Welcome to Gaia! :: Posts By User Unknown User | Forum

Ditto on that. whee

Yeah, I agree. Gender doesn't matter. Being dumped sucks any way you look at it. How does it feel different to you? I know there are lots of folks out there who feel the same way you do though. Its interesting to me that people look at being bi and going for the same gender differently than any other relationship breakup. I really don't understand it. confused

I like this one because of the focus on the forums, but it is too blah. More color. Even combining the mermaid effect with this one would be great! lol

Yeah, the girl almost looks sickly. Not my favorite that's for sure. I like the mermaid one the best.

I agree. I don't like the skinny mermaid. I would like to see something more androngynous and realistic body shape, actually. That feels more Gaian to me. But overall I like this one the best.

Ratrapid, I'm having a hard time following you. You keep saying you are for equal rights but you do not believe men and women are equal. Your definitions don't really make sense. You continue to talk about physical and emotional differences between people who have a lot of testosterone and people who have a lot of estrogen, but you are not talking about equality between people in general. If you have to continue to push against the idea the men and women are equal in any way, then how are you going to accept the differences and move forward?

BTW, I agree and know that gender is a cultural construct. Sex is the biological differences in humans. Check out the World Health Organizations definitions here. http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/index.html

I hear what you are saying. I think the problem is when we say "church" who are we talking about really? There are the powers that be... the pope, bishops, priests - who are mostly men (white men). Then we have the people. Then we have the theoretical "church". Then we have the actual building itself. You know what I mean? When people talk about the "church", especially in how this forum was brought up, I think automatically the dogma, the power structure, the politics of it. We don't hear much from the good, everyday folks who are just trying to be close to a god that they feel they can trust. What I hear the "church" telling people most of the time is the change people at whatever cost. They (the political powers of the church) try to scare people into believing that they have to live a certain way in order to get into heaven - like they know exactly how that can happen. These men who run the church, and have for centuries are just human beings. But they have coerced people in one way or another to believe what they say and not question anything. That is power.

I would love for the church to be only about the goodness of god - in whatever form you believe god to come in. Unfortunately, the church is used so often as a power tool, that the goodness gets lost.

It definitely happens today. Everywhere. Most of the wars that are going on are founded in religion and religious beliefs. It's sometimes more subtle (or not), but it's there.

I think if you looked more into religion and it's history ( I haven't taken an in depth class, but I have read a lot) that you will find out how religion has been used to manipulate people from the start. If you read up on Pagans and how so much of Catholicism and Christianity is taken from the rituals pagans used, it would blow your mind. The Christians eventually killed off pagans, but people still follow pagan beliefs. I was taught in Catholic school that all other religions are wrong and that I was supposed to bring people to our views. Right from the start I knew something was fundamentally wrong with that. That is definitely about power. It is 99% of the time. Its not about being good to each other and loving each other/treating each other with respect. It's about power and control and being right. And getting rid of those people who don't believe and those who might convince others to question as well.

I will definitely take a look at the guilds. Thank you for the direction.

Hey. Don't worry about it at all. I understand. And when I read over my first post, it did seem kind of sketchy sounding! I facilitate our youth group every Monday night, so I get used to just throwing ideas out there easily. But doing things online is a bit different. I need to think of my wording first.

I don't have a guild yet. I still need to find out more about that. I don't want to break any rules of Gaia though, so I want to read through more of that stuff. If you can lead me in the right direction for that, I would really appreciate it. There is so much on here, and my mind is overflowing with ideas on how to reach out to youth. But I don't want to mess with the etiquette! smile

Thanks for understanding. 4laugh