OT - Elizabeth Edwards Funeral Protest

What leads you to believe Stalin was an atheist? There is significant evidence that he never really shook off the seminary training he had as a young man, and that his support of religious persecution especially prior to WWII was largely from fear that the church represented competition for the loyalty of the people.

You're also forgetting some religiously inspired slaughters, e.g. the Taiping Rebellion in China (led by the self-announced brother of Christ) killed twenty million. But it also isn't a competition in which the body-count determines who is worst. An atheist who kills to achieve power, or a supposed Christian who kills to achieve power--which one is defying the moral code he claims to believe in?

Reply to
DGDevin
Loading thread data ...

would be a damn site better place. Too many have died, been maimed, deprived of food or cast out of society in the name of religion - and usually by preachers of it who are either hypocrites or bigots or both.

had six feet of water in it. He didn't even see anyone from FEMA for months, but he and his neighbors were fed and housed for the most part by church groups, many of them had come hundreds or even thousands of miles to help. So while I agree that religion has been the source of a lot of strife over the centuries, that doesn't mean that no good has ever come of it. Religion is no different from any other aspect of human society, it can be a force for good or ill, it all depends on how people use it.

Perhaps. Then again, those killings weren't done in the name of some god, or NO god, either.

Mayans and Incas offed a few in the name of their gods, too. The list is endless.

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

Reply to
Larry Jaques

The jerk/nice ratio is about 1,000:6 in my experience. The local soup kitchen/flop house -demands- that the partakers listen to their sermons before dinner, say grace, and all but demand (which would be illegal) work from them for their services. There's not much room for compassion and generosity with all that need for spouting religion. My neighbor is a Catholic and says that her church gives away food and such without asking the needy to listen to their religious views or for anything in return. That sounds like a lot more compassionate and generous

Churches could do a lot more for the homeless and hungry if they didn't spend countless millions on ornate and gaudy church buildings. $100 million for one church in HelL.A., $25 million for a gold-topped Mormon temple in Sandy Eggo, etc. That money could have fed, clothed, and housed a metric shitload of people, huh?

Me, too. But, like I've said, the ratio is very wide and the bad guys are on the big end.

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

Reply to
Larry Jaques

On Dec 14, 8:57=A0am, Larry Jaques wrote: [snipped]

I couldn't disagree more. I might agree with the exact opposite.

Reply to
Robatoy

Robatoy wrote in news:f26e53db-6003-4d63-89c7- snipped-for-privacy@29g2000yqq.googlegroups.com:

I guess it is a personal thing. Both from the observer's point of view and from the organization's/practitioner's. In the end, I would hope that everyone gets what he/she deserves to get

Reply to
Han

Take comfort in the fact that not many of us likely judge your beautiful state by the actions of its minority whack-jobs.

I have to frequently remind myself that freedoms are often distasteful, but better than not having them at all.

Reply to
Neil Brooks

Very personal indeed.

Reply to
Robatoy

The two are not mutually exclusive. For example, I have the freedom to own a baseball bat in a state that recognizes "fighting words" as justification.

Reply to
HeyBub

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, didn't the money feed, clothe and house a metric shitload of contractors?

Reply to
Steve

Um, maybe. I tend to believe everyone is pretty decent, right up to the point they reveal their true natures. But then the evil does seem to be truly out of proportion -- evil people must work very hard to prove just how evil they can be.

It takes a lot of Mahatma Gandhis to balance out even one Radislav Krsti?.

Reply to
Steve

What state would that be?

Reply to
J. Clarke

I've met too many hypocrites right out of church.

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

Reply to
Larry Jaques

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.