Often heard: "I have more respect for fundamentalists because they actually read the bible and try to live it."
Offline I've heard a lot of atheists express this idea.
I agree that moderate and liberal theists cherry-pick and "interpret" scriptures to their own specifications, but fundies do the same thing. I don't see many fundies worried about eating shrimp or pork. They cherry-pick and "interpret," too. The only difference is they use the bible to endorse their own bigoted opinions. They're more obnoxious than the moderates, but don't let them off the hook: They betray their scriptures, too.
When was the last time you saw a fundy stone his disobedient child? eschew eating unclean foods? eschew wearing clothing of mixed fibers? sell all his goods to feed the poor?
"Faith is an absolutely marvelous tool. With faith there is no belief that cannot be justified." -- Rev. Donald Morgan (b. 1933), Atheist theologian
"God: The Preeminent Chameleon; whenever the need is felt by one or more of his followers, He obligingly recreates himself to suit the occasion."--"Rev." Donald Morgan
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I do know Christians who try very earnestly to follow the New Testament, and remember that in the New Testament we see Christ correct the law of Moses and in doing so give the words of the NT authority over the old.
I would say I have more respect for these Christians than for the ones who just hate gays, give money and time on Sunday, vote Republican and then live for their most base needs with no long term or community minded thoughts the rest of the time.
Atheists make lousy suicide bombers.
The only example of true puritanical literalism I can think of is a horrifying one. This is taken from an essay I wrote:
Subjugation to Islamic law and the Qur'an? Look at Afghanistan. During football match half-times, they bury adulterers up to their necks and hurl giant blocks of granite at them. Look on the streets. Who are these terrified, scurrying creatures suffocating under layers of the full-face covering burka, being beaten or murdered for showing their face in public by pious, murderous clerics?
Soon reports came filtering in about the brutal Shariah courts, where horrific torture masquerading as justice was occurring. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, there were public floggings, public decapitations, in Oman, people were having their right arm amputated for petty theft, in Jeddah a man was decapitated for owning a Bible. Iran has executed 4,000 people since 1979 for the crime of being a homosexual. In Saudi Arabia, it is not uncommon to receive 5,000 lashes for food theft. In 2000, a horrific incident occurred in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, where a girl’s school was on fire. The ultra-religious police of the city considered the girls to be improperly clothed, so they linked arms and wouldn’t let them out of the building. Most were burned alive.
In no aspect of the Islamic countries is the unquestioning devotion to the Qur’an more clear than in education. The education in the Middle East is appalling. In Saudi Arabia, schoolchildren chant “the time will come for war between the Muslims and Jews, and the Muslims will kill all the Jews” and read from particularly violent interpretations of the Qur’an by Wahabbi scholars. You can get beautifully printed Qur’ans in Mecca. Many pages have little footnotes from Wahabbi “scholars” explaining why this particular passage warrants you to kill people. Once the height of culture and literacy, the attitude of the Muslim world to education can be summed up in a singe statistic: More books are translated into Spanish in a single year than have been into Arabic over the last two millennia.
It is the only religion still in existence where proselytizing, religious debate, atheism, Judaism, apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, homosexuality and premarital sex are punishable under the crimnal code. Far worse, all of these offences carry the death penalty
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
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Quite true. Moderates are just more honest about their picking and choosing. They are more self aware, more mature, hence they are able to concede that there are problematic parts of the bible.
Fundamentalists are just dishonest about it.... they pick and choose too, but at the level of interpretation .
The moderate admits that Leviticus is a problem.
The fundamentalist merely reinterprets problems away.
This is all any christian does.
If an immature person reads the bible, he ends up with an angry, spiteful, hateful immature god.
If a mature person reads the bible, he comes away with an intelligent, compassionate god.
Whatever you are, is projected out as 'god', seeing as 'god' is merely an idealization of yourself.
If you are a philosophical minded person, then god is the ultimate philosopher. If you are a mystic, then you've got a god of mysticism....
The reality is that 'god' is an ideal of yourself... that's it.
Ever notice how god's favorite person is you?
"Hitler burned people like Anne Frank, for that we call him evil.
"God" burns Anne Frank eternally. For that, theists call him 'good.'
It's true that they all pick and choose - fundies just pick less out - nobody stones disobedient children to death or other such things. Anyone who completely followed the BuyBull would be either in prison or the nuthouse!
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