Thanks Chris, You've shown that we need such morons on a Monday, just to give us a laugh and put us in a better mood for the week :)

Long may useful idiots open their mouths and prove themselves.

Joe

The 'religion' that is most responsible for wars of aggression has nothing to do with spirituality.

It's the stupid belief that having enough is never enough.

Great article. It well exposes the usual cliched responses from apologists on this forum...honk! honk! (goose cry) what about the IRA? ....honk! honk! what about abortion clinic bombings?

They cant be serious ...

The 'what about the Christians/Buddhists?' argument is just so stupid. Firstly, in case you haven't noticed, there's not a worldwide problem of Christians and Buddhists daily committing atrocities.

And even if there were, two wrongs don't make a right, derr. Persecutions by other religious people doesn't somehow excuse or defend rsecutions by Muslims. And persecutions by persons of other religions, don't disqualify those who condemn persecutions by Muslims, even if they did condemn only religious persecutions by Muslims, which they don't.

The 'why should all Muslims be blamed for the actions of a few terrorists' argument also misses the mark. The problem is how do non-terrorist Muslims morally deal with the fact that Mohammed was a mass murdering, raping, slaving, armed robber, who had sex with a 9 year old when he was aged 54?

Their dilemma is, if they condemn him, they reject their own religion (quite apart from putting themselves at risk of being killed by their co-religionists). But if they don't, they show by their adherence to their religion, defined by following Mohammed and the Koran, that they do not reject, and may believe in, behaviour which is extremely anti-social, abusive in the extreme, and completely unacceptable in modern civilised society - which obviously a significant minority of Muslims do think is okay.

The fact that, at any given time, non-terrorist Muslims are not committing atrocities, may be as good as it gets. But if they believe that God wants them to follow Mohammed's example and teachings, OF COURSE ordinary Australians are perfectly justified in asking what their beliefs are, and condemning and renouncing them, and none the less so for their beliefs being religious.

Craig

"It's the stupid belief that having enough is never enough."

In case you haven't noticed, you're describing the human condition, including your own, otherwise there'd be no need for you to have a computer would there? But perhaps, like the religious, you speak from a Gods-eye point of view?

Well, it's not that long ago that we Christians killed in the name of our God.

Yes we've come a long way since then, with pedophiles protected from natural justice /bulging at the seams church coffers, and so on.

As the Christian Leader reportedly said, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Having said all that, it's hard to disagree with the general thrust of the article, and indeed, the necessity to isolate this "religion", until it moves out of the stone age and entirely unproven medieval beliefs, and into the 21st century.

Faith and certainty that something is true, doesn't ever make it so.

That being so, we need to isolate this (barking mad) belief system until it is dragged roaring and screaming; shooting, bombing, beheading, raping and killing, into the 21st century.

And I fear this conflict of ideas, because that's all they are and none can prove otherwise, will have destroyed two thirds of mankind, before that happens.

Not too bad a thing some may suggest, always providing it doesn't include their kith and kin.

If Islam were Ebola, and it's arguably even deadlier, we'd have no problem/compunction isolating it and allow it to devour itself!

Given Islam is seemingly at war with the world and not just incompatible, but hostile to all other belief systems, inclusive of their own more moderate parts!

We are left with little choice but to; send them back to where they came from!

We just don't need to entangle our lives, our belief systems and sense of decency and fair play, with people who routinely lie with impunity to infidels; or, who'd strap bombs to ten year old girls, (remain silent and therefore giving tacit consent) in order to enslave their own female population/prevent them getting a personally liberating education!
Rhrosty.

JKJ, an interesting comment, but well wide of the mark.

I have a laptop which cost me $600 plus a further couple of hundred for software. I choose not to pirate software, since it seems reasonable that those who take the trouble to produce it should be paid for their efforts (I suspect SPQR just heard a few more geese honking way up in the sky, above the clouds), although I do use shareware and freeware if it's decent, like Firefox or Chrome and contribute through donation to Mozilla and Wikipedia.

My laptop could be replaced for about $400 or less today.

I spend $120 a month on broadband access, which I include as part of the rent deal for my sub-tenants, since comms is now an essential service. I require internet access for my studies and personally use about 5% of the bandwidth available, while my tenants and my son use around 50-70% between them. We could settle for a cheaper and lower capacity plan, but the way the plans are structured a small saving has a very large effect on service and while I would be fine, others in the house would miss out.

Furthermore, I donate to Khan Academy, which provides free access to high quality internet based educational services. It's a fantastic initiative that has the potential to change the world. I'd love to see every child with the ability to draw on the knowledge they make available.

Do I aspire to having a bigger and better computer? Nope, the one I've got is great; reliable, does everything I need it to with some reserve so it will remain useful over time.

Greed isn't good, and it's greed at the heart of far more conflict than any religion, even those conflicts in which religion is used as a pretext.