A bunch of people get bent out of shape about Hindus

[Timone]

i guess im saying your coming off as a little ungreatful.

You're right on that one.

[Glenn]

Edit: Ignore.

Did somebody say something?

[Zip Goshboots]

i dont know how much of a history buff you are, but if not you should look into pre-christianity rome for an example of the differences in morality.

and you cant confuse the messengers with the message. just because there have been some pretty amazing hypocrites in history doesnt mean that on a whole it hasnt been a huge positive.

Don't even ever TRY to talk "morality" when it comes to christianity! You have got to be kidding. And exactly who the fuck has this been a "positive" for?
It's been the most destructive fairy tale in the history of mankind. Nore wars and deaths and perversion and rape and mass murder than anything else combined. More hypocrisy than can be imagined. More illegally gotten gains, more stifling of science and medicine than any agency ever. A god who delights in killing everybody he comes across in the old testament, and then his own son in the new testament.
A god who let six million of his "chosen people" get exterminated? Oh that's right, they said they were the chosen people, not god.
Man, morality is the absolute LAST place any christian wants to go when it comes to defending this fairy tale.
A REAL positive for the people in this hemisphere that the "all powerful" god didn;t get over here to pass out some salmon to. A REAL positive to the poor Africans who've spent 400 years being obliterated despite believeing in the fairy tale. A REAL positive to thousands of young altar boys. A REAL positive to those who got in their way during the crusades. A REAL positive for the protestants and catholics in England to be killing each other over for 1000 years.
A REAL positive for our involvement in the powder keg known as the middle east, battling with another group of idiots who have their own fairy tale.
Wow, where the FUCK do I sign on for this? It sounds like one hell of a party!

[Timone]

Professors in Colorado Receive Death Threats for Teaching Evolution
By Kristen Philipkoski EmailJuly 17, 2007 | 2:53:13 PMCategories: Evolution

Korn Letters from a Christian extremist last week threatened the lives of evolution biology professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The letters claimed to be on behalf of a group, but newspapers and at least one blog have reported that an individual, Michael Korn, a Jew-turned-Christian extremist, is likely behind the threats (an image from his web site is at right). CU police spokesman Brad Wiesley told me they haven't officially named a suspect but the Colorado Daily wrote that others "close to the case" named Korn.

The Colorado Daily describes some of the perpetrator's escapades:

Last weekend more than a dozen envelopes bearing the image of skull and crossbones and containing letters threatening the lives of CU-Boulder evolutionary biology professors were slipped under the doors of CU-Boulder buildings….

Several sources say Korn has distributed flyers on campus and has barged into offices of biology professors and administrators in the past year.

But in recent days the threatening e-mails and letters have occurred with increasing frequency and intensity.

On Friday an e-mail sent to CU-Boulder’s evolutionary biology department bore the subject line "a final CU Boulder EBIO appeal” and repeated the line "every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society."

That line, as well as “they must go,” have been repeated in a number of communiqués, said a source.

The Panda's Thumb posted the letters last week.

It still seems a bit early to be implicating Korn. Wiesley said police are interviewing people and trying to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate. On Korn's blog profile, just fyi, he describes his occupation as "fisher of men" and his industry as "publishing." God help us. His favorite movies are "Forrest Gump, The Jesus Film and The Passion of the Christ."

I have a call and email in to Korn, will keep you posted.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...sors-in-c.html

[b-diddy]

Don't even ever TRY to talk "morality" when it comes to christianity! You have got to be kidding. And exactly who the fuck has this been a "positive" for?
It's been the most destructive fairy tale in the history of mankind. Nore wars and deaths and perversion and rape and mass murder than anything else combined. More hypocrisy than can be imagined. More illegally gotten gains, more stifling of science and medicine than any agency ever. A god who delights in killing everybody he comes across in the old testament, and then his own son in the new testament.
A god who let six million of his "chosen people" get exterminated? Oh that's right, they said they were the chosen people, not god.
Man, morality is the absolute LAST place any christian wants to go when it comes to defending this fairy tale.
A REAL positive for the people in this hemisphere that the "all powerful" god didn;t get over here to pass out some salmon to. A REAL positive to the poor Africans who've spent 400 years being obliterated despite believeing in the fairy tale. A REAL positive to thousands of young altar boys. A REAL positive to those who got in their way during the crusades. A REAL positive for the protestants and catholics in England to be killing each other over for 1000 years.
A REAL positive for our involvement in the powder keg known as the middle east, battling with another group of idiots who have their own fairy tale.
Wow, where the FUCK do I sign on for this? It sounds like one hell of a party!

alright, didnt this debate just occur on this board?

if you think the world would have been a better place sans religion, thats on you, but i suggest researching history more (the crusades, the holocost, etc) before you just blame religion for these events.

and not to be a dick, but asking why a god would allow bad things to happen on earth is pretty elementry reasoning.

[Zip Goshboots]

Asking why god would let those things happen, though elementary, is pertinent, because bad things happen to even the most devout believers. And you are right with the "shoot the messenger, not the message" approach. But the "morality" play is as elementary, because you are saying that god taught man morality, which is simply not true. Man has taught his own interpretation of morality to other men, and disguised it as the word of god. This, it is not a positive, due to the fact that morality is what the teacher thinks is best, maybe not is what is best for the student. Morality is and always will be a human construct, and will always be perveted because of that.

[b-diddy]

pertinent, but also it goes no where.

if you believe in the christian construct of God, you believe something about an all knowing god who lives in the past, present, and future and that we're all part of a perfect finished plan.

theres tons of stuff on this in the bible.

theres also a good parable about this in the once and future king, about a prophet who stays in town at two different homes, one host is generous and one is inhospitable. upon leaving the generous host the prophet kills the guy's cow, and upon leaving the inhospitable guy's house he patches up dude's cracked wall. prophet's servant asks afterwards why he was bad to the good and good to the bad, and the prophet rhymes to him something about the nice guy's cow being sick, and had dude continued to sell its milk his rep would have been ruined, while the bad guy's cracked wall had treasure behind it that he would have discovered had he fixed the wall himself.

i realize you obviously have a axe to grind against religion and stuff like that you'll probably just laugh at. which is fine, i dont care. but i suggest moving beyond rudimentary arguments like "can god make a rock so big he cant lift it." religion isnt a matter of logic, or arguments, it basically comes down to faith and whether you want it to be a part of you life.

[Timone]

i realize that your probably an atheist and thumbing your nose at believers

Actually, I'm trying to convert to the Raelian cult.

[Big Swami]

Listen, I don't really believe Jesus performed miracles, rose from the dead, or was the son of God or anything else like it. But I'm all about Jesus and here's why:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you...

Now, I'm not going to say that there isn't tons of really horrible stuff in the Bible, and even some bad stuff said by Jesus. But deifying Jesus just makes it impossible to critique the bad things he said (he never said bad things - he's God, after all), and it makes it equally impossible to really appreciate the good things he said (well of course he said good things - he's God, after all). It sets an impossibly high standard of judgment. Jesus will probably never be recognized for his achievements in the area of being a spiritual teacher, which, if you'll recall, was kind of his field of work.

Instead people just get wrapped up in the idea of Jesus as the Eternal Lord of The Universe Who Sits In Judgment Over Us All. It makes it really easy to forget that there are hundreds of things Jesus said or did that involved caring for the sick, giving to the poor, and befriending the lonely, and nothing at all about how homos are bad or how you're gonna go to h. e. double hockey stix if you pray with people of other religions.

[Glenn]

I dunno.

That quote makes JC sound Mighty passive aggressive.