Paris Attacks

[CHJ]

All religions are cults.

Personally I would say all Religions started as Cults, only a few Cults survive and develop into Religions or alternate branches of such.

 

[Mr_P]

Good clip about the Old Testament in the West Wing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVL-gA1KpxQ

 

[Phil Pascoe]

alternative?

 

[RogerS]

Don't know where this thread is headed, but I am wondering, is the Quran/Koran much different, in barbarity, from the old testament.?

Lots of similarities between the Old Testament and the Quran and also a lot of differences. There is also the question of interpretation and how slavishly either are followed. One thing is for certain and that is that there are very very very few Christians who are going around killing and maiming in the name of their God.

Not many. They did all that a few hundred years ago. Torture, burning, death. Countless thousands. None of it pleasant.

But that was, as you say, hundreds of years ago. Some cults never grow up.

 

[RogerS]

All religions are cults.

Personally I would say all Religions started as Cults, only a few Cults survive and develop into Religions or alternate branches of such.

From the OED

Cult:
1. The action or an act of paying reverential homage to a divine being; religious worship.

2. A particular form or system of religious worship or veneration, esp. as expressed in ceremony or ritual directed towards a specified figure or object

 

[clk230]

Its all about RESPECT and most religious people would be offended if there belief is labeled a cult !

 

[MIGNAL]

Pity then that virtually all religious people look at atheists with utter contempt. Quite often hatred. I've experienced it myself, from a small group of Christians. I may well have been the devil himself, in their eyes I probably was. Strange but I myself felt no hatred towards them. None.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

^^^ =D> =D>

 

[clk230]

But should you not treat everyone with respect until someone gives you cause to loose that respect .

 

[CHJ]

Are a Group of Atheists promoting their point of view a cult, at what level of exposure or dominance does a group collective become a cult.

Can you be Religious by living by a set of pre-determined society rules without belonging to a cult.

 

[artie]

Can you be Religious by living by a set of pre-determined society rules without belonging to a cult.

I think you could be "spiritual" in your own beliefs and live a productive and ethical life without threatening others.

Whether believing in a supreme being or not.

It's when "religion" gets organised that things go wrong. Someone wants to be in charge, write down rules and interpret what they mean to suit themselves.

 

[RogerS]

....
It's when "religion" gets organised that things go wrong. Someone wants to be in charge, write down rules and interpret what they mean to suit themselves.

=D> =D>

 

[Woodmonkey]

But should you not treat everyone with respect until someone gives you cause to loose that respect .

The person deserves respect, the religion doesn't.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

All very interesting, but mostly not relevant to the Paris attacks.

It seems that within Islam there is an ongoing battle (about 200 years old) between pragmatic, outward-looking Muslims and a minority who take a very hard-line, mediaeval view. The Wahhabist sect is sometimes mentioned in the latter context, and is linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIL/ISIS/Daesch/call-it-what-you-will. The problem is how to defeat it, and allow the more enlightened strain of Islam to prevail alongside the world's other religions.

Quite probably the great struggle of our times. Freedom and tolerance will not defend themselves, it's down to us to defend them.

 

[Droogs]

No religion nor person deserves to have my respect automaticaly. respect by it's very definition must be earned:
Respect - a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

I will, however give a person my regards until I have decided if they deserve my respect.
regard: consider or think of in a specified way.
synonyms: consider, look on, view, see, hold, think, think of, contemplate, count, judge, deem, estimate, evaluate, interpret, appraise, assess, make of, find, put down as, take for, account, reckon, treat, adjudge, size up, value, rate, gauge, sum up, weigh up

However, No superstition, whether organised or personal that relies apon me ignoring quantifiable and repeatable evidence as to the how and why the universe works, whilst stating that I must live in a manner that my own logic and moral compass find wrong or abhorrent will ever gain my respect. Those who practice the aforesaid, may do so, despite their delusion IMHO, but that is entirely up to them and their actions.

Multi-culturalism based around religous creeds is wrong and doomed to failure. due to the very first tennent of every religion being :- We Are Right and all others are wrong, if they will not submit and convert they must be eliminated as they are the other and the other is the enemy.

Multi-culturalism based on social and economic creeds can work however.

I bear no-one any ill, animosity nor harbour the desire to see them come to harm. However, those who are hell bent (pardon the expression) on causing harm and death to those in which I have regard and whose wish is the destruction of the social code I have lived by and defended, I will happily flay alive and feed to the ants in their carphole of a so called caliphate.

My deepest condolenses to those who have suffered loss and may justice be swiftly served on those who ordered these attrocities

 

[mailee]

This planet would be a far better place without religion, it is the basis for almost every war.

 

[murdoch]

I'm a christian, I think that what has happened in Paris and around the world is unbelievably sad. I can't speak for Muslims but I will always try to defend what I believe. With regards to Christianity this country was founded on biblical principles and prospered under them. We have seen a massive moral decline as these founding laws have been changed and removed. Many people have done horrific things in the name of Christianity and other religions but nearly always the real motive was political or personal gain.

I would agree that religion is the biggest reason for most wars and deaths, but that's only as I see atheism as the most dangerous religion of all. Hitlar and Stalin spring to mind.

For the many atheists saying how wrong these killings are, what moral standard do you look too to declare anything right or wrong? I thought we were just a bunch of stardust bumping into other bags of stardust? As Dawkins said "there is no right, there is no wrong, just blind pitiless indifference.

 

[Droogs]

For the many atheists saying how wrong these killings are, what moral standard do you look too to declare anything right or wrong? I thought we were just a bunch of stardust bumping into other bags of stardust? As Dawkins said "there is no right, there is no wrong, just blind pitiless indifference.

The simplest:- Would I like that done to me and mine? No, then don't do it to somone else

 

[murdoch]

That's just personal preference and everybody's is different so doesn't work. What I really meant was an objective moral standard

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"I would agree that religion is the biggest reason for most wars and deaths, but that's only as I see atheism as the most dangerous religion of all. Hitlar and Stalin spring to mind." - Murdoch
Bad men do bad things. It takes religion to make good men do bad things.