Quote Originally Posted by drisos
To all atheists: I don't mind you not believing in god, but try not to isult people who do.
That's a fine line we're walking here, Drisos. Some members call some of my ideas absurd and they have every right to do so. I have the same right with regard to other peoples' ideas. I have every right to state that some religious notions look to me like aviation experiments that have long been overtaken by social and scientific progress.

On the other hand, I stated above that I take religion seriously because so many other people on this earth do. And I do. I have many times defended my view that the Bible, the Quran and other 'holy' books are worth reading and respecting in their own right, even though I do not regard them as sources of revealed truths. I have shown that I am more than superficially interested in Christian theology and in Christian writers, from Mauriac through Lewis, and I have made it clear in a seemingly endless series of 'Pope threads' that I don't share the common anti-Church view on Aids prevention in Africa.

But I' m not a Christian and I have a right to say and demonstrate why and in what ways Christianity looks absurd to me. Christians have the right to say (as a friend of mine once did) that my world view reminds them of an ant colony that reproduces itself without an apparent higher motive or aim. It made me smile, and it made me understand him a little bit more. That's the upside to such discussions. We should be able to write such things about each other, mostly in jest, and thereby reveal ourselves and get a better understanding.

That's why you'll always find me on your side in a 'Christianity sux' thread.