Quote Originally Posted by denuseri View Post
Though bashing people for not believeing as one does, does seem to be a common theme through history, and bashing the church, the christian church in paticular seems to be in vogue nowdays.
I don't believe that bashing the church, any church, should be done simply because it's fashionable! It should be done, however, to point out the hypocrisy and injustice which has shown itself to be so ingrained in so many different religious groups. A church which endangers millions of people because of archaic ideas of morality should not be given a free pass. They should be held accountable.

Dualistic paradoxical wonders of the bible aside...one may wish to keep in mind that not everything being said by the church nor the collection of works they use as cannon is allways wrong for everyone.
Absolutely. And the flip side is that it's not always right for everyone, either.

If it was they wouldnt have so many followers now would they.
How many followers really know what they are following, though. The large majority of religious adherents remain within the religion they were born into, and many have little or no understanding of what that religion truly means. I was raised Catholic, yet I've learned more about the Bible, both good and bad, since turning away from religion than I ever learned in all those years of religious teaching. I have a lot of respect for those who have turned away from their "birth religion", even when they turn to something else, because it generally means they have thought about what they are doing, rather than just accepting what they are told. (Not always, though: I have some relatives who switched from one religion to another just because they preferred one set of rituals over another.) I can even respect someone who, after turning away from his birth religion and studying others, returned to his birth religion, because it met his own belief system better. But someone who remains Christian, or Baptist, or Mormon, or Muslim simply because they were born into that religion, without really understanding what the real meaning of that religion is, are simply followers, not necessarily worthy of respect.

The old testement btw is superseeded by the new testement for many chirstians, and the two laws that Jesus said about having no other gods and loving one's nieghbor as oneself are often looked upon as the only nessesities when you get down too it, becuase with them you dont need to go into any of the others.
And there are other Christians who take the entire Bible as the literal word of God, to be followed resolutely without variance. (Except, of course, where it is inconvenient for them to do so.)

Just becuase we choose to reject your eurocentric ways, especially after having tried a taste of some of them for ouselves and having seen what its brought you in the end doesnt mean we are in favor of them or wrong becuase we choose not to follow them in our own lives or wish to see them forced upon our culture by yours.
I agree with you completely here. You have the right to choose. We should not force our culture on anyone else, just as they should not force their culture on us.

But how many cultures actually give the women that choice? How many women submit to their husbands (or to men in general) not because it's what they want, but because it's what they've been told, repeatedly since they were children? How many such women are even aware that they do not have to submit?

Yes, given the choice some will submit. That is their right. But to spend years telling young girls that it is evil for them to want freedom, how many will choose that freedom even when it is offered?