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No one who wrote the Bible ever met or talked to Jesus. All are stories.
True. Indeed, back when I took a comparative religion course, the instructor (a Christian pastor) noted that Biblical scholars concluded that the Q source (I think it was called), indicated that one could be sure of only 22 statements confidently spoken by Jesus. It had to do with comparing original sources (the three Gospels, excluding John, which appears to have been the last one put together, and then long after Jesus by a factor of at least a hundred years).
Anyway, if one compares the three Gospels, there are not that many words of Jesus that the three agree upon.
You are the one who believes that there are people who want to kill healthy, viable fetuses. Why do you choose to believe that? Why do you think the world is such an evil place?
My theory is that people who are saying that healthy, viable babies can be aborted at childbirth are not looking for debate. They are looking to vilify people they see as their political opponents. They're either purposefully lying or are so brain dead that I don't see how they make it on their own in society.
Which is different than many religious values how?
I agree with you halfway. There are hundreds of different religions, all of them with different beliefs.
But, while "religions" are arbitrary, each religion is based on specific teachings.
Which is more-dangerous, religious government or secular government? I would declare emphatically that secular government is by far the most-dangerous form of government.
The problem with secular government, especially one supposedly based on the "consent of the governed", is that its authority is unlimited. How can you possibly resist government authority?
You can think of the bible as being a kind of Constitution. The only way any American can resist our government is by claiming that the government is behaving unconstitutionally. But if we had no Constitution, the power of our government would be absolute.
In the Middle-Ages, the governments of Europe were all ruled by Kings, all of which were claiming authority through something called the "Divine Right of Kings".
Divine right of kings comes from Romans 13. Which basically declared that god placed the Kings in power, and so everyone ought to obey the King. In-effect, the kings were god's representatives on Earth, who were doing "god's work".
But this dynamic is only true as long as the people believe the King is a representative of god. And this is why there was such a strong relationship between the Kings and the Church. In fact, it was the pope who could largely decide who could run a country, because the pope could merely declare a king to be illegitimate, which could justify his overthrow.
As a result, every King had to give an appearance of being godly, at least publicly. Or as Niccolo Machiavelli famously said, "There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious."
While Kings did this dishonestly and fraudulently, the bible certainly created a "check" on excesses.
When John Locke discussed a "separation of powers", he wasn't actually talking about some lawyers in the Supreme Court checking the power of some lawyers in Congress. John Locke was saying that the church should check the power of the kings, and vice-versa.
We are only safe as long as religion can check the excesses of the state, and vice-versa. Those countries which did the most to weaken religion, made the state absolute. And by doing so, they did not bring about heaven on Earth, but rather hell on Earth.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe90
The point is that atheism isn't a values/belief system, as the OP believes it is.
Sorry if I misunderstood, I think I just thought it foolish to say atheism has no values as if a lack of belief in something could have values or anything else. Personally , I have no doubt there are forces in the universe that no mere mortal completely understands, I don't know if that makes me an atheist, agnostic, or ?
OK guys. I'm like MJ with the fan mail. No way I can keep up. I've responded up to post #150, and I'm still a full 100 posts behind, but I've got to do some things. I WILL respond to the posts when I get back.
If 'predator' priests alarms you, then you should be damn petrified of atheists who murdered 100 million people in the last decade. Another reason to get rid of the atheist leanings of our current government.
....There is only one way to solve this dilemma. Protect the moral and decent. Get rid of the immoral, the perverse, and the hideous. Protect the view that our country was founded on, the view held by most Americans and, really, every moral person: the views of Christianity. If promoting one religion is unavoidable, let's at least promote the right one. Let's do it now.
And what of all the Jews, Buddhists, etc., etc. in the U.S. who do not believe in the Christian religion. Just what do you have in mind for them?
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