The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[SacTown Chronic]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

(But I think it is ridiculous to use a Bible as well. If history has shown us anything it is that sacred texts hold no power in preventing people from lying or behaving inappropriately. They might as well use a magic rock imbued with the power of Ramba to smite you with boils should you misbehave).

I couldn't agree more.


My personal preference would be to be sworn in using a Mad magazine.

[Nephythys]

The day Christians start beheading people for not saying grace I might buy that line.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

The day Christians start beheading people for not saying grace I might buy that line.

Really, that's be some sort of Spanish Inquisition, and nobody expects...

[CoasterMatt]

I wouldn't behead somebody for not praying, but if one more stroller gets slammed into me at Disneyland, I just might give somebody a tracheotomy with the edge of my AP

[Nephythys]

Sorry- but the date of the article is in 2006. Last I checked there is NO current comparison in any modern religion.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

Sorry- but the date of the article is in 2006. Last I checked there is NO current comparison in any modern religion.

I don't know, I'm not sure what you want to say by posting the article. Do you think it speaks for all Islam? Do you think a "Holy War" is inevitable. Do you think we need a final solution and start beheading Muslim's in protest?

People do stupid things in the name of relgion - to me this is another example of that. I'm not sure what your take is - other than you seem to just want to attack whatever someone else's response might be.

What do you think about the articles you posted?

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

Sorry- but the date of the article is in 2006. Last I checked there is NO current comparison in any modern religion.

The question is not what any religion does, it's what any society does to maintain order. Most countries with capital punishment kill people for what appears to be trivia in order to maintain order. China is a prime example.

We kill people for supposedly serious reasons. However, some states are now expanding the death penalty beyond murder cases to serial child molesting. I have no doubt that if you phrased your supermarket survey correctly, you'd find support for greater expansion of the death penalty, just as you find support for repealing much of the Bill of Rights.

Further, since America is not currently a Christian theocracy, it makes no sense to predict what would happen in such a country. One need only look at the English-only movement to have one's confidence shaken. One hears about this or that community trying to get non-English books out of their libraries and trying to punish non-English usage.

Given the religious rights attempt to make this a Christian country, and the not entirely implausible view that the First Amendment only prohibits a national church, not state churches, it is not inconceivable that we could live in a state with an official state church. I would be terrified to live in such a place at least shortly after its inception when the call for abuses of newly acquired power would be greatest. Maybe there would just be fines and imprisonment rather than beheadings, but that would be a distinction attributable to how cheap life is in poor societies. It would not change the fact that the minister running the state with a gun and the imam running the Somali village with a gun would have been cut from the same cloth.

[Alex]

I bitch about Christians all of the time. I bitch about a lot of things all of the time.

To bitch about them is not to inherently consider them as bad or worse than other things I bitch about.

To complain about both Islamic and Christian fundamentalism is not to say that they are equally bad (overall, right now, Islamic fundamentalism is a worse thing than Christian fundamentalism), that they are bad in the same way (for the practice of civic government in America, Christian fundamentalism is currently a far worse thing than Islalmic fundamentalism), or that they are equally important (perhaps the continued existence of the McRib is of more importance than either).

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

....(perhaps the continued existence of the McRib is of more importance than either).

Mmmmmm.... McRib.........

[Alex]

I can't say as I've ever had a McRib but I find the very concept of the thing repugnant at a very deep level of my corporeal soul.