Christianity

[DC Al Fine]

My overall opinion of the wisdom of starting this thread is bad.

Why?

This sort of thread tends not to produce edifying discussion.

[DC Al Fine]

I think the issue for many people (including many Christians) is the ignorance of an awful lot (majority?) of Christians, particularly in the United States. They are not only willfully ignorant of other people's beliefs, many are shockingly misinformed about their own views, as well. And they have real political influence that has many implications for public policy, the treatment of minority groups, etc.-which can't be said for most non-Christians, at least in the US. Although perhaps this is a really America-centric (and thus, hopelessly provincial) view of Christianity vs. "everything else."   

Furthermore, there's a significant disconnect between someone like Augustine or whomever and how most Christians actually understand themselves. Most people aren't nearly so highbrow in their views, in general. You can argue whether that is good or bad, or value-neutral, but that doesn't change the fact that most people simply don't operate like eminent theologians or philosophers.

Could you elaborate?

[DC Al Fine]

One really cannot in good conscience look at an intellectual system that produced fruits as varied and wild as Augustine and Kirkegaard, then turn away and look at an asshole like Jerry Falwell and go "Yeah, they're all a bunch of bigoted morons."  When you confront one of the most venerable and influential intellectual and philosophical doctrines in human history, you'd better be prepared to go toe to toe with the shades of Aquinas and Dostoyevsky in defense of your skepticism of the fundamental bedrock of their worldviews.  None of the men I mentioned really strongly agreed on many moral or philosophical points and yet they all shared a fundamental belief in Christianity that should make you consider that, even if (like me) you don't share that belief, that there's something pretty compelling and rich intellectual soil in that direction and that you shouldn't just brush Christians off as ignorant rubes.

As an aside, that was something I found really annoying about The God Delusion. There was a small bit on Aquinas and nothing on most other major Christian intellectuals... but Tim LaHaye gets discussed

[DC Al Fine]

Is that really what eastern religions emphasize? Or is that just how western hippies think eastern religion is about? Somehow I doubt the average practicing Hindu is a paragon of tolerance.

And, just because people don't actually follow the rules of a religion (mostly because those rules are so strict) doesn't make the religion itself less strict.

Yeah, I recall an article about the English translations of the Dalai Lama's works omitting some damning passages about sexuality for example.