Toni Lavis,
So, in your view how did the left become so insipid & how do you think both Left & Right could come back somewhat from the extremities before they overstep the mark totally ?

//The basis of Western society developed from Christian societies who allowed freedom and independent thought and diversity of thought.//

Which Pope was that? Mate, Christianity retarded Western intellectual development by 1,000 years. I would say despite the impositions placed on mans development by the superstitious dogmatic wrongs of Christian thinking, men of enlightenment were able to progress. Galileo Galilei was proving the spherical earth rotated around the sun, when your mob still believed the earth was flat! According to Christian doctrine as established by the Roman Inquisition 24th February 1616 "It is foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical to hold such a belief that the earth rotates about the sun, since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture". That fantastic truism was conveyed to Galileo whose life was then in danger.

Josephus, I hope you believe the earth is flat, and are not one of those atheistic pagans who believe otherwise. What's it to be? Flat or round!

//Galileo Galilei was proving the spherical earth rotated around the sun, when your mob still believed the earth was flat!//

No, they weren't quite that daft. They knew the Earth was round; but they were still clinging to the Ptolemaic model of the solar system with a stationary Earth at the centre and everything revolving around it.

Which I suppose can be considered technically correct if you consider it relativistically.... but it's a stupid way to do astronomy.

//"It is foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical to hold such a belief that the earth rotates about the sun, since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture"//

And yet it moves.

//So, in your view how did the left become so insipid//

Probably either insufficiently hot water, or insufficient infusion time.

Sorry Toni,

As an atheistic pagan, just the other day, I was praying to the god Baal, and he told me in a vision that the earth is defiantly flat (except for the bumpy bits). Who am I to not believe the great Baal.

BTW, I am possibly the only person on the forum who has actually met a real live living god in the flesh. My wife took me to the isolated Waipoua Forest in the north of New Zealand, and after a 30 minute walk into the thick forest there standing before us was the god, Tane Mahuta. A rather spectacular chap I must say. My wife, although a claimed Christian, she believed it was a pilgrimage she had to make. I was not completely convinced Tane was a god, I thought he was more likely a large tree, but you never know, so the wife said.

http://vimeo.com/42714008

Paul, I see you associate Christian thought with Roman Catholic Papacy. Most Popes never came near Jesus Christ's teaching. He was a radical purist in a corrupt religious World. In every country where reformed Christianity has been dominant in the last 100 + years it has brought betterment to its citizens. Those that have called themselves Christian but have not obeyed and lived by Christ teaching have been equally part of the pagan cultural demise. A persons attitudes and behaviour identifies their culture, so we need to find the influencing source and if it threatens the wellbeing of our society we must re-educate, isolate or relocate the offenders.

I see Paul you atheists try hard to make Christians you disagree with look ignorant. I am sorry to disappoint you; I follow the teaching of Isaiah 40: 22 written 600 BC that identifies the Earth in round. The Jews followed the ancient Egyptian views on Earth science that the Earth was round.