Hi y'all - I think another important point was when separation of church and State was mentioned and Noah was saying that potential Presidents can't leave their religion out of their lives - I asked if anyone there would vote for a Muslim President who included in his manifesto a commitment to close Post Offices on Fridays and Open them on Sundays. I got a harsh response of "No." I don't think the congregation have ever thought from this perspective and at least we've made them see that there are other viewpoints.
On Jan 11, 8:21 pm, "Jason (Memphis)" <[email protected]> wrote: > Steve, Sheila and I attended Noah's class on the book at Oakwood > Reformed > Presbyterian church at 1665 S. Germantown Rd., TN. > > As always, everyone was extremely nice and talked to us afterward. > > Steve and I brought up a few typical points: > > 1. Atheism is not a religion and explained why. > > 2. Hinduism has supernatural elements such as reincarnation. The > author argued that Hinduism did not have supernatural elements in > order to classify religion as any philosophy even ones without > supernatural elements. > > 3. We argued that atheism (non-belief) is robust and difficult to > stamp out of cultures even when non-believers are burned at the > stake. > > 4. We argued that the problem is the method that religions come to > evaluating truth, that is, by revelations of a prophet such as > Mohammad, Jesus, Joseph Smith, etc. > > 5. The author claimed that "There are three approaches that civic and > cultural leaders around the world are using to address the > divisiveness of religion." (1) outlaw religion, (2) condemn religion > and (3) radically privatize it that is keep religion completely > private. I pointed out that there are other approaches (1) open > public discourse (outside of government) about religion amongst > various faiths and non-faiths, (2) secular governments, that is, > separation of church and state, (3) protection of religious liberties > in conjunction with freedom of speech to criticize religious or non- > religious ideas and (4) so forth. > > Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Memphis Freethought Alliance" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/memphisfreethoughtalliance?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
