So Pat Robertson has cancer

[minx]

greg, as someone who questions many aspects of christianity; to the point of disassociating myself from any organized faction of it; I find the idea protecting people from religious persecution to be very important. I like my nose just where it is. My glasses need to perch on something! ...maybe a monacle...

[iain]

The same thing happens when I pee on soft dirt.

Thesis-worthy evidence, to be sure.

[Greg_W]

I find the idea protecting people from religious persecution to be very important.

 

Which would include religious persecution by those who do not believe in religion, I would assume. I think that the free exercise of religion is very, very important. The thing that must be remembered is that one cannot violate another's rights in order to guarantee one's own. That is crucial to every argument over rights and laws protecting them, in my opinion.

[Greg_W]

The same thing happens when I pee on soft dirt.

Thesis-worthy evidence, to be sure.

 

Hey, you can't knock the statistical validity of it, I have a vast sample size.

[minx]

i agree w/your last post whole heartedly. H/e, how is that the murder of an abortion doctor by a christian fundamentalist isn't a violation of that doctor's rights. I'm not trying to start the abortion debate. This example takes out the issue of race and thus simplifies it.

[Greg_W]

i agree w/your last post whole heartedly. H/e, how is that the murder of an abortion doctor by a christian fundamentalist isn't a violation of that doctor's rights. I'm not trying to start the abortion debate. This example takes out the issue of race and thus simplifies it.

 

It IS a violation of the doctor's rights. Many things are done in the name of religion that, upon reflection, have no tie to said religion's tenets. Examples include the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. In this example, one would recall the Seventh Commandment which state "Thou shalt not murder." There are caveats to this which Dwayner is probably better equipped to comment on, such as war, self-defense, etc.

[jkrueger]

So Greg, just curious... Do you live your life in accordance with the Ten Commandments; do they provide a foundation for your morality?

[Dru]

How come the Bible doesn't say anything about Trilobites and dinosaurs?

 

The account of the creation of the Earth, given in religious texts, is incompatible with the evidence as we see it on Earth and in the cosmos. Therefore either 1) religious creation myths are wrong, hence the religious texts should not be taken as literal documents, and we can hence question and judge for ourselves the words contained in them, or

 

2) whomever created the Earth did it as a deliberate hoax, putting in fake strata, fossils and so on to make it look much olderr than it is... I question such a beings motives... also definitely not the being(s) portrayed in religious texts....

 

3) "If there is a universal mind, must it be sane?" -Charles Fort

[catbirdseat]

No don't tell us about dinosaurs, Dru. We want the world to be simple and understandable. God and religion gives us that. It's so much easier to go open a book to get answers than it is to have to go dig in the ground and do radiocarbon dating. Why do we need scientific experiments, anyway, when God has already told us everything we need to know in the Bible? Thinking just hurts my brain.

[iain]

stupid dinos didn't make it on the ark. punks deserved everything they got. thank god tuna and salmon made it on the ark. could you imagine if such delicacies were lost to the flood?

[Greg_W]

jkrueger said:

So Greg, just curious... Do you live your life in accordance with the Ten Commandments; do they provide a foundation for your morality?

 

I was using the Ten Commandments in light of minx's example. My personal moral beliefs or belief system is irrelevant in this discussion.

[allthumbs]

Two of Ten Commandments Deemed Fraudulent

 

 

Handwriting experts at UC Berkley have concluded that the hand of God did, not write two of the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and are part of an eons old hoax.

 

"We've seen many fakes and this one is classic" cited Maurice DeMarvo, Professor of Antiquity. "God has a distinctive style that's easy to follow".

Apparently, when exposed to BM gas and UV light, the carvings of the seventh and ninth commandments show a distinctively different signature and signs of being purposefully modified from the original.

 

The commandments in question prohibit adultery and forbid the telling of lies, both rarely followed in modern society.

 

Experts agree that dropping the two questionable commandments will have little effect and urge further research into the fourth commandment (observe the Sabbath), as it too may be fraudulent.

 

 

[minx]

Greg_W said:

i agree w/your last post whole heartedly. H/e, how is that the murder of an abortion doctor by a christian fundamentalist isn't a violation of that doctor's rights. I'm not trying to start the abortion debate. This example takes out the issue of race and thus simplifies it.

 

It IS a violation of the doctor's rights. Many things are done in the name of religion that, upon reflection, have no tie to said religion's tenets. Examples include the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. In this example, one would recall the Seventh Commandment which state "Thou shalt not murder." There are caveats to this which Dwayner is probably better equipped to comment on, such as war, self-defense, etc.

 

it seems that a lot of bad things have been done in the name of religion. i have no problem w/these things being punished to an extra measure (i.e. hate crimes) Religion is a powerful force in this country. If it takes a little extra something to make people think twice about acting poorly based on those beliefs then so be it. if it takes and extra measure of punishment to protect those of us not of the christian majority, then so be it. i feel the same way regarding racially motivated crimes. It's one thing to assault someone in a fit of rage it's entirely another to select someone b/c of their ethnicity or religion and hurt them b/c of it.

 

As far as the 10 commandments go, most of them are good principles to live by personally and as a society but someone's gotta enforce a few those. Might as well be the laws/courts of our society. The other point regarding the 10 commandments is that all of the other major religions i know of frown on murder etc. as well. Their principles aren't listed as "10 commandments" but most of them are still there in most religions.

[allthumbs]

minx-

 

I believe that churches are formed by man, and therefore fallible. Think about this for a minute - name one Christian church that was not founded during a time of struggle or reaction to a situation either political or social. Islam is in the same boat.

 

The basic teachings of any church, are the same - tolerance, understanding, patience, compassion, and faith. Those things I don't have a problem with. It is what people interject into these religions where things go south - at least as far as I am concerned. And usually for all the wrong reasons - greed, avarice, pride - essentially the seven deadly sins!

 

 

 

[PullinFool]

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself."

 

--Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 - 1890)

 

[Dru]

Handwriting experts at UC Berkley have concluded that the hand of God did, not write two of the Ten Commandments given to Moses, and are part of an eons old hoax.

 

"We've seen many fakes and this one is classic" cited Maurice DeMarvo, Professor of Antiquity. "God has a distinctive style that's easy to follow".

Apparently, when exposed to BM gas and UV light, the carvings of the seventh and ninth commandments show a distinctively different signature and signs of being purposefully modified from the original.

 

 

BM gas? You mean like flatus?