gives a shit?" Seeing this crap on the news makes me feel like I'm dealing with little kids. Why is it that no matter how old we get, we never seem to get out of 5th grade? I thought being an adult meant not acting like a spoiled brat that didn't get to wach TV and start acting our age. If the people that died for this country were next to these intolerant pricks, I think they would kick the crap out of them for being such douchebags. Sorry for the rant, guys.

I don't want to steer us away from the topic at hand, however...

Appreciated, Erik; But I can quote it to you.

There comes a point when we must abandon that which we have been spoon-fed in school; and look for a single and most prevalent underlying motive.
This case being monetary gain; Not to say it was the only reason, but it certainly appears to be the most important.

The vast majority of people, by their very nature, are greedy and self-serving. The 1600's-1700's were no different. Just because Hollywood would have us believe that people have only recently abandoned scruples altogether, this is not the case. People in this era were no different. They (The collective colonists) wanted to form a republic (Yes, this is not a democracy, folks, it's a republic.) they were inspired moreso by greed than the need to pray to whatever it is they wished to pray to. The need to get ahead, and amass wealth to sustain their families and businesses was paramount.

All driven by greed.

I'm not saying some greed is necessarily a bad thing; After all, it keeps our economy moving forward, right? All I'm saying is that monetary gain is and has been the biggest driving force behind our shrugging off British rule in the 1700's.

That having been said, if anyone wishes to continue this particular topic, we should start a new thread, as we are (Myself being mostly to blame here) getting far away from the topic at hand.

Edit - Spelling.

1998 Eclipse RS-T - Totaled 4/23/09 -
1998 Eclipse GST - Stroked 2.3l, HX40 fed: Build in progress
2010 Subaru Outback Limited

I hate hipsters.

1998 Eclipse RS-T - Totaled 4/23/09 -
1998 Eclipse GST - Stroked 2.3l, HX40 fed: Build in progress
2010 Subaru Outback Limited

I hate hipsters.

Erik P.
Official 2GNT thread Hijacker
Some say that he's driven over more Covenant than he's shot, and that his grenades aren't where you'd expect them to be...
All we know is, He's not The Stig... But he is The Stig's Spartan cousin!

I really think we are getting off topic a bit. I think the whole point of this thread is to have people understand the importance of tolerance and at least respect for monuments erected in the honor of others, NOT the mistakes of others. As with greed, it's inevitable. The best planned systems of government will always fall victim to people that focus on profit, and not serving the people. Our government was created because of people that were tired of corruption. But, people are fallible. And in the end, our system ended up being as corrupt as any other. The same goes with religions. People ARE easier to control with fear and hate injected into their daily lives, it's true. My own father's guilty of this. People in important positions tend to have a difficult time remaining honest to the very values they teach. But, instead of saying all 'so-and-so' people are bad, and we must hate them all, we should respect everyone. Period. I have gay friends, atheist friends, wiccan friends, ect. I might not agree with their views, but we all accept each other. That's the important thing. No preaching, no hating, just a group of friends hanging out. After all, the more open and repectful you are of others, guess what, you just might learn something new you can apply in your life and better yourself. We should, as a country, remember that we have strength in diversity, so we need to stop trying to change everyone. We can sit and complain about everyone else all day long, but the only way to break this cycle is to have us be the bigger people and stand together. And I'm in no way aiming this at any one group, even though I admit the religious nut jobs really need to embrace this. Just my two cents. As much as this sounds like an oxymoron, intolerance should not be tolerated.