You wrote: “It sounds to me as though you believe that any reading of xtian texts that does not jibe with your own is childish. It is quite possible to read the texts and come to the conclusion that they are not what they purport to be, nor what xtian dogma holds them out to be. That is not a childish conclusion, nor is it a misapprehension. It is simply a position that is not based on credulity. Indeed, one could even say that it is the person deriding others as being immature who is in fact behaving childishly.”
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My response:
What exactly is your point? That any interpretation of the Bible (or any other ancient writing, for that matter) is as good as another, or that it is “childish” to deride someone’s beliefs just because they cloak them with the title “religious belief”? Are all religious views beyond scrutiny, no matter how ridiculous? If I say, my belief is that the universe was created by the sugar plum fairies that dance in my backyard on Tuesday evenings, is it childish for someone to say I have no rational basis for my belief? If I say, all people who believe in a supernatural deity are credulous, is that childish? Or are the childish people the ones who believe their “souls” fly off to “heaven” when their hearts stop beating?
Umm ... I think you misunderstood my post. I was actually taking up for you. I was saying that he was calling you childish because you disagreed with him, and that perhaps that made him the childish one.