Plebe

Farrell Till does an excellent job of exposing Bible inerrantists. Towards the bottom of this he cites something which is not known to be recorded anywhere in secular history of the supposed time of the expected birth of Christ, the slaughter of the innocents by Herod. An Atheist friend years ago pointed this out to me and it was among my first studies in the fallacies and atrocities of the Bible.
<a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1993/4/4prob93.html" target="_blank">http://www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1993/4/4prob93.html</a>

..."Let's assume, however, just for the sake of argument that Dobbs could prove that Jeremiah did mean for the statement to be a prediction of the slaughter of children at some time in the prophet's future. After he has done that, Dobbs must then prove ABSOLUTELY that Herod's massacre of the children at Bethlehem can be established as a historical fact. The complete absence of any reference to such an event by any other New Testament writer or any secular historian contemporary to the times makes this an impossible task for Dobbs or anyone else. However, if an event that is allegedly a prophecy fulfillment cannot be factually established, how can any rational person contend that it was a prophecy fulfillment?"

The Admiral

Plebe;

". However, if an event that is allegedly a prophecy fulfillment cannot be factually established, how can any rational person contend that it was a prophecy fulfillment?"

Rhetorical question, right? We all know that religous believers aren't rational.

The Admiral

Vorkosigan

Religious belief is non-rational. Religious believers vary in their level of rationality, much as atheists do.

Baidarka

Yes Vorkosigan there is a direct correlation between religiosity and irrationality. Moderately religious = moderately irrational. Rabidly religious = rabidly irrational.
Yes it is true that there are irrational atheists but irrationality is not a necessary result of atheism.
Religiosity is irrationality.
Atheism is a rational position.

Vorkosigan

Baidarka,

if atheism is rational, and religion is irrational, what do you make of atheist religions like certain strains of Buddhism?

In any case, The Admiral was not referring to beliefs but people. All True Belief is essentially irrational; it is no more "rational" to root for the Raiders than the Browns (exception: Cincinnati Bengals fans). All True Believers, however, are irrational by definition only in their area of True Belief. I doubt, for example, that Bede or Radorth or Layman are compulsively irrational in all areas of their lives.

Vorkosigan

CX

Looks like this is moving into a general discussion. Let's keep it on the original topic or move it elsewhere. What say you?