AJ Philips,
Talking dictionary definitions see what "vein" means. Then compare it with "vain", or "in vain".

Dear Philo,

I apologise for the over-sight. It was careless of me, and as a follower of our ever-elusive Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ, who on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, I’m sure you’ll find it in your Christian heart to forgive me.

It’s just as well solid reasoning withstands typos though. I’d be in a lot of trouble if it didn’t.

mjpb I was in that group but condemned and left it after that day.
The crimson idiots wanted God to heal a broken arm.
I can tell you the leader of that church went on to become one of this countrys best know tele avangelists.
Yes fair cop, I did miss read your post.
But two things in my favor, on seeing your last post here I came past the rest to answer you.
Do it often then return and read ALL posts.
Second my typing is one finger and thats the one I broke recently.
never going to mbe good again sometimes it hurts too much to post again.
I agree it is people who divid but they do it in the name of God.
And I can not ever forgive those who think killing followers of another God is justified because only the God they follow is worthy.
Tragic that humans can think like that.

Dear Foxy,
Thank you for the story about the Kryziu Kalnas with its deep (and sad) symbolism. My knowledge of Lithuanian is non-existent, however I noticed that your word for “cross” resembles the Polish (and other West-Slavic), rather than the Russian, equivalent. It was only in Australia that I came to know and respect a number of Lithuanians, with sad reminiscences of their old homeland, perhaps not that unlike those of your parents’, if I read you properly.

And it was only in Australia that I learned to appreciate also my own “tri-ethnic” (Slovak-Hungarian-German) background. So sometimes in the seventies I wrote:

The advent of the Industrial society brought about a change in our attitude to our physical habitat. We had to invent ecology to protect what before used to be our enemy to be conquered. The advent of the Information society is changing our attitude towards our natural cultural habitat, which on both the individual and communal levels is religion in the broadest sense together with ethnicity. We will have to invent something that will bring the change in our minds, so that religion and ethnicity, that used to divide us, will be protected as something that will keep us separate and above the artificial inteligences that we are about to create. The smallest flower living in the dirtiest soil is esthetically preferable to the most magnificent plant made of plastic. We have learned that. We still have to learn that the same is true about natural and artificial cultures.

mjpb,
Thanks for your reply. I reacted to your post because you complained that you were the only Christian discussing Communism. So I offered not another contribution to these never ending discussions on whose world-view is more right, not even an argument, but only a personal testimony. I think you understood that.

Communism, more precisely dialectical materialism, is just one among many particular world-view systems based on atheism. An explicit classification, or even discussion, of the many meanings of the term “atheism” is rather complicated, also because many atheists claim universality for their personal understanding and application of the term (see e.g. http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=8444#133584).

I agree that the majority of people who would describe themselves as atheist in any Western country could be called passive, as those who write books about “God delusion” could be called active. Of course, active atheists in our society are not supported by a repressive political system like those in (former) Communist countries, and have nothing to do with them. It is quite obvious you never claimed they had.

My experience is that often an explicitly anti-theist position (in distinction to opposition - shared by many theists - to this or that extreme form of religion) reflects a kind of “anti-faith”, an embittered state of mind caused by some negative life experience.

All in all, I think we do not disagree on these things.

Dear George,

I've recently acquired a book called
"Vilnius Poker," by Ricardas Gavelis
(Translated from the Lithuanian by
Elizabeth Novickas)published last year.

Ricardas Gavelis has been described as
the grand innovator of literature.
His work could be called magic realism
or surrealism, compared to Franz Kafka or
Roald Dahl by "Die Tageszeitung," (Berlin).

This book caused a controversy when it was
first published in Lithuanian (in
Lithuania) in 1989.

"Think of it as The Matrix behind the Iron
Curtain - unsettling and profoundly
interesting." - Kirkus Reviews.

Apparently it captures the world of Lithuania
under the Soviets. And that's something I
know little about, but am eager to find out.

Anyway, if you can get hold of a copy somehow,
it may be of interest - if you want a different
slant on Lithuania.