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Saying it was "more influencial in the East" is a bit of an understatement. Iconoclasm in the Eastern Empire radically effected the course of history, whereas any iconoclasm in the West was, at most, a footnote in a history book.

I won't hate them, but I will kill them. It's just a necessary thing, sometimes. I don't hate the cow when I eat a steak. I don't hate my dog when he's just too old and I have to put him down. It's just a necessary thing...I have to eat, I want to ease his suffering, and if someone is trying...

A lot of points have been made here, so I'll just say this. If being willing to defend myself an my family by any means necessary, up to and including killing, means that God is going to be mad at me...well, I'm willing to take that chance. If I am to spend an eternity in hell, I can think of...

Are you serious? If I'm gone, what happens to my wife and daughter? Or should I just hope that whoever offed me will arrange for them to meet me in Heaven?

That may be true, but I don't know anything about it. Everything I have read about the big iconoclasm movement was from the Eastern Empire in the 800-900's or so.

Iconoclasm was pretty much peculiar to the Greek Orthodox Church, at least in its most extreme. Ok, that's not entirely accurate, as the big split had not yet occured, but you know what I mean. It stemmed not so much from scripture as from long held Oriental though. Remember that Islam can be...

This would explain why wannabe martyrs were lining up to be killed by Roman authorities and the Roman authorities were like "uh...what the heck?"

I don't think it clearly indicates anything of the sort. Receiving a slap on the cheek is a far cry from being in mortal danger. What it literally says, since you brought it up, is that if someone slaps you, do not retaliate. How does this literally lead to not defending yourself against...

Basically asking the spirits/demons/the dead/whatever to give you the power to read minds/tell the future/make the rabbit appear in your hat/whatever.

As I said, there are other issues that are having real impacts on culture that we can see every day. When thousands of real babies are murdered every year, I just can't see spending any time and energy on something so petty as a fictional character. If you don't like Harry Potter, or whatever...

Interesting read. Sorry, I just can't get excited about a fictional character. I also didn't get bent out of shape over the DaVinci Code and I watched the Smurfs growing up. Perhaps it's a bit of Papa Smurf influencing me when I hit the snooze button one too many times on Sunday and don't...

I hadn't heard that the Pope came out against Harry Potter. Yes, if it has become necessary for the Church to make an official policy statement over a fictional character, I think that's a bit silly.

Well, since there's no such thing as "real" magic, I think we're all safe doing card tricks and pulling rabbits out of hats. Seriously, just relax and try not to find the devil in everything.

Good Lord, not ouiji boards again. Please, find something else to occupy yourself with...such as pointing out how Harry Potter and Pokemon are tools of the devil.

Are you willing to give up the interest earned on your CDs, money market accounts, and savings accounts?

Perhaps these guys coming back to life was more in a metaphorical sense. As in, they were with the program (alive), then kinda left the program (dead), then brought back on board (alive again).

Well, I think the Church has come out and said that she wasn't really a prostitute like they originally claimed. I don't think there has been any official word on what she was, though.

So he made us, knowing we would be sinful, so that he can show us his love by forgiving us? Why not just forgive Adam and Eve in the first place? Or change the rules from the beginning so that they were more in accordance with the human nature that he gave us?

That is certainly a problem, isn't it? If two people read the same novel and take different meanings away from it, it doesn't really matter, does it? If two people see the same movie, but each of them has a different idea of what the central message was, it doesn't really matter that much...

"Right" and "wrong" are often very subjective. I do believe there are some hard truths about some things that are right and wrong, but very few. Even things like killing, stealing, etc, can be legally or morally excused under certain circumstances. Polygamy has been mentioned here...is this...