Certainly NOT modern....Predated Christ by 500 years.

And somehow, I don't think they'd put up with http://sundayassembly.com/assemblies/ very long

GOOD- glad somebody got that.

That's why I inserted the word "modern". Should have been "postmodern", I suppose, but one can quibble the point.

http://www.kidswithoutgod.com/

http://www.atheist-community.org/library/articles/read.php?id=700

Is that why the bloody angel, an idol created by cleaving one's victim from neck to pelvis and spreading the ribs wide as a warning was common in pre-Christian northern Europe?

I think your scholars are deluded.

I was thinking more about the "Good without God" movement- definitively and explicitly atheist, yet still somehow affected by "Good" that just happens to coincide with the good of Christianity.

Your one true atheist would be rather unwelcome in such circles, having never worked at a soup kitchen.

I remain unconvinced, either way, that the tale of Saint Isa is true or false. But if true- and there's plenty of room in the Bible for it to be true, 30 years is a long time in a young man's life, and travel to India was certainly possible from Galilee in those days- then yes, it is quite possible that Buddhism infected Christianity with certain ideas.

But I'm not sure what Buddhism has to do with modern Atheism, which would deny the Buddha as being yet another bronze age magician.

I was thinking more about "Good without God", "The Freedom From Religion Foundation" and most obviously, "Sunday Fellowship", all of which are atheistic organizations trying to do good by a Christian definition of Good.

"that views others as equal to yourself in all ways. "

Exactly. That was the novelty of Christianity 2000 years ago- the concept that all are equal in sin and dignity.

Well, that and free food. I think the free food, before the liturgy was locked down, was more the reason for conversion in a time that didn't have any such thing.

Well, for that matter, modern atheism is hopelessly Christian- it comes from a post-Christian world in which certain values that would never be recognized by pre-Christian pagans as true, are taken as truth.

Or at least that's the only explanation I can see for a non-violent atheism.

So when do you ride down Electric Avenue on that Harley?

I was going to respond only to your first paragraph, but your last paragraph proves what I'm about to say.

Abstinence education can work, when you encourage critical thinking along with it and do not try to use ignorance to protect innocence. I took what I learned after I was married in Catholic NFP classes, and am using it to teach my special needs son about sex. Being well aware that his body will outpace his mind and critical thinking skills on this issue, I started early with my form of abstinence education- about age 5. Now at 11, he is both protective of his own eyes (hiding during certain scenes in Big Bang Theory, a show he otherwise enjoys) and protective of other people's modesty (necessary, since mommy runs a daycare) . He's already run into homosexuality at school, and handled it by coming to adults with the issue rather than attempting to dissuade a rather aggressive same-age predator on his own.

I have no doubt whatsoever that by high school, he'll be a leader, not a follower, when it comes to sex, and will be armed with the ability to make the correct decision when it comes to abstinence before marriage.

But only because we've talked about it, and because I've been honest.

How much math does it take to use a slingshot?

Yeah, can't figure out how a gender studies major ever gets anything other than the type of job gender studies are supposed to eliminate.