> The only people who have any business claiming to speak authoritatively
>> about the Bible are Biblical scholars and scholars of ancient history, i.e.,
>> people who can actually read the text in the languages in which it was
>> written and know something about the societies from which it emerged. Other
>> people should just shut up.
>>
>
> Are you kidding? If that's the case then 99.9% of the people who believe
> in and profess religious nonsense should shut the fuck up.
>
I think this exchange sums up my problems with Parenti and his ilk perfectly. They (and their supporters) bring about as much expertise to the table as the most comically stereotyped fundamentalists - and more often than not, consciously ape their intellectual approach, if anything dumbing it down - yet somehow imagine that they deserve to be taken more seriously.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."