Harry Potter and God

[dumbledore11214]

> No.Limberger responds:
> If you believe in something that cannot be tested and
> qualified, then you have no idea whether it is factual.
> Some Christians are bent on the teaching of creationism
> as if that mythological belief has, in any way, any scientific
> foundation as evolution does. 

Alla:

Yes. And some christians don't.

 Some Christians refuse to
> obtain medical care for themselves and/or their children
> because it goes against their belief that they have to pray
> to be cured.

Alla:

Oh yes. And some christians don't.

> Some Christians are determined to deny
> equal civil treatment of gay and lesbian couples as
> heterosexual couples because of their personal
> Christian-inspired homophobia.  

Alla:

Absolutely and some non-christians also do that and also because of their personal non-christian inspired homophobia. And some christians fight for the equal civil treatment for gay and lesbian couples.


No.Limberger:
>If Christians are going
> to impose their beliefs on entire populations, then
> the validity of those beliefs should be scientifically
> measured and tested. 

Alla:

How could you test and measure faith? But it is absolutely my belief that faith and state should stay as far apart from each other as possible.

No.Limberger:
> Would you want any drug
> company to be permitted to sell untested prescription
> medications to the public without having been tested
> to ensure that the medications actually work and are
> not harmful, or would you prefer that a group of clergy
> pray over the medications and declare them safe
> for human consumption?  Would you want to board
> a commercial airline jet that had not been tested, but
> had instead been prayed over or had holy water
> splashed on it as a way to guarantee your personal
> safety?   This is the difference between science and
> faith: science has a much better track record of safety
> and success than faith. 

Alla:

Depends on where you look really. There are occasions where doctors could do nothing for the patients and good thoughts/ or prayers helped them. No, I cannot claim that anything like that happened to me. But I personally know a person to whose relative something like that happened.
 Of course science is a GREAT thing and I will be the first one to say that church should stay the heck away from science as far as possible, but while science gave us antibiotics, science also gave as such lovely inventions as nuclear bombs, which in my view humanity will be much better off without.

So I would not just go ahead and say that science created only useful things for humanity.

No_limberger:
> Whereas faith has lead to such
> notions as suicide bombings, the Inquisition, witch
> burnings, the Crusades, etc.  Amazingly, all the
> people who committed such acts all believed that
> they too had the one and only "true faith".  Of course,
> so do the Slytherins in JK Rowliing's "Harry Potter"
> novels: believing that only "true bloods" should
> be permitted to be taught and use magic.
> 
> -- 
> "Why don't you dance with me, I'm not no limberger!"
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>


Alla:

For the longest time I could not reconcile my deep respect for Christianity's ideas  and the deaths of millions jews in the Inquisition hands and through the centuries and all in the name of God of Love.

But then I realized something - Jesus never called for that. People committed horrible atrocities in his name, however why should we blame him if people chose to do evil instead of love each other in his name? Just saying.