hahahahahaha

I object to the second half becauseI simpy don't like it. It doesn't strike me as being anything more than someone accepting their fate, which, In my view isn't anything new or exciting. You Christians seem to have an overly optimistic view of death in verse or conversation, but the tune often changes when the end is actually staring you in the eye (not all, but many).

mmm...1,000...1,500...1,999 soldiers lives...meaningless...now 2,000! That's a number we can get behind.

Yes, it’s a familiar debate – hohum by now. Yawn. You see my religious remarks as attempts to ruffle feathers, and respond ruffled in some other way, such as thinking I’m proud, rubbing in stuff you’ve heard since you were a kid. And after some outburst along another line of thought, in this case disintegration of the self, you pronounce yourself the winner with check and mate. In most of these arguments I’ve had no desire to feather ruffle, but rather to express some belief or opinion for open discussion.

Oh, but it did - stains and empty nests prove it.

No, really, consider the question: Who would God forgive first - the selfish or the selfless? Ahd which does He more accurately resemble?

I'm the child of eternity...I'm too young to know whatever it's facing me like thorough the aesthetic of a shot in Standly Kubrick's movie 2001: a space odyssey...THE MAN IS GOING BEYOND INFINITY

You wanna talk about suggesting God, check this madness: "U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2,000 in Iraq"

It came at a price, believe me. The plus side is, it does get you laid after all.

I more and more agree with you.

Premature retraction didn't work for the Catholics, what makes you think it'll help here?

Stop it. You're so proud of yourself for supposedly ruffling our feathers. Whatever. We've heard this stuff since we were kids. If you'd bother considering the disintegration of the self into the godhead at the moment of death, and whether that means you or your protagonist will ever actually experience God/heaven in any form recongizable as 'self', you might ruffle us. To whatever you might respond, my response is: The medieval mystic Catherine of Siena believed Christ had married her in a vision with the foreskin of his circumcision. Check and mate.

No, I'm disagreeing with the position that it's necessary to say so so bluntly in a poem. Don't assume that crap about me. I happen to occasionally agree with the position that a Christian dying is gain. But I agree most with the missionary position.

i know it doesn't really "fit," but am prone to doing things like that. desperate like jesus, i like that...

Yes indeed! Easy access.

Oh Country music! OK I must have forgotten to turn my brain on that day. The difference is that Johny Cash most likely did do those things. I'm amazed at your ability to pull up these references so often. In complete awe.