I believe you are talking about freedom of belief. I'm not sure I agree. As I recall the God of the bible has some pretty specific limits on what I'm allowed to believe, and if I ignore those limits I'm looking at an eternity of pain.
Christianity is not the only faith to argue that "you are free to believe whatever you want, but if you don't believe what our holy book(s)/traditions tell you you'll spend eternity suffering". From inside those faiths that is a rational statement.
Does it not seem odd that for the majority of believers the one true faith - out of all the major and minor sects and schisms - happens to be the one they were raised in?
Given the broad range of opinion on the bible - from derision to rock-solid faith, by smarter people than you and I who have spent decades in professional study - I'm amused that you would call my observations ignorant. I doubt I'm having this debate with Bart D. Ehrman.
I believe you are talking about freedom of belief. I'm not sure I agree. As I recall the God of the bible has some pretty specific limits on what I'm allowed to believe, and if I ignore those limits I'm looking at an eternity of pain.
As for governments: there are 195 countries in the world. About 42% of them have an official religion or a preferred faith. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/03/key-facts-about-government-favored-religion-around-the-world/
Christianity is not the only faith to argue that "you are free to believe whatever you want, but if you don't believe what our holy book(s)/traditions tell you you'll spend eternity suffering". From inside those faiths that is a rational statement.
Does it not seem odd that for the majority of believers the one true faith - out of all the major and minor sects and schisms - happens to be the one they were raised in?
According to the link I sent you most countries do not have their own official faith, so no, that's not obvious.
There are over 800,000 words in the King James version. You don't know it all either.
Given the broad range of opinion on the bible - from derision to rock-solid faith, by smarter people than you and I who have spent decades in professional study - I'm amused that you would call my observations ignorant. I doubt I'm having this debate with Bart D. Ehrman.
So we've both read bits of the bible. Why are your bits better than mine?
What distinction do you make between the old testament and the new?