[Manic Velocity]

I was baptised Catholic and raised in a heavily Mormon family. Well, when I was growing up, they were very Mormon, but as I got older some of them changed their views. Though, I couldn't tell you at this time what their current views are.

But I digress. I've struggled with whether or not I beleive in God. I used to ask myself all the usual questions such as: "If God is so good, why does he let bad things happen?" Now that I think about it, every single question I used to ask myself about God was either an "If" or a "Why" question.

An issue of the Spawn comic book put it all into perspective for me. A lot of this is going to sound really stupid if you aren't into comics, but please bear with me. It was issue 101. In issue 100, Spawn kills his demon master, "Malebolgia". In doing so, his hell-bound soul is redeemed and he is offered a permanent place in Heaven. He refuses. It was in issue 101 that he explains why he chose neither the side of good nor the side of evil. I can't explain it any better than the writers did, so I will just quote the comic.

Spawn (addressing a blind woman known as Granny Blake, the mother of Spawn's widow, Wanda):

"Heaven. Hell. The Bible. None of those fairy tales has it right. And the religions?! They've got the whole friggin' world suckered into some delusion or another. More than that, there isn't a good side. They're both the same. You see, Granny, they just killed my friend, an angel. A real live angel. Gutted her like a pig. Hell did the deed, but Heaven aided and abetted the slaughter. Why? Why would God let one of his gilded flock die? That's an easy one.

War. Plain and simple.

Armageddon. The Apocolypse. Call it what you want. The only way to win is to have more souls than the other side. No matter what. At ANY cost. So, if you think your good deeds count in the end, then you've been suckered again. Every soul goes in one pool, you see, and they alternate picks. Fifty-fifty, right down the middle, like some twisted, insane sports draft. First Heaven, then Hell. Then Heaven, then Hell. Back and forth. Obviously, neither side gets a numbers advantage that way.

You know what the thing is that tips the scales? It's quality. Who's better at war. Who's souls can fight with more savagery. Your Heaven needs the ruthless as much as Hell does. God's not stupid enough to believe he can win a war with Hell on the backs of the souls of Salvation Army volunteers, kindly blue-haired bingo ladies and sunday school teachers. No. God needs the spirits of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Jack the Ripper. Their cruelty would serve Hell so well that He'd do all he could to keep them off that team.

Satan chose me but I wasn't like his other pawns. I killed my demon master, then laughed at Heaven when they invited me to jump to their side.

They're the same. At least their agendas are. Dominate. Win. At any cost."

Anyone want to comment on this. I suggest everyone on this board go out and pick up a few copies of Spawn. Especially issues 100 and 101.

My reason for posting this is simply because Kenny mentioned that the forums have been a tad slow lately, so I thought what better way to get people talking, than to bring up religion. I love talking about religion. BUT I hate arguing with people that try to impress me with THEIR religion. There's no convincing people that feel they have to show off their religion by sporting the Jesus fish, or some bumper sticker that tells everyone how proud they should be that you're a Christian, Mormon, Catholic, Muslim, or whatever. Just BE a Christian. BE Mormon. BE the kind of person that your religion calls for. Don't feel like you have to prove yourself to everyone.