As we all know, Bin Laden is always ranting and raving that his "God" is on his side. Sadly, Bush says the same thing. :-/ Most of us Americans probably scoff when we hear Bin Laden talk about his religious beliefs and how Allah or whoever is on his side. Well are we (Americans) much better? We have Bush saying that "God" will help us. Bin Laden's followers probably scoff at Bush's religious beliefs, just as we laugh at theirs. Make no mistake, I am on Bush's side. I just think he should not be announcing this religion bunk. If he wants to be religious, personally, I have no problem with that. However, as a non-religious person, I think Bush's religious talk makes America look silly. Just one man's opinion, FRuiTY
Asked if he was afraid of being killed or captured, Saddam responded: ``Whatever Allah decides.'' ``There is no value for any life without ... faith,'' he said. ``The believers, while taking caution and care and trying to veer out and avoid any dangers and any traps ... the believer still believes that what God decides is acceptable.'' thats an excerpt from the Dan Rather interview. So much for the totally non-religious leader that would never help Bin Laden.
If you're religious, do you think Bush, Hussein, and Bin Laden were created by different Gods? If you believe they were created by the same God, then obviously someone has false beliefs. F. P.
I think it wrong and misguided to tie in such declarations of God-ness to state policy or action. It is an emotional attempt to coral people into belonging to a group (which is a basic need for a lot of people) that declares itself to be right because of the non logical contention that it believes in God and therefor has God on its side. This excludes the millions of Americans who do not believe in devine providence - the Godless Americans who have every bit of a stand on moral issues and are as intellectually 'right' as believers. Bush takes his religion into political realms because he thinks it will help him politically. If the 30 million or so non theist Americans become as recognizable to him as say some business or other large minority groups, he might back off the highly subjective insensitive packaged Judeo-Christian God truth idea and drop some of the discriminating distortions used by such tenets . Human experience can be adequately comprehended without the need to resort to imaginary cause. Bush doesn't need two father figures to confirm for him that it's 'ok to go to war', especially seeing how at least one of them is well known for offering fanciful and feebly mysterious advice.
DEPARTMENT OF FAITH MISSION STATEMENT On January 20, 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order establishing the United States Department of Faith (DOF). The DOF's mission is to infuse traditional Christian values into American politics and thereby keep in check "compassion," which, when left unmonitored, destabilizes the delicate balance envisioned by Mr. Bush's call for "compassionate conservatism." The DOF has been entrusted with overseeing disbursement of millions of taxpayer dollars to religious charities. In determining which organization(s) shall receive this Treasury money, the DOF does not discriminate against any particular religion, making funds available to both Baptist churches and other churches or organizations that recognize Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. http://www.whitehouse.org/dof/mission.asp
"Human experience can be adequately comprehended without the need to resort to imaginary cause. " Glad to see you have discovered the meaning of life by pure reason. I'd like to hear it.
fruity, i agree that a state leader shouldn't infuse national policy with personal (or even broadly societal) religious ideas. then again, when i look through the annals of history, i'm not sure that there's ever been a more effective call to arms than religion.
I don't think you have quite grasped my point. Relying upon ideated notions to guide your decisions and or justify some or all of the motives for going to war, is disdainful. It corresponds in value to Nixon saying something like all God fearing Americans know this war is right and agree with me. Trust me...I'm a Christian !? As for the "meaning of life by pure reasonâ I will be happy to oblige, but first you will need to learn to deal with the problem of misconstruing.