How to tell a real freethinker

[radorth]

Yeah, and the moment christians get into power they hardly do better.

Admmitedly. BTW, doesn't that prove their God is surprisingly tolerant of sin? I keep hearing he isn't.

Your entire argument for why the burden of proof is on we nonbelievers is the argument from authority?

Nope, it's a legal tenent used every day in courts.

No, you listed a bunch of names and then decided that because those certain intelligent people were theists, your god is proven. And this is wrong, because even the smartest of individuals can be wrong, and just because a belief is held by a certain group of smart people, does not make it true.

No, but you ignored the argument that their beliefs led to your freedom, and I would further say that where the teachings of Jesus were hidden, the Dark Ages returned, as in Communist countries. (There were no Bibles to read in the Dark Ages BTW) I also argued that only a fraction of people can be shown to have ever done what Jesus said, indicating that even a tiny amount of his "sublime and benevolent" wisdom has great benefits.

Given that the bible has some very clear rules regarding how one should keep their slaves, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that ol' Wesley probably didn't derive his position on slavery from biblical sources. Just saying.

He did a whole lot better in his time than Voltaire did. BTW, the first people to free their slaves en masse were the early Christians. They did it so often that Constantine was compelled to make laws concerning where and how it was to be done.

The law also requires that something be proved to have happened before it's even entered into the record as factual. For example, I can't be sued for defamation if I say something defamatory about a fictional character. See where I'm going with this? Before you can say my lack of belief is "defamatory" then you must prove the thing I have defamed exists.

I see, so the NT writers didn't exist? Maybe you should re-read the point and who I was talking about.

And if you want to go that route, then fine: your bible calls us nonbelievers fools, and also calls for us to be killed. All terribly defamatory; now prove that there is a god, because otherwise all those calls to murder are utterly unjustified.

Yeah I don't like that punishment. I think you should have the last thing you thought you needed, forever. Like getting rid of all the Christians. One day God will do that for you, I am quite certain.