You guys are still at this...? :o :timeout:
It started with sexual morals lined out on the basis of religious ideology, ignoring that said ideology's clerics have a big problem with sexual abberations within their own rows, and that statistics say - I quote by the books of Dawkins and Hitchens again* - that crime numbers related to rape and sexual assault are higher in red states than in blue states.
It then went to an "argument" over "holy scriptures" like the bible being historically original, being historically accurate and beign well-founded in their sources and ways by which they got delivered, ignoring that almost every theologican, as long as he is no ultra-hardcore fundamentalist extremist brute force type of guy, today denies that the scriptures are historically correct. I again refer to the two books mentioned above where the authors rip the christmas story and books of Moses, parts of Jesus' claimed historical biography apart and leave nothing but rags of paper of it - not by rethorical means, but basing on the many inner contradictions the Bible includes in its statements and timetables. it makes historical claims on names and events and timetables of which we know that they are simply wrong, plain and simply historically wrong.
Next comes the mandatory trading back and forth of Bible references, as if that would prove anything and would improve the miserable record of authenticity, or as if systemtically sorting bible quotes by a random patterns would turn the content of the quotes into something less fictional. The Bible is neither a book of science nor a book of truth, it is a collection of fictional pieces written by a huge plethora of authors who based on hear-say, rumours, lip-delivered historical stories of their time, and most of that, if not all, is illustrating only the way in which the people with that limited knowledge of their time tried to make sense of the world around them. Taking that as an authority means to deny everything that has taken place in the past 2 thousand years and denying any increase in scientific understanding of cosmos, biology, environment, physics, mathematics, medicine - you name it.
Bible swingers making remarks on sexual perversions - that combo alone should let your brain mode jump from active to standbye. When not just somebody but religious people start to lecture about sexuality and morals, I immediately switch off. By the historic record of religions and their effect on the world, nobody is more unqualified to comment on morals and sexuality, then religious people.
So guys, don't you have something better to do with your time?
For German readers, a random find that I had last week when searching the archive for something.
Jesus wollte diese Kirche nicht
Eugen Drewermann in an interview from early 90s. He is a theologist and psychotherapist, has fought bitter battles with the church (they finally separated in anger), and is the most profound critic and attacker of the church's dogma available in German language. His book
"Kleriker. Psychogramm eines Ideals" is seen by not few as the most devastating and insightful attack against the church and its personell that has been written until today. It describes , amongst others, the massive accumulation of personality defomations to be seen amongst clerics' ranks, and how the church and its dogma are causing this and are responisble for this. But be warned, the book is demanding, and is thick: 900 pages.
*Dawkins: The God Delusion; Hitchens: God is not Great