12-31-2006, 01:21 PM
Quote:Peace :peace:
So here's my take...
No doubt there are many people worldwide "reverting" to Islam. That's fine! I don't have a problem with that. But it makes me wonder how many Muslims would "convert" to other religions if there wasn't severe punishment for apostasy in Islam ??? I know many people who have escaped from the East in fear that they'll be killed by authorities/extremists because they've denounced Islam.
Well, it is quite obvious that converting out of islam can be dangerous with the dynamic of fatwa inspired goon squads potentially hunting you down. In no other religious faith on the planet does one making an adult choice to leave or change his or her religion carry the threat of death. How utterly weak a faith must be that it must control it’s adherents through threats and intimidation.
Think about it, what is the best way to get someone to believe as you wish for them to? FEAR. Scare the hell out of him. Tell the people that evolutionists are on a paved road to hell...., tell people that leaving the faith will cause god(s) to abandon them (and back up those threats with Mafioso enforcers), and you will deter them (for a time) until they LEARN better.
I find it laughable that one should dismiss Hinduism and its idol-worshipping as false and unsupported while at the same time being wholly unable to provide the slightest evidence that your, (the collective “your”), religion and it's various customs are in any way garnered greater authority. Moslem’s appeals to Allah as "the Lord of the Universe, the One God" are no more demonstrated than those of the Greek Gods. Yet, all religions make these claims. Each claim to be the only way to god, that the others are wrong, and all use some form of mind control to gain and keep their members. Christianity uses heaven and hell, the concept of sin, a corrupted nature no one can escape, the requirement of a savior to ameliorate the gap between gods and men. Reincarnation is the device used by Buddhism and Hinduism, wherein the "punishment" is a repeatable life that would stress the soul in ways it stressed other in its previous life. Every religion cloaks itself under dynamics which affect commercial life, educational (teaching the doctrine of the religion is inerrant even in the face of overwhelming proof contrary to the religious doctrine), and psychological (gods with a vested interest in the behaviors of men, who can see their sins, who are able to mete out justice -- all of these are severe and inescapable mental leveraging that dictates human behavior-- i.e., psychologies).
Certainly every religion, believing itself the arbiter of what is "god-given" takes on the mantle of authority. While I will say that religious belief served a purpose in human history, for the most part there are better models that serve human requirements for these things, and they do it in terms of the common good as opposed to an external authority commanding us on pain or threat of punishment to do the things that are morally justified. As time goes on, these wholly secular environments will grow larger and more potent, and religion will fade (and yes, there will be many false starts and huge errors).
Quote:From memory (Society & Culture - my senior year), the average Muslim family (one wife) consists of about 5 children, whereas, for non-Muslim couples its about 2. I applaud Islam for its fertility rates :thumb:
Let's face it, the sexual revolution has done the West NO favours! When Blessed Mother Teresa was asked by an American journalist how she can believe in a Loving God when there is so much poverty, disease, animosity & misery in the world, she replied by saying that all the people whom God sent to put an end to these atrocities were aborted in their mother's womb. I'll let you ponder that though for a while.
Okay... so at the end of the day, it's all about being "fruitful & multiplying" (God's very first commandment to Adam & Eve). Keep producing souls like John Paul II, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Bob Geldof & Muhammad Ali & we'll have no reason to compare quantities but rejoice at the quality of life :) Amen?
RT, I'm anticipating your right hand punch ;)
God bless.
It’s an odd notion of using uncontrolled breeding in an attempt to overwhelm another population. Suppose moslems’ did, then what?
Somehow, I don’t envision an explosive growth rate among 3rd world nations, (third world because they’re 7th century in they’re worldviews), particularly positive for the planet, especially uncontrolled growth among those who’s formula for a worldview is embodied by “You love life”, “We love death”.
You, (and in particulal Moslems), don’t seem to have any real plan for what you would do when you do outbreed the rest of the population. As we see in every corner of the globe when Moslems are left to their own devices, ethnic/religious hatreds, violence, poverty and disease seem to be the norm. We see this dynamic repeated everywhere such that Moslem populations are growing faster than their nations of origin can support them. The result is legions of Moslems who are lacking in any marketable job skills, people with a perverse sense of entitlement who are utterly unemployable and incapable of providing for themselves and their families such that their rage and ineptitude is directed at the infidel West as an excuse for their own self inflicted failures.
Absent the “infidels” to have as the focus of their hatreds, moslems just find cause to hate other Moslems (Shia, sufi, what have you).
You’re not well thought-out on this.
Here, check the link below to see how this dynamic manifests itself.
http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/e...rriage.pdf