Stump the Christian?

[SteveII]

And you have failed to tell me what the actual danger is if a politician believes in a literal Genesis?

Well, the end of days for starters. For quite a few literlalists it's like their own personal porn, longing for it to happen, wanting to make it happen. Let's just say I wouldn't entrust any of them with access to nuclear arms. A few of them, not politicians I hope, come on here on occasion to let us participate in their wet dreams.

But that's just the most obvious and dangerous. The discrimination and outright hate against certain groups of people is to wide a field to put it just into a few words.

Your end of days example shows you do not have a grasp of what it is you are talking about. You are making stuff up to prove your conclusion that Christians are a "clear and present danger". I thought this was a place of enlightenment where no assumptions are made and only the evidence prevails. Still waiting for evidence to back up your assertion. 

Where did Jesus or Paul teach to discriminate or hate? 

[abaris]

Your end of days example shows you do not have a grasp of what it is you are talking about. You are making stuff up to prove your conclusion that Christians are a "clear and present danger".

It's not me making that stuff up. I recommend looking up the posts of "professor", just to name the most prominent example and come to your own conclusion instead of the usual butthurt. Alternatively you can look up Armageddon on christian forums and again come to your own conclusions.

If you have it in your good self.

And as for discrimination. Regardless of Jesus or Paul, who said a lot of questionable things by the way, listen to the sermons about gay people, listen to what prominent republicans have to say about the matter, and again come to your own conclusions.

[FatAndFaithless]

There are innumerable places online you can find the eschatological masturbations of Christians. As we've noted, however, most Christians aren't like that. But those that are might raise issues if they use those theological beliefs to guide policy and law decisions that affect everyone else as well.

[SteveII]

There is nothing in Christianity that says kill Muslims save the Jews.

If the bible is taken literally, it says exactly that. Not in so many words, but the jews have to reign over the whole of what was considered Israel at that time for Jesus to return. That's every peace deal out of the window for starters.

That's one of these nutters raving about it.

http://www.alphanewsdaily.com/Warning%20...salem.html

Also we made a pretty clear distinction between what we consider christian nutjobs and christians. Not every christian is a literalist.

So, as you seem to be saying that if you take the Bible literally (but not in so many words) the Jews will reign over the whole world. Can you find the verse(s) where it says that? 

[Cato]

The religious right would be an unmitigated disaster to public education? How are they messing up science specifically? What is the rewrite history reference? In 60 seconds I googled "What country has more scientific discoveries" and the very first article (fourth result) Forbes says that the US produced 40% of the world biomedical research in 2009 (the next country had 10%). I don't have time to thoroughly research, but it seems from a cursory glance that the 200+ years of heavy Christian influence in the US has us producing a large share of the world's accumulated scientific knowledge.

You'll probably find this linked Pew Research study interesting:
http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scien...nd-belief/

And while evangelical Protestants make up more than a fourth of the general population (28%), they make up only a small slice (4%) of the scientific community.

God's not doing the heavy lifting when it comes to the sciences. Even for those that are believers and scientists, their religion is in no way informing their science.

[abaris]

So, as you seem to be saying that if you take the Bible literally (but not in so many words) the Jews will reign over the whole world. Can you find the verse(s) where it says that? 

That's either knowingly twisting what I said or you're simply an idiot without any reading comprehension.

Which is it?

In any case, I recommend clicking the link I provided before I even deign this with an answer.

[SteveII]

@Cato

While interesting, what does the religious beliefs of scientist have to do with Christians getting in the way of science? I would be very concerned if scientist allowed their religion to inform their work. Science itself has no goal other than knowledge. The proper Christian response to science is discover all you can about the universe. Ethics of stem cells, cloning, and other things are a different topic.

[dyresand]

@Cato

While interesting, what does the religious beliefs of scientist have to do with Christians getting in the way of science? I would be very concerned if scientist allowed their religion to inform their work. Science itself has no goal other than knowledge. The proper Christian response to science is discover all you can about the universe. Ethics of stem cells, cloning, and other things are a different topic.

If you actually read through and looked at the statistics given all those fields more people do not believe in a god than believe in those said fields.
That being said if you even looked into a few or even did some minor or even did some reading on either of those fields even NDT will say he never believed in a god.
The fact being the universe is a chaotic place its ever changing and we as a species just showed up around the worst possible time to exist. The universe itself doesn't 
have much longer before it just ends. 

[Faith No More]

Where did Jesus or Paul teach to discriminate or hate? 

I don't know, but if I were to guess based upon the actions of conservative Christians, I would say it was on nearly every page.

[Cato]

While interesting, what does the religious beliefs of scientist have to do with Christians getting in the way of science? I would be very concerned if scientist allowed their religion to inform their work. Science itself has no goal other than knowledge. The proper Christian response to science is discover all you can about the universe. Ethics of stem cells, cloning, and other things are a different topic.

Proper Christian response? Has this been your problem in this entire conversation? Do you think there is one proper Christian response/position? I was at least extneding the courtesy of not lumping all Christians into the insanity that is the Evangelical community. This is part of the problem I've been alluding to. Many Christians, and certainly those that are considered the Christian right, would disagree with you. Please don't tell me you are unaware of the constant attempt to shove Creationism into science curricula.

You cannot dismiss ethics and politics in this discussion because it is precisely in these arenas that the religious right can have any sway in the sciences; understanding that religion by its very nature is bereft of any contribution to science in its strict academic sense. The anti-science stance of the religious right is a direct impediment to the advancement of scientific knowledge.