This is why I think religious moderates need to be called out more:

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This is my MAIN problem with /r/atheism lately.

Whats up with all this undue praise for religious moderates?

All of these are threads that they're getting all this praise in just for being religious moderates.

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/ucea8/billboard_in_north_carolina_churchs_response_to/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/rny0s/australian_christians_know_whats_up/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/rwmk6/as_a_christian_redditor_i_would_like_to_say_that/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/ray5f/uh_embarrassing/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/rl1lu/church_in_my_town_of_burlington_vt_doing_it_right/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/r9qw9/carl_sagan_and_the_dalai_lama/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/r8gwn/providence_ri_doing_it_right/

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/ro85g/the_world_needs_more_churches_like_this/

Its nothing new. Why does /r/atheism love to act like people are automatically off the hook for being progressive, when thats not the point.

They want to NOT kill gays or women? Thats great!...now how about you stop invalidating religion at the same time you try to support it. Its not helping anyone.

Its incredibly annoying.

Religious moderates are starting to become as bad as the fundies.

Why?

They don't recognize their own cognitive dissonance.

It should not be allowed for them to reject and declare parts of the bible as metaphor or mistranslations and simultaneously adopt other parts as literal and inerrant...while proclaiming that the book itself is infalliable.

Fuck.

That.

Religious moderates are in the same lot as the fundies. At least the fundies are predictable because if its in the bible/quran, they believe it.

The fundies have a set of rules they follow and its easy to distance yourself from them.

The religious moderates on the other hand will swing too and fro. They don't know which issues to separate themselves from. '

The liberal christians are even worse. They support gay marriage and equality...but then they don't even realize that many parts of the bible are DIRECTLY against that sort of ideology.

They want props for being "nice people" and doing "nice things"...but don't even realize that them still legitimizing their "faith" and "belief" allows the very things they're combating to be perpetuated and reinforced.

By them being religious, they're encouraging the same behavior they're combating.

Saying "i'm not that bad" is not helping anyone. If you're a religious moderate you are in the same bag of crazy bullshit as the fundies...they just want to choose their wording to make themselves seem less controversial.

http://livinglifewithoutanet.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/moderate-religion-two-lies-in-one/

Being a religious moderate is the biggest lie in any concept of theology out there. There is no such thing and any reference to such a concept should be chastised and ridiculed.

You want to preserve your autonomy and freedom? Don't join a religion that prevents you from adopting contradictory views then act like you have the authority or cognitive superiority to reconcile two completely contrasting ideas.

I get pretty tired of /r/atheism voting up people who want to show us images of christians "doing right" or hugging the balls of buddhism and all other sorts of illogical positions on reality.

If you support any claim with either unsubstantiated evidence or supernatural mysticism, you are in the SAME boat. It doesn't matter how extreme or how literal.

Stop promoting the ignorance of moderates and masking it as tolerance.

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1. "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 23:2)

2. "For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken. No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God." (Leviticus 21:18-21)

3. "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord."(Deuteronomy 23:1)

4. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. (Romans 16:17)

5. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. (1Corinthians 5:11)

6. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2Corinthians 6:14)

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Anything else?

Here are videos that explain my stance:

Penn Jillette on religious moderates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpNRw7snmGM

Sam Harris on religious Moderates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82YIluFmdbs

Moderate Christian Irrationality & Stupidity of Beliefism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUgA5Vi-Ty4

You want to say you're better than the people who actually and actively seek to "take rights away from others" because of what the bible says, but then defer to the bible to make other decisions and influence your life?

Bullshit.

Its all or nothing.

Its funny how religious moderates KNOW to adopt the generally "good" stuff and ignore the "bad" stuff...but they don't realize that they've already made that decision. On this accord they could technically ignore the good stuff in the bible and continue living as a religious moderate.

The point is that being a religious moderate is NOT the same as being a good person.

What also bugs me is when they don't want their religion in government. It says to me that their religion isn't even valid enough to be implemented as the law and they know it. They're OK with admitting that their religion is pointless when it comes to legislation.

For context: "The Negro's great stumbling block in the drive toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice."

• Martin Luther King, Jr.