Dear Hasbeen,

You wrote;

“If we don't toughen the hell up, & nuke these people out of existence, it is us who will be crushed out of existence.”

You see I'm not sure exactly what distinguishes you from an Al Queda operative or supporter? I suspect nothing but perhaps you can enlighten us.

Belly
India and Pakistan are not really trying, hell hath no fury like a religion scorned:
"The partition displaced over 14 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly constituted dominions; there was large-scale violence, with estimates of loss of life accompanying or preceding the partition disputed and varying between several hundred thousand and two million".

Dear nicknamenick,

I wonder how that compared per capita to when there was a partition attempted in the now USA?

To Belly.

A trade embargo might be the only option so far outside of individuals moving to Pakistan themselves to try to change the country and culture. (Which likely will get them killed or at least arrested for blasphemy). Would they listen or would they dig their heals in farther to hate the west.

You asked if you are allowed to not believe in God. My answer is, am I allowed to believe in God? Does your opinion out rank mine, that yours can be shared but mine can not be? Consider the two topics in atheism so far in this conversation.

1) Get rid of all religions. Is that really an option shared with the intention that a person of faith is allowed to believe in God. Don't worry I'm not blocking your ability to not believe but that philosophy became popular it would block people of any faith from being able to express their faith without being oppressed. (That already exists in some countries. This would just be an atheistic oppressive stance instead of a state sponsored religion oppressive stance).
2) Make up a new religion. If you don't believe in a god, then how is lying about it by making up a religion any good? No good comes from these kinds of lies.

Here is my reasoning for saying to ignore those options. They are a distraction from the issue of injustice in Pakistan, and they won't help with a solution. If either of them were introduced to Pakistan I'd bet a high dollar they would both be a new cause to be arrested for blasphemy. So instead of following that line of conversation I tried to push the conversation back to Pakistan instead of to religion as a whole.

Be angry if you want. But if someone is allowed to say "get rid of all religions," then I (or anyone else) should also be allowed to say "bad idea." It's not blocking what your allowed to believe or not believe.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgkThdzX-8

Nice poem Toni, here's one more.

Now imagine life with all it's woes.
Disease, depression, divorce, widows and more.
In the world of peace there is still the world of woes.
Imagine those who face those woes
Imagine telling them "live for today," and see their reaction
Would the world of woes, loss, and despair be uplifted by those words
Spoken without loss?
Or would the world of woes be at a loss, drowning in a bed of tears
After all today there is despair, what hope is there?

As a person who's seen the dark side of depression I can say the advise to not care about heaven and "live for today" is a shallow grave instead of an uplifting hand. To those who have any handicap from vision, hearing, speed, or strength, the world is a battle just to be average, forget about excelling and living the dream. Not everyone is your super man, and can live in ease at the top of the world. To those in the world of despair, do to their choices or not of their own fault. What do you offer?