[Steve Youngblood]

Can you give me one reason why it is a good thing to have faith without evidence?

I don't necessarily know why I would consider faith inherently good or bad. I think it depends on what you have faith in and what effect that faith has on you and your actions toward others.

[Deified Data]

Depends on your view of God.

He'd probably do nothing, because why an omnipotent super-being would care about the love and behavior of a few billion highly-evolved great apes I do not know.

If we're talking the Christian God, here, he'd probably kill us out of spite. That seems to be his thing.

[Mr. B Natural]

I don't necessarily know why I would consider faith inherently good or bad. I think it depends on what you have faith in and what effect that faith has on you and your actions toward others.

If you were doing good, practical, smart things with faith, then you have found some faith that didn't need to be there to begin with.

[cutmeamango]

If you were doing good, practical, smart things with faith, then you have found some faith that didn't need to be there to begin with.

Care to expand on that?

[Bombadil]

Doesn't help much. If God is all-powerful, there's nothing to prevent him from "filling the universe with goodness".

I said it was interesting and I liked it. Nothing more.

[Steve Youngblood]

If you were doing good, practical, smart things with faith, then you have found some faith that didn't need to be there to begin with.

Well, then that kind of just goes back to my observation in regards to assessing what responsibility faith has in seemingly faith-based acts that are harmful. Is it fair to blame religion for homophobic bigotry, or should we account for the fact that, though the Bible may embolden some, their bigotry is hardly something that only exists because of the Old Testament.

[Buckethead]

My suspicion is that their negative attitudes towards homosexuals is a bit more deeply rooted than "one day, my pastor referenced a line from Leviticus and now I think the gays are all evil sinners! I thought they were fine before, but then I learned that the heavenly father hates them, so I do too now."

That's true but you can see how it (the Bible) perpetuates these attitudes.

I think that what's interesting is that the Old Testament has Jewish origins and the Jews held negative attitudes towards homosexuality (as well as masturbation, etc.).
The New Testament on the other hand is more of Greek origin, a culture that clearly didn't care about homosexuality whatsoever (Athens lol).

American society is the only perspective that I can speak from and throughout American history, Christianity has ruled with an iron fist with pretty gruesome consequences.
That's why gays (or any counter-cultural group) were shoved into corners and kept in the dark. They were dubbed heretics, blasphemers, and immoral.

So America has a lineage of anti-gay whatever. Bigotry and intolerance is then inherited through the generations.

Lack of education or exposure to other cultures prevents this from changing but we're finally being exposed to others and seeing the world on a global perspective.

[Ghost_Protocol]

That sounds like an awesome premise. People destroying all religious works to summon God down to Earth. And when he does descend from that beam of light, we will fight.

Holy shit......

[BocoDragon]

That's true but you can see how it (the Bible) perpetuates these attitudes. I think that what's interesting is that the Old Testament has Jewish origins and the Jews held negative attitudes towards homosexuality (as well as masturbation, etc.). The New Testament on the other hand is more of Greek origin, a culture that clearly didn't care about homosexuality whatsoever (Athens lol). American society is the only perspective that I can speak from and throughout American history, Christianity has ruled with an iron fist with pretty gruesome consequences. That's why gays (or any counter-cultural group) were shoved into corners and kept in the dark. They were dubbed heretics, blasphemers, and immoral. So America has a lineage of anti-gay whatever. Bigotry and intolerance is then inherited through the generations. Lack of education or exposure to other cultures prevents this from changing but we're finally being exposed to others and seeing the world on a global perspective.

Too bad the rest of the world also has a long history with anti-gay prejudice :P But you are right in general ...

[OttomanScribe]

That's true but you can see how it (the Bible) perpetuates these attitudes. I think that what's interesting is that the Old Testament has Jewish origins and the Jews held negative attitudes towards homosexuality (as well as masturbation, etc.). The New Testament on the other hand is more of Greek origin, a culture that clearly didn't care about homosexuality whatsoever (Athens lol).

Maybe you and I are thinking about different Greeks? The Greek permissiveness was towards pederasty and that was fairly confined (in terms of open permissiveness) to the Greek upper classes. If you were an older male who preferred a submissive position, you could expect great social consequences if it was found out.

The same was true in Italy, even at the height of Catholicism.

[jaxword]

JGS, you should really read Preacher. Does a great job at portraying the Christian God as he comes across to a lot of people. Even if they're wrong or whatever, it's good to understand the other guy's perspective.

What's funny is that the author Ennis is Catholic.

Well, clearly a lapsed Catholic/atheist nowadays, but still: he writes what he knows.

To be fair though, had God sat down on his throne, the Saint would never be able to kill him.

Well, yeah, that's the point, God giving up his omnipotence kickstarts the entire storyline.