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You have often responded to my posts without quoting me. Don't ask others to abide by rules that don't even exist.
There is no slander and no heckling going on here. There is critiquing...as you have just critiqued me and the other poster...or have you slandered and heckled us?
Perhaps that's Muslim fundamentalism at its core, and it certainly was the belief of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and others who wanted the Middle East to return to a primitive form of Islam, get westerners out of Islamic lands, and even take modern technology out of the the Arabian Peninsula.
But I know a fair number of Muslims, mostly through the engineering industry and let me tell you, these people, while observant to varying degrees are way more interested in being successful in America, making money, and pretty much living the all-American life that so many other immigrant groups went for. They aren't keeping themselves apart, which is what most fundamentalist types of all religions do.
I don't know if I've ever told this story, but perhaps you'll find it interesting. I became close with a Muslim couple (young, mid-20s) from Pakistan. I hired the husband to work at our school in a technology related field. At the time he was engaged to the Pakistani woman. Through work and, later, playing pool together, we became quite close. And when the young man's father died he asked me to be his "American father", stressing that in Pakistan "family is everything" and "I still need a father". Eventually, after they married, they bought quite an expensive townhouse and invited me to live with them as "a family". It worked out surprisingly well, and I was treated as the 'father figure'. There ultimately was a sad ending...but that's not really part of this story.
Of course, I met quite a few of their Muslim friends, mostly Pakistanis. I was treated with extreme respect, as in, "Oh, you're [young Pakistani]' father. One evening to took me to a very large Pakistani party being held at a hotel. Perhaps 150 people...I seemed to be the only non-Muslim there. All very friendly toward me, and it went well (except for me learning that I didn't really like goat). But every young or middle-aged Pakistani man who came to the table to talk directly to me (I guess women were not allowed to talk to a male stranger...and by the way...my "sons" wife was the stereotypical Muslim wife...sad) would end up asking me the same question...more then two dozen of these men: "Don't you think 9/11 was done by the CIA?" Another thing that was interesting was that my 'son' asked me to read the Koran, and I said I would if he would read a book of Buddhist scriptures. I kept my promise (at least halfway through), but quit when he made no effort to keep his side of the deal. He has returned to Pakistan and HATES living in his own country. HATES it.
I see your point about the utility of labels, even if they are reductive. Is monism a label? That is what I have seen Hinduism “labeled” in some places and figured you would understand that as different from pantheism which it is not because there is an important distinction.
Are we now switching topic to discussing labels?
This is so off topic of this thread, US as a Christian nation. You are welcome to start a new thread on the distinction between the two and i will contribute what i can.
This is so off topic of this thread, US as a Christian nation. You are welcome to start a new thread on the distinction between the two and i will contribute what i can.
It takes less effort to pithily point out the supposed distinction than to respond with the above. I'm an atheist; I don't believe in any of this stuff. I'm not going to go to the trouble to start a new thread on a topic I ultimately don't really take seriously. But, I was a philosophy major in college! I like hearing other people's ideas. Going off topic from an original topic is inevitable in a discussion of any merit or substance. All other posters are free to remain on topic. All you have to do is summarize the distinction in a sentence or two and regularly scheduled programming may resume
There goes her user title, eh? '_________ have all the answers'. Gotta keep it label-free
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