re: Mississippi wins right to enforce religious exemptions law

quote:

---

communism isn't responsible for the 100 million + murders perpetrated by communist governments

---

a-theism most certainly is/was and the communist system was implemented in a purely secular attempt to wipe out religion. you can say "communism" isn't responsible but, there is absolutely a correlation

quote:

---

and this is precisely what the law is protecting. you're against rape right? what if someone could force you to engage in business with rapists? pretty sure you wouldn't like that.

---

being gay is not a crime, these people have done nothing wrong, you cant equate them with rapists just because your point is so empty that you need to disparage them to give it any weight.

quote:

---

a-theism most certainly is/was and the communist system was implemented in a purely secular attempt to wipe out religion.

---

Nope. This will always be wrong, no matter how often you try to use it.

quote:

---

just to be clear, you're describing universal common descent, not evolution. two totally different things.

---

They aren't totally different things. Common descent is just a part of the broader theory of evolution.

quote:

---

you would be erasing christianity, the greatest force for good and humanitarian work in the history of the world.

---

some quotes from christians on the history of christian violence...

Miroslav Volf, the Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University:

"Beginning at least with Constantine's conversion, the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross. Over the centuries, the seasons of Lent and Holy Week were, for the Jews, times of fear and trepidation; Christians have perpetrated some of the worst pogroms as they remembered the crucifixion of Christ, for which they blamed the Jews. Muslims also associate the cross with violence; crusaders' rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross."

Reverend Diarmaid MacCulloch:

"Christianity has been the most intolerant of world faiths, doing its best to eliminate all qualified competitors..."

Baptist Minister Charles Kimball:

"A strong case can be made that the history of Christianity contains considerably more violence and destruction than that of most other major religions."

Mennonite theologian J. Denny Weaver:

"The crusades, the multiple blessings of wars, warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men ... In the view of many historians, the Constantinian shift turned Christianity from a persecuted into a persecuting religion."

he's talking about people like Pope Leo XIII, who was pope for 25 years, up until 1903, and was "well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking."

a quote from Pope Leo...



it also applies to Pope Urban II, who declared that some wars could be justified as "bellum sacrum" ("holy war"). This began the First Crusade, which led to the death of 1.7 million people, at a time when there were only 300 million on earth.

Among other things its notable for the Rhineland Massacres, where they murdered over 5,000 Jews.

this was in 1095. the Crusades would last for the next 600 years.

the Inquisitions were also happening at this same time.

there was the Spanish Inquisition of course, lasting for 400 years, where not only were thousands killed by the church, but tens of thousands were tortured, 150,000 were accused of crimes, and Jews in Spain and Muslims in Granda were forced to either convert or be expelled from the country.

the Peruvian Inquisition and Mexican Inquisition, both lasting for 300 years, fall under this title as well.

The Portuguese Inquisition, from 1536 to 1821, saw the church force 40,000 Jews to either convert or be expelled from Portugal.

and then theres the Roman Inquisition. this is the one where they decided to burn all the "witches".

no one actually knows how many "witches" they tortured and killed, but the LOWEST estimate is between 45,000 and 60,000.

this is also the one where the church was imprisoning scientists like Copernicus and Galileo for saying the sun was the center of the universe. Galileo was found guilty of heresy and held under house arrest from 1633 until his death in 1642.

The Roman Inquisition went on until 1858.

their history of Forced Conversions didnt start or end there, however.

they began in the year 392, and have covered the Saxons in Germany to the Jews in Spain to the Muslims in Portugal to the Hindus in Goa to the Native Americans in the US. in Australia it was still going on with the Aborigines up until the 1970's, and known as "The Stolen Children". because they were literally kidnapping children.

basically they didnt care who you were; if you weren't christian, frick you.

and yes, there are modern christian terrorists, like Eric Rudolph, who did the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. though he's suspected of more, he's also confessed to bombing 2 abortion clinics and a lesbian bar. his specialty was bombs with nails inside to act as shrapnel.

he was a part of the christian terrorist group called Army of God. theyre responsible for at least 10 bombings and guilty of murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping, among other things.

even the catholic saints are violent psychopaths.

heres St. Augustine, who said "sinners" should be put to death, because...

"...increased sinning might continue if their life went on."

Saint Thomas Aquinas felt pretty much the same way, and said that "sinners" should be killed and shouldn't have the chance to repent because if they were gonna do that it would have happened already...

"The fate of the wicked being open to conversion so long as they live does not preclude their being open also to the just punishment of death. Indeed the danger threatening the community from their life is greater and more certain than the good expected by their conversion. Besides, in the hour of death, they have every facility for turning to God by repentance. And if they are so obstinate that even in the hour of death their heart will not go back upon its wickedness, a fairly probable reckoning may be made that they never would have returned to a better mind."

back to St. Augustine, who said murder didnt violate gods very clear commandment about that sort of thing if you were doing it for god...

"Since the agent of authority is but a sword in the hand, and is not responsible for the killing, it is in no way contrary to the commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill' to wage war at God's bidding, or for the representatives of the State's authority to put criminals to death, according to law or the rule of rational justice."

he also said that its not up to god to forgive and punish sin, but christians. he's talking about the death penalty here...

"Unless a man restore what he has purloined, his sin is not forgiven. Since therefore the safeguarding of justice is necessary for salvation, it follows that it is necessary for salvation to restore what has been taken unjustly."
"Wherefore when that which has been taken cannot be restored in equivalent, compensation should be made as far as possible"

quote:

---

you would be erasing christianity, the greatest force for good and humanitarian work in the history of the world.

---

oh yeah, believe me, i know what Id be doing.

quote:

---

If the government can take away someone's religious rights, then no rights are safe from the government

---

The whole argument in a nutshell.

That the Government is given power to determine which side of a belief is the *bigot*, would be a turn on to the road to perdition. And it would not unite people, but further divide. And we surely don't need that.

quote:

---

because marriage predates Christianity by several thousand years. you don't own it, you're not in charge of it, its not up to you to decide who qualifies.

---

Dude.

You are missing the point of the law.

It isn't to "own" marriage. Gay marriage is still legal civilly.

It's to prevent a gay couple from suing a church to act against THEIR beliefs crying discrimination.

quote:

---

some men can be turned away from buying a house or getting a loan because theyre gay or black.

---

or white

or straight

or male

quote:

---

when hundreds of thousands of people are all killed in the name of X, then yes, at that point its safe to say X is a problem.

---

Say you decide to share your infinite wisdom with the world. You teach love and compassion. A group decides to follow you and performs multiple heinous acts that go against your teaching. Who is responsible you or the group?

quote:

---

Is it murder when a soldier kills another soldier...

---

not the topic

...it is in no way contrary to the commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill' to wage war at God's bidding...

he's talking about holy wars, which are basically anything religious people want them to be. Eric Rudolph was killing people with bombs because he thought thats what god wanted. even now the Army of God publishes the things he writes condoning violence and militant action against gay people and abortion clinics.