When you eradicate religion, something else will take its place. I think South Park (which is very critical of religion) demonstrated this quite well.

but hey, keep being a revisionist liar and deny basic historical facts such as the fact Communists tried to eradicate religion via force.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

All you are supporting is that humans kill each other no matter their religion or if they have one at all.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

exactly, give a religious minority group in the West the freedom and ability to practice their religion and they will naturally drift away from it and assimilate into the culture around them.

Persecute them and they will drive more inward and become radicalized.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

I'd also love to know the religious aspects behind WWI as I'm pretty sure the history on that (Massie's Dreadnought really goes into this) is that it was geopolitics that drove that war, not religion.

Wilhem II's ineptitude after dumping Bismarck caused that. He tried to run the Bismarckian system without Bismark and it drove former rivals Russia, UK, and France into each other's arms through a series of blunders.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

The denial of demonstrable historical facts is becoming an epidemic in this country.

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You are the one being dishonest. Communism tried to replace one religion with another. And South Park is your statement on the path of humanity?

Your religion is just as made up as Islam. You can cling to it if you want, but it's human made ignorance. When you can get past that you can start to see a path out. You do not need imaginary sky gods to live a moral life or to feel a part of something larger. And if we trust science it will have answers for some of the questions that religion created stories to answer.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Basically, a definition of religion.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

That's the entire point, when you eliminate religion, the role it filled will invariably be filled by something else. Please tell me this is an act, you can't possibly be this dense.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Some but never all which is why religion will never disappear until the last human does.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Islam is not the enemy. Islamic states are the enemy. Religions are illogical and irrational ways to run a country. Christians learned this already. Others need to catch up.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

States? terrorists don't even belong to states. they try to find "non-states) from which to operate.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I hear you, but science is driven by business as much as truth. I guess everything is...but I don't have too much faith in the goodness of science...

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There is a state sponsorship aspect to terrorism, but granted that's more related to geopolitical goals that religious ones.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Sounds like you guys agree?

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The money and power comes from Islamic states.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Sounds like you missed his point.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

But Christianity doesn't make and never did make a demand upon its followers to execute God's plan for conquest during their time on earth.

I have a big issue with this statement that Neil Steinberg made in today's column:

"A Muslim blowing himself up does not prove the blood-thirstiness of Islam, nor does a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter undercut Democrats, nor do Republican extremists who go on rampages tar the GOP."

There is no plank in the Democratic or Republican parties' charters about the conversion or destruction of non-believers. The assumption that a person is "deranged" for actually believing the contents of a "holy book" demands a much deeper examination than simply writing off them off as such due to their very logical adherence to the specific demands of a religion that millions of others purport to follow.

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Freedom is our Strength.

It's kind of a chicken or the egg type of situation though. Christianity had some messed up directives too. They may not have reached that level but it wasn't until the power of religion was lessened to the point where they weren't in charge of the land that people started to be able to change things.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

What were the directives that you are referring to brick?

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Members of individual Christian faiths did attempt to forcibly covert people, and obviously many Christians are evangelical (they want to spread the faith), but yeah, I don't think that there is any "we gotta take it over for God" directive at the center of Christianity. Not sure if there is one in Islam. Is there? The moderate Muslims I know would say no. I guess I'd need evidence of that since this is not an issue at all for moderates.

It seems that to those for whom there exists such a directive, many have psychological issues. I don't mean that they crazy (note the hip AAVE), but that they are angry or need to prove that they are part of something larger. Or other psychological issues (perhaps guilt of some sort, or they feel the need to prove themselves, etc.).

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It's becoming damn near impossible to have a rational discussion with religious people. They don't even address the points you make.

As far as I'm aware, no one in this thread has called for the state eradication of religion (that would be completely un-American), yet two of these guys are rambling on about communist Russia. And they're blaming a religion (Islam) expanding because of a lack of religion in the area.

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Just please stop trying to compare radical Christianity in 2017 to radical Islam. The nut job Bible thumpers today are refusing to bake cakes for your gay wedding. Not threatening death.

BRick told me to say: Psychological (guilt, you're imperfect, basically pre-Nietzsche shit) and know your place, peasant

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To my knowledge, no one is arguing to the contrary.

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and if we draw pictures mocking Jesus they just complain and cry about it. Draw a picture of Mohammed and see what happens.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

The ones that you "aren't supposed to take literally". I'm sure you know them.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Radical Islam is enabled by the Regressive Left in the United States. They see calling out the atrocities fostered by Islamic teaching as "proxy" support for the far right wing party. When in reality they should be consistent in calling out the bullshit of both Christianity AND Islam.

What a great response.

It's hard to have a conversation with people that acknowledge history that I choose to deny because I'm too lazy to investigate said history, or I simply choose to deny its existence.

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Rufficorn was starting to go there..and Long Time Guy is always guilty of this. wait till he arrives in this thread...

I don't.

Speak up.

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