"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage!"
"Then show me that dragon! I want to see it to believe it."
**We arrive at my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle - but no dragon.
"Where's the dragon?"
"It's there but it is invisible."
"Then we should spread flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints."
"It won't help because this dragon flies in the air."
"Then why don't we feel the fire from his breath?"
"Because it is cold fire."
"Then let's throw some paint around and make dragon visible."
"Dragon flies really fast so it won't hit him."
And so on.
"Then show me that dragon! I want to see it to believe it."
**We arrive at my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle - but no dragon.
"Where's the dragon?"
"It's there but it is invisible."
"Then we should spread flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints."
"It won't help because this dragon flies in the air."
"Then why don't we feel the fire from his breath?"
"Because it is cold fire."
"Then let's throw some paint around and make dragon visible."
"Dragon flies really fast so it won't hit him."
And so on.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
