Comment by Jon Heim on October 24, 2010 at 8:59pm

I wish they had a smarter atheist on the show...lol

Comment by Jon Heim on October 24, 2010 at 9:09pm

the atheist was out numbered...even if he was an ignorant tool, who didn't even bring up one good point.

in this debate we had two of the most common misconceptions about atheism.

1. that atheism is a belief system and
2. Hither was an atheist. even if he was an atheist, he used religion for propaganda which proves that when interpreted wrong, religion can be dangerous.

I think there were so many things in the old testament that could have been talked about.

Comment by Apple on October 24, 2010 at 9:46pm

I also wish they had a smarter atheist for the show. They need someone who is calm and collected since this is being broadcast to the public. I think they seemed to avoid the main topic at hand, and that is the fact that religion draws lines between people. Quick and obvious examples of this are:

1) In Islam people are taught that non-muslims (with the exception of Christians and Jews) are "impure." They are requried to wash themselves before praying after having come into contact with a dirty, spiritually impure non-muslim.

2) Christians will often refer to all non-christians (Muslims included) as "the lost." Nobody can ever hope to be righteous or good without accepting their dogma. Anyone who might have something to say that is contrary to their dogma is certainly being "manipulated by Satan."

I could go on and on with more examples of this in more religions, but the point is that the abrahamic religions divide people into "us" and "them." This is at the very core of the religion. The atheist was a true idiot for saying that religion is responsible for all wars, or involved in all wars. Greed, desire for money, land, and power etc. is certainly behind most wars. But all of this is side stepping the fact that the main religions of the world seek to divide the world. Language and cultural barriers are real. Racisim is real, sexism is real, etc. But religion is something additional and extra. Something unnecessary, which teaches people that is righteous to hate. This is what is wrong, and this is what the religious need to own up to.

Comment by Apple on October 24, 2010 at 9:50pm

Also, I really wish that certain Christians would stop pretending that they are not religious. What is that all about. I think they need to look up the word "religion" in the dictionary. That's one positive thing I can say for Jews and Muslims is that I have never, ever heard any of them try to cop out of responsiblity with the excuse that they are "not religious," and that it's a "relationship."

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