Pretty much everything in my life as a Christian is based on the New Testament, so for me the moral genocide bit is about as important as putting the Mrs in the shed when the painters are in.
Although the new testament does not dismiss the old testament. If both works were the word of God then who (as Sam Harris observes) decides what is "good" in the good book?
Surfer,some people have a belief system that doesn't conform to your opinion of how it should,why do you have a problem with that?
This is a common response and manipulation of what religion is. I have no problem with your "belief" per se, and as an individual I just assume you believe in fairies. However I do have an issue with the resources that are squandered and the disproportionate influence your belief in an "invisible friend" has on my life.
Whether it be the misallocation of funds due to the favorable tax position your invisible friend enjoys in this country, which I would far rather be spent on the provision of more important resources such as improved healthcare.
Or the disproportinate influence it has over the allocation of funding into medical science, which as a direct result of your unsubstantiated fairy stories has restricted the most ground breaking developments in stem cell research and in the US, set this research back years.
Or maybe I am a little miffed that the leader of the catholic church ruins and prematurely ends millions of innocent believers lives in sub saharan Africa every year, as a direct result of preaching the evil of Condom use (even amongst married couples)
Its far to easy to claim the "golden rule" as a distillation of Chrisitanity however the truth is often a little darker. Your weasel words and cherry picking of texts sounds a little like a BNP supporter claiming not to be a racist but instead a supporter of their tax policies!
If you are a Christian then you need to accept what goes with it in my opinion.
