johnthn

Personally, I think even with the Walmart deal the Xbox is waaay too overpriced. At least Sony have learned their lesson and adjusted their price to a sensible level. Historically PS3 was the most expensive console, now the Xbox one comes in second, PS4 is 5th. Much more reasonable: http://www.statista.com/chart/1625/video-game-console-prices/

My opinion as an agnostic: I've never thought anything in the bible was meant to be taken literally. I have always seen it as a bunch of stories meant to lead people on the right path. Not that Jesus doesn't exist or isn't the Messiah or anything like that. But I think the stories are meant to be just that; stories. From my discussions with Christians in my lifetime it seems they have a similar outlook.

 

When looking at the OT it certainly could be seen that these stories don't paint a positive light on God but you have to consider the time they were written.

Exactly. When those stories that make up the bible were written, people were basically iliterate (except very few scholars). For a long time, people lived in an oral culture, which means, that stories were told in a figurative, sometimes repetitive manner, so that people would memorize them. In the case of the bible, they are allegories, supposed to transport morals and beliefs and not to be taken literally. I'm sure Mr. Maher is intelligent enough to find other reasons to prove his atheist viewpoints, but imo, making fun of OT is a cheap way to do so. Of course, they don't make sense in our culture today, because those stories are thousands of years old and come from an oral culture.

Sure, a frightening number of people do take the OT literally and use this to cause harm. Nevertheless, I don't think Maher is doing himself a favor in trying to argue with those peole and using them to discredit religion as a whole.

Education should be 50:50 on schools and parents. And this is not about learning a list of names - it is about a basic interest in politics and society, which should be part of our culture generally, imo. There are enough examples of people of all age groups failing these kind of questions in those street interviews. 

Just everyone look at a newspaper (or get the app...) once in a while and these things shouldn't be a problem.

I like Fiji, but I'm worried about their CO2 footprint.