Religious extremism.

Post Reply New Topic

But choose to not join, and you are ostracised as a heretic, a blasphemer, an infidel, or whatever label of demonisation the believers choose to place upon you. Also, religions tend to segregate people by gender, placing males in leadership and females in servitude.

On top of that, there are cliques within cliques. This is typified by Pentacostal Christians who claim that you are not a 'True' Christian unless you can 'Speak in Tongues'. Failing to do so places you in a sort of 'wannabe' status, much like those kids in high school who hung around the fringes of the various 'in crowds', hoping to be noticed and elevated.


The two are not interdependent. Groups can just as easily assemble to study Kepler's Laws, Newton's Laws, and the Laws of Thermodynamics, or to cheer on their favourite rugby team. No sky-fairies need be invoked where two or more people are gathered together.


... thus revealing the deeper Truth within (Quantum Mechanics). Once religious laws break down, there is nothing left to redeem them, save for a few half-forgotten myths and mis-recorded legends.


Even the Golden Rules breaks down if you begins treating others as they have treated you. By this, I mean that if you were to kick me, then I would be justified by the Golden Rule to kick you back because it is safe to assume that you treated me as you would want to be treated.


Religion is a crock of dung, because it is the socio-political expression of the fears and desires of its own leaders, who then twist and distort the meanings of their "holy scriptures" into justifying their hedonistic actions.


Then you have a choice to make:

Treat the critics with indifference, which serves to reinforce the belief that Religionists are a bunch of stuck-up, uncaring, unfeeling politicians surrounded with holy symbols, relics, and documents.

Treat the critics with hostility, which justifies further hostility from the critics as they point out your failure to spread the love and joy of your particular gospel.

Treat the critics as your messiah treated His, even unto death. This will show your critics that while they can push you around and persecute you all they want, you will do nothing to defend yourself; thus also showing that anyone who believes as you do is weak and defensless, and does not have enough sense to care for his or her own well-being.

While faith in and of itself is essentially harmless, it is acting on that faith (e.g. "Religion") that leads to harm.

I don't have a hatred of non-religious people. Where did you get that idea?

Sorry z0rp but this comment does show a lack of understanding as to the causes of the present conflicts going on today. I think if you are looking for causes you could start with the dispossession of the Palestinians, the squabble over and subsequent invasion of Afganistan between the USA and the USSR in the late 70's. The list of western aggression and interference towards islamic people is fairly extensive,. Afganistan was the best country to visit on the overland trip from Europe to India in the early 1970's now we have turned it into a basket case. It takes a lot of built up hate and resentment to strap a bomb to your body and blow yourself up, 70 virgins in heaven just does not cut it for me.

I am not saying that we have been deliberately attacking them for their religion but unfortunately their countries tend to have very strategic advantages to western powers. Also I am not condoning the actions of extremists, I simply want to understand the problem from both sides as this is the only way to stop the bloodshed.

Oh and just another thought, there were no islamic crusades to free London from the grip of christianity. We have been causing trouble in this area for a very long time.

Which would include Atheism.

Italy's Red Brigade.
Pol Pot
The Cultural Revolution

You assume atheism because I do not believe in god? Fool.
Those wounded dog knee jerk Christian reactions to arguments against any religion are getting annoying.

Read. A. Modern. Scientific. Book! Please!!

If you do not believe in God, how can I call you anything else but atheist? Is there something you'd rather be called?

I'm actually going to have to side with slowmutant on this one, the definition of Atheism is a disbelief of a god or higher power. Unless you mean you disbelieve in slowmutant's god but believe in other gods you are an Atheist.

I don't much care for modern day atheism, wherein many now blindly follow for the same reasons as those who follow a god, nor do I much care for the name.
Why should there be a question of those who would not believe?
My philosophies are self actualization - religions, those who put their will into the hands of others or deny that responsibility make me uneasy.
Whilst much of my views are similar to atheists; I am not affiliated with atheist groups. I came to those realisations myself. It can be said by my way I am god. It is a complex perspective that totalitarian views overlook.
As a rule, I don't teach others my way. That would be hypocrisy.

No, I don't mean "I am god", as in "I created everything and have supernatural powers".
People mistake me for athesit because I know there is no god/are no gods that made the universe. I think, I have a will. Therefore I have power, responsibility for myself.

Admittedly, in some instances, I am to blame for being labelled atheist. It's as convenient an excuse as "brain damage" for some AS traits. Very few understand the nature and complexity of this process.

Not where I go. If you want to leave, we're like "yeah ok, whatever". My church takes the position that no human group (including any religious group) has the power to declare anyone a "heretic" or those other terms.


And pentacostals (JW's, some mormons, Fred Phelps's church, and extremists among the roman catholics too) annoy me more than most other groups. They interpret themselves to be greater than they are. For more information, look up "delusions of grandeur".


The point I was making there is that either it should all be free, or none of it should. Religions (and really, any organization regardless of whether they are religious or not) should have the freedom to practice whatever rituals they engage in, so long as they don't physically infringe on other organizations or individuals without consent (I cite Fred Phelps's anti-homosexual rallies), and as long as they comply with whatever other laws are currently in place (i.e. don't go around lynching people like the KKK).


And Quantum mechanics asks more questions of its own than it answers from Newtonian and Einsteinian physics. I get the feeling that if M-theory is confirmed, it will pose more questions than it answers of Quantum mechanics. I also get the feeling that if the Higgs Boson is discovered, it will also raise more questions among scientists than it answers. That is the nature of scientific discovery. While I applaud scientists in all the work they've done in helping humanity understand the nature of the universe, I also know that logic alone cannot explain everything, as much as I wish it did.


Which is where "turn the other cheek" kicks in. Combined, those two rules are designed to prevent escalation of interpersonal conflicts, which can do alot of damage in the long-term. Many of the "falsehoods" that are present in scriptural texts such as the Golden Rule, "turn the other cheek", "love thy neighbor", and even "love thy enemy", are there for that very reason.


And if you were talking only about extremist groups (like some I've mentioned earlier), I would agree with you. Any religion tends to be twisted alot by individuals who, frankly, aren't religious (but pass themselves off to be). That has sparked many conflicts in the past. Martin Luther led the Protestant Reformation precisely because he saw the Roman Catholic Church as being such a socio-political expression, and its leaders being excessively hedonistic.


You forgot the fourth option: engage the critics in reasoned debate, as I have done (or at least attempted to do). Many people on both sides of the religious argument, unfortunately, overlook this option.