Afganistan......look at all dat oil. Amirite?

Storm_Marine

Yes, yes, and Iraq never happened. It was all a dream.

How about we cut some major thinks like military spending, welfare, drug war...etc? but oh no all the mainstream republicans want to cut are these random little things that have no impactmingmao3046

Well, I'm not sure why you'd want to cut welfare (It's the only thing separating many Americans from starvation), but can agree with the phony drug war and the bloated military budget. Oh, and the things that Republicans want to cut aren't completely meaningless, they do serve a purpose. Most of the stuff they purpose cuts for help the public and aren't privately ran. There's an internal logic to it.. It's mostly an attack on working people disguised as "deficit reduction". It isn't a coincidence.

I don't see the big deal, why does he care about her speech being aired?

I don't really like the idea of having to pay taxes to fund a TV station though....

ShadowMoses900

Only a true Scotsman eats haggis on a Thursday and throws the caber on a Friday. Any other behavior is indicative of an untrue Scotsman.Zeviander

I think you missed my point there. (He was being reasonable in a forum! Gasp!)

Besides, everyone knows that it's all about the Kilt. Haggis has very little to do with anything..

[QUOTE="BradBurns"]I was referring to the way many atheists feign to have science that disproves God. You can't disprove or prove Gods existence or lack there of. It's a very human phenomenon.SteveTabernacle

My point is that the belief in God, at its core, is about faith. Faith based scripture can be interpreted in an infinite amount of ways by the interpreter, not just the interpretations made by some.

Science cannot disprove nor prove anything that is based on faith. So with that, you cannot truly prove that "Yahweh, is not real", for it it is purely based on faith.

God gave us a brain. It's our job to use it. It's our job to know what doesn't apply to today that did way back when.norm41x

What's that I see there? Is that true Christianity?

In these forums? No. It can't be. Not here.

[QUOTE="BradBurns"]It depends on what you mean by "removing Israel". If you mean that we should get rid of the current runners of the Israeli state, then yes. Virtually everyone in the UN wants to see the conflict resolved, that is everyone save for the US & Israel. SaudiFury

I don't think it's that US and Israel doesn't want an end to the conflict. The way i see it, American and Israeli politicians and lobby groups see that they are on the 'winning' side of the conflict and have the luxury to continue to press on as they wish. Meanwhile Islamists and their adherents have the ability to hijack the conversation - every time - without fail - whenever the topic of Israel-Palestinian conflict comes up in the Muslim world.

These same Islamist believe that firing home-made tin rockets at suburb homes in Sderot think is a viable military strategy. Or that blowing up school buses is the way to achieve their aims.

I dunno.. from being on the Arab side, if i were Palestinian the sensible solution is the negotiating table or strictly enforced non-violent protest. A military strategy is not viable at all for them. Also add the dimension that i was born in 1986, this conflict has been going on since 1948.... 64 years of near constant conflict between Palestinians and Israeli's. I mean are the Palestinians not tired of the fighting yet? do they still want to blow themselves up because an Imam told them the promises of the afterlife by martyrdom?

I know it's hard for people to comprehend, but there are people, religious or not, who benefit by dealing out and living off of human misery.....

On a slightly unrelated note, whenever i've been to, or watched an interfaith meeting between Muslims and other religious (Christianity and Judaisim usually) leaders. The only thing i've ever heard Muslims ever say is to defend the scripture and prophet from any sort of criticism (however innocous) or critique EXCEPT by the the already ok'd by established accepted Islamic interpertations. It just makes me think of misplaced priorities. It's fine and understandable for a faithful person to defend their text, but is that ALL there is to talk about? because that's all i ever hear or witnessed so far.

It reminds me when Nayef_shoof was tirelessly arguing about how the Quran does not ok honor killings, insisting on it. Which ok, fine i agree.... but this whole time you never bothered to tackle the issue of honor killing itself. the moment someone did an honor killing and happened to be Muslim (and it isn't just a Muslim issue, it's a Middle Eastern/Eastern cultural one really) the first reaction is to distance said person and say how the religion didn't make em' do it. The entire focus is on defending scripture and faith, and it is never been on dealing with the actual problem.

The same tactic i hear when it comes to suicide bombing. I hear from almost every Muslim i know (in the USA, Saudi and otherwise) don't agree or abhore it, but never really speak out against it, but will not hesitate to speak out and defend how the scripture is being misconstrued when suicide bombers justify their attacks.

Like i said, misplaced priorities in a sort of group-think acceptance of sycophant defense of faith-based scripture RATHER then dealing with very real problems that are maiming and killing people (most of whom ironically end up being fellow Muslims).

It seems to me, that you are under the impression that most of the violence in the region is aimed at Israel.

I remember hearing a certain MIT professor mention that the majority of the violence in the conflict was actually leveled against Israels supposed "enemies" (namely anyone who isn't Israeli in the region).

Oh, and many Palestinians (and virtually everyone else in the UN) have agreed to peace negotiations. Negotiations that have been denied time and again by the US and Israel.

(And in case you're wondering, I'm an American, and am not muslim)

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

to prevent fraud, like using the names of dead people to add multiple votes, things like that.

br0kenrabbit

So they say, yet they can't back it up with numbers. I think it was something like %0.001 of votes were fraudulent over the past 10 years.

The real reasons is because these Republicans (the ones pushing for such laws) know that the percentage of minority voters without any form of ID is much, much higher than that of the lilly-white population.

Yep.

Minority voters tend to vote for Democrats and liberals in general, while older white voters tend to vote Republican.

It's an attempt at getting rid of those unwanted votes that would stop Republicans from winning said election. It itself is fraud. (The More You Know!)

"I'm right, you're wrong (backed by science)" isn't hateful, it's just being 'right' about something with evidence.

State worship... you're not much of an atheist if you ascend a government to the level of religion, or a person to the level of a god. And I've never even met someone like that, that level of absurd stupidity would just as easily occur in a religious household.

Inconsistancy

I was referring to the way many atheists feign to have science that disproves God. You can't disprove or prove Gods existence or lack there of. It's a very human phenomenon.

And as for the bit about State Worship, it's actually very common in the United States (both in the Left and Right wings). There are some things the US media and it's participants will not mention in general, simply because it doesn't feel right to do so.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most with this New Atheist movement is that it seems to have very little compassion for people and even demonizes others as idiots, simply for hoping that there is more to this life other than a set of laws and space.

Also, it's important to remember that people aren't stupid. Ignorant, perhaps, but not stupid. Do you really think that people are unaware that there are bad things in the old testament regarding slavery, stoning, and other such sins? Of course they're well aware of these things. Most people understand that the old testament was written (as you have mentioned) during the Bronze Age, and as such tends to have many murderous and genocidal elements in them.

I think that most people understand that it was an early effort at trying to understand what is just and true and what is evil, ugly, and false.

[QUOTE="BranKetra"]

The president of the United States is most powerful individual position on earth. However, there are checks and balances which prevent a dictatorship from ever being able to form. These checks and balances are the Legislative and Judicial branches. The Executive branch's abilities keep the other two branches from becoming a tyranny.

ad1x2

Well, it depends on how the person frames their response. If they think there is a global conspiracy trying to take the power of the president away, then yes, that's a conspiracy theory.

However, I think that it's quite obvious to anyone who studies the way the United States works in depth, that the US president is a figurehead. In practice, he is only slightly more powerful than the Queen of England.

That's not illogical at all.

Because, in the case of Christians, many enjoy misrepresenting Christ.

Also, people will generally argue over anything that they can, and informal debates often seem to invariably lead to insults and "disrespecting" of opposing positions.

Assassin_87

Pretty much.

In the United States especially, it is almost impossible to find a true Christian. The way the gospels are represented in the states is nearly backwards. Especially in the perverse way it's interpreted by Republicans, what with the whole reverse Robin Hood message of defending the rich as if they were an oppressed people.

Why don't religious people try harder at pointing out faults with atheists? Not once have I heard a compelling argument from the other side. It's kind of pathetically one-sided.

I doubt it's tolerance, I bet it is they have no compelling argument, so they just get "offended" and cry foul, say they and their religion are being disrespected.

Inconsistancy

The fault with many supposed"atheists" is that, often, they fall into the very ironic pitfall of being quite pushy with their religious beliefs. This is especially ironic when criticizing Christians (or any other religion) for being pushy. And the criticisms are often hateful, with the usual "I'm right, you're wrong. I have Science" angle.

And perhaps a more dangerous pitfall for atheists is replacing one set of religious beliefs with another. In the United States, many atheists tend to adhere to the secular religion of State Worship. Many would never dare criticize the US for committing atrocities abroad. You're just not supposed to think that way, the State is infallible. And that is a truly dangerous religious doctrine.