Originally posted by: Nik
Originally posted by: Don Vito Corleone
Negative. Your argument is moronic. It's like arguing that a sportscaster can't comment on the performance of a quarterback because he isn't on the field playing. Torture is systematic and widespread in the Yemeni "justice system," the trials they conduct are, consistent with what one would expect in a Sharia system, summarial in nature, and the punishments meted out are cruel and barbaric. If you seriously doubt that our system is better than what they have in Yemen I encourage you to live in a country that practices Sharia law (which I have, though thank God I was in the US military and not subject to it).
Links to support your claims? Specifically about Yemen, of course? I'm not arguing that our system is better or worse than anyone else's. I'm not educated enough about my own justice system to be able to compare it to others, but I'm not high and mighty enough to pretend to know how Yemen conducts their justice system or omnipotent enough to know for a fact that any and all (or even what percent, if any at all) confessions are bogus. I'm certainly not going to start pointing fingers at them just because I don't trust them.
Yemen justice system links, sir?
Originally posted by: magomago
Oh please, don't make it seem as if only logical smart people do not believe in God. Logically, its impossible to prove or disprove God. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I don't believe we will ever solve that specific question either. It is faith - belief in that which can't be proven nor dis proven.
Speaking of overzealous fanatics....
Yes, you're absolutely right. You can't prove that god exists any more than you can disprove it. However, there's a significant lack of evidence for it and I can believe in unicorns until I'm blue in the face and that doesn't make my faith valid :laugh:
Keep religion out of government; the two conflict.
When the hell did I say the last part? Go back and carefully look at what I said. I said nothing of the sort.
I discussed my personal view on this case using religion because it occured in a Muslim country and I'm sure the rationale was somehow based on religion. Yemen uses some form of Sharia (which I personally feel isn't Sharia as discussed by the Quran at all, but that is an entirely different debate) and claims their system comes from Quran + Hadith (latter being,in muslim eyes, prone to error as its entirely human generated).
From my own understanding, I said that, I would be disturbed because that is not how I understand things in the Quran at this moment. It talks over and over about compassion for those who recognize the error in their ways, regardless of the crime/sin committed. I suggested what I viewed as potentially a more 'honest' attempt to conform in line with what the Quran says (as this law is supposedely derived from the Quran). I also said that I'm not an expert in Islamic Law, and I would probaly need more knowledge on this topic.
Never at all did I say the two should be mixed, never at all did I imply we should mix the two (I often come down against it because of the way it is implemented).
Again: just because there is a lack of evidence of God does not mean that it is proof of non existence.
I'm not bothered by it at all - I honestly believe it is something we will never answer. God, in the Quran, directly states that some things will always be part of the realm of the 'unknown' (al ghayb), such as how can we have free will while still maintaing the omnipotenence of this superior force. Does this mean we should stop seeking to answer those questions? Nope - we may find doors and open up avenues into other things on accident ~ many great discoveries come by accident.
On a slightly different note, and perhaps something you may find interesting, Steven Hawking believes that the universe simply spontaneously came into being.
www.ted.com/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe.html -