Like here's a silly example. You've got two kids walking through a spooky graveyard late at night. One of them is muttering to himself, "There's no such thing as ghosts, there's no such thing as ghosts..." and the other is muttering,"The ghosts of my ancestors will protect me, the ghosts of my ancestors will protect me..." They are not exclaiming the findings of a scientific test that they are in the process of conducting, they're saying things which allow them to move forward at a steady pace without being scared. The fact that they are saying different words isn't so important, unless they stop to listen to one another.
If their God or gods exist as they believe them to, those may in fact be optimal behaviors.
Then they are evil and I cast my defiance in their teeth.
the main goal of most such beliefs one way or another is to provide peace of mind to those that hold them.
At the expense of human rights and dignity, and with as death the price for unbelievers.
You seem to be under the impression that every Christian out there has a literal interpretation of the Bible, and follows the laws of the old testament. This is entirely untrue, and most Christians I associate with are appalled by people who do. Really, the only thing I have on Christians who have their head on straight is that their basic beliefs are probably false.
It seems to me that he's referring specifically to modern extremists and historical cases. While modern crusaders aren't exactly common, you would agree that even one is too many, yes?
It seems to me that he's referring specifically to modern extremists and historical cases. While modern crusaders aren't exactly common, you would agree that even one is too many, yes?
Absolutely, but the fact that there are so few makes talking about them at length more than a little pointless.
Not necessarily. While discussion about them on a broad and mostly philosophical level (similar to how every previous religious discussion here went) only leads to circular arguments, shoddy metaphors, and whatnot, more practical discourses on how to deal with them might lead somewhere interesting.
Nobody here has provided any refutation of the flying spaghetti monster argument. If you are in this thread and arguing against the atheist side, go search on Google for the FSM, and think about what it is trying to tell you. Until you understand that, thread closed.
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