Quoted from a recent Facebook comment of mine:
I've always wondered why Lord Xenu and Jehovah chose Scientologists and/or Jehovah's Witnesses, of all people, to be his sole representatives and apologists and best-beloved elder children upon this earth. Seems a bit of an odd choice! All these omniscient, all-knowing people with no common sense! And as for omnipotence, the membership demographics suggest Xenu & Jehovah couldn't create a punch-up in Glasgow on Old Firm derby day!
I now add:
The thinskinned deities of abusive and sectarian religious organisations are truly mediocre; is this what drives them to punch down upon people who are even weaker and more lacking in wisdom?
If Jehovah doesn't want your kids to have blood transfusions, it's not because of his inscrutable wisdom. It's because he is PURE EVIL, no matter how un-PC the words 'good and evil' may be nowadays. There are plenty of grey areas in religion: if you believe it's possible to fly on a magic horse or part the Red Sea, that's no problem from my perspective. But if you believe in ideas that, by contrast, are inherently abusive (e.g. a woman's place is in the home, or gay people are Sodomites/Ad & Thamudites/Anti-Dharmic Reprobates, then that is everyone's business. If you believe in miracles of one kind or another, I have nothing to say for or against that, it's your business. But using miraculous or magical thought to abuse other people? That's quite clearly another matter.
In other words:
Magic and miracles?
Mehhhhhhh. Each to their own.
Magic and miracles in the name of abusing and torturing innocent people?
Not cool. Just get a grip, would ya!
A classic example of how not to debate this distinction (two thumbs down, one for each debater!):
And the whole debate between Dawkins and Hasan in context:
