[OT] Benefit and belief

[MRAB]

On 29/09/2011 04:05, Ben Finney wrote:
> Devin Jeanpierre<jeanpierreda at gmail.com>  writes:
>
>>> Forget money, or even the love of money. The idea that one mustn't
>>> criticise another person's beliefs is the root of all evil.
>>
>> This was a technical discussion, and calling the bible a joke was not
>> necessary at all. It creates a hostile atmosphere.
>
> I disagree. It was not an attack on any person nor group of people. If
> we are to be required to avoid jokes not directed at people, then *that*
> is an atmosphere hostile to open friendly discussion.
>
>> Can't you pick somewhere else to attack Christianity?
>
> The person who wrote the “bible is a joke” intended it as a flippant
> remark. Countless other flippant remarks pass through here all the time,
> making jokes at the expense of some idea or other. Christianity will not
> be an exception to that.
>
> If you find someone attacking people, I'll join you in ostracising the
> attacker. But no, don't attempt to silence jokes that attack an idea.
>
> Off-topic? If we start discussing the content of the ideas being
> attacked, yeah, I'd say religion is pretty off-topic.
>
> But the topic of keeping this forum safe for technical discussion
> entails that it must be safe for *any* idea to be the butt of a joke, be
> it a religious text or the Zen of Python, and that is very much
> on-topic.
>
Even if it offends Python worshippers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asUyK6JWt9U