Patrick Elliott <sel### [at] npgcablecom> wrote:

>> McChurch is roughly the same thing as McDonald's.

That's cool.

>> All I found was con artists, liars, made up stories,
>> testimony from people who changed their stories over time,
>> to make them more believable, and an endless list of fake
>> miracles, alternative, and more rational explanations, etc.
>> Not once did I *ever* find a *reason* to believe in
>> any of it.


I don't doubt this for a second. I'm guessing this is the majority of the
religion that has enough cash to buy TV programs or networks.

But back then were you really the type who was looking for TV-style miracles?
I'd bet I would have disagreed with you more back then when you were carrying
your bible on Sundays.



>>  Truth is, everyone starts out an atheist.

I heard there's some article out this year "proving" that everyone starts out as
a theist, that you're wired to be one of some sort. (Of course, some make a
pro-religious philosophical spin and say God of Bible literally wrote on our
hearts; others make an anti-religious philosophical spin and say religious
thoughts are exclusively genetic tendencies in our brain chemistry.)  It seems
that you posited a philosophical spin as scientific fact-- "everyone starts out
as an atheist."  Of course this one article in the science journals isn't the
final answer, but it shows your position is weak.


>> old books, which more and more scholars admit
>> constitute "no" evidence at all,

Those are the most loopy ones of all.  I saw the PBS show "Christianity before
Paul," where they interviewed the Jesus Seminar.  They said something like, the
bible said Jesus' family was poor, but we've found archaeological evidence that
Bethlehem was a rich thriving town, and it wasn't even in Bethlehem!  I say on
the contrary, the bible also says that Jesus' family gives the offering allowed
for a poor family-- but you'd have to know about the OT laws to catch that fact
when you read it today. And the ruins of a great trading center doesn't make
for Jesus not being poor.  Now God could have sent a Messiah from the richest
family on earth-- that's not the point.  It just shows that you can spin the
stones any way you want.  There's scholarship on both sides.

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