Runner you state "you r obvioulsy blind to the fact that non religous people are as violent if not more so than religous people."

Can you please provide the stistical evidence to support your claim, I doubt it, just more blind hatred and ranting according to your faith. I would estimate the majority of violence today, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa is a result of religious intolerance. Go figure, engage the brain before you type ridiculous statements.

You really need to take a long hard look at yourself, a little bit of additional education wouldn't go astray either.

One cannot be religious AND violent - it's a contradiction!

Obviously one could claim to be religious, words are cheap and even a whole group could claim to be a religion - but if they are violent, then they are not.

While I seldom support runner, in this thread he is the voice of reason.

While what happened at the wedding is despicable, a handful of nutjobs does not define an entire nation of millions. The outrage amongst normal Israelis was huge and was reflected in the statements of Israeli politicians.

By comparison there are a hundred fold sites showing palestinians celebrating the stabbing of innocents incl jewish women and children, and the Palestinian leaders celebrating and encouraging this depravity.

If there is a side to shun or boycott in this conflict it is not the Israelis. Stuart Rees is the one with no shame.

Dear Yuyutsu,

I totally disagree with your statement 'One cannot be religious AND violent - it's a contradiction!'

Violence and religion are two sides of the same social control coin. For example look at the underlying meaning in the ideology of jihad in Islam which condones the use of violence against non-believers as a vehicle for conversion to its faith. And what about sacrifice conducted by ancient and primitive religions. And what about the tortures conducted by the Church during the religious wars throughout the 16th & 17th centuries in Europe. Half a million people - mostly women accused of witchcraft - were tortured and executed for heresy against the Church during the early modern period.

You are obviously bias toward your religion and blinded to the reality that religion has been used as a mechanism for social control through the exertion of violence against those whom the stalwarts of religion see as a threat to 'their' social order. Unfortunately Yuyutsu, like most adherents of religious doctrines, you are unable to distinguish reality from myth. You are doomed to live your entire life in a world of fantasy

Dear Mr. Opinion,

The reason that violence is incompatible with religion is that there is nothing but God - you are God and so is the one you are violent towards. Since you wouldn't want to hurt yourself, by hurting another you deny the commonality in essence between you, that you and them are the same, instead believing that you are separate - which takes you away from God, rather than towards God, which is what religion is all about.

Those violent forms of Christianity and Islam which you described are therefore not religions. You may well argue that Christianity and Islam as a whole are not religions (but rather, as you say, some social-control mechanisms) - nevertheless, I have observed people who successfully use those techniques for their religious advancement towards God, so I wouldn't discard them altogether.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Thanks for enlightening me and showing me the error of my thinking. It's all so obvious when you point out that Islam and Christianity are not actually religions and that God is God. It all makes sense to me now! How could I have ever have gone wrong and misunderstood the truth. I guess I've spent too many years at uni studying humankind and its cultural and social forms to actually realise the errors of my way. I should have enrolled in 'Religions Ain't Religions 101' and 'God's God 101' so that I wouldn't go around asking stupid questions. (By the way, did you know that GOD is DOG spelt backwards?).