The Bible, like any other book, was written by humans and should be questioned. One Christian who has questioned some parts of the Bible is Bishop Spong.

http://johnshelbyspong.com/sample-essays/the-terrible-texts/

RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY:

“No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6)

This text has helped to create a world where adherents of one religion feel compelled to kill adherents of another. A veritable renaissance of religious terror now confronts us and is making against us the claims we have long made against religious traditions different from our own.

ANTI-SEMITISM:

And the people answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’” (Matt. 27:25)

No other verse of Holy Scripture has been responsible for so much violence and so much bloodshed. People convinced that these words conferred legitimacy and even holiness on their hostility have killed millions of Jewish people over history. Far more than Christians today seem to understand, to call the Bible “Word of God” in any sense is to legitimize this hatred reflected in its pages.

SEXISM:

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” (1Cor. 8-9)

The message of the Christian church was once that women are evil to their core and it was built on the story of Eve. She was taken out of man and was not his equal, but his helpmeet. Evil entered human history through the weakness of the woman. She was made to bear the blame and the guilt. She was the source of death.

He is a devout Christian who wants to recognise the flaws in his religion and confront those flaws. Religions can improve.

Religions can put down other religions. In the interfaith movement people rather than putting down other religions meet people of other religions and try to learn about the beliefs of the others and to become friends with people of other religions. I think that is a good thing. If you got involved in that I think you would be less likely to demonise other religions.

Why is it David that you feel the need to go off on a tangent attacking Christian belief when I challenged David's support for Israel and his attempts to align Israeli tyranny with western cultural traditions?

Dear imajulianutter,

I attacked Christianity because of your statements about Christian beliefs and connecting Christianity with peace and reconciliation. If you push your beliefs others can attack them.

Christian history contains appalling violence far outweighing any commitment to peace. It was sporadic until Theodosius. Then Christianity institutionalised forcible conversion, massacre and torture.

Theodosius made Christianity the official Roman religion. Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I began in 381, after the first couple of years of his reign in the Eastern Roman Empire. In the 380s, Theodosius I reiterated Constantine's ban on Pagan sacrifice, prohibited haruspicy on pain of death, pioneered the criminalization of Magistrates who did not enforce anti-Pagan laws, broke up some pagan associations and destroyed Pagan temples.

Between 389-391 he promulgated the infamous "Theodosian decrees," which established a practical ban on paganism, visits to the temples were forbidden, remaining Pagan holidays abolished, the eternal fire in the Temple of Vesta extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcraft punished.

In 392 he became Emperor of the whole Empire (the last one to do so). From then till the end of his reign in 395, while Pagans demanded toleration, he authorized or participated in the destruction of many temples, holy sites, images and objects of piety throughout the empire. participated in actions by Christians against major Pagan sites.

He issued a comprehensive law that prohibited any Pagan ritual even within the privacy of one's home, and was particularly oppressive of Manicheans. Paganism was now proscribed, a "religio illicita". He is likely to have suppressed the Ancient Olympic Games, whose last record of celebration is from 393.

Christianity has continued this pattern through the Crusades, the Wars of the Reformation, the Inquisition, the genocide of the Indians by the Spanish and other European powers calling them ‘creatures of the devil’ because they had a non-Christian religion, the Holocaust with both the Protestant and Catholic German churches backing Hitler, the Christian imperialists with missionaries and gunboats, etc.

Hypocrisy for you to criticise Israel. For a more peaceful and tolerant world eliminate Christianity or at least remove the evil in it.

as is usual David you avoided answering the question I asked. Here it is again

'Why is it David that you feel the need to go off on a tangent attacking Christian belief when I challenged David's support for Israel and his attempts to align Israeli tyranny with western cultural traditions?'

seems you are now attacking the far distant historical actions of Christanity (Which by the way isn't exclusively confined to Catholicism), since condemned and no longer applying in modern christianity action and belief.

Always the slimy devious dodging and weaving typical of you Israeli propagandists. Aren't you a teeny weeny bit ashamed of yourself?

And mate I'm not a Chrisian church believer ... I'm totally irreligious.

Dear imajulianutter,

I have not called your responses slimy, and I would appreciate equal courtesy from you.

As I made it clear in my first post I am not an Israeli supporter as I support separation of religion and state and oppose ethnic nationalism – neither of which is particularly true of Israel. I am neither an Israeli supporter nor an Israeli condemner. I sympathise with both Israel and the Palestinians. I support states which do not discriminate among its citizens on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

I am for separation of religion and state in both Israel and Australia and support the current attempt in Australia to get chaplains out of the public schools. I also would eliminate subsidies to religious schools in Australia and Israel and support a public school system where children of different ethnicities and religions mingle. That is not true in Israel at all, and I would like to see it promoted more in Australia.

However, I question your statements.

You made the statement about, “attempts to align Israeli tyranny with western cultural traditions” That statement assumes that Israel is a tyranny and it is not aligned with western tradition.

In the west there is a tradition of free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. Israel follows those traditions to a greater extent than any of the countries around it. In that it is less of a tyranny than any of the surrounding countries. In Syria protestors are shot. The UN has estimated that 3000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March.

In Israel as in Australia, the UK and some other countries there are large protests against economic inequities. None of those governments has shut down the protests.

Western traditions also encompass unfairness and oppression. The European imperialistic powers did not acquire their vast empires by peaceful means. Gandhi whose country was occupied by England for many years was asked about western civilization. He replied, “What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.”

Continued

Continued

Dear imajulianutter,

You brought up the subject of Christianity, and then call it a tangent when I am critical of it. Christianity is most relevant to the creation of Israel. The Zionist movement was an attempt to found a country where Jews would not be persecuted as they were in the Christian countries. If it were not for Christian persecution of Jews there would be no state of Israel.

You also wrote: seems you are now attacking the far distant historical actions of Christanity (Which by the way isn't exclusively confined to Catholicism), since condemned and no longer applying in modern christianity action and belief.

Since I never confined my remarks on Christianity to Catholicism I don’t understand your reference.

The Protestant and Catholic German churches backing the Nazis did not happen in the distant past. The Christian evil has been curbed in the countries which have a degree of separation of church and state. However, it still exists. Two examples of present Christian intolerance are Archbishop Jensen of the Sydney Anglican Diocese calling other religions ‘tools’ of Satan and U.S. Christian fundamentalists pushing the death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda.

I am not an Israeli supporter as I think a Jewish state is not a good idea. Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist states are not good ideas either. I favour separation of religion and state.

Israel is not as good as David Singer paints it nor as bad as you paint it.