As an Eastern Orthodox Christian who works from a paradigm far different from most Western Christianity (though Rome and Alexandria bear the same roots as we do), the idea of 'Sola Scriptura' is both weird, nonsensical and somewhat offensive. There was one Church established. We fragmented over doctrine, but have kept the sacraments holy. Perhaps atheists should consider talking more toward Catholic and Orthodox groups, both of whom can refer to the Church Fathers in a language comfortable for all angles of philosophy, rather than from these Protestants who should the "Bible alone" mantra.

Succeeding surely?

In any case you won't get a reply from Danny here. He is one of the two dozen or so atheists commentators who have been banned from this site. Some of the others are

Andre B, Andrew G, Argon, Articulett, Ben Posin, BenS, Danny Getchell, Epeeist, felixcox, Geena Safire, Gwen, Ignorant Amos, Jonathan West, josh, MichaelNewsham, Mike A, Noah Luck, M. Solange O'Brien, Paul Boillot, picklefactory, Ray Vorkin, Renard Wolfe, Rob Tisinai, stanz2reason, Stjepan Marusic, Susan, Zen Druid.

You can find many of them over at

http://outshine-the-sun.blogspot.com

Are you trying to be ironic?

"Things like 60 year marriages are not natural for humans, our chemical
make-up is not such that we can easily live and be satisfied with one
woman for our whole lives."

I'm not sure if you really believe this proposition or read this somewhere in a "scientific" study - probably the same type of materialist propaganda that states that humans are naturally amoral, that familial and romantic love are constructs, that we are just a set of selfish genes, etc. What's scary about these lies is that if you just accept them as facts, paradigms, and assumptions, they can become self-fulfilling prophecies.

That's an excellent point, Michael, regarding the Bible. I can't tell you how many sola scriptura Protestants I've come across, who extol "Bible based Christianity", and treat anything Catholic as if its demonically contaminated. Yet, they are base their entire relationship with & understanding of God based on a book compiled by the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, since the 1500's virtually as many Protestant sects have come & gone as there are ways to (mis)interpret scripture.

I respond by insisting that the existence of bad Catholics does not in itself demonstrate that Catholicism is a bad thing. A rare ally on a YouTube forum observed that the use of Einsteinian physics in the production of the nuclear weapons that killed hundreds of thousands of innocents does not amount to an argument against Einstein. As the old dictum has it, bad practice does not preclude good practice.

The Crusades were official Catholic policy, promulgated by Pope after Pope after Pope, over almost 200 years. it was church doctrine that people could be absolved of their sins by participating in these foreign massacres,

These were not the acts of a few rogue men.

Where was God if he did not step in to guide His church from the wrong beliefs that led to these malicious acts?

And your analogy with Einstein is invalid. There was no single institution that can be traced from Einstein's theory of relativity to the bombs being dropped on Japan. While in the case of the church, it has been one institution all along.