[kahljorn]

"Morals are, or should be, universal for all sentient creatures."

I pretty much agree with this except that I don't think morals are "Universal". I think that they were something that was probably developed over the course of a few thousand years(partly by religion and religous followers). Even in primitive societies which have no crime they would still slaughter other villages for the well-being of their own village. I also don't think they are entirely necessary; however, I do think they are necessary for the type of life most people want to live. Once people accept that they want that life, morals, to me, are pretty much universal. People who don't think they are universal are either philosophers or immoral and looking to excuse themselves from their actions and the consequences of their actions. Or they don't care, which is "Immoral" i guess.
As for the way in which morals were developed I think religion and many other things have played a very important part and to attempt to completely remove religion from the picture is stupid. One could maybe make a case that it's no longer needed in the modern world, but stupid people need religion, it's good for them, without it they could possibly crumble- along with society. That's why it was invented in the first place, besides of course seeking the nature of reality.
Religion is like humanities way of seeing the world before science or something, same with mythology. I don't really think it's as "Unbelievable" as most people make it out to be but maybe I read too much into it. I think religous people exagerate the importance of their religion much too often.

"I just really really don't understand why there is evidence that it exists. "

most of the "evidence" for god's existence is more evidence that existence exists but that's just how I see it and I really haven't read that much about it. They also try to qualify and describe the nature of existence, and that nature of existence is usually God. God also plays some other roles like perpetuator and shit like that and the guy who sees trees fall down in forests when nobody sees them fall (:

"God and soul are totally undefined as far as I can tell, and their meaning varies greatly from person to person."

Actually souls and Gods are pretty much the same thing everywhere from my experience but maybe it's just my "Personal vendetta" or something tainting my perception of them. I mean for example the soul in Christian traditions is called the "Mustard seed" as exemplified in Dufresne's signature whereas in buddhism it's called, "The jewel in the lotus". In both they are mostly eternal and unbreakable. BUT ISNT IT INTERESTING THAT THEY ARE BOTH TINY PARTS OF A PLANT?
From "Person to Person" maybe but not really tradition to tradition and I feel most people pretty much feel that souls are the "Eternal unbreakable" part of their "Being". Now the differences I start to note are when people start to think of it's applications. Like how people think that after they die they'll goto heaven and hang out with their family and friends and have all their memories and likes or dislikes and play video games everyday. That kind of stuff is probably bullshit.
Also I don't know what to think of reincarnation(or rebirth with buddhists) but for the most part it sounds dumb to me. I mean obviously there's some recycling of matter in the universe but I don't think that accounts for what they are talking about. Maybe just the continuation of human life and it's progression and culminations ;/

Also if any of you would like to discuss buddhism I'd be happy to I've never met anyone who knows anything about it except myself. i think buddhism is probably one of the best religions because it's so simple to understand.

Here's some interesting stories about buddha that are supposed to be true!

Supposedly alexander (the great) met with Buddha and that's why he stopped his crazy attacks (remember he stopped in india) after he learned he had no purpose to his attacks and he was really just responding to having a dyke mother and a one eyed jackass of a father.

Also the story of buddha is interesting in the following way: In india when you are born, especially if you're of importance, they would do an astrological chart of your life to decide what is best suited for you and what type of occupation you should fill. Buddhas father was a king you guys probably know. So when the results of the astrological chart came in it said he would either be a great, magnanimous ruler or he would be an ascetic priest devoted solely to understanding reality/bringing peace/love to the lands or some hippy shit like that. His father of course didn't like the second option so he forced buddha (then Siddharta) to stay within the castle his entire life so he would never witness suffering and want to become a priest. Of course anybody who knows the rest of the buddha story is getting where this story is going but anyway: then when buddha was older he escaped the castle or was going through the countryside to visit a relative or something and he saw all kinds of people dead, dying, starving (I think there ight have been a war going on at the time but i can't remember) and he decided he wanted to save the world from suffering :O
Moral of the story: if his father hadn't kept him inside the castle all that time he probably wouldn't have been so shocked and responded so crazily :O