For discussing Dave H's opening post, (there are more following it), against Christianity and beliefs about God and the Bible.
Dave,
I've managed to read the rest of your comments.
As far as I can tell, your position on Christianity, God, and the Bible in general; and on religion's role in American history boils down to the following notions:
The evil acts of men who may call themselves Christian or who invoke "God" or the Christian faith in furtherance of their own will show that the Christian faith, God, and the Bible are evil and we'd be better off without them.
That Marxism is not a faith nor a system imposed by atheists, and that those who have forced it upon people, though they were faithful atheists as required by Marxism, do not represent Marxism or atheism.
Whenever atheists perpetrate evil, atheism is blameless; it's just the individual people who are at fault.
The Books of the Bible are just "fairy tales."
Every word in every book of the Bible, no matter context or type of book, is an order by God, and Christians must obey and uphold every letter of Mosaic (Old Testament) law even today.
Belief in God was a benign factor in our nation's founding.
You tried but were unable to google reports of studies showing that people of faith live longer and are happier.
Dave, happy people don't go around maliciously denigrating, insulting, or blindly misrepresenting the Christian faith, the Bible, or God; nor do they deny the important role belief in God played in our nation's founding.
The Christian faith, the Bible, and God are all revered and cherished dearly by BILLIONS the world over. Trying to belittle and denigrate them is not the mark of a very happy person.
I've summed up some of the points you made and created special topics just for each of them. If you disagree with how I've titled or characterized them, please advise. If you'd like to add more, please do.
I look forward to a meaningful, respectful discussion towards finding truth. Will you agree to make that our goal, finding truth and acknowledging that which we are able to find?
Blake
Update: Well darn. After going to all the trouble to set up this organized format for debate, Dave says "no thanks".
Blake,
I'm only addressing this post to put it to an end. I've stated my arguments and clearly shown evidence in my previous posts in the other thread.
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/406 2/611602.html?1294946409
While I've tried to remain respectful to you as a person of differing views you've insulted my intellect a number of times, called me a jerk, compared me to the WBC and you've also called me a liar countless times. I simply can't debate with a person that ignores questions they are asked and reduces the conversation to insults when backed into a philosophical corner. There's no point to it...
That said if anyone else would like to do their own research (which I encourage) I'll put a few links to some sources and you can look it up for yourself. These sites organize the quotes into categories, feel free to verify these quotes, including context, in your own bible.
Good luck to you...
superdave
*Oh one thing that did irk me was your constant accusation that I haven't read the bible. The first time I read it all the way through was while I was in the gulf getting shot at.
