(August 29, 2012 at 7:10 pm)padraic Wrote:Quote:Should Bob believe in the existence of black holes, which actually do exist? Or should he refuse to believe in their existence?
Nice strawman.
Quote:Some churches can be a force for good.
Tangentially,most do SOME good.
Overall, organised religion,with its dogma,parasitic clergy, obscene wealth and abuse of power is arguably the greatest confidence trick ever perpetrated on the human race, a carbuncle on the arse of human kind.
It must be a very pretty carbuncle then. I think my cathedral and most cathedrals and churches in Britain very pretty. My cathedral has a 900 year history. I take pride in our human culture. I admire music and its beauty and a lot of it is Christian. I love art and paintings and most of them are Christian. I love sculpture and most of it (except for the Roman and Greek ones which predate Christ) are Christian. I agree we should divorce the supernatural (ie superstitious) from fact in religion but there is such a huge wealth of art and culture that to cut it off completely is to cut off our human achievements and history.
