For someone who just says what's on his mind, you sure do say things virulently. And yes, I stand by my words. When people accept each other's differences, their different beliefs, things do not evolve into violence. Meanwhile, it's people who want to force their beliefs into others, that lead to massacres.
Which is one of the reasons why religion is bad. The two biggest religions in the world are all about forcing their beliefs upon others, and many people have died because of it.
You seem to be under the impression that I'm trying to force my beliefs on others. Could this interpretation of my actions be the result of your guilty conscience?
Because after all the talking, if the person you're arguing with still doesn't agree that his religion is "bull", what happens ?
Then I have a good laugh at him.
Will you bring him to the nearest annihilation camp just to get rid of the problem ?
Nope, public humiliation will suffice.
It's still peace.
It's a peace that precedes a much bloodier war, Mr Chamberlain
On the other hand, the behavior you preconise encourages an even stronger response of the believers. "Let's settle this. In blood".
I'm of the opinion that insulating people from criticism causes them to overreact when some criticism finally comes this way.
I said before that religion gets protected, but you can still insult it. However, there is one exception, especially in north-western Europe. There is one religion that can't be criticised, because of colonial guilt and because many of its followers have an "explosive" temper (I made a funneh!)
I think that one of the reasons that members of this religion get so buttfrustrated when someone writes a crappy novel or draws a cartoon is because they receive so little criticism and so don't learn to deal with it. Instead, the world confirms their belief that
their religion is sacred. There was once a time when blasphemy against Christianity would lead to getting sodomised with a red-hot poker, but that is no longer the case. One of the reasons for this is because Christians have just had to get used to some degree of criticism. They're thin-skinned, certainly, but you won't see leaders of Western countries ordering all Christians to kill people who defame the religion.
Islam has not had to learn to deal with criticism in the same way, so should we be surprised when Ayatollah Assaholah gets buttmad and orders fatwas on blesphemers?
I am rather of the opinion that giving offence is good
in itself. It teaches people to toughen up.
Theo van Gogh would still be alive if his film had not been the only one of its kind.
Now, I really want any moderator or admin to close that thread.
In that case, I have screencapped the thread. This is all too lulzy, and the current modus operandi at these forums is to remove and censor all evidence of anyone saying anything silly (see the situation with all of Hermoor's posts), so I must archive it!