#1 Blair: First, we need to recognize and encourage religious faith to express its essential, and in my view more true role, as a source of values, not ideology.

Even pagans can be "good" by the world's values. It is not by being "good" that you have everlasting life. Instead, you must have faith, repent of sins, obey the One true God. Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

#2 Blair: I am a Christian and identify myself as such, I do not and should not disrespect those of a different faith who have taken a different path to salvation.

There are no "different paths". John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

#3 Blair: Third, we should study and learn from our own classics and traditions.

Jeremiah 17:5 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

#4 Blair: It reminds us to ask this fundamental question: what is life for?

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

#5 Blair: Religious leaders should not try to dictate; but they should have the ability to speak, and to offer their view.

There shouldn't be much of a "view". The Lord is truth and He never changes. Malachi 3:6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

#6 Blair: Sixth, to ensure harmony between civilizations...

You focus on pleasing man which lead to death, I focus on God which leads to Life. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

Blair: ...and that one faith should not try to exercise control or claim greater privilege of citizenship over another.

I don't exalt myself above others but I will exalt the One true God. Deuteronomy 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

#7 Blair: Seventh, we have the best chance of obtaining the above, if we encourage, promote and activate interfaith harmony and understanding.

You have NO CHANCE unless you Believe in the One true God, repent (turn away from sins) and obey the Lord.

I can't listen to you Tony. You are a proven unscrupulous straight faced liar and I don't need your advice. Who are you to come and start preaching to others about religion and spirituality when your own spirit is tainted with the blood of so many dead...young old male female. You put your own troops at risk of death by spilling over with lies. You don't have the standing. Go away and pray for your soul instead,

I feel strongly that the power of knowledge
of spirituality is supreme to create harmony & LOVE amongst the people of our planet specially in the present prevailing wonderful ennvironments. Service to humanity would be great to inspire THE TRUE
LOVE OF TRUTH & while by living it accordingly , will result of generation of faith in GOD. All religions are just the road to success in getting bliss state to
fall in the group of special beloveds of GOD & develope the self power to ignore the superficial world.
The world is governed by beloveds of GOD
& obstructed by those devoid of LOVE OF GOD since they suffer from the deep influence of ego or five evils , present inside us.
People or human body has three elements i.e
body , mind, soul/energy.Body consciousness
is a barrier in realising the light of truth of GOD'S LOVE. GOD'S LOVE charges our
soul/energy , which in turn enters our mind
as a star (right side of brain) & provides
sufficient nector to body veins for generation of infinite physical power to serve the humanity in a loveable manner as desired by our creator GOD.
I appreciate MR TONY BLAIR on one account that he released as PM ,US$ ONE MILLION to
start a new school in middax, LONDON to HIS HOLINESS AMAR SING JI, BARUNDI WALE , PUNJAB...a great initiative towards generation of interfaith dialogue at school level in UNITED KINGDOM of this new millenium.
Inter faith dialogues in the form of global level seminars are a great events for sending a message of world peace since I enjoyed a few in AMRITSAR at SATGUR NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY LEVEL, being a person from soldiering backgroud that too as FORMER MAJOR in INDIAN ARMY.
Living LORD SATHYA SAI BABA is a LIVING LEGEND with LOVING LEGACIES is doing his best by his blessings to one & all . Similarly GOLDEN TEMPLE is a unique place
radiating powerful viberations of LOVE OF GOD founded 425 years ago by THE GREATEST
PEACE LOVING PERSONALITY OF LAST MILLENIUM , GURU ARJA DEV JI ,THE FIFTH NANAK of sikh religion. This has its basis, for an all round success at global level inspite of heavy blows of last century , on the principles of sacrifice ,
to support the weak , suffering from oppression by strong powerful leadership
at any place on the globe. Western mind, specially in USA has been wonderful to open his gates to support its value & importance at WHITE HOUSE LEADERSHIP ....GREAT & HISTORICAL & commendable LEAP .........
Knowledge of soul/energy has been explained in detail in the sripture & is also known as THE LIVING GURU , SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB, of SIKH RELIGION.
Everyone feels proud of the contributions made by the best brains of west , who have given to the humanity , for using them in
communication & medicines & commuting by air, sea, rail& road etc....
Faith in spiritual knowledge is true step to spread THE LOVE OF GOD & provide the needed support, in bringing in health , wealth & bliss to one & all at global level ....WITH GOD'S LOVE..AJEET SINGH MAC.

Im quite sad that as good as the speech to the atheist communist regime was, Tony Blair did not mention the elephants in the room and that is the peaceful and faithful Falun Gong whose organs are being taken from them live to sell on the open market and the Tibetans who also suffer the same torture, and the peaceful Uighur Muslims.

Your silence is deafening . All those who have power to speak out and don't are by that omission implicated.
The world will never be safe while we trade openly with the murderous evil regime and do not openly speak out directly to them about the innocent Falun Gong.

eezmamata

You wrote, "Each religion claims all others are lies. If you don't know that, then you aren't paying attention. The best argument that all of them are lies is made by religion itself. The best argument that there is no god is the non-existence of all the other gods people have believed in, thousands of them."

If that is the "best argument", it sure isn't much of one.

You then wrote, "You're stuck in your christian world today, somehow you think the few gods people worship today are all that people ever worshipped."

As far as I know, you do not know me and yet you claim to know how I think.

You then asked, "Btw, are you one of those crackpots who think the earth is only 6000 years old?"

No, I am the "crackpot" that is here to tell the whole world that God's Plan is not only for all of humanity but is also for all of creation to be in God's Kingdom.

I have wondered, at times, why quite a few people seem to think that just because we seem to be in such a hurry that God had to also be in such a hurry in creating.

If God were even remotely like what some people believe God to be, I would not want anything to do with God, if I had a choice, but God is not even the least like what some, even some that know God's Name, think God to be.

You then wrote, "Screw the gods, you're a fool if you believe in them"

You're entitled to your opinion but as I have said previously, I used to believe in God until I met God so now I know that God Is and is a Trinity and is a Being of Pure Love.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

St. Thomas, how would you feel if I signed all my posts as I will just this one?

Each religion claims all others are lies. If you don't know that, then you aren't paying attention. The best argument that all of them are lies is made by religion itself.

The best argument that there is no god is the non-existence of all the other gods people have believed in, thousands of them. You're stuck in your christian world today, somehow you think the few gods people worship today are all that people ever worshipped.

Btw, are you one of those crackpots who think the earth is only 6000 years old?

Screw the gods, you're a fool if you believe in them

eezmamata

tony has the nerve but do not have the shame to say :

"We know religion has the power to do good. We know religion also has the power to inspire acts of terrorism and evil."

Why did not your Christain faith prevent u -and W-from destroying Iraq and murdering hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and destroying their homeland?????

And who brought terrorism and Al Qaedah to Iraq when it could never dreamt of touching the soil of IRaq under Saddam?

tony,well...well...here you come again..with more spin...

U are the last crock on the face of the eath to speak on religon and values after your shameful lies to justify your and W's destructive war on Iraq.

U cannot possibly have any scruples or shame whatsoever. U have the nerve to lectute us on religious values when u should have been hiding along with clueless W in a damp barn at crawford,Tx.

Instaed of preaching us about religous values-why don't you precah your cathloic priests from the pulpits of your new catholic religion to stop abusing innocent children the world over-who are no differnt than the children of Iraq whom u and W starved and murderd.

If there were any justice in this world u and W should now be standing before the International Court of Justice like Kraditic for crimes against humanity-but instead u are lecturing the world on values and huam decency when u have none.

Yes I believe in the freedom of expression but am surprsied that WP allowd a crock and a fraud like u to write on this forum.

I salute your your former sister-in-law for embarcing Islam after she had a direct experience of living with a Muslim family.

Why is this charlatan's article being given so much play again, and again?

By Toni joining Bush Jr.'s CRUSADE , was this a act of faith? I would say not and bet he regrets doing it.

From "Prisons We choose To Live Inside" by Doris Lessing. page 30

We forget - and the young people don't know since they don't read history - that we are heirs of two thousand years, more or less, of a most tyrannical regime, beside which Hitler and Stalin are babes. Not that modern tyrants have not learned from the churches, some consciously.
About the time of the First World war, the churches lost their teeth and ceased to become the major influence on our Western societies. Now they are amiable, often oriented towards work that is indistinguishable from social and charitable work, infinitely divided, and while some of sects are totalitarian. it is not possible for the church - as was the case till only yesterday, historically speaking - to dominate a whole society as the sole arbiter of conduct and thought. But for two thousand years Europe was under a tyrant - The Christian Church - which allowed no other way of thinking, cut off all influences from outside, did not hesitate to kill, extirpate, persecute, burn and torture in the name of God

To remember this history is not for the sake of keeping alive the memories of old tyrannies, but to recognize present tyranny, for these patterns are in us still. It would be strange if they were not.

eezmamata;

You make good sense. I totally agree with you. It seems inevitable that one day some superstitious religious nut is going to blow us all to bits - for some imagined god or another.

Religions have been fighting each other since time began. If they'd had nuclear weapons a thousand years ago - we wouldn't be here today. But now we do have nuclear weapons, so our time is limited. The wacky religionists are the planets greatest danger. They are beyond common sense and reality.

eezmamata

You wrote, "The only way we're going to survive our religious differences is to grow up and stop believing in these silly gods, goddesses, and other 'divine' characters invented by our primitive - and often barbaric ancestors."

As if we are not still barbaric. Our barbarism may be more sophisticated, more civilized to some and much more efficient so as to make the "barbarism" of our "primitive" ancestors seem quite tame by comparison.

You then wrote, "Since each of them claims to be the only truth, and all others are lies, well ... all of them are lies, how hard is that?"

So this is what you are claiming as the "truth", just how do you know that this is the "truth"?

You then wrote, "Then again, most of humanity are sheep who can't think for themselves, let alone thing what it's like to be someone else."

Do you "know" what it is like to be someone else?

You then wrote, "One day soon, religion will start WW III, billions will die, and it will all start over again. People will find a way to thank their sky daddy for letting them survive. At that time there will be so few of us, and so much land, we won't have to fight each other again for quite a while."

First off, religion does not start wars or fight wars but people do and religion is just one of the reasons that people use.

Second, it doesn't seem to matter what the ratio of people to land is for there to be a war.

Third, a war does not necessarily have to be a group against a group but it can be a person against a person.

You then wrote, "Homo Religioensis will be the end of the homonid species. I wonder if any of the other species existing today can evolve the same intelligence we seem to possess, without the nonsense?

First you said that there would be a few left, now you say that there will be none left, do you think that mankind is capable of wiping out mankind without wiping out all other life, as in making this planet totally inhospitable to all life?

Is this "nonsense" that you speak of the way that man treats his fellow man, the way that many group "others" together so as not to see that each person is an individual person not the "label", that some either believe or know that God Is, something else or a combination of factors?

Just because you think/believe that the truth is "all of them are lies" does not mean this is true as I have already pointed out.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

The only way we're going to survive our religious differences is to grow up and stop believing in these silly gods, goddesses, and other 'divine' characters invented by our primitive - and often barbaric ancestors.

Since each of them claims to be the only truth, and all others are lies, well ... all of them are lies, how hard is that?

Then again, most of humanity are sheep who can't think for themselves, let alone thing what it's like to be someone else.

One day soon, religion will start WW III, billions will die, and it will all start over again. People will find a way to thank their sky daddy for letting them survive. At that time there will be so few of us, and so much land, we won't have to fight each other again for quite a while.

Homo Religioensis will be the end of the homonid species. I wonder if any of the other species existing today can evolve the same intelligence we seem to possess, without the nonsense?

While I have absolutely no problem with the death penalty, in this case, it almost seems too light a sentence.

Have these animals spend the rest of their lives breaking big rocks into little ones, or digging a hole with a shovel, and then filling it back in. Have them do it every day, day in and day out, until they finally die many years from now.

Somehow seems a more suitable punishment than a quick, easy injection.