dvk wrote:
"There are two levels of wrong behaviour: Standard sin - selfishness, stealing, pub brawling, running red lights etc. Evil - genocide, rape etc."
Who decides where the line is drawn? You? Me? The voting majority? The king? The theologian? This is disingenuous. But lets just limit ourselves to genocide, torture, and rape to simplify it.
dvk then wrote:
"Christians sin, but when they step into the realm of committing evil they can be shown, by the objective measure of Christ's teachings, to be corrupt or erroneous."
Which differs from believers in every other religion or ethical or moral standard in what way?
dvk wrote:
"Christians cannot in good conscience commit genocide because it violates the basic principles of Christ."
Ah but they do. And you can not just paint the target after the arrow is shot and define them as non-Christians. To do so is essentially the same as saying "I am a good Christian right up until I rape my next door neighbor." Then alakazam I'm not a good Chrisitian. And my behavior just gets writen out of the books as though I never was one. Every Catholic priest that raped a young boy ... not really a Christian. Every member of the Nazi chain of command ... not really a Christian. The pastor's wife in Tennesse ... not really a Christian.
But all of the solves nothing but allow you to feel good about your choice. It does not stop the genocide. It does not stop the torture. It does not stop the rape. And those things continue because your lord Jesus Christ accomplished nothing in his life or death.
dvk wrote:
"You can hold me to account.
I cannot hold you to account.
This is why I fear atheism more than religion."
Your argument holds no water. There is no difference between being tortured by a Christian and tortured by a Hindu or tortured by a deist or tortured by an atheist. Your fear is irrational.
dvk asks:
"If IQ is held in such high esteem (see Uncle Al), and stupid people are seen to stand in the way of progress then why not take away their right to reproduce, and prevent them from polluting the gene pool by partnering with the more intelligent."
There are some among my friends who would be thrilled to make that happen. But I oppose it because I believe what Lord Acton said:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
And this is equally true for all including the self-annointed leaders of religions.
dvk wrote:
"You can only state this with a flagrant disregard or ignorance of the actions of millions of people who have taken Jesus' words to heart and have served those around them and tried to alleviate suffering."
Nonsense. Pure unadulterated 99% fat free nonsense. If millions of people had done what you suggest the world would be a different place. If that were true people like me would look out into the world and see the work of those millions and say "Wow I want to get me some of that stuff."
dvk wrote:
"Feel free to continue ignoring this."
I'm not ignoring it. It is just invisible unless, perhaps, you have an electron microscope.
dvk wrote:
"God has not ordered the Universe as Dan Morgan thinks he should."
No actually the universe is ordered exactly as it should be given quantum mechanics and relativity. There is nothing god can claim credit for except perhaps a genocidal flood, some genocidal plagues, and a lot of bloody warfare. If he doesn't exist then nothing has changed. But if he does he should be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity. Exhibit 1 for the prosecution: Smallpox.
dvk wrote:
"whether I engage with you or not, you will still find an outlet for your dislike of anything not centred in 'scientific rational thought'."
In this you are absolutely correct. I will never cease the fight against wilfull ignorance while I can still breathe air.
When your religion, or all religions, make as big an impact on life as the discovery of penicillin then you will have something to talk about. Right now all I see is justification for hatred and egotism blended with a heavy dose of hypocrisy.
Essentially we can distill it down to this:
Jesus Christ ... improved the lives of how many people?
Jonas Salk ... improved the lives of how many people?
Lets pray to Jonas.
