[Pants]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

I don't do this because I am worried about being judged. I don't do it because I fell I need to balance my good deeds versus bad deeds book. I am doing it because I enjoy the time, and because it will assist me in my bid to go to the Sudan for a year in 2009 to do the same in the Dinkan village of Lounariik if the US government allows us to go.

So religion has nothing to do with that charity. You're a nice person. Or are you saying that had you not been religious, you wouldn't do the same?

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

Trade routes to the Middle East were established by the Christians. The Jesuits opened China to a free market. South America and the Western United States were settled by the Franciscan Monks long before any other settlements were made. The majority of Occidental explorations occurred due to monarchies - but the only reason the pushes into the unknown survived was due to the base of the missionaries.

So yeah, exploration wasn't carried out by the church. The church did the early settling in order to spread the word of god.

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

Charity on a small scale? Prior the generosity of governments of the middle 20th century, where did a family go when they lost income due to the death of the primary male? Who took care of the sick during ravenous plagues? Who took in orphans? To this day the Catholic missionaries do a helluva lot more in the Sudan, Mexico, and the Phillipines than any government effort of which I am aware.

You mean like losing the primary male due to a Crusade, Jihad or any religious war/conflict (you know like the one in England, Yugoslavia, India and everywhere else in the world) or some sort of an inquisition? Or being ****ed in the ass by the greedy church in form of land taxes and the indulgences? I'm not saying relgion does no good, I'm saying the negatives outweigh the positives if you take into account that organized religion is full of hypocrites (who feel justified to do anything they ****ing want in the name of god), extremists, was/is/will be full of corruption.

Look, I'm not saying that religion makes you evil, I'm saying that it doesn't stop you from being one and often serves as a very good cover for very bad people. And to add to that, you absolutely don't have to be religious to be a just, moral and overall a good person. And if you're not religious and somehow manage to **** up (bang someone before you marry, lie to parrents, steal something), at least you don't look like a total ****ing hypocrite.