[Gunslingr3]

Your disdain for belief not supported by evidence is all the more reason you should be LEAPING to show how your opinion about the motives of those wrote the Gospels is based on specific evidence

One, we don't know who wrote the gospels, more importantly, the actual writers of those books aren't the predominant profiteers off the stories. You want E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E that religion is primarily a shake down of scared, confused, and gullible people, ask yourself how many gold rings God intends for someone like the Pope to have at his followers expense. Ask yourself why religious leaders would sell indulgences for people to escape a fantasyland called purgatory. There are even modern versions running the same scam, familiar with Robert Tilton?

[malakhi]

Y'know, when I make a donation to my synagogue, it is voluntary. Meanwhile, I am forced to pay taxes, a portion of which goes toward government-funded science research.

I'll concede that some religious leaders are venal. Will you concede that some scientists are as well? That a certain percentage of grant requests amount to little more than a "shake down", a welfare plan for scientists funded at taxpayer expense?

And that's not even getting into the shenanigans of scientific charlatans like the environmentalist crowd.

[adam_az]

bravo

telling it like it is!