I wish the xians would come up with an official bible so this variance in interpretation would stop.

I wonder how many people would be killed world-wide and in the US over the inevitable and numerous conflicts that would arise.

Comment from: All Kinds of Corn

I did some digging, and found this link:

Yeah…and I did some digging to see who created your web site. Listen to how this guy defends Michael Vick…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kAnXA2eTtQ

So how does this, in any way, reduce the validity of the quotes? Given that I was using the site to support Barack’s adversity to legislation for exclusively religious rationale, I don’t see your point. Here, you can get the same information from one of your websites:

http://www.baptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?id=28352

While you go ahead and dig up ways to attack the credibility of preachers that we atheists have absolutely no concern with one way or the other, I’ll stick to the issues at hand. This is the quote I’m using to support my opinion of Barack.

?Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all? (A Call to Renewal).

If you have problems with it, which I’m sure you do, try to debate the merits of the argument, instead of shooting down straw men.

I think he is what he says he is: a Christian who understands the difference between private belief and public policy and recognizes that governance is a secular business. I applaud the sentiments expressed in his speech. It’s great to hear an American politician acknowledging publicly what many know privately but are afraid to say.

What the flack from Dobson points out beautifully is that there are many christianities, not just one. There is no “true” Christianity. Just a huge number of adaptations of an ancient cultural virus. Dobson’s variety happens to be one of the more virulent strains.

“It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.”
– Robert Green Ingersoll, “Which Way?” (1884)

Love that quote.