Hi everyone. I am about to go offline.
Before I do, I would like to thank all those who participated in this discussion.
Again, this was not an attempt to discuss the merits of protestantism compared to other religions, but a question about whether a debate (or debates) about this question...
@drewmc2001: I agree wholeheartedly.
The whole reason I started this thread is because I am trying to cover some groundwork so that I can point people to it in order to provide context and thus reduce the likelihood of people taking what I say amiss.
The only difference we may have is one of...
No. If you present it as an historical point of view, it is not bigotry. By saying so, you are asserting that Islam split into several factions, some of which were in some sense "real" (as in "true to the original principles of this religion") and others (in this case Sunni) were "bogus" or...
No. No irony at all.
I am trying a preventive approach here. Again, If what I propose is accepted by the moderation, I will include this thread in my signature. That way, people will have a way to clarify and avoid misunderstanding if they so wish, without having to carry cumbersome explanatory...
Do you notice how much longer your sentence is compared to mine, even though it is not fully spelled out?
The longer a sentence is, the more obscure it becomes.
I understand what you are saying about being "unnecessary abrasive". This is the reason why I started this thread. In the future, if...
Actually, I did not intend to do so. As you may have read above, I said that the decisive formative phase of the Church was between the IInd and the VIth centuries in Anatolia, Egypt and Syria, i.e. in the Greek speaking area of the Church (which was by far the most numerous and thus the most...
Where is the contradiction? Saying that something was good but is now dead?
That is bigotry. Inquisition, Stalin's Show trials, ... The sentence above would be right at home.
In that case, I would be making some sort of Racialist/Ethnocentric/Eurocentric argument. And I am not.
Again I have said that Christianity is a non-European religion (a Middle-Eastern one) which would have produced pretty much the same results anywhere (e.g. in China/Japan). Can you imagine a...
I am well aware of that. But isn't one allowed to hold and defend minority opinions ?
And if it is controversial then, hopefully, it can be constructively so. Controversy forces everyone to sharpen their arguments and everyone ends up better off, provided debaters keep honest.
I cannot be a bigot since I am not Christian. You can only be a bigot about something you belong to.
I say "Christianity was superior to other religions" and then "I do not believe in Christianity; Christianity is dead". Have you ever heard a bigot talk like that? Again, this is defamation.