Col. Homestar wrote:I think the problem WD is that it really was too general a question to ask with a very narrow answer to give. In Craters case (and he can correct me if I'm wrong) you have someone who doesn't believe in God and therefore would prefer neither. In my case I could and would answer Christian because that is what I am, but seeing as there is numerous different religions that claim to be Christian you can't fault me for wanting to be specific.
In my beliefs, Christianity has no place involving itself in government affairs. Jesus stated that he and his followers were no part of the world, he did not promote discrimination because people believed differently he said to love your neighbor as yourself and that included those persecuting you. Yet there are other Christian faiths that have clergy who give "Gods backing" to their specific nations going to war. There are forms of Christianity who claim that people who don't believe the same thing will go to "hell" which is also nothing Jesus ever taught.
I know this is a big divergence from the topic but its already been diverted so oh well.
Pi you need to remember that when people start objecting to your comments it's not because they are out of arguments, it means they truly take exception to what you said and that should make you stop and think. Don't respond to the racism aspect by claiming yet again "oh it's bleeding liberals" or whatever it is you think we are, and look at your comments the way we see them. In essence you have stated that people of that faith have nothing to offer to society but oil, you label them a threat because of what they believe even though for the most part the terrorists are radicals, and its wishful thinking on your part that we would just be rid of them all. Now how does that sound? You can look at someone from the Arab countries and they would say almost the same thing about westerners. Start looking at the world from someone else's POV other then your own.
That isn't really true...I didn't say that individual Arabs don't have anything to offer—but at the moment, as a collective society, i don't really think that they do. Again: not to say that Arabs should be dismissed as useless, but I think that WD summed it up pretty well—the only 2 options are ultimately gonna be an all Arab world or all Christian world...Islam can't allow Christianity to exist; it's not in its nature...
EDIT: @Wulfie—while it is true that Christian and Jewish texts establish more "rights" for men—neither religion establishes them as inferior nor denies them basic human rights as does the Koran...would you like for me to cite some lines from the Koran indicating this?
EDIT: @Hstar
Actually, what you said is really the crux of the thing...what we differ on is the following: is the Islamic religion inherently violent and savage, or is it really peaceful with just a few people exploiting it for political reasons? I think the former, you think the latter...everything else we disagree (i.e. Arab contributions, etc.) on is really just a branch of that main point.
All this other stuff of prejudice and being offensive and la la la la...is really kinda irrelevant—the only important argument is the one I just mentioned.
But since you did take exception to my attitude toward Arab contributions and such, I will recant in favor of holding only that Islam is inherently violent and savage—not peaceful.
"Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank."~Karl Friedrich Gauss