A positive about Trump: he permanently damaged hypocritical American evangelicals.

[Saint_Ann]

Religion is a tool for the rich to control gullible people and control them. Ken is apparently one of those gullible people.

People are incapable of controlling themselves, George.

 

[BobaFetaCheese]

I'll say again: The cross is nothing without the sword behind it.

Religions are not unified. They schism, with murderous competing factions. Islam's glory days followed the Sunni-Shiite split. We can date the 'modern' European age from the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and centuries of war. Or maybe from the Vatican's split with Orthodoxy a half-millennium prior.

Believers are only civilized when they're killing each other.

Makes no difference if by force or free will, religion formed who we are as a society. Every major civilization since the beginning of time was centered around it.

 

[BobaFetaCheese]

Let's put together a list of christian inventors who have had great influence for a more positive society...





There. That was easy.

Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Marconi, Pasteur...

There. That was easy.

 

[phrodeau]

Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Marconi, Pasteur...

There. That was easy.

Four out of five met with massive opposition from the church.

 

[BobaFetaCheese]

Four out of five met with massive opposition from the church.

Still considered themselves Christians.

 

[BobaFetaCheese]

Unfortunately all those guys are dead so they're no good to me.

I really wish I had thought of that before.

 

[Hypoxia]

Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Marconi, Pasteur...

Newton and Kepler had paid gigs as astrologers. (And both were seriously nutz.) Galileo thought he could stare-down a Pope. Marconi, er, plagiarized a bit from Tesla, who didn't bother with religion. Until recently (and still, in some places) you didn't get a professional job unless you professed the local Xian creed. Whether you actually believed any of that biblical stuff was irrelevant -- pray or starve. Or be burnt at the stake.

 

[Saint_Ann]

Around here, a lot of the construction jobs are locked up by the Apostolics. I don't know who they vote for but their women are weird and generally homely. And wear sneakers.

 

[William_James]

Let's extrapolate where society would be today without the inherent checks and balances that religion has provided.

Right around the same place it is today. Perhaps a bit farther ahead, if more medieval and early renaissance period thinkers were permitted to devote their time to temporal matters.

 

[adrina]

Right around the same place it is today. Perhaps a bit farther ahead, if more medieval and early renaissance period thinkers were permitted to devote their time to temporal matters.

And let's not forget the very probable reality that half the population wouldn't have been actively suppressed.

 

[Saint_Ann]

And let's not forget the very probable reality that half the population wouldn't have been actively suppressed.

Sure. They would be actively killing each other and stealing their stuff.

 

[LJ_Reloaded]

Let's extrapolate where society would be today without the inherent checks and balances that religion has provided.

Well, Christianity did provide us a relief from the hell that was the Roman Empire. But then Constantine came along and moved all the bazaar churches into centralized cathedrals which were formerly pagan temples and organized religion jumped the shark right there.

The Inquisition pretty much sealed in the fact that religious fanaticism made organized religion more dangerous than it was useful. In fact even the Gutenberg Bible - the dawn of the printing press - was an act of rebellion against religious authority, not an homage to organized religion.

Organized, centralized authority religion has from early on been an albatross around society's neck. Cathedrals (and their modern megachurch descendants) have ruined organized religion.

Now on the other hand if we had followed Biblical principles instead of organized religious agendas we would have remembered that it's not up to man to judge gays, but rather God. Judge not lest ye be judged, and all that. Then there's the whole love thy neighbor thing that organized religion and religious fanatics have forgotten. And the whole "the least of my brethren" thing and the "eye of the needle" thing that Pastor Hagee and his ilk have forgotten.

Oh wait a second, there's also the other question: which religion are you even talking about? There's also Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and more. They all provide checks and balances to sustain a civilized society.

I'm partial to Christianity as the one true religion but there's also this thing called freedom of (and freedom FROM) religion that this country was founded on... but you religious fanatics think we should be a theocracy, so I guess the First Amendment is not even valid in your mind...

 

[Saint_Ann]

Well, Christianity did provide us a relief from the hell that was the Roman Empire. But then Constantine came along and moved all the bazaar churches into centralized cathedrals which were formerly pagan temples and organized religion jumped the shark right there.

The Inquisition pretty much sealed in the fact that religious fanaticism made organized religion more dangerous than it was useful. In fact even the Gutenberg Bible - the dawn of the printing press - was an act of rebellion against religious authority, not an homage to organized religion.

Organized, centralized authority religion has from early on been an albatross around society's neck. Cathedrals (and their modern megachurch descendants) have ruined organized religion.

Now on the other hand if we had followed Biblical principles instead of organized religious agendas we would have remembered that it's not up to man to judge gays, but rather God. Judge not lest ye be judged, and all that. Then there's the whole love thy neighbor thing that organized religion and religious fanatics have forgotten. And the whole "the least of my brethren" thing and the "eye of the needle" thing that Pastor Hagee and his ilk have forgotten.

Oh wait a second, there's also the other question: which religion are you even talking about? There's also Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and more. They all provide checks and balances to sustain a civilized society.

I'm partial to Christianity as the one true religion but there's also this thing called freedom of (and freedom FROM) religion that this country was founded on... but you religious fanatics think we should be a theocracy, so I guess the First Amendment is not even valid in your mind...

Converting to Man's Law from God's law was a huge step but it was based on God's law. It worked in the US, I suppose in part due to the foresight to separate them. In that regard, Islam is holding it's society back.

There's a place for "religious fanatics". They also vote.

Also great post.

 

[RoryN]

Who posted?

User Name Posts

Saint_Ann 22
Hypoxia 7
BobaFetaCheese 6
William_James 5
phrodeau 3
LJ_Reloaded 2
richard_daily 2
someoneyouknow 2
zipman 2
about_average 2
lovecraft68 1
Amoebah 1
IrezumiKiss 1
ChinoMoreno 1
adrina 1
nowisthetime 1
RoryN 1
RobDownSouth 1
BoyNextDoor 1
Queefer 1

 

[Saint_Ann]

Who posted?

User Name Posts

Saint_Ann 22
Hypoxia 7
BobaFetaCheese 6
William_James 5
phrodeau 3
LJ_Reloaded 2
richard_daily 2
someoneyouknow 2
zipman 2
about_average 2
lovecraft68 1
Amoebah 1
IrezumiKiss 1
ChinoMoreno 1
adrina 1
nowisthetime 1
RoryN 1
RobDownSouth 1
BoyNextDoor 1
Queefer 1

What's your point Rory? RoryN - 1 post.

 

[RoryN]

What's your point Rory?

Relax, snowflake. You really should stop obsessing over me, and go back to bumping your unpopular threads.

Without you[r spam], they're nothing.

 

[Saint_Ann]

Relax, snowflake. You really should stop obsessing over me, and go back to bumping your unpopular threads.

Without you[r spam], they're nothing.

You should probably get over yourself. You haven't even contributed to your own thread. You should probably kiss my ass for bothering to post in it, flawed as the op was stated.

 

[RoryN]

You haven't even contributed to your own thread.

Congratulations: you're about to have an epiphany! I don't have to. I just watch the idiot brigade (that's you) chime in, and watch the worthwhile members grind your kind into the ground with their intelligence. Makes for a great thread.

Of course, you could just not post in my threads. Oh, wait - we all know you can't refrain. Because it's me. *smug*

(Are we at the point where you pretend to put me on iggy again?)

 

[Saint_Ann]

Congratulations: you're about to have an epiphany! I don't have to. I just watch the idiot brigade (that's you) chime in, and watch the worthwhile members grind your kind into the ground with their intelligence. Makes for a great thread.

Of course, you could just not post in my threads. Oh, wait - we all know you can't refrain. Because it's me. *smug*

(Are we at the point where you pretend to put me on iggy again?)

I posted my ignore list Rory. You weren't significant to even make it. So, basically, you are admitting to be a troll. Congratulations.

 

[phrodeau]

Converting to Man's Law from God's law was a huge step but it was based on God's law. It worked in the US, I suppose in part due to the foresight to separate them. In that regard, Islam is holding it's society back.

There's a place for "religious fanatics". They also vote.

Also great post.

There’s no such thing as “God’s law”.

 

[Saint_Ann]

In Internet slang, a troll (/troʊl, trɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3] often for the troll's amusement.

Wikipedia

 

[Saint_Ann]

There’s no such thing as “God’s law”.

Sure there is. I've read them.

 

[Luk]

In Internet slang, a troll (/troʊl, trɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3] often for the troll's amusement.

Wikipedia

Shaddup, Kenneth.

 

[Saint_Ann]

Shaddup, Kenneth.

Wow...burn.

 

[adrina]

Congratulations: you're about to have an epiphany! I don't have to. I just watch the idiot brigade (that's you) chime in, and watch the worthwhile members grind your kind into the ground with their intelligence. Makes for a great thread.

Of course, you could just not post in my threads. Oh, wait - we all know you can't refrain. Because it's me. *smug*

(Are we at the point where you pretend to put me on iggy again?)

He sure spends a lot of time posting about you for someone he finds so insignificant.