Comments by "Jack Haveman" (@JackHaveman52) on "Secular Talk" channel.

That stuff was written a couple of thousand years ago. You'd be hard pressed to find a Christian that follows those parts of the Bible today. ISIS is a problem today....right now, and it's a huge problem.
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Churchof thepainfultruth The Christian God can't be evil. He doesn't exist. This isn't some kind of contest...who's got the best kill numbers. If Christians killed in the name of their religion, I'd say that's evil. I don't really know of any atheists that killed in the name of atheism. I know that Stalin was an atheist, but he didn't kill in support of his atheist cause. He killed to maintain power and control. I think you'll find most self proclaimed atheist dictators are the same. They kill for their own self interest. Atheism is just their lack of belief in a God.
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He didn't say that conversion therapy is good or even works. In fact, in his experience, he's never seen it work. What he said was that it shouldn't be illegal and that it should be between a patient and his therapist. That's a lot different than saying that it works or is even necessary. I think that smoking pot is bad for you. I also think that it should be legal. He thinks that conversion therapy should be between the therapist and his patient, if after deep discussion that where the therapy leads to. Also, you're conflating transgender affirmation therapy with gay conversion therapy...two different things. He stated flat out that affirmation therapy is WRONG. You even agreed with him. He stated it in such a way that he made it quite clear that it wasn't a therapist's job to affirm anything and if conversion therapy is eventually desired, it should be after in depth therapy. That would include transgender conversion. You're fine with one but not the other and that doesn't make any sense.
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It's not about Christianity. He talks about how religion has been a part of human development in every culture, throughout history and how the myths surrounding their respective religions have similar themes. He spends more time talking about Christianity because that was how he was raised and what he knows the most about. He's a teacher, a university professor and a lot of what you see are parts of university lectures that he's giving in his class. He teaches about the psychology of belief systems, and focuses on religion but he does speak a lot about political ideologies, as well. He leans towards the idea that religious beliefs are part of the evolution of humanity and the method that ancient peoples used to understand a morality that applies to all of us. He has said numerous times that all these old religious myths, all of them, not just Christianity, were metaphors for how we perceive the over arching truth of our existence. It's rather childish to concentrate on Christianity and pretend that it's about some sort of validation of a religion you don't happen to like. That's not true and it's no more than an emotional, knee jerk reaction.
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This sounds like a totally dysfunctional family. The person going to her daughter's house should also respect the choices and lifestyles of those that will be there and not insist that everyone should go along with their own beliefs. Like it or not, part of the argument is the continuous return to the Christian values that others may not share. The rest of the family is no better. A rational and reasonable person does not verbally mock and abuse those who hold different beliefs than they do. They accept that those differences exist and move on, respecting the others they share the room with. Also, these are the grandparents. Show them respect for who they are and gently explain how your beliefs differ and that you don't want those differences to be a problem in their relationship. This works just fine in my family. My family is large and if runs the gamut from the most pious Christian to the drinkers and pot smokers. Yet, in 60 years, our get togethers at Christmas are an enjoyable occasion with no fighting or bickering. If it's happening to this family in this video, it's the fault of those involved.....all of them. Each of them should be pointing fingers at themselves because they're all to blame to some extent. Pat Robertson is a knob. I hate being so blunt but that's the way it is.
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