So you use your imagined excesses of prehistoric religions to defend your assessment that organized religion has done more harm than good? In short, your claims are pure bullshit.
No shit. - much excrement - first by definition, prehistoric means that we do not know anything about it
second - look at the excesses of both christianity and islam when they went forth to convert others to their faith (not to mention the excesses performed in trying to purify their religions) - 50 million christians were killed by christians while christianity tried to define itself in the first century of its existence (this happened periodically during christianity's early centuries and as late as the 18th century)
but to get away from christianity, most early religions simply killed non-believers whenever they could and anyone accused of performing 'magic' - clarke's law states that 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistingable from magic' though most religions burned people for doing something that they did not understand
So believe what you want and worship in the manner you want. Who is stopping you? But that is not good enough, is it? You want to use government to penalize people for not believing as you do - the penultimate totalitarian.
i do not object to other people's beliefs as long as they leave me alone to follow mine and pay taxes - i still do not like organized religions, but i do not have them
as for penalizing other religions, i claim that i am the one penalized as i pay taxes for government services while religions do not
My anger has nothing to do with defending my faith. My anger is at totalitarian assholes who desire to use government to reinforce their belief system. You PERSONALLY do not believe in organized religion, therefore organized religion should not enjoy the tax exempt status that every other community benefit organization enjoys.
this is only part of my disgust at tax exemptions (by the way you claim that this is no such thing as non-organized religions) for religions - why should religions have a special niche carved out for them - religions pay sales taxes so why not property and personal taxes
Answer my question: IF churches should not enjoy tax exempt status, should that also apply to ALL non-charitable community benefit organizations? Or are you going to claim that singling out churches is justified because you do not like churches? - let them file as not-forprofit organizations
And I don't give a ripe pig fart what type of religion (unorganized, spirituality, self made morals, whatever) you believe in. If you don't like churches that have priests, don't join one. Don't join ANY church if you do not believe in them.
But, again, that is not good enough for you, is it? You don't like organized religion, so you want the government to treat churches differently. You want legalized discrimination against organized religion because you do not like it. You are the perfect example of the intolerance of the supposed philosophy of tolerance, and as such, you are the very definition of the type of person, and type of belief, for which the 1st Amendment was written to protect the rest of us from.
The fact that you believe differently, even that you disparage my belief system does not anger me. I am secure enough to discuss differences in belief systems without being angry over it. - this i applaud and i was not trying to disparage anyone elses belief system, i just want them to pay taxes like everyone else
What angers me is when people belittle the beliefs of others, purposely taking on an aura of superiority over the religious, in a hypocritical criticism that religions are bad because they assume an aura of moral superiority. What angers me is your egocentric assumption that because YOU dislike organized religion, then organized religion should be discriminated against in law. YOUR particular religious beliefs should no more be made into law than should mine.
