But the religious texts are worded in such a way that they can be cherry picked to be used to suppress rights. They were written in a different time and can be interpreted many ways, often to infringe on human rights we now have been enjoying for years, due to the change in culture between biblical times and the present.

I've said many times that trying to use the bible as a moral compass in today's society is like trying to use a map of ancient Mesopotamia to navigate the streets of New York City. It takes a lot of imagination to envision the directions to where we want to go. A new road map is needed, and we have those, just as we have lots of more modern writings to help us navigate our more complex and wonderful world.

You obviously haven't heard what many ministers are preaching lately. Pure hatred from some of them I've heard and seen videos. (Not all - I know some ministers who preach kindness - but not all do.)

Human nature has natural consequences and our social system keeps people's worst tendencies in check as well. Cherry picking some nice sentiments in church tenets leaves a lot of harmful teachings there for the picking. Can there be religious values that are good for humanity? Yes, I think so. But that's not what we have now creeping into our society. Those are my feelings on the subject.

@Julie808
I’ve heard people who call themselves ministers preaching what looks like hate to me, but those are people, not religions. The hateful attitudes are coming from those individuals, not the book they’re waving in the air. I don’t know of a religion whose written doctrine on balance favors hatred over love.

And when you say many, how many? A few obnoxious congregations like Westboro Baptist that grab the headlines because of their eccentricity, or do you mean a majority of world religions, such that the word “religion” generally applies, instead of the term religious fanatics?

“Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American hyper-Calvinist hate group. It is known for engaging in inflammatory homophobic and anti-American pickets, as well as hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and numerous Christian denominations. It is a Baptist church that is not affiliated with any organized Baptist denomination and has been denounced by the Baptist World Alliance, the Southern Baptist Convention, and other mainstream Christian denominations.”
[en.wikipedia.org]

@ChestRockfield
What words did you put in the search?

@ChestRockfield
You are yet again misrepresenting the truth. I have never characterized religion as “this pure wonderful thing”, or anything approximating that.

@skado It's part of the picture. Just like an apologist to ignore all of the pertinent points and damning evidence and simply ask a question that makes it seem like my search words are the problem here...

@ChestRockfield
Scanning all the dictionaries I can find access to online I see only two basic definitions of the word “apologist”.

The more generic one is a person who defends any idea, making you and I equally apologists. And the other more specific one, a person defending their own Christian faith, making neither you nor I an apologist.

So which is it? Are we apologists, or are we not?

Just like an atheist apologist to dodge a relevant question, you old apologist you. I’m betting you will refuse to tell us exactly which search words you used because that will make the truth too apparent. You can make anything look like whatever you want by choosing the right search words. If you search for what we’re actually discussing, “religion” you will not get the result you posted. You’ll get Wikipedia saying there is no scholarly consensus as to what precisely constitutes a religion. That would be a scientific perspective, but you atheist apologists have a need to color the truth to fit your narrative. The only thing I am an apologist for is science. Don’t make shit up. Read the dang science, bro!

In reply to your George Carlin meme, not sure who wrote this, but:

'My Country 'Tis of Thee'
My country 'tis of thee, great land of misery, of thee I sing. Land where our children die, land where our mothers cry, from every school's insides, hear gunshots ring.

@Julie808 Thanks....saw this...and - well..it hit me so hard I just ignored it. But now that you brought it up...I found this on YouTube''

Yes, many years ago, I wrote, that I'm not sure how far back the Religious Right want to go to "Make America Great Again" back when slavery was legal and incest was swept under the rug? I thought my comment was far fetched back then, but now it's scary to see the direction we are actually going!

Nope, they are silent on this particular post, so far.

@Julie808

I see a few people referring to "apologists" on this site. Who are these "they" of whom you speak, if I may ask? I haven't seen any, unless by apologist they mean what the dictionary says - someone who speaks in defense of an idea... which makes just about everybody here an apologist. But in the traditional sense of a Christian apologist, I don't know of any. Do you?

@skado My reply should have said "Nope, there has been no whining on this thread."

@Julie808 Not anymore...