Stand with Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan -- with democracy and civilization against tyranny and barbarism
posted by Infidel753 at 6:51 AM
Individualist, pro-technology, pro-democracy, anti-religion. I speak only for myself and not for any ideology, movement, or party. It has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of "spirituality" of any kind. I believe that evidence and reason are the keys to understanding reality; that technology rather than ideology or politics has been the great liberator of humanity; and that in the long run, human intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe.
God doesn't exist
Evolution happened
Global warming is real
Homosexuality is normal
Aging is a curable disease
The election was not stolen
Everything "spiritual" is a lie
Free speech is for everybody
Humans do not have "souls"
Men can't become women
Fetuses are not persons
Words are not violence
Taiwan is a nation
Pluto is a planet
6 Comments:
"Christian hate." That's an oxymoron, IMO. At least it should be.
What's on display in the video is made possible by the fact any mean-spirited, holier-than-thou, authoritarian know-it-all and bully can proclaim him- or herself a Christian. For people small and insecure inside, or particularly vindictive, there's the prospect of being powerful, of commanding others using one's alleged superior understanding of the Bible and of God's will as the source of authority.
Seeing some of these jerks I get the impression divinity credentials can be ordered from comic book ads or picked up on Craig's List.
They are charlatans. Their "flocks" are made up of willing dupes. If God is love, and I believe that's true, haters are the antithesis of what God is about.
I've heard that said before, but unfortunately it really is Christian. What they say is in the Bible really is there, unambiguously so.
Christianity is an irredeemably evil religion because the Bible is an irredeemably evil book.
Infidel, America started off with slavery as a legal, accepted practice. Cavalry soldiers knowingly gave Indians blankets contaminated with smallpox, causing the deaths of men, women and children. America has produced fiends like Ted Bundy, Timothy Mcveigh and the Unabomber.
Yet, America ended slavery. Following the World War I armistice, Germans faced winter in desperate need of food and fuel. Americans (the Brits too) sent food and fuel, through the Red Cross, private and church charities and the government, saving as many as a half million lives. America has produced people who gave mankind protection from and cures for a long list of deadly diseases.
Is America inherently evil because some Americans have said and done evil things? Because our Constitution started off allowing slavery, denying anyone but landowning white males the vote? Because lynchings were once common and enjoyed as community entertainment?
Far be it from me to claim christianity is a constuct of God and not of man, and therefore perfect. Far be it from me to claim my country is all good and never wrong. But neither am I willing to judge christianity or my country solely on the basis of the worst black marks on their records.
SWA: A country isn't analogous to an ideology. Countries can change their ways enormously, but if an ideology changes very much, it isn't the same ideology any more.
If you look at the link I provided above, you'll see that I don't judge Christianity to be irredeemably evil "solely on the basis of the worst black marks on [its] record". I judge it that way because of what is in the Bible, which defines Christianity.
Infidel, I hope you don't think I'm trying to sell you on Christianity (or any other religion). Nor would I try to whitewash the Bible, which in my understanding of it is very much a mixed bag. I guess my point is just that there's some good and bad in both.
Your point about Christianity evolving little if any has some justification. Still, considering we don't see churches getting up armies and launching invasions, see stonings of "fallen" women, burnings at the cross, star chambers, sales of dispensations and popes with concubines any more, I think there's at least something to my analogy and the notion of the religion having evolved a bit.
Hope I'm not beating a dead horse. I'll say no more. ;)
we don't see churches getting up armies and launching invasions, see stonings of "fallen" women, burnings at the cross,
I've addressed this point before. The reason we no longer see things like that, or actual Biblically-mandated atrocities like the death penalty for homosexuality or for working on the Sabbath, is not that Christianity has changed (that stuff is still in the Bible), but that over several centuries the West has become more secular and basically stopped taking Christianity seriously enough to continue enforcing or abiding by its ghastlier rules. Yes, Christianity did change somewhat eventually, but that's because it was dragged kicking and screaming towards modernity in the wake of a relentlessly secularizing culture. Organized Christianity has fought every step of progress as long as it could, and still does; it continues to fight gay marriage, and in many cases abortion, evolution, etc., and it won't accept those things until the secular culture has so thoroughly embraced them as to make opposition a moot point.
"Some good and bad" in the Bible? Well, one could probably find some good in Mein Kampf as well, but in a book saturated with imperatives for bigotry, tyranny, and mass murder, it hardly matters what else can be found there.
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