Reema

The_FD

Nope!
You have your answer. the one that sounds fine to you. Nothing right or universal in there, just your own thinking.

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L'histoire de la famille Bourdillon
Les fêtes d'Hébé
The flying dancer dancing

gigi

some things in all religions are the same and you don't have to read the Quran' to know it. Talking to muslims can help, that's partially how I know.

I agree with you about the soul, but what is the soul for you??? For me it's the things I said previously. (I thought that saying just soul isn't a complete answer,for some people is one thing for others is another one).
Through talking about different religions we can learn (at least I can). I don't care much about what holy books say, but how those words are interpreted from the single individuals. Don't muslims have a different way of believing the same things (I don't know it, I just ask)?

SaraMaglione

I was born in Italy and my family still lives there. I moved in GB two years ago and I noticed that the conception of religion in Italy is quite different than in the rest of the world (I've travelled a lot and I now what I'm saying). In Italy everyone is catholic and people who have a different religion are regarded as different. Personally I am an atheist (and I don't want to bore you with all the reasons that made me change my mind, cause I was Catholic when I was a kid) but I think that having the Vatican in Italy can be in some ways a good thing, but he influences a lot the catholics, even concerning politics. I think it's wrong, because the Pope shouldn't influence politics, and of course the politicians shouldn't influence people's religious belief.
I don't like the way people think in Italy : the catholic church, in THEIR opinion, is better and more civilized than all the others and all the people who don't belive in God (the christian God of course) are only the minority. I don't think so and I don't like the way they think. What do you think about this? Is there any Italian who would like to say something about that?

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carol su

In my opinion,god exsist in human's heart. If you believe, he exsists; if not, he doesn't. In short, god is always together with us, he is a part of our spirit and soul.

gigi

I lived in Italy(in the south) for some years, what you are saying about the differency is correct but not only. I am cristian orthodox & Greek and most people there believed that orthodox Greeks ment that we are either muslim or Jews. When I asked them how come they don't know other religions and what they are they told me that that's what they've being told in chattechismo(I don't know the english word). Practically they were taught that the only cristians are the catholics. So not only if you are not catholic in Italy you are considered different but there is a vast misinformation.
[The misinformation doesn't stop there, the first question that Italian university students did to me is if in Greece we have electricity ]
The influence of the church in politics is not an italian thing. It happens in many countries (for example the Muslim ones). I think that the Italians through the centuries have left the Vatican do that. And don't ever forget the economic influence and power that the Vatican has. Without that do you think that would have influenced anyone???I certainly don't.

SaraMaglione

I agree with you about the misinformation : Italian people don't even know what the other religions are. They talk about religions without knowing anything about them and that makes me crazy because I can't understand people who don't know what they are talking about.
But I don't agree with your final affirmation : you said that anyone would have been influenced by the Church, as the Vatican has a big economic influence (and I would say HUGE, as they take billions of euros a year, without exaggerating). The Vatican used to have a big influence in France, too, for example, but the French were smart enough to start living their own life as an INDIPENDENT nation. Italy has never done that. French and Italy are fairly similar, and our constitution was strongly influenced by the French one. Both the constitutions say that French and Italy should be lay states (I don't know whether the word "lay" is used in this sense in English, anyway I mean a state wich is not influenced by any religious belief).
France is a lay state, Italy isn't. That's the contradiction.The countries you mentioned where the Islam has a big influence probably don't have a constitution which says that the state is lay.
In 1948 (after Mussolini and pope Pio XII who was well-known as an anti-Semite, and that's an outrageous thing) we had our Constitution, which I appreciate very much. And how can we contradict our own Constitution, which would have to be the mirror of our country?

__________________
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away from them, and you have their shoes
Is there world enough for me?
Welcome to the Hotel California!