I spoke inartfully, as this was a moment to recognize him and not to dump on his faith. My intent was to acknowledge the life of a good man in the service of an organization I disagree with.
I think it's worth examining those institutions in a "hacker" sense but quite a few others here don't share that opinion.
The subject is a minefield because a lot of people self-identify with it and take any criticism of the institution as an attack on them.
The failings of The Church are well documented and don't need to be repeated here. I'm more interested in what doesn't get talked about: the crowding of the marketplace of ideas. The belief system promulgated by it is antiquated and does not serve society well.
> The failings of The Church are well documented and don't need to be repeated here.
The failings of the Church does not make it questionable. Like with any endeavour of man, there are bound to be failings. Heck, the first Pope, Peter, chosen by Christ himself denied him thrice. So, why should the failings of the subsequent members of the clergy be of any surprise to anyone? The epistles in the New Testament talks about false teachers and immoral people within the early Church. So this is nothing new under the sun.
> I'm more interested in what doesn't get talked about: the crowding of the marketplace of ideas.
Not sure what century you live in, but in the 21st century, the Church and the ideas that it espouses are mostly rejected, esp of, but not limited to matters of chastity, teachings on what constitutes a valid marriage, divorce, religious piety etc. Your claim might have been valid in the 13th century, but we don't live in the middle ages any more.
> The belief system promulgated by it is antiquated and does not serve society well.
That is an opinion, and cannot be philosophically or scientifically proven.
I could counter those points but that is....pointless when the other party has no interest in entertaining the possibility that they have any merit, regardless of evidence.
The tl;dr is that a belief system that focuses on all the good stuff happening after one dies does a disservice to the people (but serves their masters well).
Antiquated my ass, society is going to need stability again and the way things are going, the mild authoritarianism of religion is going to be a “godsend” in the near future. Progressive ideology has been wholly co-opted by misinformed feminists — who are shitting on minorities that need actual help — and the resulting instability is going to need a magical (read god/supernatural/made up) guide so we can get back to a sane state before we can move forward again.
Yes I think I would be on board especially if they tone down the strain of Wahhabism that’s currently dominant. At its core, Islam is a good martial religion.
