Simple question?

Quote: FrGamble

Your earlier quotes about faith are cute but they are not correct at all.

I trust my right foot to hit the brake in my car than all powers of your god ever doing it.

I think Christians should fly on airplanes fixed by faith mechanics. They just pray for the airplane to stay fixed.

Most of your Christian lives would end the very same day if you really put your faith into some critical action which depended on faith.

Quote: FrGamble

Seriously, the Church is more than a few cuts above the average institution or country on the street. History shows this.

You use a lot of slippery words there. What is an average institution or country on the street? By what way is the church a few cuts above them? How much is a few cuts? Which things about them are you comparing? What time periods are you comparing?

I did the same thing when I said the church was just as bad as the rest of them. Without some concrete metrics by which to compare them, these sorts of statements are purely a matter of opinion.

Quote: FrGamble

This is just not true and you know it

that's it, that's your answer? Do you know how the
Church got so wealthy? I posted some articles
awhile back and you ignored them. The used every
unsavory unethical tactic that was used by any of
the other greedy land barons in early Europe. I
don't think you're interested in any of that.

"Jesus, the founder of Christianity, was the poorest of the poor. Roman Catholicism, which claims to be His church, is the richest of the rich, the wealthiest institution on earth. How is it, that such an institution, ruling in the name of this same itinerant preacher, whose want was such that he had not even a pillow upon which to rest his head, is now so top-heavy with riches that she can rival - indeed, that she can put to shame - the combined might of the most redoubtable financial trusts, of the most potent industrial super-giants, and of the most prosperous global corporation of the world?"

That is from a long and very detailed article on
where the Church got it amazing wealth and
became the most decadent and corrupt organization
in history.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/vatican_billions.htm

Quote: FrGamble

Thank you very much for these much better links to this issue. They are very informative and I find them much more reasonable and accurate. They don't mention the number of witches that were executed by the Catholic Church but that number is extremely low compared to those killed by mobs, the government, and other denominations.

The catholics were in on it too. I'm sure some of the members of the mobs were catholic, and I am certain that some of the governments were run by catholics. I already linked to the catholic who was apparently singly responsible for the most deaths - 2000 - out of the 50,000 killed after being accused of being witches.

But, I'm not trying to pin this all on the catholics.

50,000 people were killed because of christian religious beliefs.

No superstitious beliefs -> no witch hunts. 50,000 people and their unborn descendants would have had a chance to live.

Quote: rxwine

I trust my right foot to hit the brake in my car than all powers of your god ever doing it.

I think Christians should fly on airplanes fixed by faith mechanics. They just pray for the airplane to stay fixed.

Most of your Christian lives would end the very same day if you really put your faith into some critical action which depended on faith.

A joke about a man waiting for god to save him from a flood:
Http://blog.eternalvigilance.me/2012/01/the-parable-of-the-flood/

Quote: rxwine

I trust my right foot to hit the brake in my car than all powers of your god ever doing it.

I think Christians should fly on airplanes fixed by faith mechanics. They just pray for the airplane to stay fixed.

Most of your Christian lives would end the very same day if you really put your faith into some critical action which depended on faith.

LOL, I know you are trying to be funny but don't you see that just about every critical action you take requires faith? You have no proof that mechanics actually worked on the plane, nor that your pilot is a real pilot, or the drink the stewardess serves you is not poisoned. Just about everything in life takes faith, it is how we live.

Quote: Dalex64

No superstitious beliefs -> no witch hunts. 50,000 people and their unborn descendants would have had a chance to live.

I'm not sure if you are trying to equate superstition to Christianity here or not. If you just mean superstition or irrational thought you are correct. If you are trying to say Christianity is the cause of the witch hunts then you might as well say that: No atheism -> no bloodiest century ever just last century.

Quote: FrGamble

If you are trying to say Christianity is the cause of the witch hunts .

Superstition was the cause, Christianity was
the accelerant that was thrown on the fire
to increase the flames. They were in it up to
their necks in a hundred different ways.

I like how you imply that, no atheism, no
bloodiest ever 20th century. It shows your
appalling lack of knowledge of what actually
happened to lead up to the first and second
world wars, Vietnam, etc. The truth is, no modern
mechanization of warfare, no bloodiest century.
God, or lack thereof, had nothing to do with
anything.

Quote: FrGamble

LOL, I know you are trying to be funny but don't you see that just about every critical action you take requires faith? You have no proof that mechanics actually worked on the plane, nor that your pilot is a real pilot, or the drink the stewardess serves you is not poisoned. Just about everything in life takes faith, it is how we live.

Reality based faith is actually useful if not perfect.

Myth based faith -- is no good at all. Any supernatural claims of the bible, including the existence of god are in this category.

Quote: FrGamble

I'm not sure if you are trying to equate superstition to Christianity here or not. If you just mean superstition or irrational thought you are correct. If you are trying to say Christianity is the cause of the witch hunts then you might as well say that: No atheism -> no bloodiest century ever just last century.

I am equating superstition to christianity.

I am saying christian beliefs caused the superstitious and irrational thoughts.

I am saying christianity caused the witch hunts.

Christian teaching taught them that witches were possible, and that these pagan non-christians and however many christians got caught up in it, had to die.

I am saying nothing about the cause of what you call the bloodiest century. If I did, though, I would have to establish atheism as the cause of the violence, the reason that they went to war or on their campaigns of terror. I haven't personally looked into the cases you have mentioned before to evaluate for myself whether or not atheism was the cause, or just a commonality.