On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:54:21 +0000, Scott Lurndal wrote:

"Mike Marlow" writes:

"Scott Lurndal" wrote in message
.net...
"Mike Marlow" writes:


So, if the actions of the individuals of an organization are merit for
dismissing the organization, you must really hate the human race...

So are the actions of the individuals of the KKK (an organization)
merit for dismissing that organization?

That would be correct. It's the prinicples of the KKK that merit its
dismissal as an organization.


Religion is the biggest problem the world will face in the next
century.


Au contraire - there is absolutely nothing wrong with religion. It's the
people in the religions that are the problem. They are the same people that
one finds in the human race. If it were not for religion, mankind would
simply find some other justification for those problems you foretell.


If there were only one religion, I'd be tempted to agree. However,
there are multiple, fundamentally incompatible religions. So long as
that is the case, religion will be the source of much strife. Everyone
thinks that their religion is "revealed truth" and any other is
apostacy.

You might want to look up the word "apostacy" in a good dictionary. If
you're a Catholic and you decide to quit being a Catholic and become, say,
a Shinto, then you've committed apostacy, rejecting the church to which
you belong. If you were always a Shinto and stayed a
Shinto then there is no apostacy because you did not reject the teachings
of a church of which you were a member.

Believing that you have revealed truth and believing that you have a right
to impose that truth on others are two different things. Some religions
try to do that, others don't.

As for "religion" being the source of much strife, it is not religion, but
the "if you're not with us you're the enemy" attitude that one sees all
over the Internet in regard to matters unrelated to religion--look at all
the "Mac vs PC", "Linux vs the Windows", "gun control" and "Bush vs
anybody who doesn't like Bush" discussions in which reason is abandoned
early on. The only difference between them and Osama vs anybody who
doesn't practice his own particular loony-tune version of Islam is that
they for the most part don't have the skills or the balls to kill the
people who disagree with them.


--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)