The need to separate knowledge from religion, when seen as a parallel to the separation of church and state becomes

an awkward dichotonomy. In a conversation between two HCC students of different background and culture, the issue of reincarnation came up, and it surprised the one student to hear the idle thoughts of the other who just happened to be another student in the conversation. What the other student said was, " It [re-incarnation] makes me think of how many lives I've lived on earth for me to have the level of knowledge and wisdom that I currently possess." Impressed by this view, the one student jovially responded, " wow! see, that's interesting to hear comming from a Christian", and the conversation bloomed into another episode of lively banters. Are Christians cynical as to how they view the rest of the world? or is it just the nature of their doctrine that ignites opposing views from the religion's critics. Many non-christians, including those of christian heritage are prone to accusing christians of all the evil that's going on in this world. Justification for their argument can be traced to a nagging controversy in the bible itself. Things that would make the lay man shake his head. For example, when King Solomon defied the jewish law by falling in love with a strange woman, who brought idol worshiping to the Kings palace, according to the law, God should have punished him promptly, like he did with everybody else. But because of God's covenant with Solomon's father King David, God decided to let the issue slide, choosing instead to pass the punishment down to Solomons successors. And the argument continues. It is worth noting though, that David himself was not a perfect man. Though it may seem like God let him get away with murder, some Christians argue that he was duely punished by God. Today, when Nations act in guise of their religion, christians almost by default take the blame for being the evil ones that do all the killings. Didn't the KKK use the bible to justify their acts of terrorism toward blacks? Didn't missionaries accompany European adventurers to denounce African beliefs and institute Christian values?, and yet Africa is still in tatters today? And the story continues. At a certain point it all becomes hypocrisy on behalf of the christian. The layman asks, how can you be claiming good, when i

see a lot of evil. This leaves the individual Christian with a lot of defending to do. Not so much as to what goes on in the bible, because the bible itself does a good job at explaining itself, but moreso as to what goes on in our world. Ironically this is the reason why Jesus Christ himself got zapped because no matter how much explanation he did, the people did not get it. But for the individual christian that caught the bug, this legacy continues. It is thus a growing challenge amongst christians to be like Christ as much as possible. The problem with that is that temptation overpowers our divine intentions, and in one way or the other, we all fail. By falling prey to sin we become guilty of the world's accussation. The only comforting part of the Christian life is that you do not immediately incure the wrath of God as say Nebuchadnezer, the king of Babylon did. But God is alway ther to pick u up and clean you up again. The good thing about sin is that when you acknowledge it's presence in your life, there is that humble awakening to the fact that you are not any better human being than the next person. Like the rest of mankind, you have also fallen short of the glory of God, if at all you care. If that is not the case, then we will always find ourselves wanting to "throw the first stone". A more poignant notice however, is the other student's closing thought to the conversation, " if I had my way, i would rather live it all up and accomplish all my goals in one life, and if possible without pain". Well, good luck with that. My christian friend.