I'm guessing it's going to be Islam, right?

Haha, I was being rhetorical, mocking the idea of them trying to cherry-pick the Constitution.

Not unlike how they cherry-pick the Bible. Hey, if you're gonna cherry-pick one rule book, why not cherry-pick 'em all, right?

(April 3, 2013 at 12:30 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

(April 3, 2013 at 12:15 pm)junkyardboy Wrote: the early church thrived under the persecution of the politicians of the roman empire
Christ doesn't need help from stupid, corrupt politicians

Bullshit.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-myth...0062104526

Quote:In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors.

According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today.

Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches.

The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.

Fucking jesus needs all the help he can get. The church was always sucking on the king's cock in order to get its way.

and Holocaust deniers have their proponents too.

We have pictures of the holocaust...and actual survivors.

You have fantasies which you willingly buy because, I assume, you are just an asshole who believes anything some guy in a funny hat tells you.

(April 3, 2013 at 8:59 pm)Minimalist Wrote: We have pictures of the holocaust...and actual survivors.

You have fantasies which you willingly buy because, I assume, you are just an asshole who believes anything some guy in a funny hat tells you.

and yet there are still Holocaust deniers.
no surprise there are those that deny events of 2000 years ago

No, it isn't a surprise that people deny that they happened. Given that, indeed, they didn't happen. The only claims of all the persecutions come from entries the canonizers of the bible, and there is no independent sources that ever support any of their claims, not even in the IMMENSELY meticulous records of the Roman empire.

The Christian tendency towards wailing about being persecuted has nothing to do with any grounds in reality; it's just them jacking off to the whole idea that Christianity is founded on; persecution. Your dumbass megalomaniacal pseudohippy narcissistic martyr was nailed to a cross and they killed his ass dead as he could fucking get and his buddies didn't like it and so they started making claims that ALL Christians were going to get persecuted, even though the only ones persecuting them were their jewish peers and never the Roman Empire itself.

I respect the Roman Empire a lot fucking more than I respect the Christian religion, so stop insulting it by claiming they did something they never did. At least the Roman Empire actually did something for civilization! Its death brought forth the dark ages. Christianity's rise made the dark age drag on for a millenium and a fucking half with its forced dogma and indoctrination on the joys of bigotry and hate and false, pious bastardizations of love. If Christianity had never come to be, I can say with absolute certainty that the world would not be any fucking worse, and in fact it'd probably be a hell of a lot better! We'd be 1,000 years more evolved in social values by this point. Thanks to your bullshit delusional rambling religion, we're all 30,000 generations behind on social and cultural evolution. Fuck Christianity. You want persecution, you got it. You guys are the driving force behind the antitheistic community among the atheist numbers.

A million Kudos to that, Creed. Well said.

(April 4, 2013 at 3:24 pm)Creed of Heresy Wrote: Your dumbass megalomaniacal pseudohippy narcissistic martyr was nailed to a cross and they killed his ass dead as he could fucking get...

I'm glad to see other non-believers aren't buying the lovey, dovey Jesus crap.

And no, not being sarcastic.

Jesus brought false messages of peace. Peace with a condition. "Love and accept me as the child of God Almighty, and you will get peace. But if you don't, you'll be subject to war and bloodshed. I'll turn your brothers on your fathers and your sisters against your mothers, sons and daughters will kill one another in my name if you don't accept me as the ultimate deity."

False fucking peace. That's a peaceful message like the USA saying "Everyone had better stop resisting our global efforts or we'll nuke all you fuckers to hell, damn the consequences, as long as we get what we want, we won't do it."

It is the evening of the 28th March, the year 33 AD. The Feast of Passover is just days away. Every Jewish male is required to be in Jerusalem. Jesus has arrived in Bethany, on the south side of the Mount of Olives, a short walk from the Temple which is just over the hill. Bethany is the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, close friends of Jesus. Their home is his when he is in Jerusalem. A few days ago Jesus performed one of his most spectacular miracles.

After three days in the tomb he brought Lazarus back to life simply by the power of his spoken word. Many people believe Jesus is the Messiah because Lazarus is alive again but the religious leaders are plotting to kill him. A dinner is being prepared for Jesus at the home of Simon the Leper. The custom is for the men to eat together, reclining on thin mats around a low table. They are leaning on their left arms with their feet spread out from the table. Martha is serving the food and Lazarus is one of the guests.

As they recline around the table, Mary, the other sister of Lazarus, brings out an alabaster jar of expensive perfume. She kneels behind Jesus, breaks the neck of the bottle and pours the perfume all over Jesus feet and over his head. The conversations cease as the smell of the food is overwhelmed by the intoxicating smell of pure nard. The whole house is filled with the powerful fragrance. Immediately one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, reprimands her, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.” (John 12:5). The other’s join in and rebuke her sharply.

But Jesus does not condemn. Instead he defends her. "Leave her alone … Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.” The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.” (Mark 14:6-8)


So yeah. Jesus sure sticks up for the poor and destitute. "The meek shall inherit the earth" as he always says, right? But they still come second to him. You'll always have the poor, who cares if they're starving and destitute and suffering? I need that perfume cuz I'm gonna die soon. It's all really about ME. Me, me me me me, little spoiled-brat Jesus.

Jesus was a bitch.