Originally posted by artvandalay
reply to post by Pjotr
very condescending....
please bring some substantial elements to your post, all i see is demagogy here.
Maybe it was a bit condescending. But I was caught by surprise by this thread, as it goes sometimes. But you are right, I owe you one.
The point is mainly that we are caught by all kinds of "facts".
I will start with where I come from.
1. I am non-religious. I think most religion is a vehicle for unscientific feelings that can be used and will be used by leaders to get what they
want. That is what history shows imo. Religious wars are contest between the imaginary friends of groups of people.
2. So I am no fan of Islam or Christianity. If you compare the books they are both pretty violent. In Holland there is a website that compares Bible
with the Koran and when you type in stoning, the Bible gives 24 quotes and the Koran 5. It does not say much, but it gives a notion of the shared
history. I think that in its way and rules The Islam in certain parts of the world is still an infant. Violence for not following rules is abhorent
and looks primitive to us. We institutionalized most violence and therefor think we are more civilized. But we still kill and murder.
3. There is indeed a number of Muslims that spread around the world for economic reasons. But for instance in my country (Holland) they are a minority
with 800.000 to the 16 million people living here. A portion (half) thinks of themselves as islamic in a broad sense, the other half does not believe
in Allah. Then there is a small group of orthodox believers and there were a bunch of idiots that would call themsleves Jihadist for a while. The
murdered a filmmaker here (Theo van Gogh) and that guy is behind bars and the followers scattered and under eye of our Intelligence.
Polls and civil records show that the second and thrid generation of these Islamic Turks and Marrocans like to live like westerners. That is in luxury
and with 1,2 kids (now still 2,5 kids) and no prevalent role of religion.
Once in a while you hear the stories of stupid members of this society that take right in their own (religious) hands, but that will happen.
We had extremist reformed christians here for centuries that would not give thier babies shots against the sickness Polio, so they had kids with
screwed limbs when the disease was around. They thought this was an act of God. Is that cruelty or not?
My main point is:
As long as society provides welfare and shows that is this better to live like we do, people will adjust to, adopt it. When we panic and act fearfull
and economic depression sets us up against each other thing might go wrong.
Just stay sober and take care of business. Don't go blaming other "groups " of people. That's what creates wars. That is what leaders use to rally
you up and takes your focus away from the real stuff that is going on.
When you read this thead you notice that there is not much focus on rea facts and real people (like neigbours) but more on stories you hear on Fox and
things going on soemwhere else. It is diffecult to build a sane image on that. Besides that it breaths FEAR and EMOTIONS. Then people shout "we need
live executions". You see what happens. People are back in the Middel Ages and into their reptilian braincore.
When do people learn that emotions (reptilian braincore) suck big time. They are not worth anything. They are the big veil of untruth, and religion
loves them.
[edit on 10-7-2008 by Pjotr]