Well shit, let's start right there. Let me ask a question. In your mind, what kind of differences do you think there are between religions as they were expressed thousands of years ago and religions as they are expressed today? You don't really have to start with arguments at all. I'm not really looking at these things as debates, more as just a dialog. You can just share your thoughts and feelings about religious institutions, maybe share why you think you feel that way, and we can easily go from there. If it makes you feel more comfortable though, I'll be happy to start the next thread as well. You'll probably find that you and I are in agreement on quite a bit. :)I expected that we'd start with modern-day religion, which affected my response in a big way.
I don't think this will go on well because I feel like I'm lacking proper strong arguments for that on my own. Besides, I'm curious about what others might think on the matter, whether I like it or not. If you don't mind, I'd rather have you start the post with arguments that you think are strong enough, and I'll reply to those.