What will it take for Christians to speak out against their leaders?

secularthinker · 3 months

so basically, you're just a Christian apologist?

secularthinker · 3 months

7I understand your analogy, I just think it is a poor one. Modern laws and the bible are completely different documents, and are intended to be different. I also have to ask, and please do not take this the wrong way, but, did you read the article? A lot of what you are saying is mentioned there, it seems like you are only arguing off the title. Your first comment was, "I'm not sure how you could read any text without interpreting it. The idea that a literal interpretation is no interpretation is ridiculous. " There is nothing in the article about that--where did you get that idea from? Second, the article spends most of its time answering the questions that you address here. So either you did not read it, or are hearing only what you want to hear. I am more than willing to admit that the premise of the article is wrong, but you would need to address the article directly for me to do that.

secularthinker · 3 months

The law is not supposed to be the "Word of god", as Christians believe the bible is. The law is meant to be interpreted. There are numerous passages in the bible that state it is god speaking, and he speaks quite clearly. (to those who believe he exists). If they believe he exists and is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, the Creator of everything, why would they choose to interpret his words to mean other than what is stated? The argument is that if they do, then the book has no relevancy as a source of reference. God's word would be meaningless. (again to those who believe in him).

secularthinker · 3 months

The idea of the blog is that a literal interpretation should be the only valid one...if 10 different sects of Christianity can interpret the texts 10 different ways, what possible validity could the entire book have and how could it be relevant to today's problems? It is saying that any book that can have as many possible interpretations of the bible is a poor reference book.

pistachioshell · 3 months

Obviously not, but do you think the person in the quote is speaking from a position of faith or solely from a perspective of nationalism. Clearly Israeli is not a religion, but the Arab-Israeli conflict is a religious conflict. And intolerance like the example shown in the original post is motivated by religious differences.

MistrBones · 3 months

Fair enough, but it seems like the religious excuse always trumps other excuses.

VaccusMonastica · 3 months

...but you did get here...

GuitarGuru2001 · 3 months

typo---sorry about that.

Aesir1 · 3 months

I would say it is not a justifiable reaction. I also think you are comparing two very different things. A women, regardless of what she is wearing, is never, under any circumstances "asking for it". Solidiers in Afghanistan who burn a Koran are a bit of a different story. They should have used some common sense and seen the irrationally foolish worldwide debacle this has become. The two things are quite different. How bright do you need to be to realize that burning a Koran in the most backwards of all Muslim countries is going to play bad in the press?
I agree with you on the fact that it is foolish that we have to think along those lines in this century. I wish we lived in an atheist world...but we don't. The reality is, that we do need to coexist with the religious and inciting a riot, is never really a good way to accomplish that.

yaysuekristy · 3 months

I think you could also look at the fact that Europe has had many wars over religion. In the U.S. we have not. You have to think that after centuries of warfare, some folks will just get fed up with the whole thing.

bionikspoon · 3 months

So they are bad because they "Do not denounce birth control, non-Christians, or the LGBT community'? How foolish is that. I agree with anarkyinducer, that is criminally stupid. If I understand the position of the Christian Right, they want the Girl Scouts to preach hate and intolerance. Is that really what we want our daughters to do? Plus, they sell cookies...who doesn't like cookies?

Aesir1 · 3 months

I think it is crazy that we have days of protests over something like this. It is completely irrational behavior. However, the soldiers were clearly not thinking as well. What other outcome did they expect? In that sense they did bring it on themselves. The problem I have is that we are even having this problem at all...the whole thing is irrational foolishness to me.

ElderMalaclypse · 3 months

Very well said. It is maddening to see this type of irrational behavior over and over again.

secularthinker · 3 months

Websites like that provide a stunning amount of stupidity. I also agree with HappyGoPink---clinging to their outdated ideas doesn't exactly help their cause...

veridicus · 3 months

One of the thing that makes Santorum so dangerous is his complete intolerance for any belief other than his own. You mention at the end of he views god differently than Obama. The problem is that to Santorum, only his view of god could make a good president. That is dangerous righteousness. I also tend to agree a bit with goodwolf's question below. Aren't the two tied together?

Windpoop93 · 3 months

I agree, the situation is set up to almost certainly lead to failure on your part. You aren't arguing with one person. You are the main pawn in his playing to the crowd. I wouldn't expect him to answer your questions, but rather to criticize what you have to say.

This_is_the_second · 3 months

Simply put, at least for me, you Can walk away, we Can't always do that. Everywhere we look in the States someone is trying to push religion on the non-religious. Just about every State has some kind of legislation or court case going on between religion and the State. We can't just walk away because there is no where to walk way to!

FunkEnet · 3 months

Good post. I have no idea such a concise guide existed.

VaccusMonastica · 3 months

I get it all the time. I think if comes from their own intellectual laziness. They want us to be more like them. Some people just do not want to question. It easier to go through life without doing so, I have found those people don't like that fact pointed to to them...even subtly.

GuitarGuru2001 · 3 months

Great post. I highly recommend it. The author does a nice job calling attention to some of the lesser reported problems that Christianity brings to the Africa.

secularthinker

TROPHY CASE

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