REPLY TO DONVAN'S LATEST LAMENT

Submitted by DANIEL REDMOND (United States), Feb 19, 2009 at 20:59

Dear Donvan; No, sorry, but my lack of enthusiasm for Christianity is not the result of a "lack of education," although your lame attempt at invoking an ad hominem argument against me by assuming some deficit in formal education has been duly noted. [I hold university degrees in English literature and in Civil Engineering] The "sweep of history" has exposed Christianity as one of the more corrupting influences upon human cultural evolution. From the gruesome spectacle of the Crusades to the Catholic Church's tacit acceptance of, and de facto complicity with, the atrocities of Nazi Germany, Christianity has proven itself to be both corrupt and corruptable from the get-go. More than one scholar of European history has noted that there was a time in ancient Rome when you could be killed for being a Christian and that a century later, with Rome now a Christian state, you could be killed for not being one.

Although there are many millions of very fine people who are Christians---including some of my dearest friends and relatives---I believe it is their innate goodness and inherent morality that makes them who they are, rather than the absurd edicts passed upon them by the churches they attend. The Ten Commandments, if read with an open mind, should be perceived as totally antithetical to any sense of freedom or liberty, with its prohibitions against freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the tacit endorsement of slavery as well. The three notable Abrahamic religions---Christianity, Judaism, and Islam---have collectively done far more harm to humankind than any other invention of our species.

- DANIEL REDMOND

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