Quote from damir00:
most assuredly there is a disconnect - you are comparing apples to oranges.
the issue isn't your lack of belief in A relative to someone elses belief in A. that is the wrong comparison. the correct comparison is your belief in B with someone elses belief in A. more exactly, the comparison is of actions stemming from the physical extension of those disparate beliefs.
the simple truth is atheism, deism, monotheism, pantheism, polytheism, and every shade of gray between can - and are - the base beliefs of all sorts of horrors. no belief system is exempt from this.
and everybody has a belief system.

Quote from damir00:
the only admission here is yours: that we should always choose religious leaders because they are more honest. feel free to think about it for a bit before responding.
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Quote from damir00:
kidding about what? politics aside, bush is coke snorting booze guggling abortion procuring draft dodging insider trading pussy chasing child of extreme privilige. which of these qualities, exactly, are christian?
(in the theoretical sense, of course)
Quote from axeman:
...as the catholic encyclopedia confesses, the crusades were on the behalf of christendom.
Quote from damir00:
perfect.
what you are saying is that because the church leadership says it is went to war because of religious ideals, you believe them.
why?
when a non-religious politician makes a claim, people normally looks past the statements made for public consumption to find the "real" reason for the actions. yet when a pope - a religious political leader - makes a statement you take it at face value rather than as pablum for the masses . if he said constantinople was torched for jesus, then by golly, that's why it was torched! it couldn't have been something as base as a power grab.
why?
because the pope said otherwise.
are you getting the irony here?
after all your nasty comments about religious leaders, you are in fact assigning to them a HIGHER level of integrity and honesty than you assign non-religious leaders.
delicious.

Quote from damir00:
kidding about what? politics aside, bush is coke snorting booze guggling abortion procuring draft dodging insider trading pussy chasing child of extreme privilige. which of these qualities, exactly, are christian?
(in the theoretical sense, of course)
Quote from darkhorse:
Just out of curiosity:
if truth has no meaning and blackness is our fate, then
1) why does debate matter except as a form of entertainment
and
2) how can the value or quality of an individual's life be measured by anything except the personal happiness they experience during their brief existence.
If there are no long term consequences or absolute truths that matter beyond the now, then passionate debate of anything is illogical except to the degree in which it gives satisfaction or fulfillment to the debater.
If all is meaningless, then the value of knowledge is ultimately meaningless. In a world where there is no ultimate truth, how can the unhappy wise man logically condemn the happy fool, or claim himself superior?
By nihilism's own rationale, a bitter materialist is a failure at life, whereas a happy [fill in blank] is a success at life, regardless of who is right or wrong, because personal happiness is the only criteria that matters.
I therefore submit that atheists who condemn happy religious people are illogical hypocrites, and that miserable atheists, by their own criteria, are failures in the only respect that matters.
