too many words and ideas in my head...

so i have an 830 to 945 theology class on tuesday and thursday mornings. today we were talking about fundamentalism and their beliefs and their political activism etc... that led into a discussion of seperation of church and state. we were talking about it and one guy made a point that i thought was really good. he said that for many people their religious beliefs are their political beliefs and that they cannot be seperated. so why is it that when a person says their beliefs they are listened to (in a political setting) but once they mention something about their religion they are instantly shut down because it is religion and religion and politics must be seperate. it should be that everyone's beliefs are listened to - whether they are religious or not.
i was also thinking about how two people who have the same religion can believe two completely serperate things. for example i am roman catholic but i have been questioning a lot of things lately and i consider myself a rather liberal catholic so if i talked to a more conservative catholic we would probably argue for a long time. then i was thinking about how people get so defined by their religion. once i say that i am catholic i am put in a box with other catholics but like i just said, i may have different belief than them. or, for example, when kerry was running for president many people were worried that he would be "ruled" by his religion and that he would make the government follow what the pope said. but it seems to me that many people don't follow their religion blindly. many people question their religion and question everything and form their own beliefs. so it frustrates me when i am stereotyped because of my religion.
then we started talking about abortion as an example of seperation of church and state. the abortion issue is very connected to religion and people usually use their religion to argue against it. i for one am against aboriton. i could never live with myself if i got an abortion. there was one girl in the class who is also anti abortion. but when she stated her beliefs something about the way she said it made me really mad. the teacher then posed the question - devil's advocate style - "why does everyone have to follow a few people's belief about abortion? why don't they make abortion legal so that those who believe that is ok can do it and those that are opposed won't?" this one guy got kinda mad when she said that and was like "that is like saying why don't we legalize murders?? its like the same thing!!" and he later went on to say that it is also like legalizing drugs, who in their right mind would do that? i had some problems with his argument. first of all most people of most faiths will agree that murder is wrong. second, drugs are legal in some places like the netherlands and i don't think that they have problems because of that. the only problems they have are when stupid americans come and overdose because they are so excited that drugs are legal. i was thinking about it and if it bothers me that other people get abotions. i think it is sad that people get them and i don't think that they should but does that mean that i should force them to not get them? why should i force my beliefs on them? why should people believe what i believe?? who am i to say that i am right and that i believe the right thing? why do humans have to force their beliefs on other people? what kind of a world would we live in if everyone believed the same things? i guess people that are so strong and vehement about their beliefs make me angry because they make it seem like no matter what, everyone else is wrong and everyone has to convert to their beliefs.
ok. sorry for the really long ramble that doesn't really go anywhere. i just had a ton of words and phrases and stuff bouncing off the insides of my head and i couldn't think straight. so i blogged all of it.
yay. i feel much better now. i can think. ok. now on to calculus. gag me.