the religion of peace

[expat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7990237.stm

Islam row bishop 'has no regrets'
A leading Church of England bishop who is to resign after 15 years in the post said he has no regrets about controversial statements he has made.
...
Last year, he received death threats after saying some areas of the UK had become no-go areas for non-Muslims because of Islamic extremism.

Kind of proves the point, don't you think?

[snaw]

That's right.

You'd never hear of fundamentalist Christians issuing death threats ...

[PM-Junkie]

That's right.

You'd never hear of fundamentalist Christians issuing death threats ...

If you consider it just in terms of the here and now, then yes. But read your history books. Christians are probably responsible for far more deaths than muslims...so far. With what christians have got up to over the last few hundred years, small wonder, muslims are upset.

I think both cults are as bad as each other. Roll on the day when the human species evolves beyond the need for inventing deities.

[snaw]

If you consider it just in terms of the here and now, then yes. But read your history books. Christians are probably responsible for far more deaths than muslims...so far. With what christians have got up to over the last few hundred years, small wonder, muslims are upset.

I think both cults are as bad as each other. Roll on the day when the human species evolves beyond the need for inventing deities.

I was being sarcastic

[EternalOptimist]

If you consider it just in terms of the here and now, then yes. But read your history books. Christians are probably responsible for far more deaths than muslims...so far. With what christians have got up to over the last few hundred years, small wonder, muslims are upset.

I think both cults are as bad as each other. Roll on the day when the human species evolves beyond the need for inventing deities.

I think Snaw may have been jesting. The Yankee fundies are a pretty scary lot

[PM-Junkie]

I was being sarcastic

I was just being stupid

Seriously, the fundie christians don't issue threats - they just drop bombs and fire cruise missiles at you without warning.

[sasguru]

What I don't get is why all the fundies of all stripes can't see that as there are so many different religions they must be human artefacts.

In reality everyone is an atheist - there are many "Gods" that fundies reject (e.g. the sun God Ra), why can't they just go that one step further and reject all Gods?

[snaw]

What I don't get is why all the fundies of all stripes can't see that as there are so many different religions they must be human artefacts.

In reality everyone is an atheist - there are many "Gods" that fundies reject (e.g. the sun God Ra), why can't they just go that one step further and reject all Gods?

Cause they're as madder than a bag of spanners?

[landl]

Isn't being an atheist just as much an act of faith as belief in a God

Cards on the table, I believe that there probably is a God.

Controversial I know, but I just don't buy the idea that everything in nature was created purely by natural selection. I just think it's too unlikely.

I'm not a fundamentalist, I certainly don't believe that any one religion has a monopoly on knowledge of said deity and I certainly can't abide the idea of believers in one faith judging their beliefs to be any more valid than those of others, I just think some intelligent force must have been at play at some point in the process that lead to our existence.

I don't see this as mutually exclusive of Darwinian theory, physics, geology or any other science that delusional fundamentalists claim to be heresy.

I just think that something else is at work and have the sense to not claim I know exactly what it is.

On the other hand, an atheist has to believe absolutely that they are right in their notion of there not being a creative force at work, despite the vast complexity of the natural world around them.

IMHO, I believe that is an act of faith, with potentially as little scientific merit as a fundamentalist who believes they know "the truth" about God and that their truth is the only valid explanation to the detriment of all others.

Anyone else feel the same way, or am I about to be flame grilled?

[EternalOptimist]

I think most Atheists are actually agnostics. i.e. not really sure, but a bit sceptical that there is a God. Just waiting to be convinced