And this is hilarious: http://www.atheistempire.com/entertainment/images/imaginary_friend.gif

Faith means not wanting to know what is true. — Friedrich Nietzsche

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. — George Bernard Shaw

About the ten commandments: I didn’t say it means something else than it says. No matter how literal you read it, it just doesn’t say that slavery is ok or that a woman equals a donkey.

About addressing only the men: just remember that we’re talking about a book that is ages old and the ten commandments were written for a people that lived at that time. Of course you should take into account the circumstances and the culture of that time. You would do that when you are reading Beowulf or Pride and Prejudice too, wouldn’t you?

Bible was not a “great idea” of their authors. It wasn’t even planned. For example, the New Testament is, most of it, a set of letters written by Jesus’s disciples to the new communities, trying to resolve problems there, teaching something… they were trying to preach what they learned from Jesus. This set of letters was gathered by the Church later. Well, I think it’s coherent… I read it and then read the explanation (I am catholic), and a simple text is connected with lots of other parts. Protestant’s Bible has no explanation (they think one can interpret Bible alone, instead of the Church’s interpretation).

With your opinion about God’s communication skills, you are saying you know how God’s write/think/communicate.

@Walther: Of course its a choice. Religion is not like gravity where you are ‘forced’ by the fact of things falling down when dropped to accept its existence.
And you display in your comment one of the things that amaze me the most about the religious, an incredible willingness to look away from the wording of the bible and instead claim its obvious that it means something else than what it says. If these books are written on the behest of an omnipotent being one would think they would be more coherent, textually unambiguous, more forward looking and without stories advocating morally detestable behavior. If the Bible and the Quran are meant to be the way an omnipotent being communicates to humanity then its obvious that its omnipotence do not cover communication skills.

I don’t understand why you say the ten commandments put women at the same level as donkeys. It doesn’t say that at all. There is only one common thing between a wife and a donkey and that is that you should not covet them if they belong to someone else. And I think every christian that reads that would apply it just the same to husbands.

I don’t see any endorsement of slavery either. It’s just the way the world worked at that time. Given the way the world was, this was a good way to put it. Which is probably also the reason for addressing the men and not the women.

I don’t think McGrath seems focused on attacking Dawkins, Father John Flynn (the author of the article linked above) says some interesting things about. I would like to read your opinion about it.