What events are you including? Hitler did not kill in the name of religion, nor did Stalin. And a given religion can indeed perpetrate evil if they perpetrate intolerance and killing (which the Koran itself does). Those who have killed in the name of Christianity did so by creating their own interpreteations, or because it was convenient, but not because of the actual teachings of the book. And no, I'm not even religious. By the way, aside from the fact that the killing in the name of Christianity compared in numbers to the killing in the name of Islam can be compared, if you narrow it to more history centuries, then it is not even close (Islam has killed way more people in recent times (and this disparity is even more true in contemporary times). Moreover, there is killing and there is simple oppression. Not only does Islam oppress women and many of its own people in most Islamic countries (no, not all, just most), but it oppresses non-Muslums in those countries. Take Sudan, where the muslums kill, enslave and oppress the Christians and animasts. This is but one example! What's more
My mother finds peace in her religion. Be it true or not, what she believes and practices gives her joy, and she is a better person for it. My impression of you, is that you find lil to no joy at all in life -- perhaps you too should find religion... Religion dosen't suck -- people for the most part suck, and there is a fundamental difference between the two, applehead. Saying religion sucks is comparable to saying that money is the square root of all evil, well I got news for you bubblehead, irrationaliy is, and whats the source of yours? Kill Yourself...
cars some use it for dislocation purposes, like going to work or paying a visit to their ill grandma others get drunk and make a mess on a bus stop minutes after the ignition start prove it, you will end up stating how humans suck whats stronger ? the flesh or the steel ? Conan knows the answer. edit : and one more thing, I also share some similar views with Specul8r regarding religion. Gordon Geko, I like some of your posts, but remember, good money manager people are also good at practicing diplomacy. Making fun of religion/people beliefes are like school in summer time: no class.
Yes Rearden, I must admit to leaning towards cultural relativism for a while. I just wanted this world to get along better so much that these emotions obviously clouded my judgement. Even though we do live in a grey world, sometimes those shades can really separate into near black and whiteness. And in the case of Islam, while I do believe that certain interpretations of it can have benefits for people, I think it's a slam dunk no brainer to say that its fundamental version is cruel, oppressive, violent, intolerant and backwards. Unfortunately, since liberals have made it a personal crusade (pardon the term) to take up Islam's cause -- lol, I'm even reading feminists defending the head scarf! -- it is somewhat difficult to get the point across to peole about the reality of Islam and muslims.
Well, it takes true moral strength to admit you're wrong, and change your viewpoint. Kudos, really. I used to believe President Bush when he claimed that the risk of not attacking Iraq was greater than the risk of invading and occupying them. I admit I was probably wrong about that. Establishing a doctrine of pre-emptive attack on shaky grounds was not a good idea.
that may be true, but I also wonder if it was indeed a good idea, but performed wrongly. We will never know.
Hi Glen, Yes the Armenian genocide certainly was a gruesome event. One which, I'm afraid, not enough is known about (especially in comparison to the Holocaust). However, I don't think it's fair to ping that one on Islam and Jihad solely, although I don't doubt such thinking played a part. It was more a response to events taking place during the 1st world war, between Russia and Turkey that caused Turkey to take action. And the Turkish regime of the time wasn't really a good example of what you'd call an "Islamist" regime, as the Young Turks established much more of a secular government.
Presumably on total number of deaths caused in history (e.g. the many Crusades, the Inquisition, various religious wars in Europe, anti-Jewish pogroms, conquest of the Americas, colonisation of Africa etc). Personally I would not vote any religion as "evil", as there are many faithful practitioners of each who are not evil in any way. IMO evil is the use of force & violence to infringe the rights of others.