Gimme That Old Time Religion

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, but that is still kinda harsh, don't you think?

[Orcus]

FYI, "spare the rod and spoil the child" is referring to a Shepherd's rod...it's saying if you don't guide your child (note: GUIDE, not BEAT SENSELESS), you will end up with Mowgli.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
But I've always been told we should follow Jesus's example. In this example, he whipped people. Ergo whipping people is a-ok for Christians. Seems pretty simple to me...

You still don't see the difference between lashing a whip in the direction of grown adults, and holding a little boy down and savagely beating him with a branch until he is practically dead????

[Boris Godunov]

So if I see a kid use a swear word at his mom, I can walk over and beat him to death?

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, but that is still kinda harsh, don't you think?

Yes, but wishing your own parents dead is a very grave offense!

[JohnIII]

Originally posted by The diplomat
Yes, but wishing your own parents dead is a very grave offense!

Well, they will die anyway.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by The diplomat


You still don't see the difference between lashing a whip in the direction of grown adults, and holding a little boy down and savagely beating him with a branch until he is practically dead????

I dunno...the Bible seems to think it's okay to kill a woman who goes to Church while having her period or someone who wears polyesther clothes, so why would beating a kid be so bad?

Speaking of which, I'm still owed that death sentence for shaving this morning...

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by The diplomat
Yes, but wishing your own parents dead is a very grave offense!

So if this 11-year old had said "I wish my parents were dead!" then it would have been okay for these guys to kill him?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, but wishing your own parents dead is a very grave offense!

NO IT ISN'T! I'm sure most kids do so at one point or another. I know I have!

[Jack the Bodiless]

"Curse" doesn't necessarily mean "wishing dead" anyhow.

Are you saying that "Jeez, this is boring, if only my parents weren't such dorks" is OK, but "Jeez, this is boring, I wish my parents would drop this religious crap" (meaning, to a fundie, that they'd fry in Hell) deserves death?

And no kid who has ever used the phrase "drop dead" deserves to live?

[Lincoln]

I think an excerpt from a letter from Gorky to Stalin should explain a little bit why atheists like to twist the scriptures to their own ends. I have never met one Christian who would do that to a child but I suppose it is important to the cause of atheism to paint all Christians with a broad brush. I could just as easily (and dishonestly) call all atheists minnions of Stalin or Mao Tse tung, but I won't stoop to their level of debate. Here is the excerpt:

It is furthermore imperative to put the propaganda of atheism on solid ground. You won't achieve much with the weapons of Marx and materialism, as we have seen. Materialism and religion are two different planes and they don't coincide.... For this reason, there should be courses set up at the Communist Academy which would not only treat the history of religion, and mainly the history of the Christian church, i.e., the study of church history as politics.

We need to know the "fathers of the church," the apologists of Christianity, especially indispensable to the study of the history of Catholicism, the most powerful and intellectual church organization whose political significance is quite clear. We need to know the history of church schisms, heresies, the Inquisition, the "religious" wars, etc. Every quotation by a believer is easily countered with dozens of theological quotations which contradict it.

We cannot do without an edition of the "Bible" with critical commentaries from the Tubingen school and books on criticism of biblical texts, which could bring a very useful "confusion into the minds" of believers.

--------------------------------------------

I think that all atheists worship Joseph Stalin.

[JohnIII]

Why is it dishonest to quote the Bible?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by MikeH


What's the difference between that, TV evangelists and the catholic church?

TV Evangelists suck too

Jon Mliler

[Shi Huangdi]

You're not supposed to take the bible literally

[Lincoln]

Because it claims to be subject to a spiritual interpretation. It is like me quoting from a stock market ticker and trying to prove the theory of relativity. For example, Jesus told the children to come to him and he blessed them while rebuking his disciples for refusing them. How can anyone but a dishonest or ignorant person twist what Jesus actually did and said to mean that it is OK to beat a child like this. He drove out 'money changers' and religious hypocrites with a whip and there is no mention that he ever struck anyone. Of course these are all minor points to some I suppose.