Initially raised non-religious, parents converted to Christianity (United Methodist Church) when I was 9-11 or so; I was baptized and confirmed when I was 12 mostly out of obligation. Even at the time I was pretty agnostic, and I fell away from it altogether by 16.
Well, we know it is discredited. By contrast, not one Republican candidate bothered to discuss the terrorist attack, and Carly Fiorina endorsed the videos long after they were discredited as hack anti-choice extremist propaganda.
Hate crimes are up throughout the UK. The UK is one of the most LGBT friendly countries in the world these days, and yet there has been a dramatic spike in anti-gay hate crimes:
Forces in England and Wales recorded 5,597 hate crimes against gays and lesbians in 2014-15, a rise of 22 per cent...
To believers. From an outsider's perspectives, their points of commonality usually overshadow the small points of disagreement. So while the points of disagreement are very important to consumers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, an outsider is fairly comfortable with the description...
Yes.
Unfortunately, college campuses can easily be turned into echo chambers when your overriding concern is coddling students and preventing them from expressing (or hearing) points of view that they will encounter on a regular basis outside the hallowed halls of academia. In fact if they are...
But if you are a parent who deeply loves their child and wants to ensure their salvation, why would it not be an act of love to murder the baptized infant? Or an infant who has not reached the age of accountability, who will surely go to heaven? Now for some Christians this rationale does not...
Most people would recoil at the very thought. But then, Christians believe that the dead child will go to heaven, right? So you are basically guaranteeing their salvation by murdering them. Even if you lose your soul in the process, isn't that an act of love? If Christianity is true, of...
There are probably more Muslims in, say, Pakistan, who support the beliefs of ISIS than Muslims who believe Ahmadiyyas are Muslim. So what does that say about the state of the religion?
Muslims clearly deified their alleged prophet. They clearly worship Muhammad, flip out when you draw cartoons of him (while not flipping out about cartoons of other prophets like Isa), etc. So they are clearly polytheists. Do u agree?
Godobeyer, I like you. I think that you have good instincts quite a bit, based on what I have read, despite the vast political and geographical gulf that separates us. But just step back for a second and think about what you wrote: "Israel through AIPAC is using USA."
You really think that...
And secularists are surely responsible for convicting Lebanese cartoonists for denigrating religion today: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/05/lebanese-comic-fights-for-survival-free-speech-sanctions-samarkand-crowdfunding
We are debating whether it was 1978 or 1979 when Mormons allowed blacks into the priesthood? OK, my date may be off by a year. I'll deal.
Yes, Southern churches were often rabidly racist hellholes. No dispute.
I want to say yes. But I also want to know if you are talking about any and all forms of punishment, or just those inflicted by the state? I think imprisoning or killing someone for leaving a religion is a serious human rights violation, but denying them communion within the confines of a cult...
Personally, I welcome this development. This is what the Latter Day Saints believe. There should not be any illusions about accepting LGBT people if that is not in the cards. That includes their families and children. In fact, the Mormon church has done outsiders a great favor by...
It is very difficult to have respectful dialogue with Mormons over matters of doctrine if you are gay or atheist. Not a criticism of you, just a neutral observation.
Per wiki: "An accident is an undesirable incidental and unplanned event that could have been prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence." Most assuredly, not what most atheists believe.
You write this in a vacuum, totally divorced from the actual culture of "daddy daughter dances" that replicate *romantic* rites of passage for American teenagers. I am not talking about dancing at a wedding, for all of the loaded patriarchy symbolism that crap mirrors it is nothing like daddy...