Sheesh, this thread is proving one thing, ie. how religion is centered in the emotional centres of peoples minds and most reason can get thrown out the window in the process.

Religious people are in love with Jesus, in love with Mohammed etc.
Didn't anyone teach you that love is blind ? :)

What we do know so far is this: Both Christianity and Islam are proselytising religions, both with a history of violence, which played a factor in their spread around the world.

Neither religion can provide any substantiated evidence for their claims, so both religions are no more then ideas. Yup, people can fall in love with ideas, look at history.

Both religions would like to force their moral code onto the rest of us, despite a lack of substantiated evidence for their ideas.

No 10 commandments written on the face of the moon, nothing that we can verify, just ideas and passion, emotion etc.

Now can anyone tell me why I should respect an idea?

Alan Bold

You kind of said it all about your mindset with this remark:

"I think Taliban and Osama are hero's"..... sadly for you, this killed your credibility 110%. We happen to know (due to FREE press) what the Taliban DID to countless people... murder.. rape.. public executions without number...

I have not said "we have the right" to do (list of war atrocities) I just admit they are FACTS ! Yes.. 'people' are quite bad arn't they.
But ask how many did those things "Because they learnt them about Jesus"... ? NONE ! No, they learnt them from the 'pedal to the metal, rubber meets the road of raw brutal survival !

They were done in the interests of FREEDOM and golly gosh.. just LOOK at those countries today ! how 'poor' and undeveloped and subservient Japan is and Germany... etc.. yep.. worse things can happen than lose a War with America/England/Australia

WHY NOT draw Cartoons about Jesus ? Sure.. but try to make sure they rely on HIS words and deeds, not 'fantasy' ones. The cartoon about mohammed as a Bomber, is based on HIS OWN LIFE and 'real' actions, not fantasy ones. (substitute sword for bomb)

CARTOON ABOUT JESUS.. yep.. there He is.. healing the blind man.. oh wait.. here is another.. raising Lazarus from death.. and wait.. still another.. 'driving out the money grubbing merchants from the temple' (a tad violent yes :) and then another...setting the man free from 100 demons.. or..healing the Soldiers ear after Peter had sliced it off with his sword....or feeding the 4000, or the 5000...
Or with Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration..

Yup.. there is plenty of material, but not many 'bombs' :)

The West is indeed 'evil' as is the 'East' and ALL need to turn their hearts to Almighty God, repent of injustice, cruelty and greed, and seek forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

Bennie,
The uneducated Islamic population is being whipped up to hate the West and any escuse will do. They hardly hate their brothers in Egypt. The issue is not really the cartoons it is really that the West dared to print them.

Yabby your emotive post demonstrates one thing that you actually believe your ideas with a passion. Fancy believing ideas have reality, rather irrational isn't it?

I suggest you post no more abstract concepts because they are ideas generated in the mind to understand reality. The problem is you actually believe them as do all religious people. Do not dare talk about love or hate these are religious terms, abstract concepts, that define some demonstrated behaviours.

Of course you being an evolved unemotional homosapien do not have any of these behaviors. You are the new generation of bioandroids.

Why did we not see this level of blood-curdling ferocity over Howard's new sedition laws? Then, the big issue was freedom of speech. Now, the big issue is freedom of speech.

Then, the (white) media were concerned the new laws would curtail freedom of speech. Now, the white worriers are concerned an unfamiliar religion wants to curtail freedom of speech.

Why wasn't there a similar level of outrage last year when restrictions on speech were legislated?

Perhaps we're not discussing freedom of speech in general, but who should be free to speak and on whose terms.

Thankfully we are free not to listen.

Alchemist,

Just a thought in passing, mate, and going on 85, it evolves around a deep study between history and politics and golf. The thought is simply about how modern religous attitudes can relate to a well known quote of Socrates. "OUT WITH THE GODS AND IN WIH THE GOOD".

Of course heaven in those days was just another locality with earth-like families writ large in the sky. But surely we can take a lesson from Socratic philosophy, when a study of history shows how much man has distorted the teachings of God's messengers as we might call them, to suit themselves. So surely we can still believe in a Creator, and still use the Socratic mixture of Reason and Revelation as it is believed great modern personages of our time such as Nelson Mandela, and others, are already doing naturally.

George C, WA - Bushbred

Well I am offended by this article, can I go riot now?