Religion of peace.
Religion is not peaceful in any way.
200 people died today.
I am ashamed of our species...I truly fear for humanity.
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Sri Lanka has Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians all living together on one island. It's like a pressure cooker full of peace, love, and harmony.
I suspect that when people hear the words "Allah Akbar", rather than thinking "God is great", they think "Oh shit, another religious fanatic is going to blow us all up."
Islam, THE RELIGION OF PEACE, and my favorite all time video clip. Muslims do not have radical views!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUI_ij5mbTA
Pretty good evidence that islam is poison to humanity.
@ doG
Kind of reminds me of this I had posted elsewhere here and saved.
rmfr
Agreed...why people are oblivious to this, is mind numbing...it's shocking. Wake up people...wake up.
@doG
Agreed. Even when people bring up the semi valid point that the actions of the few do not represent the whole, the masses of people that follow some sort of islam while they may indeed never act in these horrible ways, they sit and do nothing. These people should be ashamed. Their number one goal if they want to be seen as a religion of peace is rooting out and stopping the "extremist" within their religion, or they are in their own way supporting this violence.
If they follow the word of their god, or mohammed or whomever wrote down that crap...then all followers are extremist. The supposed word of god, says to kill non-believers. That makes islam a religion of violence and murder. There is no separation of gods word, so there is no separation of followers...they are all followers of what god says, therefore all murderers.
@Cognostic: Islam, THE RELIGION OF PEACE, and my favorite all time video clip.
That's an interesting video. But in the climate of fear maintained by Islamic leaders and militants, how easy is it for "ordinary Muslims" to speak up? It reminds me of the arguments about how much Germans knew about Nazi policies and actions, and whether or not they supported them. As in the Germany of the early 1940s,in the Islamic world of today speaking up can get you cut up, shot up, burned up, blown up, or locked up. If Islam had a single bogeyman like Adolf Hitler, the whole thing would collapse after his death, like Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany. Unfortunately Islam is a many-headed monster. It seems like the only people who can tame it are themselves monsters, like Saddam and Gaddafi.
@Algebe - Point taken, There must be someone intelligent in that audience, At the same time, were you to blaspheme the name of Allah or insult Muhammad in the midst of that mob, ......
It's a pretty idiotic thing to do considering the whole world knows where 300,000 Muslims are going to be during Ramadan. How long will the world continue to allow Islamic terrorism before there is a significant blow-back?
I'd imagine that those Muslims who conduct such atrocities would like nothing more than reciprocity against the wider Muslim world, they regard such a conflict as both inevitable and welcome.The full weight of blame can be pointed at the people who perpetrated these appalling acts of violence, and to any that colluded in them, and they can be sent post haste to see their deity personally as far I am concerned, but it would be giving such people exactly what they desire, if any attack on the wider Muslim world were the result. Like that christian moron in NZ, who murdered all those people, even children. I hope his stay in prison is as close to a living hell as the prison authorities can manage.
@Sheldon: While I am in Complete agreement with your sentiments, the Muslim population has a unique problem. 30% of the Islamic population in the world are extremists (So say the top atheists, Dawkins, Harris) The numbers seem much higher to me.
Percent of Muslims in Favor of Sharia Law
(Chart Attached) And these assholes are flocking into European Countries and America. It's not a One World Government the Elite want. It's a ONE RELIGION GOVERNMENT. Can you imagine how easy it would be to control a population made entirely of Muslims. Governments are creaming their pants waiting for the change.
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Sri Lanka has a long history of civil war, with atrocities being carried out along religious sectarian lines by all slides.The hatred such atrocities stamp on the consciousness of people dies very very slowly if at all. Sadly I fear this will not be the end of the violence.
As for religion of peace, if that were true then religious violence and atrocities would not exist among those religions adherents. The rank stupidity of living by a book that contains ubiquitous violence, bigotry, and murder, and simultaneously claiming it represents a religion of peace, should be manifest. At least as self evident that adherents committing violent acts negate the claim to any rational person who doesn't wish to invoke logical fallacies.
People either choose to peaceful or they do not, their religious beliefs don't negate either position, and that is self evidence, but it is equally self evident that the religious are peaceful and decent despite what their religions have traditionally taught and what their holy books say.
Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather all religious people chose to ignore the parts of their religion that endorses violence and bigotry, but I'd far rather they abandoned adherence to archaic superstition altogether, and recognise the inherent value in even a single human life that makes the indiscriminate killing of those who don't share your chosen superstition a vile act of barbarity that defines the word evil.
Again one cannot help but compare the attitude of atheists here recognising the accidental destruction of Notre Dame as a tragedy, with the wanton destruction theists are content to indulge against both the buildings and the adherents of other religions.
Time for one of my favourite quotes from the late great author and polemicist the Hitch.
“Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.”
― Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Thank you Sheldon...I couldn't agree more with you and Hitch.
The total murders committed, has increased to 290 innocent people.
And I was watching the news stories about this last night, or whenever. My first thought was, "Right after the New Zealand tragedy."
It is so sad to see the human species so divided over such stupidity. It is a damn shame the greater number of people are no longer able to discern the lie of religion.
Then again, two-thirds of the population reside within that Bell Curve of gullibility.
rmfr
It is interesting in how people react to things.
It's impossible to root out extremism.
Why?
Because it's in the rules.
These old books are said to be the words of their gods so you can't change what's written in them. If the book says kill non believers then you can try all you want to reinterpret the words but the words in the book are still the same. And if you are now allowed to interpret the words differently then what's to stop some people interpreting them in the worst possible way.
As long as you can't change what's written in the book, you will never eliminate extremism.
I'd guess, that if you had a magic wand and used it to replace every Muslim on the planet with a non-Muslim; that this procedure wouldn't reduce terrorism even slightly. Terrorism exists because terrorism is highly effective, and so long as that is the case it isn't going away.
If that happened, you'd get more French farmers blowing up milk processing plants rather than Muslims blowing each other up for disagreeing over some trivial point of dogma.
Certainly, mental illness and social alienation play a significant part in what makes an individual liable to blow themselves up. But the proliferation of dogma that says that your time on earth has infinitely less value than your time after death can only increase such incidents.
@Sapporo
Very well said, strongly agree.
This is one of the primary reasons why I am more "militant atheist" instead of: "let the crazies believe whatever they want, it does not affect me."
The thought of eternal afterlife is a very dangerous thought and it plays on the psych in dangerous ways. It is also so easy to abuse. How can you convince someone to die for your cause no matter how crazy it is? Convince them there is something better/worse after. This sort of garbage was needed in wars past where people lined up to get stabbed, shot at etc. Threat of death (if you flee the front line we will cut you down) was effective, but the stick/carrot of eternal afterlife was even more effective.
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It's a complex issue.
@OP
This is a deeply disturbing occurrence. I am sorry for everyone caught in the mayhem and hope their families can recover quickly.
But let us be honest. Not all religions are equal. The lessons of each are not the same. Let us not conflate the ills of one group with another, lest we be no better than the shrill slave owner.
@ SomeBODIEShero
Like you, I also feel for the people of Sri Lanka. I worked for about 4 years alongside 2 Tamil refugees where just the 3 of us worked in the same department of our company so I got to know them really well. One of them was from Batticaloa where one of the attacks took place.
However, I don't agree with your point that not all religions are the same. While islam may be the most violent, they all are based on deluded theories that are very harmful to society in plenty of other ways.
Religion denies true knowledge to people by encouraging them to believe in deluded myths and superstitions. For centuries it held back any science that didn't agree with the stories in their old books, thus delaying for centuries discoveries that could have produced medicines to fight ilness and all kinds of other discoveries that could have helped humanity. In the 19th century religions actively tried to prevent giving education to the masses.
Worst of all in my mind is the fact that religion takes babies whose brains are not even properly developed yet and 'imprints' religious nonsense before they are old enough to decide for themselves. That's a process that has gone on generation after generation for thousands of years to countless millions of children which, to my mind, is truly wicked and evil.
I agree with LogicFTW in that I also am a 'militant atheist' and I think the quicker religion disappears from the world the better.