It can be entertaining, you bet. It really depends on what sort of day I've had. If I feel like a good laugh I get one from reading the squad's posts. I don't like kicking the cat when I get home after I've had a bad day, so getting stuck into the stupidity of their posts is a good alternative.

I tend to think it's a wider issue than just a fear of Islam - there seems to be a need to impress a fundamentalist version of the judeo-christian belief system on wider society.

The same christian rhetoric gets applied to a plethora of issues - such as abortion and related debates such as stem cells and so on.
I'm not saying christians shouldn't have a voice here, nor am I suggesting there shouldn't be rigorous debate on these, or indeed the role of Islam in society.
I suppose what I do have an issue with is this retreat into scripture as a fall back position. It's then extrapolated to what they see as a superior morality and ultimately leads to a breakdown in reasoned debate. There is nothing more frustrating than the feeling that regardless of what points you make, regardless of any revelations (the non biblical kind) you can put forward, it simply doesn't matter. Any argument you can make is either seen as an attack on god, or the information is ignored because it doesn't quite jibe with the ordained script (pun very much intended).

I give boaz_david some credit insofar as he appears to oppose religion in government - though I fear that other fundamentalists don't share that view.

Yes, it does get frustrating. When a rational comeback is beyond the fundamentalits' grasp, the same old "faith in the lord" answer is seen by them as a superior way to view the topic at hand and all others are faithless inferiors. That makes fundamentalists an arrogant bunch for me. And that applies to any relgious fundamentalist.

The "my way is the only way" attitude is often a belligerent attitude, something that is borne out often enough in human conflicts throughout history.

TurnRightThenLeft, " There is nothing more frustrating than the feeling that regardless of what points you make, regardless of any revelations (the non biblical kind) you can put forward, it simply doesn't matter. "

That probably has something to du with the bit where everyone except god is considered a liar discussed earlier. No matter how strong the evidence if it contradicts the interpretation of the bible a fundy holds then the evidence must be wrong rather than either god or the fundy's interpretation. See the fervent support for a literal creation vs evolution shown by some.

R0bert

I just realised I started a virtually identical post about godbothers - I should have just added to this one. I've given up on OLO (my last hurrah notwithstanding) because of the more rabid christians whose reactionary social policies I find boringly predictable: "Well, must say, I'm not keen on those refos or abos, and guess what, neither is Jesus!"

I think it's a pity - I'd like a good social policy forum to contribute to. Anyway. The good news is that posters like boaz do more than any of us could to turn people away from the myth of Christianity.

He's certainly been made aware, courtesy of this thread, that his precictability is a bore and a pain. As for Gibo, well I think his skull is numb to the point of being beyond help. Time will tell.