"The select." What do you mean by that? In modern republics like France and the US that base their societies on universal rights, "the select" is everyone. No deity is necessary nor was it ever necessary.
And what is the basis of Universal Rights? The inherent worth of every human being! And what is the basis of that? I'm tempted to say God.
Crusaders were taught that killing the infidel Muslims was A-ok, so no, the "sanctity of man" has never been an absolute.
Really? They were taught that the Mussulman was an aggressor who were threatening the pilgrims of Europe. And according to Christian morality, the strong must defend the weak.
I agree with that. The Bible is pretty much useless. Here are the Beatitudes:
# Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 3)
# Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land. (Verse 4)
# Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Verse 5)
# Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. (Verse 6)
# Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Verse 7)
# Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. (Verse 8)
# Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. (Verse 9)
# Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Verse 10)
Those have nothing to do with morals. And the 10 Commandments aren't particularly good either, since they leave a bunch of things unmentioned. For example, legally forcing a poor family with no money from a home they rent during the cold of winter. Legal: yes. Moral: no.
I'll have to get back to this.
Yer darn tootin' they have. I've already mentioned the Crusades.
Get your ass out of propaganda.
Ok, then you're going to have to provide some actual reason for anyone to believe this is true. The exact opposite of what you're saying is true because increased food production allowed for specialized classes of people to appear. I find it hard to believe that the first class was a priest.
The spiritual is the most eternal of desires
ONE failure? I guess this goes along with your poor understanding of how cities came into existance. How many wars have their been? Doesn't the existance of ANY wars mean that the Catholic religion has failed in every single one of them?
And can you tell me how many wars have been prevented because of the Catholic religion? Just because there exists wars does not automatically debunk Catholicism.
Oh I don't know. To help prevent people from catching diseases and dying? To help prevent teen pregnancy in poor families, which ensures the vicious cycle of poverty?
You make it sound as if there existed no Catholic Charity trying to alleviate these problems, in tghe first place, the reason why the Church's voice is heard on Africa is because of those Catholic Charities.
Living humans are human. Living people prefer to remain living regardless of whatever YOUR standard is. And your "standard" of humanity, whatever that is, can go to Hell.
And what about the unborn? Save the people now, and then what?
Since the solution is that people remain alive and not having children at too young an age, then yes, the effects of the solution is better than the problem.
I've addressed this already.
You mean those resources could instead be used to help orphans whose parents died of AIDS, who would have lived otherwise if they had access to education and condoms? Those resources used to feed poor undeducated people who have too many children too early? Obviously, the cost of condoms are far outweighed by the huge social impacts of AIDS and teen pregnancy.
You know, go Google the arguments agaisnt condoms.
Well, I haven't called Catholicism evil yet, but everything you say certainly is leaning that way. (It's better that people die than used condoms; you'd murder me and everyone around you if you stopped believing that some deity exists. That latter thing obviously makes me believe that Catholicism didn't teach you ANY morals.)
Oh, so now you are saying that absolute morals do exist, and that Catholicism taught me bad morals.
I'll address the bolded part. That's provably false. Go back to the third page or something where I addressed JollyRoger. I included a link to an article that shows that religious people have higher rates of crime. So obviously, a deity does absolutely nothing to keep people in line.
There are so many things wrong with that link, my respect for you diminishes by your bringing it up.
By the way, I think the latter part is possibly due to the notion of forgiveness, ironically. If god will forgive any sin by simply asking him, then you can do anything you want and just ask for forgiveness. If people believe their greater reward is in Heaven instead of believing that their only lives are here on Earth, then people have less incentive to behave here on Earth.
Yes, it's so much easier to sin knowing that you have to confess it.
Hey, look at that! I actually proved that what you've been saying is right! Sort of. And that is that Catholicism actually is LESS of an incentive to behave morally! You can simply be forgiven for anything. So with your current belief system, you really COULD murder me and everyone around you.
Hey, look at that! You've just shown yourself to have a piss-poor understanidng of religion!
And as far as your belief being unshaken, you simply have no choice but to beleive the things you do. If you disbelieved them, then your religious devotion will erode, but perhaps only slightly. It would be kind of better if your religious devotion did indeed erode so you'd be less likely to murder me.
If you want it to erode, do better.
