google video has a question and answer series with Richard Dawkins from an appearance at RMWC (a college in Lynchburg, VA.) Lynchburg is also the home of Liberty "University" so there are many audience questions from literalists.

It is interesting to hear him address the false arguments from fundamentalists.

Sorry to spoil the show, but at the end he exhorts students at Liberty to leave the school and enroll in a real University, to much applause. Until I watched that speech on google, I had no idea that Liberty had dinosaur bones on display that they claimed were something like 4000 years old. Surely that madrassa is not accredited. If so, it should not be. What an embarrassment to the entire nation.

It is a wonderful bit of serendipity that Dawkins, in the video based upon his book, The God Delusion, spent time with Ted Haggard. If there was ever a poster child for the truth of the ways in which fundamentalists must lie to themselves and deny reality, that man is it.

Ehrman's works speak more directly to American audiences across a spectrum, I think, because Dawkins is incredulous about the mass stupidity that flourishes in America under the umbrella of fundamentalism. Ehrman understands the thinking of those defrauded by their religious leaders because of his own life experience and, thus, can speak to them more directly.

I no longer watch cable news of any sort so I don't know if Ehrman is every given air time when the mouth-breathers for god have their say, but it would be nice to see him on a show with that Saddleback guy, for instance.

Palm Sunday. Let's all welcome King Jesus, arriving in peace and in triumph, even if he is just a metaphor or a symbol!

This thread could be a whole web site. Do any of you have suggestions for good, rational Jesus web sites?

My suggestion is to read Bart Ehrman's book, separate from this Gary Kamiya column. But keep reading Kamiya too. Hosanna!

Go back and read the original post I was responding to.

Truth to tell, I've been back and forth on the thread and still haven't found anything posted by serafin. No doubt it's there somewhere, I've just skipped over it.

I've taken to posting the letter page numbers on posts that aren't found in the immediate vicinity of my replies, in order to help with similar problems.

Go back and read the original post I was responding to. See how that poster automatically assumed how christianity only applies to those who agree with him.

"Let's not forget. It was the far left that ignored third grade arithmetic, voted for Nader, and put Bush in office."

Of which I am not one. I knew what was at stake in 2000 and voted accordingly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know there's a theocracy in this country. There are religious people and creepizoid fundys all over the place. But lumping them together seems counterproductive. And a theocracy probably would have shutdown rival religions by now."

There are certainly plenty of them that want to turn America into one. Ignoring the threat of talk radio is what allowed it to get so powerful.

"Fighting scapegoats is an old tactic of the far left to avoid having to take action. Formerly it was the corporation that was omnipotent evil, which relieved the audience from the hard work of liberation."

If you want to talk about creating scapegoats and strawmen maybe you should look at Glenn Beck. Mr. "The Socialists are going to burn our bibles and force us into the Gulags!" The hypocracy of the right far outweighs any on our side.

Tell that to the gays. Let's ask them how much "freedom" christianity has brought them.

Would you stop it with the monolithic "christianity", already?

I don't know where you live in the USA, ftt, but in most population centers in the USA, there's a Christian church congregation somewhere that either a)makes an appeal to primarily gay Christian congregants; b) has ordained gay clergy; or c) makes approximately zero deal about the presence of uncloseted gay people- including gay couples- in their pews.

examples taken from within 50 miles of where I live:

http://www.lcorsac.org/

http://www.valleyministries.com/

http://glbtsacramento.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/closing-of-metropolitan-community-church/

I'm simply making a statement of fact, here. You do an on-line search, I'm sure you'll find many more. Maybe even in your local area.

Now that that item is crossed off...got any other political trump cards to play on contemporary Christianity, taken in toto? Given that that's apparently the only way you're capable of conceptualizing it, as if it were a monolithic totalitarian plot, like Maoism or something.

I'm not even affiliated with a Christian church congregation, personally. It isn't required. I'm not irrevocably opposed to ever joining one, though, and I do enjoy church services from time to time- a particular recent favorite memory of mine being midnight services for Orthodox Church Easter, a few years back. Nothing dolorous, no cross-and-nail imagery...instead, the icons of the Redeemer, flower petals on the wooden floor of the church, a candlelit procession circling the church, a beautiful liturgy, and a wonderful surprise at the ending. A totally serendipitous discovery, as I was invited to be a guest by a cab passenger of mine, an Assyrian woman! LOL, an Assyrian! Around here, that's rarer than running into a Wintu Indian!

I'm a baptized Presbyterian, many worlds ago. But Christianity is a pretty big tent, as long as you're respectful, and you don't lean too hard for a stranger. It was a wonderful service. Better than any Protestant Easter service I ever attended, to be honest.

Just...fwiw.

I like the Tom T. Hall song as much as 'Jesus is just alright'.

Good for Ehrman for getting this info (taught to me 25 years ago in Catholic School) into mainstream conversation. Maybe if someone from Good Morning America reads his book, they can ask Joel Osteen a real question instead of just gushing over his plans to preach in Yankee Stadium in a few weeks.

When these kinds of articles get published, a laughable and predictable thing occurs with the letters. People who are upront about their distaste for religion take it upon themselves to report what is taught by and what goes on in my church.

The common theme of those letters is that life would be better where religion doesn't exist. Governments have tried to create such a place. One has been nearly successful. They have the second largest economy in the world, and they finally decriminalized sodomy in 1997. Consider if, instead of unfurling a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner in the US, Joe Frederick had carried a banner that read "Democracy - Our Common Ideal" in Tiananmen Square, a five day suspension would have been the least of his worries. Some of my colleagues lost friends and family over there.

I'll take my chances with believers.

There is a God and I'm not Him. However imperfect someone's faith or their understanding of the beginnings of their faith, people who would say the same are my preference.