If your easily offended by religious things, stay away!

At the Vatican, there is a wall with portraits of every Pope EVER, including the new one which is "in power" right now.

But after this one"the olive Pope" apparently there is only one portrait left to fill, only room for one more.

So I think this Pope is like, the Anti-Christ........he was a Hitler Youth......and if you'v read any Nostradumass it is said the Olive Pope will be the Anti Christ....

P.S. I'm not religious.

Sharon is supposedly the last Israeli leader too.

I almost believe it in a way, because the Lukids and other hardcores probably believe it too, so it's really self-fulfilling prophecy. Like most of it, it's suggestive.

I luv Suggestive Material.

I think those who care about such issues expect the Anti-Christ will be Jewish.

I don't think so. I honestly think he will be of the Evangelical perssuasion OR a secular liberal.

The anti-Christ is an interesting topic. Some beleive the translation means "in place of Christ" as in a substitute, not necessarily an evil entity or person. This could Christians, Christ's followers who are here in place of him since Jesus died on the cross in place of humanity, hence the anti-Christ.

That is just one very bad rendition of one interpretation, but it's food for thought.

In my considered opinion, it's all mystic nonsense which, in the nominally Christian world at least, is rooted in various self-serving misinterpretations of selected apocalyptic passages in the biblical books of Isaiah, Daniel, and mostly Revelation. They're written in terms of symbols and metaphors that would have been readily understood at the time but are no longer familiar to us. They were written that way for what we would now call reasons of deniability. The writer of Revelation, for instance, could not safely state directly that the Roman Empire was evil, idolatrous, and blasphemous, so it appears metaphorically as a beast rising up out of the sea, with seven heads and ten horns (numbers with mystical significance) and "...upon his heads the name of blasphemy." (Rev. 13:1), a reference to the official state ritual of emperor-worship.

There's lots of ready material for the mystically inclined to speculate endlessly on and invent whatever pleases them. And they do. And none of it has any significance at all, except to the extent that it becomes self-fulfilling. You think a couple of Christian fundamentalists like Bush and Blair sent armies to Iraq for freedom, democracy, oil, whatever? They're expecting the end of the world, the Battle of Armageddon, the second advent of Jesus, pretty much any time now, and they're doing their Christian duty in moving events in that direction. Hasn't Bush actually said something to the effect that he was designated by God to lead America at this time of crisis? Talk about dangerous delusions...

No the quote was something like.

"I take my orders from god"

I then whisperd to my self....."Were fu**ed"

The bible cannot be be the word of god-- it has too many spelling mistakes , contradictions, inconsistencies and grammatical errors. if i had handed something of that caliber to my high school english teacher -- i would have flunked--- you would think that the creator of the universe could do better.

if god exists and he is a good god why would he choose to communicate with us in such an obscure way and why only with some of us-- ie" the chosen people principle"--- if i want to talk to someone in europe i can just give em a call- after clearly identifing myself i might say clearly--hi im cortez the creator i am good and want you to do good in the world--- this is what i recommend---
but god doesnt
do that- why?---why doesnt he upgrade his medium of comunication -- send us a dvd instead of a book? why does god, if he EXISTS hide from us--- what is the creator playing with us --HIDE AND SEEK?-- a little immature for the creator of the universe--

we are but on the first step of a million -- that will take us to the stars--- the next step will demand of us to let go of this mass hysteria, this mass delusion and thought disorder that is religion---

the apparent world is the real world---- and it is mysterious enough without having to posit the existence of ANOTHER spiritual world-- the physical world is spiritual enough

when people can live a fulfilling enough life that allows them to accept that is it finite--- when they can ACCEPT that death is real and that there probably is nothing more--- then they will have become mature enough to leave religion behind and all of its problems

the idea of a heaven and a hell is particularly offensive
it implies that god has an inferior sense of justice to even the most barbaric human societies
murder someone on earth and what you get is say- a lethal injection--- but god would torture you for an ETERNITY--- you would think he might consider a more proportional sentence----- which doesnt make sense anyway since the person who was murdered --- never really dies--- they go on to the afterlife----

these tangles are mind viruses that infect our nervous systems --

if you can get people to believe such absurdies-- you can get them to believe just about anything.
and most importantly do very horrible things

and this brings us to Cortezes observation that concience is natural mental phenoman
religion PRETENDS to give you concience---while actually subverting it---
if you do evil --murder for the state for instance-- --that ultimately is ok -- because there is a GOD who can ---FORGIVE you--
if there were no god you would REMAIN guilty-- you might remain-UNFORGIVEN-- according to natural law

or -- i could be completely wrong

No, I'd say you've got it pretty much completely right, though I'm sure there are many more thoughts in your head about these matters than you've posted.

Which I suppose is really just another way of saying I agree with you.

Good stuff, Cortez.