Thanks so much for this post!

I now blog at http://rudycarrera.com/religion

Glory to God in the hiegest!

It is really blessded to visit your site and to see the articles those are really a big need of the chrsirtians of my area. They day and night face the problems and chellenges of being christian in Muslim majority country. I live in Pakistan

If you can afford to translation of these articles in our national and native languages Urdu, Punjabi and Saraikie.I know these Languages ( Punjabi,a language spoken by 90 Million people in the world ) and 13 Million people Saraikie speakers .

Urdu is considered one of the sweetest language of the world. It is the National Language of Pakistan and one of the Official Language of India. According to conservative estimates Urdu has 104 million speakers all over the world.

If funds are availble I would suggest for its translation. I can offer my services for that Language too.

This translation will be a big work for the Glory of God.

In Jesus

Seraphine

How can I contact you?

Please respond when time allows. Thank you.

It’s nothing more than an excuse, and it’s not at all charitable for the Russian Patriarch, who is no innocent in ecclesiastical matters, to refuse a meeting in good faith. Someone has to take the first step. Otherwise, we leave Christianity divided. Rome has to change, but we have to come to the table for anything to even move. On a parish level, I have to agree with you, however.

As to the second to the last paragraph where you showed your lack of tact and ignorance, I lived in the Balkans for 15 years during the worst of it before coming here, so if you’re seeking “bravery” credentials, I’ve got them. It’s something your ilk will never possess, sadly, despite the “brave” comments you make from a comfy college.

It is a byproduct of an irrational hatred of Christianity (and other religions) that played a part in the slaughter of these people.

That’s exactly what I said. You’re missing my point, which is that atheism and anti-theism are not the same thing. Atheism is simply the lack of belief in gods. Anti-theism is contempt for theism. That an anti-theistic, atheistic person killed many religious people doesn’t put a bad light on atheism. There were many communist atheists during the same period who actively opposed Stalin’s policies (when and where they could).

What they say and what many read don’t seem to be in concert with each other.

They state that their books aren’t a complete history, and then go on to talk only about specific aspects of history. Which part isn’t in concert? The only problem here is that you’re gleaning a message which isn’t there.

Which is different from me gleaning a message from the Bible that obviously is there, and has obviously contributed hugely to social mores on slavery and genocide. The Bible condones, in plain black and white, all of the things I previously mentioned. It never says explicitly, “These are stories meant to be taken in context. We don’t mean to say that God really advocates all of this stuff.” That belief is strictly a product of modernity. Literalism, as I’ve said previously, has always been the most prominent reading of the Bible.

There will always be criticism, but faith wins out of bleak ranting.

That’s because faith isn’t accountable to evidence, by definition. As you have just done, the faithful will simply declare victory without any argument.

You are mistaking Judaism in the context of its time with what has happened since.

In other words, “It was okay back then; God just changed his mind.”

It is still an educated guess dressed up as fact. Nothing more.

Nope. As I said, scientific theories have predictive power. In other words, scientific theories themselves produce facts which we previously did not have. Einstein’s theory of relativity predicted that massive bodies could bend light around them. It was only later that we confirmed that prediction. Educated guess? Perhaps. But there’s a LOT of education behind it. Characterizing it as a “guess” is really stretching it.

And it seems that there is willful blindness to those many scientists who say Darwin promoted bunkum. Both sides are essentially excommunicating each other for being “blind.” Both sides take stabs in the dark. I, for one, have little problem with evolution. I believe in process, absolutely. The one thing science never answers is what happened prior to that Big Bang (God’s finger-snap, whatever you wish to call it).

Evolution has nothing to do with cosmology, except in the very vaguest of senses. So that’s really a non sequiter. As for your first statement, I’m afraid you’re incorrect. Many, many, many, many scientists and mathematicians have taken time out of their busy research schedules to not only buy and read books by Intelligent Design people, but to publish responses to them. These are people who have dozens and dozens of peer-reviewed scientific papers, with hundreds of citations from other professionals. If you take a look at some of the ID people, say Behe or Dembski, you’ll see very quickly how inconsequential they are to modern science. They don’t contribute anything. They don’t even research ID. Despite their many criticisms of scientists for not taking them seriously, isn’t it strange that they themselves don’t research the stuff they espouse?

We have the luxury to do so. But if you’re against religion, the atheists there should be doing their part to “stand up” against the mullahs and imams mixing their interpretations of religion, science and law together. I rarely see it.

LOL, this is nonsense. Almost every interview I’ve ever watched this stuff is discussed. It’s discussed in their books. It’s discussed in their op-eds. I’m afraid that you’re not paying attention.

You might not think so, but your ilk would gain more respect by doing so.

Committing suicide usually isn’t respected by Christians. That’s an odd statement.

Again, with the exception of Hitch, few atheists would dare open their mouth in a place where they’d get punked.

Pot, meet kettle. Where, sir, do you live? Obviously you have access to blogs, so you don’t live in Saudi Arabia (where blogs are censored). Oh, I see. You’re speaking on behalf of all of your brave Christian martyrs. You’re claiming their pain for yourself. Talk about cowardice. Reminds me of George Bush talking about American soldiers.

But grant me one thing: at least I’m not chasing you around with a Bible in hand.

No, just the usual right-wing, religious rhetoric.