Whoa. You actually made me give up on replying to Daganev's faux-fascistic vitriol. You sir, are the winner.

Ok, yes, you completely missed my point.

"Religion teaches people to do silly, ridiculous things, such as ..."

My point is simple. This claim is 100% false, and the only reason some people might think it is true is because of the negetive stereotypes which get pushed and propagated by writers such as Dawkins. Apparently some of you just can't seem to understand why your all mighty memes are making people upset.

Corrected it for you.

rawr, fear the spelling corrections

Bless your cotton socks .

This is called denying reality. Religion teaches many things. Just because you don't agree with something one section of a religion teaches, that doesn't mean it isn't religion.

Yes, stupid people do stupid things. No one is arguing this. However, they may not do the SAME stupid things, unless someone else is telling them to. You can't look at the Bible and say it doesn't have hateful passages in it that advocate stupid things. They're in there. I've seen neopagans do some pretty retarded things, and I've told them so. What I haven't done is said, "Wow, you're an idiot, but it's not because of your religion," because it is.

Also, I agree with Verithrax

What does that mean?

You have been trolled. You have lost. Have a nice day.

I understand that although it is parody, most likely it was written because it has an element of truth to it, and I acknowledge that.

However, I take it that the site's view and therefore your view is referring to extremists. I believe that when the site says "Unlike the sissy "Jesus is Love" fake-Christians", it means that the 'narrator' is from a non-mainstream Christian denomination, because mainstream Christians believe that Jesus IS love. Thus, if this is your view, then I'll have to agree with you. The reason I disagreed with you was because the way you were phrasing it seems like you were giving the blanket statement that all Christians are taught that burning books is good.

However, if that blanket statement is what you believe in, then I have some counters.

This is the Acts passage quoted in the site:
Sounds evil right? I happen to hold the below view.

From Wikipedia "King James Version":

It is noted that this is still an ongoing debate, so there is no right or wrong to this. However, even if you do not agree with this view, I still have something to say.

Bible the book is a translation. Translations are most of the time imperfect. Fortunately, there are many many translations of the Bible, so comparing them would give a much better idea then simply reading one translation, even if the translation was worked on by many scholars. Below are some translations of the same passages.

Bible passages from www.biblegateway.com:





As you can see from all of the bolded parts, very likely, the Greek word used in the original manuscripts referred to magic, and it is clear that the 'curious arts' in the KJV refers to magic. As you can see, it is not a call to burn all books that 'takes the Lord's name in vain' or 'advocates the burning of the Bible', but rather to burn magic scrolls in their houses, much like the call to destroy household idols in Christian homes.

Also, from the italicized+undelined words, it is very obvious that the books are their own. They are not gathering books from non-believer homes, or raiding the libraries (if they had such things then), or pressing the authorities to ban the books. What they are doing is that they are confessing their sins, that they are performing vile (in the Christian view) acts and are getting rid of such books from their possessions.


It is not because Christianity is teaching something, and I just happen to ignore it.
It is because a very minor and extremist group of people call it the teachings of Christianity, and then other people take it as something that is taught to all Christians.

Just so you'll know, banning books in not advocated in the Bible. What it does advocate is to rid your house and possessions of books that go against the first of the Ten Commandments "You shall have no other gods before me".

Systems of thought (religion, philosophies, histories, theories, whatever you want to call them) do teach people to do certain things, think certain things, say certain things (whether they be silly or intelligent). That's sort of what the whole education system (whether that be a Western state-based mandatory schooling or a more tribal verbal schooling) in all cultures is based on; teaching people to think a certain way (whether that be critically, logically, rationally, religiously, adventurously, etc). I won't argue specifics, but a religion can and does teach people to do and say certain things the same way that my history text book on WW1 taught me to think and write about WW1 in certain ways.

Yes I agree with that. However the society around you, the school you went to, and the people you hang out with, trumps any sermon you hear once or twice a week, or any book you read. When a single individual is going against the norm of the rest of the community, in this case the father, the reasons are because of the particular personality of that person, and is not related to the community philosophies.

Do you honestly consider religion just something you do once a week, with no real effect on anyone? I thought you had more respect for it than that.

Thats what the data shows. Respect has nothing to do with the realities.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac.htm#chg




Oh and just cause I found this and though it was funny/interesting... I love the way this works.

Cultural and ethnic groups:
bullet Hispanics consist of the largest minority group in the U.S. Although many assume that they are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, their religious identification is quite diverse: 57% Roman Catholic, 22% Protestant, 5% other religion; 12% no organized religion. 7
bullet Jews in America consist of about 5.3 million adults: 53% followers of Judaism, 26% of other religions, and 20% of no organized religion. 7
bullet Native Americans consist of 20% Baptist, 17% Roman Catholic, 17% of no organized religion, 3% tribal religion. 8

Are you reading your own sources, Daganev?

http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RIN%20...ies_polling.htm

Old article about the changing ways people do polls because of unreliable information.

So you quote a source, and when it's turned against you, it's suddenly absolutely unreliable? How convenient!

I don't believe all Christians follow Christianity with complete fervour and absolute belief. Yes, it is usually only the extremists who take everything in the religion and run with it. The site is a very sarcastic look at what kind of religion Christianity really is when its not 'interpreted' and 'translated' to conform to modern ethics and morality.

I don't think Christians are taught specifically to burn books. I do think they are taught to be intolerant of any art or literature which they either don't understand, or which has the potential to undermine or contradict their beliefs. It is better to destroy all traces of other gods rather than let people choose the wrong one to follow.

Yes, I think that's exactly what it is trying to say. Just like many Christians call Harry Potter a work of witchcraft and devil worship. Destroying works because they are believed to be 'magic' and 'witchcraft' according to local superstition is the problem. Destroying the religious art and literature of other faiths is a terrible thing to encourage and endorse, whether it is really some sort of pagan witchcraft/art or if it is philosophy or sciences that are beyond the faithful. Does anyone remember those beautiful buddha statues that the Taliban gunned down? That is what happens when religious devotion to destroying 'other gods' and 'magic idols' is allowed to express itself.


Exactly. Why does a god think his followers can't appreciate and understand other ideas without abandoning the ones he forces on them? Intolerance -is- taught by Christianity, masked as exclusive devotion. Why would this passage be included in the bible as an example of how powerful and mighty God's word is, that such priceless works can be obliterated on a whim by his converts?

When the people around us reinforce the words at a sermon or a Holy Text (usually these people will be family and friends , they have the most impact) then we can still say that religion has changed or influenced a change in the way we behave and what we say. No one factor acts independently from another but they all have an impact (whether negative or positive ), that much we've learnt from the social sciences.

That made me laugh, but I'm not bothering to read this debate again. It seems so pointless to me, since none of you are ever going to convince each other on how obviously right you are. Freedom of speech is splendid, and I enjoy reading insults to other people's intelligence (or lack thereof) just as much as any other forum wanderer.

But your posts are too long and boring.