Wonder why they aren't calling for the stoning of every 7-year-old who voted to name the teddy bear Mohammed? Those evil 2nd graders!
Can't help but wonder which is worse, to name a teddy bear in honor of Mohammed or to name an actual child who may turn out to be a psychopath? Which dishonors the Prophet more? I've always thought it was asking a lot of any child to name them either Mohammend or Jesus -- I mean what impossibly high expectations do you have for that child?

This isn't much worse than certain Christians in this country saying they aren't allowed to say "Merry Christmas". Just saying.

This isn't much worse than certain Christians in this country saying they aren't allowed to say "Merry Christmas". Just saying.

Except for that whole jail sentence thing. Oh, and the calls for her execution. Aside from those minor differences, that's some brilliant analysis, bravo.

The worst part of this is that some of the same extremists that want this woman killed are the ones who defend Islam as a "peaceful" religion. I'm not saying that Islam isn't a peaceful religion, but the hypocrisy in this situation is absurd. Imagine if Christian's tried to have people killed for saying "oh my god".

Huh ?? I thought it was the secularists who are banning the word Christmas, not the Christians?

Yes, I can see you are one who gets offended over a well-intended greeting. In this case, the Sudanese are getting offended over a well-intended name. That's my point, but go ahead and be ridiculous if you'd like. Brilliant comment by you too.

Offended? Not me, I'm not religious. My point was that trying to draw parallels between the two situations is ridiculous, at least for someone with common sense or some sense of proportion.

The concept isn't that difficult to grasp. Let me repeat. Christians are getting offended by a "Happy Holiday" greeting. Sudanese are getting offended by the name of a teddy bear. See the parallel? What's so hard to understand? You are correct that the Sudanese punishment is worse, but that had nothing to do with my point or my original comment. I wasn't talking about punishment.

The concept isn't that difficult to grasp. Let me repeat. Christians are getting offended by a "Happy Holiday" greeting. Sudanese are getting offended by the name of a teddy bear. See the parallel?

I thought your point was: "See? See? Christians are just as bad!"

Now isn't this cute, or what?

When Islam comes out of the dark ages, the world will be a safer and more sane place.



Examples:

- Wanting to kill a teacher for allowing students to name a bear Mohammed.

- Charging a woman with adultery and lashing her - after she was gang raped.

- Rioting, burning cars, calling for the death of a cartoonist for drawing a cartoon of Mohammed.

- Defacing women, for not being "modest" enough (i.e. wearing a tarp over her face and body or for trying to get an education).

- Homocide bombers walking into public places and killing innocent women and children.

- Flying 2 jets into the WTT and the one jet into the Pentagon, killing close to 3,000 innocent civilians.



When moderate Muslims start to question what their radical Islamists brethren are doing in their religion's name, then maybe we can begin to make progress. I know some on this Board will try and defend these things.....what does that say about them?

The entire backstory of the brand of Islam practiced in Sudan and how it has spread there and why is just too long to go into here. No one would want to bother to read it....

I found this online from the Times UK. It's a list of blasphemous modern situations. Did you know for instance that there is a movie that the US has banned because it is considered blasphemous and will not allow it in the US? That is just one of the examples.

Christianity is no stranger to executing whom they consider blasphemers. Probably a whole hell of a lot more... And if not executed, then hounded and ruined such as Gallileo. Taking his daughter and putting her into a convent for life for punishment. I don't know enough about Judaism to say if executing for blasphemy took place or not.

If the internet had existed way back when, we'd be reading about Torquimado and the rest of the 'righteous'

Anyway, here's the Modern Blasphemy list:

http://timesonline.typepad.com/faith/2007/...lasphemy-c.html

You forgot one. They are allowed to have sex with a goat--provided the goat is of the opposite sex from the human. If the goat is of the same sex as the human, they consider it perverted, and punishable.

Anyway, here's the Modern Blasphemy list:

The concept isn't that difficult to grasp. Let me repeat. Christians are getting offended by a "Happy Holiday" greeting. Sudanese are getting offended by the name of a teddy bear. See the parallel? What's so hard to understand? You are correct that the Sudanese punishment is worse, but that had nothing to do with my point or my original comment. I wasn't talking about punishment.

And, I wonder if my questions will go unanswered yet again.

I am often amazed by some of the regular posters on TB. Specifically, the ones who constantly criticize people of faith. Melody is constantly critical of religion. Usedmeat likens faith, as he terms it "fundamentalism", to a mental disorder; and looks forward for a day when a "cure" is found. Who's cure? How will it be carried out? Remember, society - medical and psychological experts leading the charge - thought they could "cure" homosexuality. Hitler had his own brand of cure. As did Stalin, Pol Pot and all the great tyrants of our curent age. I guess the cure is in the eye of the beholder.



But, as I have asked many times before, is there any good from religion? From religious people? From the "fundamentalists"? I happen to be from an Independent Fundamentalist Church background. My faith is one of the reasons I teach in an urban school. My faith is one of the reasons I donate to WSRM, Make-A-Wish and many other charities which serve humanity - both faith-based and secular. Our faith is one of the reasons my wife and I are foster parents to a beautiful little girl. Where has faith done myself, my family or my community wrong here?



I will freely admit there has been much done wrong, much pain created in the various, mankind-created perversions of religion and religious texts and teachings. I am, however, always saddened when people of a different mindset refuse to see any good from people of faith. The diatribes and ridicule are never pleasant, and many times are hurtful. Thankfully, I am content with Christ's teachings of turning the other cheek, and praying for there well-being.



And, I wonder if my questions will go unanswered yet again.

But, as I have asked many times before, is there any good from religion? From religious people? From the "fundamentalists"? I happen to be from an Independent Fundamentalist Church background. My faith is one of the reasons I teach in an urban school. My faith is one of the reasons I donate to WSRM, Make-A-Wish and many other charities which serve humanity - both faith-based and secular. Our faith is one of the reasons my wife and I are foster parents to a beautiful little girl. Where has faith done myself, my family or my community wrong here?

When you think it can't get any more worse (any more worse... is that bad grammar?) the Pope just made a pronouncement that all the problems and troubles in the world are due to atheism.

Richard Dawkins issued a challenge awhile back: "name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer."

."

When moderate Muslims start to question what their radical Islamists brethren are doing in their religion's name, then maybe we can begin to make progress. I know some on this Board will try and defend these things.....what does that say about them?

Huh ?? I thought it was the secularists who are banning the word Christmas, not the Christians?

how about all the people who have cured themselves of various diseases thru faith when doctors told them they were going to croak or else be debilitated?

betcha this dawkins guy could not have done that.

No...thats just you allowing yourself to be mis-led and buying into the propoganda. Noone honestly cares how you adress a person in your private life, and noone is moving to "ban" any word....particularly Christmas.
Later...Shawn

Richard Dawkins issued a challenge awhile back: "name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer."

The "brightest" religious minds in the world haven't taken up the challenge. Gee, I wonder why? hahaha

You (the collective you) don't need religion to be good. Be honest with yourself. You're in it because of the "dangling carrot."
Nothing like the pot calling the kettle black.

How about all of the people who have cured themselves of various diseases without "faith"? The placebo affect works on everyone and is not confined to faith alone.

Just curious, GeezWhiz, are you another one of those people who doesn't believe in God, but is constantly using that tired old phrase "Oh my God"?

how about all the people who have cured themselves of various diseases thru faith when doctors told them they were going to croak or else be debilitated?

betcha this dawkins guy could not have done that.

Are you going to tell me that Timothy McVeigh or David Koresh were sane people and people of faith? They were the textbook definition of fundamentalist. As was the guy who went around killling doctors that did abortions.

I certainly hope I am free to address a person as I see fit in my public life, as well.

aren't they placing faith in the doctor who tells them the pill will cure them?

Yeah, I heard similar stories where someone couldn't start their car or lawnmower and then prayed... waited a second and the car or lawnmower started. Praise the lord... that he took enough interest in their vehicle or lawnmower while letting 6,000 people die of starvation at the same time. OH YEAH... da lord is now MR. FIXIT.

Amazing. Let's get all worked up over a name given to a teddy bear by grade school children. Who gives a rat's rear end about the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed over there.

Not in every circumstance. Often times doctors truly don't know whats wrong. They don't prescribe anything, and it goes away on its own. I once had severe lower back pain. I had x-rays, and went to several specialists. None could determine why I had the pain. I wasn't prescribed anything, and guess what. After a few months, it went away on its own. I was healed, and I didn't even need a smack to the forehead. I didn't have faith in anything. I just assumed I was going to have to live with it for the rest of my life. Luckily I didn't.



Later...Shawn

is it possible that the pain would have gone away sooner if you had an attitude of postive expectancy that it would? is that such a stretch given the symbiotic relationship between mind and body? and isn't faith just an attitude of expectancy which can be fortified thru belief in how a thing works?

we all know that people can be hypnotized into acting like a chicken on stage for the amusement of an audience. we all know that the same subject can be given a post hypnotic suggestion so that on cue he will act like a chicken after the hypnotist brings him out of his trance.

is there any reason then that the same person cannot be hypnotized into quitting smoking, sticking to a diet, or to have better work habits?

and since that is all possible why cannot someone be hypnotized into being healthy. i am not talking about someone on death's door , but someone who is not sick at the present. if the suggestion of health is implanted into his subconscious with sufficient force , for lack of a better word, then there is no reason that person cannot be healthy and not experience disease given that the subconscious is the builder of the body, is amenable to suggestion, and cannot reason inductively.

then if the above is true why can't someone use auto suggestion to improve and or maintain health?

the answer is that there is no reason. thru prayer and meditation, which basically access the subconscious when done properly, can and will give a person health.

belief is the key.

"name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer."

I'm not arguing that the concepts of faith and prayer can't mentally cure somebody of an illness. I'm arguing that you were wrong when you posed that example as a response to this challenge:







I was just showing that a non-believer can achieve the same outcome as a believer, so the challenge still stands.



Later...Shawn

[u]


They weren't fundamentalists at all, they were fanatics.

if a non believer in god, was told by a doctor that he had 6 months to live, to whom or what would he turn in a leap of faith to circumvent the authority of the doctor.

people have been healed by their faith and belief in god. are there athiests who have also been healed and to whom did they attribute the healing since they would not be praying to be healed?

if a non believer in god, was told by a doctor that he had 6 months to live, to whom or what would he turn in a leap of faith to circumvent the authority of the doctor.

people have been healed by their faith and belief in god. are there athiests who have also been healed and to whom did they attribute the healing since they would not be praying to be healed?

I am often amazed by some of the regular posters on TB. Specifically, the ones who constantly criticize people of faith. Melody is constantly critical of religion. Usedmeat likens faith, as he terms it "fundamentalism", to a mental disorder; and looks forward for a day when a "cure" is found. Who's cure? How will it be carried out? Remember, society - medical and psychological experts leading the charge - thought they could "cure" homosexuality. Hitler had his own brand of cure. As did Stalin, Pol Pot and all the great tyrants of our curent age. I guess the cure is in the eye of the beholder.
But, as I have asked many times before, is there any good from religion? From religious people? From the "fundamentalists"? I happen to be from an Independent Fundamentalist Church background. My faith is one of the reasons I teach in an urban school. My faith is one of the reasons I donate to WSRM, Make-A-Wish and many other charities which serve humanity - both faith-based and secular. Our faith is one of the reasons my wife and I are foster parents to a beautiful little girl. Where has faith done myself, my family or my community wrong here?
I will freely admit there has been much done wrong, much pain created in the various, mankind-created perversions of religion and religious texts and teachings. I am, however, always saddened when people of a different mindset refuse to see any good from people of faith. The diatribes and ridicule are never pleasant, and many times are hurtful. Thankfully, I am content with Christ's teachings of turning the other cheek, and praying for there well-being.
And, I wonder if my questions will go unanswered yet again.

- if your god was doing his job, I wouldn't have to help in taking up the slack.

As I said above... natural medicine and positive thinking.

Nope, don't use the "oh my god" phrase. Most start and end with the F word. (Don't know why I use the F word... heck sometimes the person I'm telling the F word too I really want to do it to them and other times the woman who is telling me the F word... I really want to do it to them too!) (Someone should start a website with new creative swear words... that make sense.)

positive thinking is prayer.

No it is not. I'm not asking some mythical character for help... I'm telling myself to do it.

Prayer: "Prayer is a mental exercise and type of meditation in which the participant (the prayer) in many but not all forms of prayer attempts to loose mental connection with Earth and transport their mind to another person not on Earth. In most prayer this person is God or another deity. ..."

well praying to get a stalled car to start and using faith to cure oneself of disease and affliction are not exactly the same but i can understand your confusion.

the idea that a god sitting outside of creation "letting" 6000 people die is the source of your error as well as the fundementalists.

either god is wrong or youse people have conceptionalized god wrong, by conditioning him with human attributes amoung other things.

"Youse" are the ones praying to a mythical character... not me. Of course you can prove me wrong about God NOT being myth by taking my challenge that's in my signature.

So far my challenge, which has been going on for 3 years has NO takers. The challenge is that a few of you get together and pray to God to cure everyone in the world of breast cancer in the next... oh 30 days. Read my signature... taken right from the Bible. Since it's from the Bible they gotz to be true. hahaha

"therefore i say unto you, what things soever you desire, when ye pray, beieve that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" mark 11:24
that sounds like an attitude of positive expectancy to me. prayer whereby someone beseeches a stubborn diety to change his mind and/or act contrary to the laws of nature is futile.

true prayer is a state of mind whereby the feeling of the consciousness one would feel were his desire fulfilled is assumed even tho there evidence to the contrary.

"praying without ceasing" is having a positive mental attitude continuously that good health is yours .

Natural medicine. I've said this a number of times on this board, but I used to get 3 or 4 colds a year. Since a friend turned me onto herbal remedies that build the immune system I've been cold (and flu) free for 8 years.

Most are not asking w/ clean hands and a pure heart. Psalms 24:4

Amazing. Let's get all worked up over a name given to a teddy bear by grade school children. Who gives a rat's rear end about the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed over there.

Off topic, but which natural medicines? I'd rather take those to prevent the cold and flu than end up taking anti-biotics when my colds turn into sinus infections. Your tips are very welcomed!

the natural medicines do nothing that a sugar pill and the same positive attitude can't do.

save your money.

5 years ago I don't think there was a doctor in Lancaster County who knew a darn thing about natural medicine. A few months ago my wife visited a doctor after finding out her chloresterol level was a bit high. Did he prescribe some Big Pharma drug? NOPE. He has her taking Omega3 fish oil, CoQ10, garlic and I have her on a couple things too.

Off topic, but which natural medicines? I'd rather take those to prevent the cold and flu than end up taking anti-biotics when my colds turn into sinus infections. Your tips are very welcomed!

Once again you are wrong.

5 years ago I don't think there was a doctor in Lancaster County who knew a darn thing about natural medicine. A few months ago my wife visited a doctor after finding out her chloresterol level was a bit high. Did he prescribe some Big Pharma drug? NOPE. He has her taking Omega3 fish oil, CoQ10, garlic and I have her on a couple things too. Yet, my mother-in-law is blindly taking dangerous Big Pharma drugs to lower hers.

The "Intelligent Designer" did a pizz poor job in designing us when we have to look to natural medicine to cure our ills.

Elect me as your "Intelligent Designer" and I'll make sure your system will be able to eat donuts, drink alcohol, eat burgers, pizza, cookies, chips, etc all that good smelling and tasting food without any ill effects (unless of course you're going to eat something like tofu) because I will be the OMNI"Intelligent Designer." (Remember believers... it's blasphemy to eat shrimp, lobster and any other shellfish... you will PAY dearly for breaking that law. ((and Goldi don't say it 'cause you're wrong... read the NT a bit closer)) )

BR, it's been proven that washing your hands is the best defense against colds and influenza. Think about what your hands have touched when you're out and about

Also, the place in a bathroom with the least amount of bacteria is, believe it or not, the toilet seat. The towel dispenser handle has the most because it's always wet.

Next time you get a cold and think you'll die without wonder drugs, try to remember that your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother probably caught a couple colds in her cave, and yet you're still here to pass her DNA along to another generation.

At least the teacher from England was only threatened, but not beaten up, by extremists.

Once again you are wrong.

5 years ago I don't think there was a doctor in Lancaster County who knew a darn thing about natural medicine. A few months ago my wife visited a doctor after finding out her chloresterol level was a bit high. Did he prescribe some Big Pharma drug? NOPE. He has her taking Omega3 fish oil, CoQ10, garlic and I have her on a couple things too. Yet, my mother-in-law is blindly taking dangerous Big Pharma drugs to lower hers.

The "Intelligent Designer" did a pizz poor job in designing us when we have to look to natural medicine to cure our ills.

Elect me as your "Intelligent Designer" and I'll make sure your system will be able to eat donuts, drink alcohol, eat burgers, pizza, cookies, chips, etc all that good smelling and tasting food without any ill effects (unless of course you're going to eat something like tofu) because I will be the OMNI"Intelligent Designer." (Remember believers... it's blasphemy to eat shrimp, lobster and any other shellfish... you will PAY dearly for breaking that law. ((and Goldi don't say it 'cause you're wrong... read the NT a bit closer)) )

Because she was wisked out of harm's way by saner heads.

I read that the teacher was taken from the jail were she was serving her sentence to an undisclosed location to finish it. The authorities thought the jail was going to be overrun by the IRA Muslim extremists.