So are you telling me Japan and China are Christian?
What???
KFC, have you lost it completely?
I didn't say anything about "Christian" and "non-Christian" countries. I spoke of countries that teach Creationism and countries that do not.
Your superstition has made you blind to the world.
I never hated Christianity. And if you weren't so blinded by your superstitious beliefs, you would have noticed that I often speak highly of Christian (Catholic) friends and that I NEVER called your superstitious beliefs _Christian_, I _always_ put the word in quotes, when I referred to to your beliefs. I never agreed with you that what you believe is representative of Christianity, and it is not very honest of you to pretend that I spoke about Christianity when I spoke about your beliefs, because you KNOW I never agreed with you on that.
I never ever referred to the Christian faith when I said "Christianity". I referred to what YOU and people like you call "Christianity", but which I have never accepted as the faith spawned by a religious Jew.
You will never see me put "Christianity" in quotes when I speak of the Pope or Lutheran ministers or Christian martyrs, up to and including newly converted Christians in Islamic countries who face persecution and sometimes death because of their (genuine) Christian beliefs. But if I see a superstitious fundamentalist who knows little about religion and studies "angels" instead of scripture and calls my G-d a "moon god" because she didn't bother to learn about Byzantinian symbols and just happens to believe what fellow "Christians" (note the quotes) tell her, I do confront her.
You see, KFC, I am a fundamentalist too, in a way. Like I would have said to Artysim, had I been able to post earlier today, in response to his remarks about idol worship, I have my beliefs too.
And you never cared about that. You insulted them, treated them as inferior, and dismissed everything I had to say because it wouldn't fit into your insane worldview.
You see, KFC, I care about my faith. I once quit my job to travel to Jerusalem. I studied Hebrew to understand scripture better. When Israel was under attack and many people cancelled their trips, I went there anyway. I donated time and money to help in the holy land. And guess what, I met Christians there who did the same.
And I have a problem, KFC, and you may call it religious intolerance, but I have a problem with people who, like you, study "angels", as if they were physical beings (despite all analysis of Biblical texts by Hebrew-speaking scholars disagreeing with that interpretation), because, as Maimonides warned, thinking that angels have physical form is dangerously close to believing that G-d has physical form.
I have a problem with idiots who do not know much about the G-d of the Jewish people and therefore dismiss Him as a "moon god" just because the descendants of Ishmael also pray to Him. You tried to show that Muhammed's Allah and your god are not the same god because Muhammed didn't speak of a Trinity. Well, guess what, neither did Moses. That's when I finally understood. You really had no idea. You didn't know, and you still don't know even after I explained it to you. I bet you never even looked up the word relatioships I told you about. You don't really care about what scripture says, do you?
And then you started your greatest project. Not only do you propose that religion should be taught in science class, DESPITE scripture telling us that we must not test G-d, but you accuse my G-d of designing us, designing us imperfect beings. We are created in the image of G-d, KFC, but that refers to our souls, not our bodies. Our bodies are NOT created in the image of G-d, because G-d doesn't have badly designed eyes. Look at me. Do you think G-d wears glasses? And G-d didn't design our eyes either, He is not responsible for disease and our weaknesses, He is NOT a designer of things in His universe. He is NOT the incompetent fool you are trying to convince everyone designed us. That's not how it worked.
My G-d, KFC, is not a sadistic being who "designs" women designed to risk death in childbirth because of an imperfectly planned birth canal. He is not an incompetent engineer who thought it would be a fun idea to design a friend of mine to develop Type 1 Diabetes (and don't dare to tell me that he is probably being punished for a sin or some such nonsense). He is not a flippy joker who loves most among His children those who refuse to study the world and believe that they already know everything they need to know.
I have listened to your superstitions and insults long enough, KFC. And now you tell me that I _hate_ Christianity, because I have a problem with YOU (not Christians, YOU) putting down other people's faiths, insulting all Muslims by calling their god (and mine) a "moon god", insinuating that Jews are incomplete in their faith because they rejected one out of thousands of Jerusalem preachers, treating Mormons as if you are somehow better than they, and lying about evidence for evolution? I am sick and tired of giving you example after example for everything you want to have never happened or think cannot be observed just to find you pretend that you never heard about all those things a day later when we meet again and discuss "Creation science" once more. And all that comes under that nice umbrella of the "Christian principle" of "honesty". Do you think you actually brought ANYONE here closer to the Christian faith?
So... that rant had to happen sooner or later.
I feel better now.
Know what I did on the weekend?
I wrote a program that transliterates Hebrew and Arabic to English and to each other.
You can find a description and screenshots here:
http://web.mac.com/ajbrehm/Not_A_Linguist/Not_A_Linguist_Blog/Entries/2008/6/15_Transliteration_Program.html
I often spend weekends studying Hebrew or, which I realise is not cool, the Bible.
But whenever I do, I find that I have become less superstitious and more open to the world.
Oh... and KFC... two points:
1. It doesn't matter how much money one pours into universities; if the students are Creationists the research results will be shit. Money is a multplicator. It makes better what already exists.
2. There is no such thing as a "Creation scientist".