(May 3, 2021 at 7:43 pm)Belacqua Wrote: People who want to insult Christianity frequently use the rhetorical device of comparing it unfavorably to children's books like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. This is simple-minded.
And people who want to avoid discussion about some argument use logical fallacies like that they are being insulted when they are not.
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"