Dear Philo,

Unfortunately you apparently have the mindset that many Christians have. They maintain that the horrible record of Christianity has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ.

The following words of Jesus are appropriate.

Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Bishop Spong and the Sisterhood of St. Mary have chosen to recognise those fruits. With their attitude Christianity may have a better future. With your attitude of denial and calling names at people who mention those fruits Christianity will continue its barbaric practices. So far Christianity has made the world worse.

"Know them by their fruits": Indeed.
Secular society is it's own proof. Science and technology have resulted in more good than 40,000 years of religion and faith.

Some of us a re taught true respect as children. Respect for others, ourselves, and to knowledge and the Common Good(which I believe is the root of the God cults).
Most traditional religious teachings are to despise "others" and to obey and believe "those above". Moses killed and pillaged when he escaped Egypt and even Jesus thought slavery was OK.
To divide humanity into those that must be obeyed and those who can be killed without guilt is religions first gift to children...many other "gifts" such as fear, guilt and intellectual laziness soon follow. Whilst thinking themselves moral, these unconscious attitudes of disrespect and ignorance lead to most of the worlds current problems.

BTW. "ignorance" means "tendency to ignore, to not seek knowledge", it is not a casual insult! E.g. Folks who deny evolution are clearly ignorant as the evidence is simply overwhelming...if you care to look.

Religion is the organisational incarnation of humanities innate desire to bully others and to "clan up" to fight competing humans. It is parasitical on society in that it follows trends in ethics and knowledge and is innately conservative in nature...which would be fine if we ever get perfect knowledge and a perfect society. In the mean time we need honesty and fact based knowledge, not faith based dogma and entrenched power.

Ozandy and David F,
You both have fallen into the trap of believing what carnal people have done in the name of Christianity. No where can you identify the attitudes and teachings of Christ to support their behaviours. People call themselves Buddah's but no where did Buddah teach or act in the way many so called Buddahists have acted. Their actions deny their faith in the attitudes and teachubgs of Buddah. To be truly Christian one must adhere to the attitudes and teachings of Christ.

Philo: Exactly!
Well said. Most, well almost all Christians do not follow Jesus, nor do Buddhists follow Buddha.
There is often little wrong with the teachings per-se, but the organisations that call themselves followers and seek respect on that basis are flawed and often evil. Folks that use religion to persecute others are also not "true" Jesus followers, yet I cannot find a single church that does not practice either persecution or institutionalised ignorance. At best they are patsies for the likes of Bush and the "war on drugs" profiteers, at worst they actively campaign for unworkable laws that assume religious superiority...hence my bully instinct comment. The really, really bad ones often call for killing, torture and unjust imprisonment. ("God hates Fags", "kill abortionists", etc)
If the Bible has been altered by latter scholars so that (e.g.) "Self is the path to God" in Hebrew becomes "I am the path to God" (ie. the complete opposite meaning), how is it that the Bible can be trusted for any guidance?
If the followers of Jesus can't agree what He wants...how do we pick the "true" ones?
Far better to aim for Good and understand the world: the big mysteries are pointless if you cannot feed yourself or heal illness or purify water. Secular philosophy goes to the heart of Good. Religions are cultural distractions that deserve no authority beyond personal spiritual beliefs. If God exists He would rather a person be Good in His world then follow a 2000 year old dogma that cripples minds and holds back progress.

Philo plays the "if they did a bad thing, they weren't real Christians" card.

Philo claims to be a "real Christian". He also is anti-homosexuality, believes women should take unwanted pregnancies to full-term instead of abortion - just check posting history.

Discrimination against others for being different is bigoted behaviour and, therefore, bad. But Philo claims only good people are Christians.

Round and round we go.

Meanwhile back on topic ...here's a couple of scientific institutions inspired by the protestant bible:

http://www.dayspringcollege.org.au/
http://www.westlifechurch.org.au/ministries/school-of-the-supernatural

Would be quite useful for raising the dead, righteous mote removal, poking a camel through the eye of a needle, guilt free casting of the first stone, accurately predicting the end of the world once and for all and consulting the akashic record without the need for astral projection.