I don't know of many places where passers-by openly laugh at the few street corner preachers we do get.

(December 7, 2014 at 5:48 pm)Stimbo Wrote: I don't know of many places where passers-by openly laugh at the few street corner preachers we do get.

One time in Birmingham I saw a street preacher getting heckled by a group of Morris Dancers. Literally dancing up to his face.

funniest thing I've ever seen.

(December 7, 2014 at 5:48 pm)Stimbo Wrote: I don't know of many places where passers-by openly laugh at the few street corner preachers we do get.

I haven't even seen one of these. Sometimes the church takes to the street and does some noise pollution, but that's easily avoided too.

We've had a few round my way. They tend not to last too long.

(December 7, 2014 at 5:11 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Yeah, clearly our good old British patented anti-Jesus shields are still working. Well, mostly.

We've talked before about how those shields are powered by the state sponsorship of religion. I really like your proposed historical scenario, however unlikely it may be, that this was the plan all along.

For those others who haven't heard, the plot was to give religion a subsidy. That way, the church services could remain boring and traditional with no appeal to the public.

In America, where religion was thrown out of the government and onto the street, only the most appealing to the public could survive. Thus, evolution bred the most aggressive strain of the Christian mind-virus, one that had to develop savvy marketing appeal.

In Britain, where religion was fat and protected, it soon became characterized by folks mumbling and badly singing and became its own pathetic self-parody. Thus, it's not taken seriously by many and has become like a drug-addled rabid dog kept safely in its cage.

Truly ingenious! And whatever those taxes are that you pay to maintain the state church, they are a small price to pay, trust me.

Now if only you could come up with a state sponsored Islamic mosque...

Here's an example of how religion is viewed here:

(December 7, 2014 at 6:00 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: Now if only you could come up with a state sponsored Islamic mosque...

I'm guessing they have that in... Iran...

(December 7, 2014 at 6:00 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: In Britain, where religion was fat and protected, it soon became characterized by folks mumbling and badly singing and became its own pathetic self-parody. Thus, it's not taken seriously by many and has become like a drug-addled rabid dog kept safely in its cage.

That's true for the largest part of Europe. There are only some countries left where the people aren't bored rigid by the ongoings. Poland for example, but that's obviously the backclash of communism.

(December 7, 2014 at 5:44 pm)Fidel_Castronaut Wrote:

(December 7, 2014 at 5:11 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Yeah, clearly our good old British patented anti-Jesus shields are still working. Well, mostly.

Yeah, I really, really feel sorry for those people who have to put up with the fundie stuff we see regularly from theists on here. And I feel sorry for both theists and atheists alike in that regard. We're really lucky that the god squad are generally viewed as loons by the public here.

I'ts not so bad, even here in Central Texas, as it is on Internet forums, which seem to concentrate the various humans foibles, including fundamentalism.

(December 7, 2014 at 5:07 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote:

(December 7, 2014 at 3:18 pm)Stimbo Wrote: For the record and for those who might not know, I've never been xtian nor even accidentally religious either.

Weren't we lucky bastards?

Actually, maybe not so much for you. You're in the UK, right? I was raised in one of the reddest states in America, so for me to grow up without religion or having to waste huge chunks of my childhood sitting in church was nothing less than a fucking miracle. Praise Reason!

How did either of you become interested enough in either the Bible or Biblical times to spend the time on either what is in the Bible or historical references to the things in it? Self defense or general interest in the time period?