The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Why 'religion'? > Comments

Why 'religion'? : Comments

By Meg Wallace, published 22/10/2015

I argue that Article 18 applies to the adoption and manifestation of any life-stance philosophy, religious or otherwise.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. Page 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 14
  11. 15
  12. 16
  13. All
Dear LesP,

The pastor is quoted as saying:

""The God who we worship and serve this evening is not Allah. The Muslim God, Allah, is a heathen deity. Allah is a cruel deity. Allah is a demon deity. A deity that this foolish government of ours ... pays homage to, and subscribes financial inducements to curry their favor to keep them happy...."

He, like many other Christians, chooses to ignore or is ignorant of the bloody history of his own religion. He talks of the cruelty of Allah. Jesus had a saying of looking at the mote in your brother's eye and ignoring the beam in your own.

The Christian heritage includes persecution of pagans, massacres of Jews and heretics, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Wars of the Reformation, forced conversions and an opposition to science which challenged the mumbojumbo.

In my opinion the combination of assent to unprovable propositions and a command to spread belief in those unprovable propositions flawed Christianity from its beginnings, and the atrocities mentioned above were a logical consequence. God, Satan, the Trinity, the virgin birth, heaven, God in human or other material shape, original sin, hell and the afterlife all seem to me a farrago of nonsense. If someone came up to me and said “I am the way, the truth, the life” I would say he was suffering from delusions of grandeur even if his name was Jesus.

The secular state has tamed the evil of Christianity. Unfortunately it has not reached the Muslim world so the Muslim are behaving like Christians did several centuries ago.

In my opinion Christians have no right to feel superior to Islam. Both forms of mumbojumbo have the power to rot minds.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 22 October 2015 6:39:19 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Dear LesP,

Indeed, we don’t have an ideal situation where the state leaves us alone. The tragedy is that partly to blame are religious organisations which rather than cooperate with each other towards this ideal, which would guarantee freedom of religion to all, have a history of rubbing shoulders with the state, asking it to "help" them against other religions and the unbelievers. Themselves they wanted the state to leave alone - but not the others!

Instead, religions should encourage and speak favourably of each other - all religions lead to the same God!
Posted by Yuyutsu, Thursday, 22 October 2015 9:05:18 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The topic begins: "Why 'religion'?" and that: " I (Meg Wallace) argue that Article 18 applies to the adoption and manifestation of any life-stance philosophy, religious or otherwise."

I won't spend too much time arguing with that, because the difference with a religion, is that the public can have some idea of finding out or knowing what a religion may be about.

This means (religions) in principle, can be (very easily) subject to a lot more targeted actions and abuse - and this inevitably flows onto a person or persons.

Fresh air, water or soil does not decide to join or become part of a particular religion for example.

Viewpoints of individuals, who are not religious are a lot harder to find out about, as they are generally in most cases, kept within an individual and as a result have to be released by a person.

Julia Gillard has published her own book, and I could quote from that, if I wanted to, but she was under no pressure to publish anything of such nature.

I've never read or bought her book anyway, but if someone does have a copy, please quote from it on this page, as there are a lot of "Julia Gillard" religious/cult supporters out there.
Posted by NathanJ, Thursday, 22 October 2015 11:10:07 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
To paraphrase speculative fiction writer Jack McDevitt: Faith is conviction without evidence, and sometimes even in the face of contrary evidence. In some quarters, this quality is considered a virtue - just not among people who can reason, question, and challenge.

Better we focus on "freedom of conscience," and leave it at that.
Posted by JKUU, Friday, 23 October 2015 1:08:54 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Q 1, what is a religion? A, if it looks like a cult? swims like a cult? waddles like a cult? & quacks like a cult then it's a cult? A, "light on the hill"? "the true believers"? "you cannot argue against the settled science"? the ritual chanting of slogans, the observance of festivals, vigils, the emotional, rigid behaviour & chastisement of blasphemers. Left wing religion ticks every box in the symptom list of a radical, extreme, negative religious cult.

Q 2, is it even possible to have a positive civilized society without a positive national religion to harmonize or unite the people, teach positive morals, ethics & principles? A, History clearly proves the NO case which is why Australia's founding fathers wrote God & Christianity into our constitution. Ever since 1972 & Multi Culti we have been falling apart at the seams, getting progressively worse. Islam is not the only racial, religious or ethnic group that is not assimilating & is contributing to disharmony.

Q 3, Do we even have freedom of religion? A, no, our constitution was written by Christians for Christians. It guarantees freedom of church choice.

Q, 4, why do we observe "separation of church & state" if the church was not intended to be half of our civilised society? A, the church & state were intended by our founding fathers to have the same relationship as the Administrative, Legislative & Judicial arms of our state. Separation, co-operation, checks & balances between the first 3 arms = the state. The same separation, co-operation, checks, balances between church & state = happier, healthier, wealthier, harmonious civilized society.

Q 5, Does this also mean the state should stay out of church business? A, yes, GLBT marriage for example is UN-constitutional.

http://www.originalintent.us/
Posted by imacentristmoderate, Friday, 23 October 2015 5:29:02 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Hi Imanidiot,

I've been an atheist all my life and never, as far as I can recall, have I ever suffered any discrimination because of it. I've had the freedom not to believe all my life, and so have you.

Stop trying to manufacture a grievance where none exist. Leave that false self-pity to the Muslim clerics.

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Friday, 23 October 2015 8:20:07 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. Page 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. ...
  10. 14
  11. 15
  12. 16
  13. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy