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However, religion is exceedingly dangerous, far more so than politics, because of its absolutism.
Would religion solve the problem? No, not completely. But it certainly would deprive despots, tyrants, fascists, and theocrats of one of their most powerful tools used to influence others to commit acts of unspeakable depravity.
Granted, I am NOT for using force or the rule of law to get rid of religion. It would only work people voluntarily gave it up - or were simply not raised to believe in the first place.
"Imagine all the people living life in peace." Hopefully one day
Hopefully more people will start using religion to do good. There are kids dying from hunger, yet there are people out there who spend so much time and energy caring about who is screwing who. It is very, very sad.
If i were doing an investigation i would certainly be focusing on where these guys got their motivation to kill.
Was it an online source,a local Islam sect or church?
I'd then take steps to shut down any source that produced these types of radicalized individuals.
I did hear an interview with a Muslim cleric yesterday and he said there were many branches of the religion of Islam and all these terrorists are coming from just one faction.
This one= http://atheism.about.com/od/islamicsects/a/wahhabi.htm
Oh right ... so you think you can balance the scales of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, etc. with a singular nutjob secularist? Really?
If you're going to counteract the effects of religious fundamentalism with an equal measure of "secularist fundamentalism," you had best work a crapton harder at it.
You probably shouldn't return so eagerly to a discussion you lost.
I don't really have to work all that hard at it, Shirina. I'd suggest you go to your local library and find a copy of Robert Conquest's standard reference The Great Terror, or read Dimitry V. Pospielovsky's A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer, vol 1: A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Anti-Religious Policies, St Martin's Press, New York (1987), or read Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, John Anderson's Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, Cambridge University Press, 1994, Daniel Peris's Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless Cornell University Press 1998, or if you can read Russian, some of the standard Soviet atheist magazines such as Antireligioznik (The Antireligious, 1926-41), Derevenskii Bezbozhnik (The Godless Peasant, 1928-1932), and Yunye Bezbozhniki (The Young Godless, 1931-1933), all of which used atheism qua atheism as an incitement to mass murder.
In other posts, you have offered that religious states always use religious texts to promote violence, but make the curious argument that as there are no "official" atheist texts, atheists cannot be held responsible. Clearly, official documents published by atheist governments are, well, atheist documents. You may not recognize their authority, but then, I don't recognize the of the Quran. As I said, millions of self-described atheists would have disagreed with you.
Last edited by Arizona Mike; 10-23-2014 at 08:46 AM..
However, religion is exceedingly dangerous, far more so than politics, because of its absolutism.
This is off topic (sorry), but another thing I really don't understand about some religious people is the whole prayer thing. I pray A LOT, I thank God all the time, but I also know that sitting around and praying is not going to solve problems. I have heard so often people say I will pray for you, instead of I will pray for you and what can I DO for you. Yes, sometimes praying is all you can do, many times though you can actually do something to help, but I guess praying is easier. Oh, and when people tell someone who is going through difficulties and praying, and prayer is not helping, then they must be praying wrong. This too I think can be dangerous, this whole leave it up to God mentality.
This is off topic (sorry), but another thing I really don't understand about some religious people is the whole prayer thing. I pray A LOT, I thank God all the time, but I also know that sitting around and praying is not going to solve problems. I have heard so often people say I will pray for you, instead of I will pray for you and what can I DO for you. Yes, sometimes praying is all you can do, many times though you can actually do something to help, but I guess praying is easier. Oh, and when people tell someone who is going through difficulties and praying, and prayer is not helping, then they must be praying wrong. This too I think can be dangerous, this whole leave it up to God mentality.
Pray as if everything depends on God.
Act as if everything depends on you.
However, religion is exceedingly dangerous, far more so than politics, because of its absolutism.
Would religion solve the problem? No, not completely. But it certainly would deprive despots, tyrants, fascists, and theocrats of one of their most powerful tools used to influence others to commit acts of unspeakable depravity.
Granted, I am NOT for using force or the rule of law to get rid of religion. It would only work people voluntarily gave it up - or were simply not raised to believe in the first place.
That is what I refer to (around here) As Responsible Parenting. Teaching my children that religion is an option, not a necessity. There is no requirement to have religion. From my point of view, the negatives outweigh the positives. And when some religious nutjob, like the one in Canada goes on a rampage, then my case is further solidified.
It is not religion per se. It is any ideology gone wild. If an ideology - religious or not - tells you to act in a way that you would consider wrong if it were not for that ideology, then that is an evil ideology.
If religion isn't the problem, then why are the vast, vast majority of fundamentalist, militant, radical, extremist groups which practice violence and terrorism always centered on a religion? And why Islam in particular?
Something to think about.
1. There are no membership requirements in Islam. It is not "Joining" in the sense of joining a Christian denomination. No Baptism, no classes, no need for anything except to state you are a Muslim
2. People that are prone to violence seem to have a tendency to try to associate them self with what they believe will support their views.
3. The world media image, of Islam, is that we are violent people and we promote violence.
4. With that all taken into account, it is logical for a violent person that wants to destroy anything related to his government, to state he is Muslim even if he has never stepped in a Mosque nor ever had as much as a single religious lesson about Islam.
Violent people are converting to Islam, not because they want to Submit to Allaah(swt), they are converting because they can do so with no effort and the media has told them Muslims will help them carry out their desires to commit violent acts.
1. There are no membership requirements in Islam. It is not "Joining" in the sense of joining a Christian denomination. No Baptism, no classes, no need for anything except to state you are a Muslim
2. People that are prone to violence seem to have a tendency to try to associate them self with what they believe will support their views.
3. The world media image, of Islam, is that we are violent people and we promote violence.
4. With that all taken into account, it is logical for a violent person that wants to destroy anything related to his government, to state he is Muslim even if he has never stepped in a Mosque nor ever had as much as a single religious lesson about Islam.
Violent people are converting to Islam, not because they want to Submit to Allaah(swt), they are converting because they can do so with no effort and the media has told them Muslims will help them carry out their desires to commit violent acts.
I agree with this. Studies/surveys have shown terrorists actually know very little about their religion. It is much easier to recruit people with little knowledge of the religion, you can tell them false information about what it is about, and they will believe you.
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