Whelp, Ron Paul doesn't believe in evolution.

Oh look, Muad is intentionally ignoring atrocities committed by a group he identifies with.

I never thought I'd see the day.

I don't think we've had a Spanish Inquisition for a very long time.

However, we have had 9/11, the London bombings, Al Queda in Iraq, the Taliban...

We've had Catholic bishops telling their congregations that condoms don't really prevents AIDS. We've had priests in Rwanda giving "sanctuary" to Tutsi children so the Hutu gangs could kill them all at once. We've had Christians in Kosovo working so hard to kill Muslims that NATO had to intervene. We've had countless priests raping countless children, with their superiors more interested in covering it up than protecting the victims.

But no, religion is a force for good in the world.

And you believe that if religion were banned, these sorts of things wouldn't still happen?

Atheism - the Non-Religion of Peace.

That doesn't work, you gotta just get people to wake up.
And if ya can't...ya gotta try...cuz...ya gotta do something.

If everyone stopped smoking, people would still die of cancer, doesn't mean you don't try to talk people out of smoking, and sell patches and gum.

And when you ask him why him?

Oh? You see a lot of "by the sword" conversions to atheism do you?

No, the big difference is that religion is in a class of it's own and gets treated with kid's gloves. If the UAW was using member funds to cover up the rape of children that it would enjoy it's special tax exemptions for very long?

A better person to ask would be the guys who run ACORN.

Yeah, a sound bite about evolution is the deciding issue...

As familiar as you are with the UAW that's a crap analogy. Unions and religions are like apples and oranges.

No. No, we didn't have to get involved in WW2. That was a choice of our CEO. I really don't care that the Nazis declared war on us after we bombed Japan. It would have been alot more easier to just say, "watch this second one...Now Fuck off!" That's what I would have done. Europe could screw itself, and Japan could have just laid in ruin for all I would have cared. But no, we had to be the disciplinarian and go break up the fight like a MOMMY. Shit, we're still over there, even after we helped them all fix their broken crushed up countries. Ridiculous. Utter insanity.

Nope. People should never be protected from themselves. Just confine them in a little forcefield dome. Let them choke on tobacco smoke and religiosity. The one and only interest an outside party has is limiting their ability to infringe on the rights of others.

Uh, no. Nazi Germany declared war on us after Japan bombed our naval base at Pearl Harbor.

Points for the though.

Ultimately, it smacks of the Inquisition, making Galileo of us all. Now a days, the Vatican is much more enlightened, making me wonder what social level, those who reject Evolution, are sitting.

That's a nice image, for "us all", but it also stereotypes all religious people as somehow being part of the Catholic church that conducted the Inquisition.

As you point out, NM, the majority of religious people, including the RC church, don't go nearly that far these days. In fact, the only ones that come close to that level of persecution are some of our buddies who follow the Koran in a too-strict manner.

THIS IS WHAT WARD ACTUALLY BELIEVES.

You don't?

a) Prove that the RC church (or any Christian church, for that matter) is still conducting Inquisitions and imprisoning people for their scientific positions. b) disprove that there aren't some extremists who follow Islam.

Well, you don't need to imprison abortion clinic doctors when you just murder them instead.

No proof, huh? Just as I said.

Shit, I don't even need to use the smiley there.

Well played, Ward. Well played.

No one's getting executed, but you get the sense they'd like to, what with Popey McPoperson blaming the world's problems on "secular modernity", and various polls indicating your average dipshit yahoo thinks atheists are less trustworthy than rapists....

So you can't back it up, either? Just as I said. The only major religious group where a significant number of its members are really persecuting people (and are being backed up by a government) today is Islam.

So, "you get the sense they'd like to" is sufficient grounds for locking'em up, huh? I "get the sense" that's what you'd like to do. That's some good, rational, high-minded logic there.

edit - bolding typo

Seriously. When was the last abortion clinic even bombed? What happened to those terrorists? Do you even know? What was the reaction of the major denominational leaders in this country? I bet you don't know.

It's their turn.
The desert religions take turns at the gangbang.
It'll come back around.

Who said anything about locking up, wingnut?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence#United_States

The current Pope's previous job was head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Prior to 1965, this office was known as the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and was responsible for the Inqusitions. While Ratzinger is not responsible for any inquisitions in the manner of those that occurred in the past, he was responsible for clarifying church law and punishing those who strayed from it. Most notably he was responsible for clarifying church policy on internal investigations for sexual crimes, and rather than take responsibility for the policies he created that caused coverups of sexual abuse, he obtained diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

So maybe he doesn't burn people alive or imprison them, maybe instead he just creates a safe haven for pedophiles, pushed to have certain members of the church barred from teaching, and excommunicated people. But I suppose since nobody dies from it, it's totally okay, right?

There's no sense about it, there are a number of high profile politicians who have openly declared their borderline theocratic positions. As a matter of fact, it's so common there's a term for it, Christian Reconstructionism.

Scattered over twenty+ years? Hardly an organized systemic problem with religious persecution (by government OR church) worthy of the whine that's constantly being put out by certain members of the community here.

But, go ahead. Sleep with a copy of Carl Sagan's photo under your pillows to ward off those scary religious fanatics.