Tell us, why do you hate christianity so much?

On the other hand I could name a few incidents (and threads) of the recent past which are well able to give a cause for the aversion displayed.

Those same threads are hardly adverts for tolerance on the part of atheists either. Yet you don't see me or other christians starting anti-atheist hate threads, now do you?

Similarly, you don't see us obssessing endlessly about atheism, attacking, ridiculing and outright lying about it, because atheism genuinely doesn't bother us.

Can you say the same about your side?

oh here's a quick and good one

THE CONCISE HISTORY OF THE WESTERN WORLD DATING BACK TO CONSTANTINE

I frequently get the impression that some people consider the net impact of Christianity on the western world to be negative.

Do people really think this?

No. But then, I'm not a side but a perfectly indepedent entity with an opinion on my own. And you won't find me attacking, ridiculing and lying about religion... at least not in a way that should provoke anyone beyond a good argument.

Similarly, you don't see us obssessing endlessly about atheism, attacking, ridiculing and outright lying about it, because atheism genuinely doesn't bother us.

"It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the coming of Christianity. It brought with it, for one thing, an altogether new sense of human life. For the Greeks had shown man his mind; but the Christians showed him his soul. They taught that in the sight of God, all souls were equal, that every human life was sacrosanct and inviolate. Where the Greeks had identified the beautiful and the good, had thought ugliness to be bad, had shrunk from disease and imperfection and from everything misshapen, horrible, and repulsive, the Christian sought out the diseased, the crippled, the mutilated, to give them help. Love, for the ancient Greek, was never quite distinguished from Venus. For the Christians held that God was love, it took on deep overtones of sacrifice and compassion." - R. R. Palmer (standard college history text)

"The history of Christianity is inseparable from the history of Western culture and of Western society. For almost a score of centuries Christian beliefs, principles, and ideals have colored the thoughts and feelings of Western man. The traditions and practices have left an indelible impress not only on developments of purely religious interest, but on virtually the total endeavor of man. This has been manifest in art and literature, science and law, politics and economics, and, as well, in love and war. Indeed, the indirect and unconscious influence Christianity has often exercised in avowedly secular matters--social, intellectual, and institutional--affords striking proof of the dynamic forces that have been generated by the faith over the millenniums. Even those who have contested its claims and rejected its tenets have been affected by what they opposed. Whatever our beliefs, all of us today are inevitable heirs to this abundant legacy; and it is impossible to understand the cultural heritage that sustains and conditions our lives without considering the contributions of Christianity."

I was pretty much agreeing with everything you said, until that. YOU may not feel bothered by atheism, but if you think that's the norm everywhere, come spend a year in the southeastern US.

I suppose one good thing Christianity did was to promote art but that propaganda was well worth their money.

If you or anyone else feels abused by christians, why not address your frustrations to those you think are abusing you, be it in the southeast or wherever, instead of those of us here who aren't?

Personally I had enough the time you felt obliged to call gay life style a disease which needed to be eliminated from the gene pool.

I was pretty much agreeing with everything you said, until that. YOU may not feel bothered by atheism, but if you think that's the norm everywhere, come spend a year in the southeastern US.

I said no such thing. In fact I specifically said I didn't think being homosexual was a disease.

As an aside to this, if you're offended by me, why would it make sense to abuse other people because of it? Yet this is what we see time and time again from so many posters.

Boondock, without the church there would have been no renaissance. They were almost single-handedly responsible for the development of western art. They were also the main force behind the development of architecture, engineering, eduation, literacy, health care, psychology, literacy, economics, banking, literature and almost every other spect of our culture.

Your idea that christianity is universally bad is in stark contrast to the historical facts.

It's like people take rare instances and convince themselves this is a regular occurance. :?

Sorry, skip the 'disease' part. I can't see where you draw the line, but I don't mind if you're talking about an (obviously unwanted) 'biological condition' and a disease. Especially not as the only parallels you did draw where your kidney and the Down's syndrom.

Either way it is an insult. Imagine someone argues: Red haired people are unwanted, therefore we should prevent all further generations from being born red haired.

I wonder what would happen if somebody produced an atheism-evengelizing TV show. If I got on the airwaves and preached that there is no God, would there be a backlash?

You know nothing. The renaissnace started because it did, not because the church said so.

Actually, we have such programs here already. Richard Dawkins was given his own huge-budget two part mini series to preach exactly that (in fact it was slightly stronger, the series was called "The Root of All Evil?").