As I thought SM you have not addressed the issue at all. It is not difficult to understand that some people think religion is a private matter. You can confuse all you want.

Why do people so often conflate values with religion. There are those who are religious who display no values whatsoever and think a quick trip to the Church will make things okay. There are atheists who also display no values. Overall most people share the same values.

What values does a Christian person have that other do not share other than a belief in a deity?

For any person, the voicing of values is one thing acting on them is quite another. Behaviour must reflect values otherwise it is just window dressing that gives a free pass.

I don't doubt for many that religion assists them to live to their values. For others it is a sense of ethical and shared community values. Why is one better than the other.

Ponde,

See: http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/lourdes/miracles3.html#pellegrin

These are offered as, and considered to be, answers to prayers to a supernatural being, kindly read and offer a scientific explanation of the various cases; as a student of "funny happenings" I await your illuminating reply (ies).

Dear pelican,

Attending church is indeed no proof that one is religious.
Not attending church is indeed no proof that one is not.

<<What values does a Christian person have that other do not share other than a belief in a deity?>>

Belief in a deity is not a value (faith is, but that has little to do with belief), but just a religious technique. The only difference between theists an atheists is that theists practice this specific technique while atheists do not.

Religion offers many different methods for coming closer to God: believing in God is just one of those methods and it does not suit everyone.

<<I don't doubt for many that religion assists them to live to their values. For others it is a sense of ethical and shared community values. Why is one better than the other.>>

Whatever works is good and whatever works is religious.
For some people the one works better than the other.

Religion, of course, does not stop at assisting people to live their values, but that is an essential step without which one cannot progress much further.

Pelican,

"What values does a Christian person have that other do not share other than a belief in a deity?"

Not lying, and as our Green MPs in NSW have been caught lying then it follows that they aren't Christians.

How's that for a simplistic statement?

I must give it to Shadow Minister, and his paranoia with The Greens, hate them, or hate them, he simply can't ignore them. They certainly must get to him, at the least opportunity he will launch into a baseless attack, hoping to ignite anti Green sentiment amongst other "like minded" forumites. The measure of the desperate level he sinks is demonstrated in his very first post, resorting to faithfully reproducing a line from his beloved Murdoch fish wrapper The Daily Telegraph. Was that the wisdom of the repugnant Piers Akerman, a oft quoted hero of the pugnacious SM. As no one of intelligence would be caught dead reading The Daily Telegraph, little own quoting from it, we will never know.
Pity SM can't start a discussion on the achievements in government of his leader, and ecclesiastical clown the Mad Monk himself, ably assisted by his merry band of half witted Liberal nincompoop. Alas, it would be a very short discussion indeed.

Julia Gillard slammed the Greens:

- “the Greens will never embrace Labor’s delight at sharing the values of everyday Australians, in our cities, suburbs, towns and bush, who day after day do the right thing, leading purposeful and dignified lives, driven by love of family and nation";

- as a 'protest' Party; and

- (to the Don Dunstan Foundation), Gillard criticised the Greens for being unable to "strike the balance" that would facilitate reform while protecting and providing jobs.

The public are awake to the Greens, as was evidenced by the trouncing the Greens received at the last federal election.

Complaints about the Lord's Prayer is the sort of cheap, headline-hunting stunt expected of the Greens. When is that Tasmanian State election the Greens and Labor are rightly so worried about? March 15th, say hooray as Tasweigians get to put the garbage out in 2014.