Yes! Blame the promiscuous Women for the Earthquakes

[astra]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

For the record, this kind of method has been used in the past to flush out Jews or Christians. In Japan, people suspected of being Christians were forced to walk on holy images to show their contempt. If they failed the test, they were forced to convert or killed.

I think it was used in Spain too to flush out Jews and Muslims. Everyone was eating pork to prove they are the proper Christians.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

one of the reasons Islam is the way it is now is that it has not gone through its own reformation. that would help a lot I would imagine, but I also think it is almost impossible at this point.

Possible, but not easy, with violence probably involved.

There are any number of strains of Islam. Start with Sunni vs Shia, evolving from a dispute over who Mohammad's proper heirs were. The Saudi's have a strain called Wahabi. There are moderates and fundamentalists on all sides.

An old friend, commenting about the ongoing strife in Iraq, commented "They're shooting at each other! We just happen to be in the middle!" I think he's quite right. Irag is a simmering mass of ethnic and religious divisions, beginning with a Shiite majority ruled by a Sunni minority. Saddam Hussein kept a lid on the pot by main force. When we went in and removed Saddam, the lid came off, and the pot promptly boiled over. This should have come as no surprise to anyone. (The fact that it came as a surprise to the US is a source of despair over our efforts at foreign policy. If you don't understand how the other guy thinks, you can't successfully deal with him.)

I thought he was fascinated by Judaism and studied with Rabbis?

I would not be at all surprised. Christianity derived from Judaism, and I can see Mohammad trying to "get back to the roots", as it were, in clarifying and codifying his own beliefs.
______
Dennis

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Enough religious dogma (now there was a good movie!)... can we go back to blaming promiscuous women now?

Please?

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Enough religious dogma (now there was a good movie!)... can we go back to blaming promiscuous women now?

Please?

I think that that is grossly unfair to the allegedly promiscuous women.

To all the promiscuous women... It saddens me to think that people are so quick to judge and lay blame at your feet. I understand your anger and frustration with the world and those in it who feel they must persecute you. Should any of you, or even all of you, feel the need for a shoulder to cry on... I am here for you. I'll do whatever I can to console you in your moments of grief.

Yes, great movie!!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by dsvick

I think that that is grossly unfair to the allegedly promiscuous women.

Actually, it's only unfair to established promiscuous women. Those who are allegedly promiscuous are innocent until proven promiscu... er, ah, guilty.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Actually, it's only unfair to established promiscuous women. Those who are allegedly promiscuous are innocent until proven promiscu... er, ah, guilty.

Good point - I'll let you know how it turns out if any of them contact me

[wodin]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Whenever people live together in groups, there must be agreement on what constitutes acceptable behavior. We call the agreement "morals". We call the written down version "laws". But regardless, the agreement must exist for the society to survive.

Dennis

Some "societies" shouldn't survive. It's all a matter of who decides. Thus the Jihad against Israel.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by wodin

Some "societies" shouldn't survive. It's all a matter of who decides. Thus the Jihad against Israel.

The fish starts to stink from the head

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Oh, we really need to get back to promiscuous women now!...

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by wodin

Some "societies" shouldn't survive. It's all a matter of who decides. Thus the Jihad against Israel.

There would be no Jihad against Israel if it weren't for the perception (which I'm not arguing about the factual accuracy of, simply stating it's existence) that Israel has "stolen" land from the Palestinians and is badly mistreating them. No society sits down and says to themselves "we are the bad guys so we want to kill the good guys"-- they all think that they are right and the other guys are wrong.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by beppe

The fish starts to stink from the head

Yes, but the cat starts to stink from the rear.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Yes, but the cat starts to stink from the rear.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Oh, we really need to get back to promiscuous women now!...

We really, really do ....

[astra]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

There would be no Jihad against Israel if it weren't for the perception (which I'm not arguing about the factual accuracy of, simply stating it's existence) that Israel has "stolen" land from the Palestinians and is badly mistreating them. No society sits down and says to themselves "we are the bad guys so we want to kill the good guys"-- they all think that they are right and the other guys are wrong.

There would be Jihad against someone else.
People who rule by instilling fear and submission into masses need to re-route anger of their slaves against someone else but themselves.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Culture is usually thought of as "everything we know and do", but it is broader and deeper. Like the proverbial iceberg, 90% of it is hidden, and operates on an unconscious level. We are generally no more aware of our culture than a fish is of the water it swims in. It's what we are raised in and we deal with it automatically.

I find interesting the possibility that the language we speak shapes the way that we think-- that we think "in language" and concepts that don't exist in your native language are difficult to understand or even imagine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity

One of the more fascinating ideas is a language based on absolute directions:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boro...y09_index.html

"Instead of words like "right," "left," "forward," and "back," which, as commonly used in English, define space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define space. This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the north northwest a little bit." One obvious consequence of speaking such a language is that you have to stay oriented at all times, or else you cannot speak properly. The normal greeting in Kuuk Thaayorre is "Where are you going?" and the answer should be something like " Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." If you don't know which way you're facing, you can't even get past "Hello.""

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by astra

People who rule by instilling fear and submission into masses need to re-route anger of their slaves against someone else but themselves.

Yes, that IS an accurate description of how the US government works!