In practice it works. The fact that not so many people want to put it in practice is another issue. People can twist any belief system to suit irresponsability. That's why a big chunk of the new testament is devoted to warn people about being superficial with their faith: the seed that fell on rocky soil, the man who builds his house upon sand, the pharisees, the hypocrites, the ones who think its about fulfilling a couple of social norms and just that, the ones who think it's about condemning the evil they see in others, the ones who think its about finding whose fault it is (who sinned so that this man is blind, he or his parents?) instead of improving things for people; warnings about believing in ones present state of rightousness as sufficient and as cause to proclaim some kind of superiority above others.
Iit's not like Jesus taught something like "say you are a believer and everything will be fine" or any temporal utopia like that. So I think it's pretty fair to say that anyone who claims to be a christian and believes and acts persistently against such warnings is not a christian. Following Jesus and his teachings is the definition of being a christian. If He had said "well, I dont care what you do to kids" instead of "whoever harms one of these little ones it'd be better to tie himself to a rock and jump into a river" it would be fair to say that excluding people who persist in not taking responsability, doing evil, etc... from the "christian" category is a "No true Scotsman" fallacy. But Jesus demanded some very specific behaviors from His followers: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Mt 7:21).
Many christian leaders and movements would be far more threatened by an honest reading of scripture than from any atheist attack
On the other hand, it's pretty useful to look back in history and see all the errors made in the name of faith, to evaluate them and to take responsability so that we don't repeat them again. Not only its necessary, but in order to judge it unnecessary we christians would have to put ourselves in a "100% biblical christian category, unlike everyone else" that's far from reality and from what scripture says about our nature.
The whole premise of "war" is that "enemy" lives are worth less than "own side" lives and that it's absurd to sacrifice yours to save theirs.
And you are putting the enemy soldiers and the civilians of their nation together in the "the enemy" category. That, to many (including me) is inmoral.
real geniuses produce breakthroughs in art, science and technology
this. You nailed it. How is it that we rate someone as genius because of this degrees and IQ?? Does anyone care about Bach's IQ / degrees? Would we remember Newton if all he had were IQ and degrees?
Work is the crab grass in the lawn of life. -- Schulz