Are there religious "fanatics" that are not harmful?

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Madwand1

Originally posted by: SickBeast
That said, ALL religions view themselves as the true path to God, thus invalidating the rest, to a certain extent anyway.

This is a strawman that's often used to discredit all religions. It also has an element of truth, in that the selfish, tribal, chauvinistic, etc., tendencies tend to make people cling to their limited view to the explicit exclusion or opposition of other views.

Once people hear the validating references to Jesus in the Qur'an for example, this view is harder to maintain. Taking the Qur'an seriously, this view of inherent profound opposition of religion or prophets is impossible to maintain. However, people maintain this position, showing their own failings in the understanding of religions, prophets and God in the meanwhile.

There are ways out of this assumption of sole validity, which start with not making the assumption.

Yup, at the core, all religions are fingers pointing at the moon. All are fingers and none are the moon. Depending on the age, the culture, and the insights of the awakened owner of the finger, the character of the pointings differ. The moon is the same.

 

[azazyel]

Bokononism is our only hope

 

[palehorse]

this thread is begging for a reprint of my post in the creationism thread...

Face it folks, the Bible was originally written by a collection of "scholars" who were tasked with finding a way to promote literacy; and, more important, a way to control the chaotic masses (tribes). They set about transcribing different versions of the various myths, fables, traditions, and legends that had all been previously passed down through the ages by word-of-mouth

Their solution was a collection of stories which came to be called The Bible.

It worked... too well, in fact!

Islam, with their great work of fiction, The Quran, merely repeated the same process.

etc etc yada yada...

We may as well be talking about Tom Clancy or Harry Potter as well!

I digress...

Fanaticism is the above nonsense taken to an extreme. The difference betwen violent and peaceful fanaticism is a fine line drawn by the leadership of said fanatics. The wind could blow them in either direction! In the West, only luck, and great police work, keeps the entire fanatical house of cards from exploding! Unfortunately, in the Islamic territories, they currently have neither of those factors to keep their house in order...

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Religions don't start war, politicians do. 😉

Basically, behind the curtain of "religious violence," you'll find a political agenda. Because religion is a powerful tool, it's often used. Take it away, and those with a political agenda will just use another tool to gain support.

It's an effective tool, but like a host with Ebola you do not invite them over for dinner. You do not allow them inside your house, you attempt to separate yourself from that which kills you. We need to do this to Islam or we will continue to suffer attacks and future acts of war against us.

Unless that community polices itself and destroys its own infection we must hold the entire group accountable, such as the person with Ebola whose immune system is incapable of defeating the virus, the moderates in Islam must join us in attacking our common enemy or share in the fate of that enemy.

Should we not realize this ultimatum, the support in our own land for Islamic Supremacism will only worsen and we will only suffer further casualties as a result of it.



You might argue that this isn?t about religion, but if it is through religion that we are attacked, then it is through religion that we must return fire. Should a solider come to your house to kill you, you don?t permit that merely because he is a tool whose master used. Instead you take out the immediate threat to yourself, and in this case the tool is a religion and unless it polices itself effectively it must be dealt with.

This isn?t about religion? They sure seem to think so. Perception is reality.

Video
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Boy: Will it be through conferences? No, not through conferences, but by means of force, because the Zionist entity, your enemy, the enemy of Allah, the enemy of Islam, knows nothing but injustice and the killing of Palestinians, the persevering people on the frontline. Indeed, the [mosque] will be returned only by means of force.

Girl: To Al-Aqsa, to Al-Aqsa ? we shall unite our ranks. We will wipe out the people of Zion, and will not leave a single one of them.

*edit

Speaking of equality, who wants to compare our children?s programming to this?