Security: How Network Ports Work

Accepted wisdom says we should respect moderates and look down on
fundamentalists. This is supposedly because the moderates know how to pick
out the good parts of their Holy books and ignore the bad, whereas the crazy
folks can’t tell the difference.

I still agree with this in practice because moderates are less of an
immediate danger to the world, but philosophically I now have a new
perspective on the issue. My new view is that fundamentalists should at
least be given some respect for actually following their books.

People seem to think it’s ok to pick and choose what to follow, but the
Bible clearly disagrees:

Let’s review what the Bible demands as punishments for breaking these rules:

Let’s be clear — this is not some garbage I made up, and it’s not something
pulled out of context. These are standalone commands from God, written in
the Bible, for Christians to obey unquestioningly. That doesn’t mean obey
them unless there’s a law against it, or obey them unless they make you feel
bad.

Remember, it specifically says not to take anything away from
these commands, and keep in mind that God knew what the future would
look like. If He intended that there be any wiggle room he would have
included something to the effect of, “Unless there is a law against it
later…”

Quite simply, God has commanded that people die for working on Saturday,
sleeping with someone other than their spouse, being gay, talking back to
their parents, or saying “Jesus” or “God” when they are upset. If you as a
Christian have seen those commands and have judged them unacceptable due
to a man-made, secular morality then you are rejecting God outright. You
have consciously chosen to place man’s laws above God.

Make no mistake — this is not simply a failure to live up to expectations,
this is active rejection. This is so-called “religious” people making
their own personal judgment that the word of God should not be
followed because it interferes with their morality.

The point, of course, is not that moderate Christians should be killing
people. What this shows us is that moderate Christians already reject
God for precisely the same reason that Atheists do —
because the teachings in the Bible don’t make sense.

Once you figure out that God really is demanding that all these people die,
and that it’s quite easy for you to see that this is morally out of the
question, it should be pretty easy to get to the next step:

Exactly. And that really only leaves two options for kind, thoughtful
religious moderates:

1. Realize that human laws and knowledge are contrary to God. Join a
   “community” that owns lots of land that separates itself from the evils
   of human society and devotes itself to the true path. In short,
   become a fundamentalist.or…

2. Accept that the Bible was written by superstitious men, and that the
   beautiful parts (of which there are many) can be incorporated into your
   life without having to subscribe to the fantasy of a God that wants
   people to be killed for working on Saturday.