Çok geçmiş olsun Vineyards.

Of course, humans have good and bad qualities. In fact, that is the starting point of almost all the religions. For example, according to Zoroastrianism (a 3200 year old religion) which can be considered the basis of many later celestial religions: God has two spirits: Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu or in other words good spirit and bad spirit. These two constantly fight with each other. Humans are free to follow either spirit but it was said in the end Spenta Mainyu is destined to win.

In this ancient religion, there is a superior God Ahura Mazda who is the father of these two. From there you can guess it serves the basis for the holy trinity tenet of Christianity. Gathas (the holy book) is like a source of inspiration for later religions. In Islam there is a bridge called Sırat. All the mortals will eventually walk through that that bridge to reach heaven. If you are an evil person you are bound to fall down to hell. This entire story was borrowed from the Gathas. Both Christianity and the ancient Egyptian religion have similar mentions.

If you read, Zoroasters dialogues with Ahura Mazda you will realize why this ancient prophet needed a God. There have always been wicked people in the world. Nonetheless, evil and good have relative meanings. Take Al Qaeda, they base all their actions on God´s orders and they risk or sacrifice their lives to implement those so-called orders. If religion is a way to reach good how can they be bad? But in fact, from a Western perspective they are the devils.

Teşekkür ederim / Thanks.

No we both did what we thought right. There is no reason to regret. We could get bitter in the future too. This shows we ardently defend our causes and are willing to come to terms when there is a chance for agreement.

Thank you for your good wishes. My father has the lung cancer. Let this be another warning for smokers.

I am sorry to hear that vineyards. geçmiş olsun. It is hard to see our parents weak. I hope you are able to bear up well. Take care of yourself.

I hope smoking in Turkey has diminished a great deal. I stopped smoking a few years ago and now find it really bothers me to be around the smoke from smokers. Where I live, in California, there are very strict anti-smoking laws. I used to hate them, but now I´m glad for their existance.

It is a difficult thing to stop smoking. It is more than one habit, it is many combined into one.

Thank you. Smoking is the plague of the century. People must always go to the extremes before realizing what kind of a mistake they have been doing. My father stopped smoking months before the diagnosis but 60 years of smoking had already done enough harm. He has been suffering from COPD for a couple of years. Now, the cancer. How can anyone contrinue smoking knowing that the fate is invariably either of these two diseases. One of them causes people to get exhausted just by walking a few meters and the other dooming them to premature death. How irresponsible people get just for pleasure. I see chain-smoking mothers. Sources of bad examples are plenty. People tend to think life is endless at young age. Take Adele, this young singer see no problem declaring she would prefer smoking over becoming a mother. We need to become wiser...

It makes me happy hearing Arabs love us. No matter what it is good thing to be loved.

It is hard to explain why people smoke. I know it would have been impossible to just "stop" smoking without the social infrastructure that helped. It becomes a part of you and it also entails many habits. There is the blowing of the smoke, flicking the ashes, lighting it, different ways of holding it. Then there are all the accroutrements to go with it. There are fancy lighters, holders, ashtrays and the list goes on.

I was quite an acommplished smoker. I had a rich aray of props to go with my smoking. I could blow beautiful smoke rings, and even blow rings in rings. I could light a match with my thumbnail, or a match book with one hand. There was a whole array of different ways to hold it. It seemed glamerous, a little risque. It was glamorized in the films. If anyone has seen the old films with Marlene Dietrich and others smoking. Look at this video of famous smoking actresses. The tobacco companies spent millions to have them smoke. I did some research on it and found $100,000 was not an unusual amount, plus free cigarettes, and that was in the 1940s.

Tobacco tastes good to some. I think much of the problems with smoking isn´t as much the actual tobacco as it is the additives.

Little by little it has ceased to have glamor. In fact smokers have become social pariahs. It wasn´t the nicotine I loved, it was all the little habits and affectations that went along with it I loved.

People here look at you now with a Ewww look when they smell your garments. You can´t rent an apartment, nobody wants to hire a smoker. All in all smoking is very hard to do here in the SF Bay Area. In fact pretty much all of California is anti smoking. I only have a couple of friends who still smoke. Being around them bothers me now. I love them, but the smoke bothers my sinus and I get congested after spending time with them. I shudder to think of what may happen if I am around friends who smoke. It really bothers me now.....

Where you able to blow a form of a 3 masted sailing ship like Gandalf in the lord of the rings?

But seriously smoking is very difficult to quit, I myself have been trying to quit for 2 years now.

....no I was not that talented. I was finding the whole process too much trouble to continue. The anti smoking thing has become an international event. Soon there will be no place to smoke. I watched it cover the world.

Good luck with your efforts to quit. The questions are, do you still enjoy it, are you feeling negative health effects from it?

FWIW I quite cold turkey. In the end I think it´s the best way. I found taking walks and smelling flowers, taking deep breaths (instead of inhaling smoke) filling my lungs with fresh air helped.