Yes, I agree.

I still think the Galt speech was true in that the factory made the jobs possible, not that the workers were entitled to a cut of the profits.

It's still true today, but work is becoming more creative, less systematized, and has lower barriers to entry.

I don't think it's mean literally. I think it's saying the opportunity to do work that valuable wouldn't be possible without the productive genius that made the factory possible.

It's possible to follow the Bible but none of the contemporary institutions built up around it.

I wasn't trolling for a point. I see no value in points that can be used to censor or given to someone if they sneeze because they appeal to your emotions and you want to purchase influence. I wanted to know if my work added value.

That was alot of work don't I even get a that a girl? It supports the original proposition with evidence and it puts the blame for the persecutions and deaths right where it belonged with the political powers of the time. Does it have no value?

Martin Luther questioned papal authority, 1520 and the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. via his writings on theology. Martin Luther translated the bible to German which gave many more people access to written word and allowed them to develop their own ideas. This spurred the protestant movements in England, Scotland, Germany, France, Holland Italy and Spain(under the Spanish Inquisition) John Calvin-lawyer writer theologian in the Renaissance era in France is forced to flee after an accusation of heresy by senior conservative theologians. 1536 begins the reformation with his writings on faith which were condemned as heretical. Calvin's political theory was to safeguard the rights and freedoms of ordinary people. freeing their minds. To further minimize the misuse of political power, Calvin proposed to divide it among several political institutions like the aristocracy, lower estates, or magistrates in a system of checks and balances (separation of powers). Finally, Calvin taught that if rulers rise up against God they lose their divine right and must be put down. He was making it plain and clear if rulers try to stand between you and your free choice of theology (philosophy) they must be put down. Churches influenced include: Continental Reformed, Presbyterian Congregationalist Reformed, Baptist and Anglican. 1620 . A separatist congregation with beliefs comparable to nonconforming movements (i.e., groups not in communion with the Church of England) led by Robert Browne, John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe. Unlike the Puritan group who maintained their membership in and allegiance to the Church of England, Separatists held that their differences with the Church of England were irreconcilable and that their worship should be organized independently of the trappings, traditions and organization of a central church. They left a country where they were forced to go to the Church of England by the political establishment. About this time the King James Version of the Bible was translated into English and Presbyterians arose in Scotland. One William Bradford Pilgrim writer of On Plymouth Plantation was amongst the independent minded people who went on the Mayflower. The Puritans were cast out of Massacheusetts by the separatist. Puritans preached separation of church and state and colonized Rhode Island the Quakers would soon follow. The diverse religious practices soon resulted in respecting each person’s right to practice their religion. Thomas Jefferson uses separation of church and state from the language of the founder of the Baptists Roger Williams who wrote in 1644 of " A hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world"— Jefferson wrote, "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.
This shows that religious people fought the oppressive institutions of government many times over. These free thinkers became the individualists who broke with traditions and chose how they wished to conduct their lives. They created a diverse nation of diverse philosophies that brought rejection of royal authority, the ideas of balance of power, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state to the table, it was not limited to one group, one man or one philosophy and probably laid some other early seeds that led to the age of enlightenment in western civilization.

Oh yes.

I know nothing about guns, but I keep hearing that even though the M-16 is superior to other guns in many ways, its size and complexity are a problem. It seems like the military should adopt some smaller gun for urban fighting situations.

Definitely a +1

I thought you were saying when someone from a religion you like commits a crime, you overlook it saying they're not a true member.

I see you weren't saying that.

No-true-Scotsmans is the coolest-named fallacy, though.