Reread. Just because you can mimick doesn't mean what I said makes no sense. It just means you copy well. I don't believe you read what I said. It pertained to the question in the opening post. It was not to prove God to you. It was to explain why Christians can be for less government yet worship an All powerful God. So, pay attention a little bit. Quantrill
Do you have any evidence that religious people are anti intellectual? Of course you don't. Why are you so obsessed with religion? Thou doth protest too much, methinks.
'Religious' people can of course be highly intellectual, and it is extremely difficult to get a First in Theology, but you must admit that to commit yourself to a 'Being' (or process, or whatever) held to be of immense importance but for whom/which there is extremely little evidence is bound to get in the way of serious thinking in ordinary people, surely? I'd note the way so many Americans insist on being 'Christian' (or 'Judeo-Christian') while ignoring almost everything Jesus is reported as saying because they are constantly juggling words and ideas to make sense of the 'God' of the Old Testament. It looks intellectually wearing as well as somewhat hypocritical, and gives much the same effect as total ignorance.
I think this is basically true of all people who claim to be religious according to some particular tradition, especially as the tradition ages. As time leaves behind a particular religious text and it becomes more and more irrelevant to current life, people creat a new religion and merely name it after the old one. This is why I say that religion is for the most part merely a way of speaking. A lot of what religious people say they clearly do not really believe, as they clearly live their lives as if the things they claim to believe are not true. They say, for example, that a tiny amount of faith is enough to move mountains and then some. But they do not act as if they believe it. It's a way of talking. They're proud of the way they talk. Nothing more.
To the question of the anti-intellectualism of religious people... I often say that belief in God is irrational. I do not mean by this that people who believe in God spend every second of every day acting completely loony tunes. I mean only what I say. Belief in God is irrational, so to the extent that you believe in God, you are irrational. You may be the most rationally, empiraclly-minded person on the planet at all other times, but this does not stop your belief in God from being irrational.
This is such nonsense, refuted by the last 2000 years of history that it certainly bears no individual refutation--please read a history book.
Actually, the nuts that performed the acts on 9/11 were religious nuts, long before 9/11. So, this is NOT an after the fact excuse. And if you don't read well, I did say that the acts of 9/11 were not done because of religion, they were done because of acts committed by the USA that other people did NOT approve of. The attack on 9/11 was an act of terror committed by insane people against non-combatants. The reason they attacked non-combatants may or may not have been because of their religious upbringing. The fact is, the despise America because of specific things that America has done. I am NOT judging the acts of America, just stating a fact. The fact is that putting an evil dictator in power in some nation may result in consequences you do not like.
At the very minimum, in the last 65 years, I have heard Christians say "I don't need any book but the bible", at least 1000 times. The idiocy of so many ignorant Christians to deny the existence of Evolution, just because they do not want to believe they are an animal. OK, the above two instances cover MILLIONS of Christians hmm, any more. Oh, and one more up-to-date bit of Christian intentional ignorance (not stupidity) "I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' --Michelle Bachmann
In fairness, you shouldn't judge by America. I was in my thirties before I ever heard of people who denied evolution, and my father was a parson.
Well I consider that the only way to the freedom is the abolition of religion. Then yes, religion is a problem.
Christians actually don't have a problem with Evolution. It's only a theory. So what's to be afraid of? Additionally, it appears that God didn't particularly care for government either. When the people of Israel clambored for a government/king much like those nations around them, God told Samuel to tell the people what they were getting into and it was awful. But, people will be people and they got their king(s).t
Christians actually don't have a problem with Evolution. It's only a theory. So what's to be afraid of? Additionally, it appears that God didn't particularly care for government either. When the people of Israel clambored for a government/king much like those nations around them, God told Samuel to tell the people what they were getting into and it was awful. But, people will be people and they got their king(s). Atheist societies generally are not very beneficent societies. They generally disarm the populace and then kill them off.
It's easier to control people that way. I just wish I'd had a hand in writing the Thing, I would have made God the good guy.
