It's good that you appreciate science and respect human rights.

Some questions regarding your regrets about Christian fundamentalism. Given a belief that the bible is the word of god, how can you fault people for interpreting it differently than you? By what standard are you judging their belief and what makes this standard true and theirs false?

So far, no religion has been able to answer this question, which is why religion has not escaped its own subjectivity and conflict will forever divide believers who claim they all believe in the same thing.

it is good that not all believers hate science and want to persecute people, but to say that they believe these things because of their faith, i think is not sound.

Asimov phrased this idea more concisely than me but I couldn't find it.

It could also have a lot to do with the fact it's also just a really dumb, dumb religion that has mellowed IN SPITE OF it's stone-age stupidity rather than because there's actually something worth a shit in there.
It could be argued that all religions have massive flaws, but many religions that predate Christianity, especially Buddhism, have far more going for them than any of the Abrahamic faiths. The increase in atheism has less to do with people being turned off by bigots (though that's undoubtedly part of it) and more to do with people being encouraged to actually investigate their religion and try to take a critical look at it. Christianity has to be boiled down so much to even make it into a remotely palpable spirituality, that you might as well just go the extra step and reject it all together in favor of some kind of secular humanism if you're going to go that far.

Oh meme, your cynicism is showing.

If folks believed that their opinions held no weight, there would be no Youtube in the first place.

What really struck me about this video is that guy totally discussed issues with the Bible from a totally loving place. That's not something that happens to often.

You mean my cynicism is blooming! Tis Spring!

He does embody a true Pythagorean parental style, voluntarily reaching out to the abandoned lost children in hopes that one wont bite him. It's the right thing to do.

There are scary splinter groups of people who call themselves Christians who say they practice magick. They tend to have some really weird extra beliefs as to why it's okay for them to do it, which revolve around being chosen for some special mission.

A friend of mine, who was into the occult stuff and rather dark side, got approached by this preacher guy when he was eating at Denny's, of all places. The preacher dude just got some kind of vibe from my friend, or maybe he overhead him talking about things, but he wanted to have an actual spiritual duel with my friend, right then and there. My friend was like "Bye bye. Bye now. Okay bye. Byyyyyeee bye. Buh-bye" over and over again until they escorted the crazy preacher out of there.

Anyway, Christianity itself might not have its own form of magick, but some people will dabble anyway and convince themselves it's okay somehow.

I was just informed via the internet that there is actually a form of Christian Kabbalah which makes sense even though it is just a knock off.

This was a dumb thing for me to say because I know modern Wicca is fine with Christianity and post-revival Druidry allows Christians to practice their ways but replaces any governing pagan god with a saint or angel during the Sabbats. But that's Wicca and I don't agree with a lot of what modern Druidry orders have to offer