What is the most disliked religion in the Western World

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I don't see why that has any relevance to Tequila's post. I'm not a huge fan of Catholicism either.

Is that the only mark of a terrorist, ruveyn? I think we can spread the net to cover a broader range of violent activities than that.

Britons might well remark on the lengthy campaign of violence and terror launched by a group of dedicated Catholics known as the IRA.

The British might also remark on a campaign of violence and terror launched by a group of dedicated Jews known as Irgun.

The Sinhalese might remark on a campaign of violence and terror launched by a group of dedicated Hindus, the LTTE.

The Indians might remark on the assassination of their Prime Minister and the total loss of an aircraft over the Irish sea, both perpetrated by groups of dedicated Sikhs.

No religion has the intellectual property rights to terrorism.

It was their Irish identity, not the accidental fact that pro Irish independent folks were mostly (but not all) Catholic. Being Catholic, per se, is not the motivation of the IRA. It is Irish independence.

The Islamic enthusiasts who attacked in Britain did not hijack planes. They blew up bombs in the underground. Similar attacks occurred in Spain. You will notice that the Basque separatists are far more careful of who and how they attack than Wahabi Muslim Fanatics. That is because the Basques are politically motivated and the Wahabis are doing their wickedness for the Glory of God.

ruveyn

Not for the Glory of God, not at all. *Allah* is who they are seeking to "glorify" while they go about seeking "martyrdom".

A Muslim will insist that Allah is God.

ruveyn

I'm sure they will.

'Allah' is the Arabic word for 'God'.

So saying 'They aren't talking about God, they're talking about God.' is pretty silly.

Yeah, fine it's the word for "god". However, words have no meaning outside of what they refer to. There is bread in my kitchen and there is bread at the grocery store, but even though it is the same word it does not refer to the same bread.

For me it must be Jehovahs Witnesses - knocking on the door of my refuge looking to force social interaction.

Well if you believe that there is exactly one God, and that he created the universe (which is one thing that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all agree on), then that kind of narrows it down, don't you think? You can't say 'they mean this other god over there', since you are both agreed that there is only one God. There isn't 'another one over there'.

Your bread analogy would make perfect sense, if you or the Muslims or both were polytheists.

Allah is the same jewish god, and the same nontrinitarian christians's god, given that Allah is a purely monotheistic deity. Now, with your argument, Allah IS God, no matter how they differ in their theology, given that their theology has relation with Judaism and Christianity. With the inquisition in the middles ages and the crusades, they had the same god as modern christians have today, they just thought differently regarding what that god desires and demmands and how he wants that, and how benevolent or less benelovent is.

Last edited by greenblue on 25 Aug 2010, 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No analogy is perfect. However, one does not always equal one. A unit of measurement is necessary to determine how close "one" unit is to another unit. If you are going to argue that all monotheistic religions worship the same God, then you might as well argue that all Polytheistic religions worship the same set of gods. Another thing, in America there is a game called Football, which there is in Europe also. However, these two games of "Football" are not the same at all. They have different rules and different characteristics to the point of not being the same game. However, Australian Rugby is close enough to American Football to be called "nearly the same", but such is not the case being Australian Rugby and European Football.

Well, these are character traits which show forth identity, that is actually what sets God and Allah apart.

Fundamentalist Christianity.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity, are all abrahamic religions, which means they have the same root, thus, they worship the same God, but differently, although, when it comes to the Trinity, in Christianity, that can be argued to be an exception, given the issue of the Trinity not being considered compatible with monotheism, from nontrinitarians, jewish and muslims perspective. In any case, I can safetly say as I stated above, that Allah, Yavhe and the nontrinitarian christian god is the same entity.


The god of Islam, Judaism and Christianity share the same basic characteristics, unlike Football, that you mentioned, that are recognized as two different sports.

Obama is the same person, wether some people think he is a great guy, and others think he is a communist, others think he is a muslim, others think he is the antichrist, others think different things, but they all refer to the same person, you can commit a crime in his name or you can worship him if you like, nevertheless, the same person.

You could argue, the person in their minds is different than the real one, but the issue is that that is usually a metaphor relating to social and psychological aspects, and the issue is that, taking it literally, that makes any individual refers to another individual as a different person rather than the original, each time, and most likely, resulting in no one being able to identify the exact original person, rather a "copy" which is different, in such case.

So the issue is that it doesn't make much sense, that entities have to split themselves into different entities because of different perspectives. Given that the entity in question, shares basic characteristics in all those perspectives.


The problem with this, is that you have to split God into different gods for each christian denomination, as well as in the history of Christianity, as we would have to pressume under your idea, that Christianity in the past worshipped a different god than today's Christianity, and even, this being the case to an individual level.

If person A said that iamnotaparakeet is a human being who posts on the internet, and person B said that iamnotaparakeet is really an 8 foot tall fire-breathing parakeet from outer space who posts on the internet, both person A and person B are referring to the same iamnotaparakeet. Person B just happens to be wrong about the nature of iamnotaparakeet.

What is called Football in Europe is called Soccer in America.
What is called God in English is called Allah in Arabic.