As a christian theologist, I’m pleased Sachiko quoted the “New International Version”, since this is a scholastic bible, intended to be a clear translation of hebrew, aramaic and greek texts.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, effectively the Torah. Therefore, “Lot” is a Hebrew, rather than a christian. This is significant, since Sachiko mentions her father is also not a christian. So, there appears to be a theological confusion at work here. Scholars believe the destruction of Sodom occurred around 1890 BC, nearly 2000 years before Christians existed.

Sachiko is highlighting the misogynistic aspects of Lot’s mistake, however a contributor on this thread is correct, the Angels inside the house protect Lot and his daughters by blinding the men of Sodom. Later, the Angels offer further protection, asking Lot and his family to flee, since Sodom will be destroyed.

Kind Regards, nbwriter

I’m going to go re-watch Bill Maher’s “Religulous” now.

It also the matter of interpretation of what is written that should scare everyone who belongs to the church. How do the “faithful” know they are receiving a reasonable interpretation?

Does this mean that you believe everything that is written? I read dozens of news stories everyday, and I have the common sense to at least question the accuracy of some of the statements made.

My spin is this. If you are calling yourself a member of the Christian club, maybe you should actually read and understand the book you are supposedly basing your every action on.

At the very least, if you are going to have faith without any evidence of truth, make up your own mind what the content means. How many times have entire nations been led to destruction by blind faith?

1) Doing the Koran actually would be preaching to the choir, as my audience is pretty much entirely non-Muslim, and pretty much all non-Muslims already believe that the Koran is evil in any case.

2) Even if Muslims did tune in, the majority of them just aren’t ready for something like this, so I won’t achieve anything anyway. My time is limited, so I have to focus where I can make an impact.

3) Conversely, the majority of westerners (who constitute the vast majority of my audience) believe that what is in the Bible is good, because they haven’t actually read it. So I am reading it to them.

4) I just don’t know the Koran well enough to do it justice.

I do not believe I am just preaching to the choir: I have already convinced a few people who weren’t atheists before, and I’m sure there will be more to come.

Also, let’s take the example of the abuse of children by Catholic priests. There’s almost certainly a lot of child abuse in Muslim countries too, but does that mean we should just let Catholic priests get away with it? Of course it doesn’t, and the Bible shouldn’t be allowed to get away with all of its evils and absurdities simply because there happens to be one other book that just might be a little worse.

Plus I’m not at all convinced the Koran really is worse than the Bible anyway: the Bible contains the bloodiest, most violent and most absurd book in all of religion (Revelations), and a lot more besides.

And don’t think I’m stupid enough to buy your BS about being an agnostic – you are very obviously a Christian yourself. I’m always amused by people like you who don’t have the courage of their beliefs to be honest about them. If your belief system was actually sound, you wouldn’t have to lie about it.

If you really want to make waves, try doing this with the Koran. After all, you go on and on about how religion breeds ignorance…why not go for the gold? If you refrain from doing so for fear of your life, then why pick on the religion that will not fight back?

Let’s put this in perspective: If you offend fundamentalist Muslims, they usually plot your assasination. If you offend fundamentalist Christians, they usually pray for you. Sometimes they will bore you to death… but that is not even manslaughter.

I am a secular humanist, but I am very grateful to live in a society where people can engage in idealogical warfare without coming to blows.

Do you what to hear something really paradoxical? Christian society is a safer place for atheism than Secular Humanist society (Toqueville suggested this more than a century ago). If you do not believe me, just look at what is happening to Western Europe.