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2007-07-22 Olde Tyme Religion
Losing My Jihadism
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Posted by ryuge 2007-07-22 02:51|| || Front Page|| [6 views ]  Top
 File under: Global Jihad 

#1 Fatwa in 5...4..3
Posted by gromgoru 2007-07-22 06:40||   2007-07-22 06:40|| Front Page Top

#2 God is light

Nonesense, god is a spin network.

This gentleman demonstrates why apostasy is considered such a great sin by all religions. Once you go adrift, if you're still religiously inclined you can talk yourself into anything. As an example, I offer Joseph Smith.

"Islam is the problem" is a subset of "Religion is the problem". Some religions are more problematic than others.
Posted by  KBK 2007-07-22 09:20||   2007-07-22 09:20|| Front Page Top

#3 Islam needs a Reformation.

This statement wins the "New Millenium Understatement Award."

Better how about outlawing or even better destruction?
Posted by JohnQC 2007-07-22 10:27||   2007-07-22 10:27|| Front Page Top

#4 Once you go adrift, if you're still religiously inclined you can talk yourself into anything. As an example, I offer Joseph Smith.

Smith's teachings have a direct lineage, through a chain of people as well as ideas, back to several strains of 16th century hermeticism in England. Brooke's book Refiner's Fire provides pretty solid documentation.

Which is to say that Smith wasn't quite making things up as he went, any more than William Blake came up with the symbolism in his books and paintings out of thin air.
Posted by lotp 2007-07-22 10:53||   2007-07-22 10:53|| Front Page Top

#5 "Once you go adrift, if you're still religiously inclined you can talk yourself into anything." This statement is too restrictive. Human beings, religious or otherwise, can talk themselves into anything.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-07-22 11:30||   2007-07-22 11:30|| Front Page Top

#6 Once you go adrift, if you're still religiously inclined you can talk yourself into anything. As an example, I offer Joseph Smith.

One could observe the same phenomenon at work in Paul's take on Christ's Judaism. Won't change a dot nor an I of the Law? It's pork time!

Not that I am complaining, I am pro-bacon myself.
Posted by Excalibur 2007-07-22 12:08||   2007-07-22 12:08|| Front Page Top

#7 it is critical to Islam's future survival.

There, fixed that.

Better how about outlawing or even better destruction?

Patience, lad. Islam is hurrying this along as best it can.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-07-22 12:35||   2007-07-22 12:35|| Front Page Top

#8 Unfortunately, Islam has already had its "reformer" in the form of Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahab. He has steered Islam away from reason and inquiry into a path of phony "certainty" and "truth".

Anyone who tries to reform Islam now is not going to get very far because they are too influenced by outsiders (i.e. us).

Al
Posted by Frozen Al 2007-07-22 13:20||   2007-07-22 13:20|| Front Page Top

#9 I posited the reformation of Islam years ago, with the simple observation that Jihad should *only* be spiritual in nature, and never with acts of violence.

The justification for this among Muslims would be by pointing out that violent Muslims *always* fail, but peaceful Muslims usually prosper and lead good and long lives. Ergo, Allah favors the spiritual struggle, not the physical one.

It is hard to refute the power of prayer, even in Islam. This is because the typical shaman of any religion will generally go with prayer, as that is when the collection plate is passed around.
Posted by Anonymoose 2007-07-22 13:28||   2007-07-22 13:28|| Front Page Top

#10 Frozen Al has the point spot on.

Luther's reform was to go to the words of Jesus. The Wahabis emphasize the words of Mohamet.
Posted by mhw 2007-07-22 15:11||   2007-07-22 15:11|| Front Page Top

#11 Human beings, religious or otherwise, can talk themselves into anything.

That's why the discipline of the scientific method was developed: to bind unmoored thought to objective reality.

Religious theories are eternal and unconfirmable. Scientific theories are verifiable and only as good as the next few experiments.
Posted by  KBK 2007-07-22 15:19||   2007-07-22 15:19|| Front Page Top

#12 Which is to say that Smith wasn't quite making things up as he went

Mohammed wasn't quite making it all up by himself, either. There has to be some resonance with previous philosophy to attract disciples.
Posted by  KBK 2007-07-22 15:22||   2007-07-22 15:22|| Front Page Top

#13 The justification for this among Muslims would be by pointing out that violent Muslims *always* fail, but peaceful Muslims usually prosper and lead good and long lives. Ergo, Allah favors the spiritual struggle, not the physical one.

An even better justification would be to make sure that violent Muslims don't just fail—but that they die—frequently and in large numbers. I'd even go so far as to make sure that a few surrounding undecided Muslims get killed as collateral damage in order to discourage those who would even be in the proximity of any violent ones.

This is because the typical shaman of any religion will generally go with prayer

Or whatever else that doesn't involve any heavy lifting.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-07-22 15:44||   2007-07-22 15:44|| Front Page Top

#14 How do you reform a death cult?

Walk away from it. Turn your back on it. Your prophet was an alcoholic, pedophilic warlord who invoked the name of Allah to bamboozle a bunch of ignorant, superstitious goat herders into fighting his wars for him. He learned to read and write well enough to write a book. So what? The only notable element here is that 1400 years later billions of muslims still don't understand that the joke is on them.

Christians could have a Reformation because the basic teachings of Jesus don't need to be explained away or reinterpreted. Some of the old passages in Leviticus, maybe, but not the New Testament. It was abuse of power by the Vatican that sparked Luther's protest, not the Bible.

I can understand that muslims are looking for some spirituality, some meaning in their lives but Mohammed ain't it. Ask yourselves: Moses gave us the Ten Commandments; Jesus gave us the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule. What, besides, jihad, did Mohammed have to add? What kind of God wants you to kill other people who are, after all, every bit His children as much as you are? Where is the love? What has your culture given to the world? What great universities? What technology? What art, music or literature? Huh? What? Are we meant to do nothing but live in sand, tend goats, kill each other and study the Koran? Free yourself, Mansour. Walk away from it and don't look back.
Posted by Abu Uluque6305 2007-07-22 18:42||   2007-07-22 18:42|| Front Page Top

#15 What kind of God wants you to kill other people who are, after all, every bit His children as much as you are?

One that's told Islam the sun shines out of its ass.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-07-22 20:06||   2007-07-22 20:06|| Front Page Top

#16 If Mansour believed Allah wanted him to kill people, then some real doubts on the existence of the "killing god" are justified and right. He would be better to lose his faith in a "killing god" and then search with his soul for the God of Abraham. He's not talking himself into anything, he is searching for the better nature of his angels.
Posted by whatadeal 2007-07-22 22:29||   2007-07-22 22:29|| Front Page Top

23:50 OldSpook
23:49 John Frum
23:45 OldSpook
23:42 John Frum
23:42 OldSpook
23:34 John Frum
23:34 Frank G
23:26 Eric Jablow
23:15 Steven
23:11 John Frum
23:07 Steven
22:51 John Frum
22:47 Zenster
22:42 Spiny Gl 2511
22:39 Spiny Gl 2511
22:31 Abdominal Snowman
22:30 Abdominal Snowman
22:29 Abdominal Snowman
22:29 whatadeal
22:26 Abdominal Snowman
22:18 Zenster
22:12 RWV
22:10 Barbara Skolaut
22:07 Barbara Skolaut









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