Religion is a lot like a government, it is a small group of poeple (priest, rabbi, minister ect) trying to change the lives and believes of others to their way of thinking.


P.S. Catholics are Chirstians believe it or not.

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[QUOTE=CasperTG]You mean it's not??? Aww geez, now you've gone and spoiled it for me....



The religious similarities between Christianity and Islam are striking, I feel.
The basis of Islamic belief is "There is no god but The God and Muhammad is the messenger of God." Sounds familiar.
Muslims believe that God revealed his direct word for mankind to Muhammad and other prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. And WHO? Jesus? What the hell, he's one of ours!
Muslims hold that Islam is essentially the same belief as that of all the messengers sent by God to mankind since Adam, with the Qur'an codifying the final revelation of God.

See, as a religion, its more or less the same as Judaism or Christianity - hell they're all based on the same thing!

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The reason Judaism and Islam are so similar is because after Cain killed Able, Cain moved away from his birthplace. Cain is the man who started what is now known as the Muslim community. He was mad at God because God rejected his sacrifice and accepted his brothers sacrifice of fruits and vegtables.

If you look at what has happened in our own country of America with David Karesch, Jim Jones, The Hale Bop comminty, these people were following extremists in their own right. They were brainwashed into believing what there leader was saying was the truth.

If just one man has that much power to manipulate so many people into believing what he has to say is the truth and there is no one able to or are afraid to voice their opinion, you get people willing to do anything that is asked of them, no matter what the consquences are.

Most of the people that are targeted are the people who are poor and uneducated, not saying all, but most are, and when you throw in the martyr part of it, you have hooked them. They get their 15 minutes of fame, but don't get to share the glory of that fame.

Most of the leaders who lead these extremist groups are very rich and educated, look at bin Laden, heir to the Saudi throne, educated in the US, and yet you don't see him blowing himself up as a martyr, now do you? He has learned how to manipulate people to get them to do his bidding. How you may ask? He has the means and the education. He understands what his fellow muslims want and he tries to fullfill them, right or wrong.

At least this is my opinion.

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Rise up, gather 'round, rock this place to the ground......Def Leppard
What's this life for......Creed

If I'm not wrong Cain and Ableb have nothing to do with any of it. I do know that both Judaism (hance Christianity) and Islam can both trace thear root back to Abraham.



The problems do not lie in the religions themselves. the problem lies in the people who use religion to get what they want. Christianity is no diferent then Islam in this right. Through out the year Christianity has been used as a reason to kill. Look at our own country (the USA) here we killed and drove Navite Americans off their lands because they were godless heathens.

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it's only kinky the first time

it's not the orgasm but getting there thats fun

a shot in the bush is worth two in the hand

whip me, beat me, tie me up, break my arm, but please don't break my heart

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid people are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" -Bertrand Russell

There are many who do not get Islam…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4805952.stm

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Eudaimonia

Replace bin Laden, heir to the Saudi throne with Bush, heir to the Bush family fortune...and replace Muslims with kronies, and it makes you think, huh?

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Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.

My definition of need is evidently different - without religion I do not immediately die, starve, go insane or suffer complete social rejection. so humans do not NEED religion. Individuals may derive some comfort or strength from it, but, still, not a need.




Much of what you mention is history. In more primitive times when the world was scarcely understood, religion was useful to try to explain why humans were subject to both disaster and great natural benefits.

To say it has influenced our music, language, calendar, etc is true, but so what? We would still have (other versions of) these things, as do other cultures.

I agree that some sort of moral code is a requirement for civilised life, but why not divorce it from spirituality? Civilised cultures (but, note, not all inviduals) naturally default to basic laws like no theft, killing, etc, so this just needs codifying.


Sorry Jax, we are hijacking your thread.

Booger is correct (I can't believe I said that!), Cain & Abel had nothing to do with it...the division started with Israel & Ishmail, both children of Abraham...the geneology gets a little toocomplicated to recount here, but it does explain the long-standing feud between Hebrew & Arab...


Again, close but no banana...Bin Laden is not heir to the Saudi throne, but rather the illegitimate son of one of Saudi Arabia's richest most powerful industrialists...most of the bin Laden fortune is in construction (hence Osama's boast that he knew, as an engineer, that the planes would bring the Twin Towers down), but also a good portion comes from, guess what, OIL...I'll wait for the shock & awe to sink in now....


That's right, the Bin Laden family has been doing business with American oil companies for many years, including one owned by the Bush family...

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Plug me into somethin'

If the theory does not conform to the facts, then the facts must be discarded.

No good deed ever goes unpunished

Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level, & beat you with experience.

Hi Jack or not, I am glad to have generated discussion. Anytime thoughtful discussion is given to a topic that is a good thing. This is a touchy one, so kudos to everyone for respectfully handling their spin.

See how educated the pixies are here. You guys caught the bullshit and called me on it. Hurrah for you all. You won't be on the news showing the devastation you cause by being a human bomb.

People are going to believe what they were taught by their elders while growing up, whether we believe in the same cause or not. Is killing someone right, if you are in a war, or on the street when someone does something to piss you off? Depends on how you were raised. I have known people who don't seem to give two shits if they kill someone as long as they get their revenge, damn the consquences.

Everyone in some way or another has a belief system that they follow, whether you believe in a higher power or you believe in no god at all, it is still a belief. Just like if you were born in a Mormon home, before the state of Utah banned the practice of polygamy, men were encouraged to have more then one wife. Some men still do practice their right to more than one wife and they pay the price even though they feel they are right.

No matter what religion you follow or don't follow, killing is still wrong. In my opinion those muslims that are involved in this jihad are following a man and his words, not the words of the Quran, or the muslim teachers. Just like those people who followed Jim Jones, David Koresch and others.

To put it short and sweet, tell a man what he wants to hear and he will follow you to hell, if he believes what you say.

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Rise up, gather 'round, rock this place to the ground......Def Leppard
What's this life for......Creed

mabelode,

I’m unfamiliar with cultures which are free of religious practices. I don’t mean to suggest that there are none, only that I don’t know of any. Even if not entirely devoid of religious practices, which cultures would serve as useful models?

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Eudaimonia

Many a war has been fought in the name of religion - remember the Crusades?

Communist cultures.

BIBI,

I presume that you are referring not to the various communist parties, which are political organizations, but rather to that quality in a society arising from its excellence (or at least active practice) in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, sports, etc. The United States is, on occasion, considered to have a Cowboy, or even a Gun culture, and France’s culture is associated, at least in my mind, with fine dining.

As religious practices preceded, were concurrent with, and remain following the downfall of that brand of communism practiced in the eastern portion of Europe in the last century, I think a case could be made that communism proved less attractive than religion to that population.

While it would be unfair to say the same for the variant of communism practiced in the PRC yet, it is true that the current Chinese Communist Party has changed quite a bit from the one which brought the joys of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution to that population. During that period, Chinese religious practices have not changed nearly as dramatically.

If these communist cultures are not examples, then which others would usefully serve industrialized nations such as yours, mine, or Loulabelle’s?

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Eudaimonia

I hate to correct you when you are agreeing with me Scotz but wasn't it Isaac & Ishmael?

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it's only kinky the first time

it's not the orgasm but getting there thats fun

a shot in the bush is worth two in the hand

whip me, beat me, tie me up, break my arm, but please don't break my heart

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid people are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" -Bertrand Russell

Booger, I've always thought spelling is irrelevant when the name has been translated from another language which has a different alphabet....the only right way to spell it is surely in the original alphabet it was written in......just my take on it, anyway.

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"Time flies like an arrow -
Fruit flies like a banana"

M Y - N A U G H T Y - P I C T U R E S ! !