ROFL

I don't think the issues here are spelling lol............... at least not to me.





(I guess you already know spelling isn't an issue to me) lmao

__________________

Now ain't THAT the truth!

Whoops...I was working from memory, & didn't didn't do my fact check first, but I hope everybody got the idea anyway...

__________________
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.

What does Islam have to do with white whales?

__________________
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.

There are none I know of either.

As BruceandNan stated, everyone believes what they were taught by their elders while growing up. This means that it is extremely difficult to get away from religion completely, because we are taught religion as truth. As the Jesuits said, "Give us a boy, and we shall return you a man, a citizen of his country and a child of God”.

Some of us ask more questions as we grow up, and of those, there are some who care enough to think about what we have been taught and draw our own conclusions (at both ends of the argument). Unfortunately, probably a large majority do not give it enough thought and (passively) adopt the famous agnostic approach (and I paraphrase) "it is best to believe as, if there is a god, you get into paradise, and if not, nothing is lost".

With that attitude it is difficult to break the cycle.

Would an atheist society work? I don't know, but society is not perfect now, and it would remove a number of problems....

It's not any individual society that "doesn't work", per se. It's the interaction between different societies and the inability to accept or negotiate common ground that is at the root of the problems occuring globally. And that boils down to respect for those that one does not understand.

In my opinion, an all Atheist world would be no different from a world inhabited by all Christians/Muslims/Hindus or members of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind. It's not without problems, but generally much easier to get along if all think alike.

Loulabelle it wasn't how he spelled Ishmael that I was questioning it was that he had Israel insted of Isaac. Trust my I have no room to throw stones in the spelling department as many here can tell you.

__________________
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

[QUOTE=WildIrish]It's not any individual society that "doesn't work", per se. It's the interaction between different societies and the inability to accept or negotiate common ground that is at the root of the problems occuring globally. And that boils down to respect for those that one does not understand.

I completely agree with what WI said. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? If people would just respect the beliefs of others this world would be better off, everyone is entittled to the own opinions.

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

My comrade in keys.

__________________

Oops sorry Booger! That'll teach me to check what I've read first! LOL

Just ignore the pregnant lady....

__________________
"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 ! !

how about if we hug the pregnant lady instead!

Hehehehe - er...I'm sure that would be fine.

Bonjour Jacques!

__________________
"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 ! !

oui oui

I think it is important that we remember those with the guns unfortunately become the visible representation of the people.

One person with a loud voice can influence 20 people, one person with a machine gun can generally control 100.

This is seen through the minority of extremist/violent muslims which we tend to stereotype as the whole. This is seen through a President in George Bush or other visible/powerful republicans like Pat Robertson (I only say republicans because they currently lead all three branches of gour overnment, this is not to promote either democrats or republicans). Through Republican abuses and hypocritical uses of power, they ensure that the world as a whole stereoptypes America and American Christianity for what the present administration represents instead of what its constituency (the vast majority) truly represents. I wonder if as a result of this pressure from our leaders (those with the "guns") and the world, many American's are increasingly changing their perspectives to become what the world thinks we are. Its the same with much of America who sees the gang violence in Ghetto's and stereotypes all people who live in Ghettos to be the same uneducated and grossly violent people simply because of how they speak or dress being influenced, again, by those they fear just like everyone else (the ones with the guns).

Then don't even mention the press and how they reinforce these stereotypes. How often do you seek an African American on TV being applauded instead of denagrated. The Black Muslim community does a lot of good work for this country, yet all we hear about them through the media are how they are militant and anti-semetic. 100 out of 100 times the media will report the bad over the good, to the extent it looks for the bad in the smallest shadows and steps right over the good in the brightest light of day. Unfortunately, it is a psychological truth that when you are told you are something enough, you not only believe you are that thing, but you become it and act like it.

Lastly, I am not saying there is justification or extremists are in the right, but I think anyone who feels that they are in a corner will choose an extremist point of view. It is always much easier to choose black or white then the grey. In every culture group there are fanatics, moderates, and apathetics. There are some who all they have ever know is fanaticsm. There are some who were moderates and became extremists because they got tired of not seeing results, didn't want to become apathetics and just take it, and needed some way to make their voices heard. Then there are apathetics who becomes extremists because of experiencing great trauma (such as losing a loved one or seeing war first hand, a common occurence in the middle east these days). I am not saying there is an excuse for becoming an extremist, because I believe there is always another way. However, at least you can see how it might happen, particularly when all you see around you is black and white, and grey is heracy (as it is in the Koran and in American politics).

The problem right now is there is the "we hit you, so you hit us back and vice-versa" mentality in the world right now. So the world is in a merry-go-round constantly pushing each other in a corner forcing the other to choose the opposing side of black or white. The more we fight, the more engrained in those corners we become and the more adamant we believe that our corner (or our choice of black or white) is the correct one. I don't believe I have ever seen this country more polarized except when we were fanatical about communism (resulting in the attrocity of the McCarthy hearings) and the Muslim world has never been this fanaticized (because they didn't have the common enemy, didn't have martars, and didn't have leadership prior to Western politics).

That's my (long) take anyways.

__________________
Caught in the Act
Anonymous
My Night Out, Part 1
My Night Out, Part 2

"The world is a mirror which is always in our vision"
- Me

Which were almost as attrocious as the McCarthy movies!


/me hugs the pregnant lady

Bonjour Jacques!

__________________
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.