I love religion

[sherminator]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/81 96013.stm

One day I hope people of faith look at themselves in the mirror, and I mean a really long look and realise just how pitiful they really are!

Don't bother coming at it from the "oh I'm a good Christian/Muslim I would never do that!"

You harbour terrorism and fanatacism within your ranks and I will never ever look at a person of faith with anything other than contempt and pity.

[jake-the-peg]

But this is just tribal mob violence - it just happens to have latched onto a religious pretext.

It could just as easilly been racial

A conveniant label to pick out and attack someone different from themselves.


Look at the cases where religious communities turn in on their own and bully and abuse their own to make them conform to their particular rules

Again nothing to do with religion really just a tribal power struggle - look at what Stalin did in an atheist state.

The true damage that religion does is much more insidious - it undermines reason and replaces it with superstition and comforting ritual, it holds people back it is the safety blanket of the insecure

[Ankou]

well if it wasnt that it would be race or tribe related. betaing up your neighbours is the way of the world sadly.

[Ankou]

cor, your answer werent there when i posted jakethe peg

[beso]

Stalinism is a religion. Racism is a religion.

Religion is about maintaining faith regardless of contrary facts. It is a belief in a "higher" truth that does not need proof.

It is raw bigottry. It is arrogance. And yes, it is disgusting.

[sherminator]

Racial and tribal motivations can at least be debated and people can be shown the error of their ways. You can try and reason with people who are racist.

this happened because "My god is better than your god"

If it was because one tribe was getting prefferential treatment from the government or whatever then you could almst see why they would attack another tribe. This however is utter madness!

[Ankou]

well any random attack is. just because they have put the religious spin on it, dont make it madder still. duzit.

[jake-the-peg]

Well beso it sounds to me asi if you're stretching the definition of a religion a bit further than I would be happy with.

The real scary thing is how easy it can be to demonise a group of people and wind up a mob.

In the middle ages it was widely put about that Jews performed human sacrifices on Christian Babies.

British Propaganda against the Germans in WWI had troops bayonetting womena and children and in WWII we told Tunisians we had found dead children in butchers shops.

We had McCarthyism in the US after the war

Now it's muslims or Assylum seekers who the press stick horns on and hold up to the pantomime audience.

Who do you think it will be tomorrow?

Athiests perhaps?

[Ankou]

no way!! never a more godly person i have met is an atheist.

[Verix]

Unfortunatly this is not religion that has caused this, it is quite simply human nature. It's a rather simplistic way of looking on things if you simply see religion as evil.

Milgram managed to convince numerous people to deliver lethal shocks of electricity to strangers just by wearing a lab coat and asking nicely. Imagine what can be done with some convincing rhetoric and an unhappy society.

[Ankou]

�I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.�

[naomi24]

The effect religion has on the mind of the believer is being grossly under-estimated here. This is not just mob violence, and there is no �pretext� where the perpetrators of this horror are concerned. Sherman is right. Racial, tribal, or even political, motivation can be debated, but there can be no debate with religious fanaticism because there is no room for reason.

[Ankou]

as verix pointed out, this can happen in many areas of life such as the example provided. people can be driven by a convincing lie whether it be political, tribal, religion or racial. all without rhyme or reason, just a rumour that someone else has wee'd on your bonfire, that spreads and spreads and leads to violent action.

[naomi24]

Yes, and all those things are open to debate - except religious belief, which to the fanatic is unshakeable.

[Ankou]

so you saying that you dont get fanatics in other areas that are immune to debate and reason ?

surely not.

[sherminator]

Yes but the whole system with religion is wrong!!!!

If this was racially motivated the whole world would jump on them as being evil! but because their Muslim they instantly have support of something like 1 billion people!
instead we give religion extra protection we actually seek to uphold peoples rights to let this happen! maybe not directly but the entire system of belief is completely unchallengeable!

part of the solution In my view should be to make it illegal to indctrine children and they should be given the right to decide when they are old enough to make an informed choice!

[naomi24]

I think Sherman�s just answered your question, Ankou.

[Ankou]

yes it told me all i wanted to know.
about shermanators utopia.

[naomi24]

Well that's sorted that then. Jolly good.

[Ankou]

i suppose it is if you just assume that that two thirds of the worlds 1.5 billion muslims actually support this attack and then fail to acknowledge that at least 2 billion of the worlds christians would likely call it evil, along with all theother non muslims and non religious in the world.

[naomi24]

Mmm.. probably.