On Sun, May 4, 2014 at 7:15 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sunday, May 4, 2014 12:14:59 AM UTC+1, Liz R wrote: > >> On 4 May 2014 07:22, spudboy100 via Everything List < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> I shan't defend the behaviors of the Abe religions over the centuries, >>> but you couldn't term the Hindu faith as pacifist either. In the 20th >>> century the political movement that had atheism at its core, was the >>> Marxist ideology, and how many tens of millions did it destroy, 70 mil, >>> 100? Not a bad catchup I'd say. The "pagan" faiths, previous to, and >>> coexistent with the Abe religions were not pacifist either and were hungry >>> for land, slaves, and murder, just like the Abe's, and even worse. Pagan >>> Rome employed crucifixion, remember? The ancient Chinese, were plenty, >>> murderous, as well. In the Americas and Africa, as far as archaeologists >>> and physical anthropologists, have determined, and were, what I term as >>> being 'genocide friendly.' None of the species were really nice guys for >>> much of the time.. >> >> >> Yep, the religions known as Stalinism and Nazism were just as destructive >> as the Crusades, etc. In fact anything ending in "Ism" seems to be a >> justification for murder or cruelty. (It looks like Capitalism is catching >> up with the others, and may soon surpass all of them if we aren't careful.) >> > > Excusing me, but the Crusades were a nick of time defensive response to a > massive ongoing Islamic aggression. >
Not at all. The Crusades began when the tide was already turning in favor of the western kingdoms' reconquest of European territory. This had been going on for centuries. > They had got as far as Spain by the time the ever dosy Europeans got their > act together and realized this was now a choice between fighting for > survival or succumbing. > There was no Spain at the time, and no unifying concept of "Europeans". These things came later. In a sense, the western world as we understand it today was forged at this time. The crusades where not only a war against the arabs, they were also a strategy by the vatican to consolidate its power and erase the influence of older European religions. You still find many traces of these religions if you visit the north of Portugal and Spain. > You say it like it was the other way around. A very popular myth in the > Muslim world of today....maybe once it was prouder than that, I don't know. > There are several records that seem to indicate that the Muslims were a much more tolerant civilisation than the several European kingdoms at the time. For example, they had universities in the iberian peninsula and would allow non-muslims to enrol. Also, it appears that they respected local religions and never attacked or destroyed their places of worship. They were clearly more technologically advanced, had a much better understanding of mathematics and its applications and so on. Later on, Portugal initiated the Age of Discoveries by a fluke of History, thus setting in motion the chain of events that eventually lead to today's western hegemony. Both the Moors and the Chineses were much better positioned to do it, technologically and culturally. The Muslim civilisation regressed tremendously to the current times, and it's now going through some dark ages period. As usual, religious fundamentalism seems to play a big role in this. > But accountability at the cultural level is not an Islamic strong suite in > our time. Look at our guest right here. Bizarre that he pretends everything > is ok. It isn't....Everywhere Muslims have settled in Europe is an > unfolding disaster. There's no respect or regard for being in another > peoples beloved lands and culture. > Maybe so, but the solution is to help raise them out of poverty, not to attack them. Sharia should not be tolerated in the western world, but apart from that the solution is to increase trade and economic cooperation, not to wage wars. Religious fundamentalism festers amongst the people who have nothing to lose, and the sociopaths who explore this state of affairs. We should respect the "prime directive" :) Telmo. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
