Organized religion ...
Organized religion is the root of all evil.
That's not to say that all organized religion is evil, mind.
An it harm none, do what ye will.
No, I'm not Wiccan, but I grok the sentiment ...
Red-nosed pastor Terry Jones, who plans to burn copies of the Koran and Jewish text the Talmud at the weekend, has either had his website hacked or his ISP has pulled the plug. The site, at http://www.doveworld.org/ is unavailable this morning. The pastor of a tiny fundamentalist church in Florida, which has reportedly lost …
Hitler based a lot of his policies on the teachings of the Jesuits. In particular his hatred of Jews seems to stem from his Jesuit upbringing. So yes religion was at the root of some of Hitler's evil.
However I don't agree that religion is the root of all evil. There are many "evil" people out there who use religion as a handy justification for their deeds and a handy way of making others do "evil" things.
Would the amount of evil in the world reduce if there were no organised religion? I doubt it. The bad guys would just find other reasons. We already have them.
Hitler was a very religious person, the SS held quasi religious ceremonies based on some dodgy interpretation of paganism, and the Nazis encouraged the cult of the Führer. Mao certainly encouraged people to believe in his cult - it is still going strong, and Stalin did the same.
So Christianity has nothing to answer for here, right?
Hitler: member of the Roman-Catholic church until April 30, 1945.
Stalin: top student for 6 years at Gori Theological School. Spent some time in a seminary after that.
Mao: no idea what his religious connection is, but probably not Christian. Maoism can be said to be a religion, though, so at least he started his very own like L. Ron Hubbard and other scammers.
So one out of three is not bad. Wait. It actually is, isn't it?
Mao and Stalin were avowed atheists, irrespective of any earlier dabblings. Hitler kept quiet on the subject in order to avoid unnecessarily antagonizing the church, but it seems unlikely that he was following the precepts of any recognised religion.
If you want to redefine 'organized religion' to mean "anything that causes evil", feel free - but your argument may become rather circular.
when Sarah Palin thinks you are a nut job.
I saw this moron on tv last night banging on about going ahead if theres no sign from god.... man i was praying for a thunderbolt right then...
nope. invisible, impotent friend it is then.
PS, that money in germany was just resting in his account by the way
To wit - "Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero."
The "mosque at Ground Zero" is a day centre two blocks away that she and her followers turned into an issue, nobody else. She might not be quite as demented as this pastor but she is definitely of the same persuasion.
Thanks to AC for that link - brightened up a horrible day.
I must quote this for those of you not bothered to follow the link:
"The planned "ultra-mosque" will be a staggering 5,600ft tall – more than five times higher than the tallest building on Earth – and will be capped with an immense dome of highly-polished solid gold, carefully positioned to bounce sunlight directly toward the pavement, where it will blind pedestrians and fry small dogs. The main structure will be delimited by 600 minarets, each shaped like an upraised middle finger, and housing a powerful amplifier: when synchronised, their combined sonic might will be capable of relaying the muezzin's call to prayer at such deafening volume, it will be clearly audible in the Afghan mountains, where thousands of terrorists are poised to celebrate by running around with scarves over their faces, firing AK-47s into the sky and yelling whatever the foreign word for "victory" is."
ROFL ^^
Having had the (mis)fortunate growing up around family trees that were vertical and NOT horizontal in the US south, I thought wrongly that the Southern Baptists and their incredible hypocrisy, idiocy stunts dissing other religions took the biscuit. My favourite growing up was the SB's that would dress up their daughters in Easter Sunday clothes and send them to your front door, typically on Sat AM when hangovers prevail. "Have you taken J*sus, or Do you believe in J*sus" were the typical incendiary comments. Asking them in for a joint and a pint usually caused their Mum's to snap them up and go running for the next idiot to attack.
Then this lot was incorrectly bred, and looks to be a prime candidate for a retroactive abortion.
Then these idiots came out of their sub terrain slumber, and are unleashing all the stupid that stupid can be upon the world. They're probably delusional to an extent that purging a religious sect's book will kill the poison, but woe be these morons for the results of their issues.
Clearly they skipped courses in school, it they even went/finished on Cause & Effect.
Perhaps the wrath will just land on their heads, if anyone's listening!
perhaps you might start thinking?
Oh, wait, this is a fundamentalist, so thinking is probably considered sinful.
What really makes me sick is that in a time when I hear several Muslim groups are shifting their end of Ramadan feast so that they do not coincide the September 11, out of respect for those who died, we have an idiot like this tarring all Muslims with the same brush.
BTW, could they not fine him on environmental charges?
You know, every society has its share of crazed, gibbering nut-cases. Some more than others, but you'll find them everywhere. So the problem here is not that this particular crazed, gibbering nut-case is hell bent on seriously insulting a whole lot of innocent people, but that somehow he's managed to get his society's media to pay attention. Any sensible society would be ignoring him because, well, you know, he's a crazed, gibbering nut-case.
Lunatics do lunatic things all the time. The world doesn't need to hear about it on the news.
I thought "inciting religious hatred" was a crime - don't know about in the USA though. Muslims consider the Koran itself to be sacred, the literal words of God - it must be handled reverently. Burning it like this is tantamount to wandering into your local church and taking a dump on the altar/pulpit/whatever during Sunday Mass.
Since I grew up in a country where the car-bombs were planted by "Christians" - death by bomb isn't something you generally worry about - it'll happen or it won't. What I object to is dickheads living in the Dark Ages - Christian or Muslim. Worse from any of the three Abrahamic religions as they all worship the same God - essentially they're fighting each other over semantics (Christian/Muslim or even inside Christianity itself with Catholic/Protestant).
feckin eejits
Florida state law
Title XLVI Chapter 823.02 "Building Bonfires"
Whoever is concerned in causing or making a bonfire within 10 rods (165ft) of any house or building shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree.
Title XLVI, Chapter 775.31 "Facilitating or furthering terrorism; felony or misdemeanor reclassification."
(1) If a person is convicted of committing a felony or misdemeanor that facilitated or furthered any act of terrorism, the court shall reclassify the felony or misdemeanor to the next higher degree as provided in this section. The reclassification shall be made in the following manner:
(a) In the case of a misdemeanor of the second degree, the offense is reclassified as a misdemeanor of the first degree.
(3) As used in this section, the term "terrorism" means an activity that:
(a)1. Involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life which is a violation of the criminal laws of this state or of the United States; or
Is intended to:
3. **Affect the conduct of government through destruction of property**, assassination, murder, kidnapping, or aircraft piracy.