We lampoon religions all the time in the US. I'm a "equal opportunity
religion basher." I feel that all religions probably belong in a
museum. But we have people here who think that Buddhism and Hinduism
are religions when they are philosophies. I seem to recall that
Zoroasterism is also a philosophy (very much an advaite offshoot) but
people have made it into a religion too.
I first took a look at Islam after taking my SCI course and my
rationalization was the Mohamed wanted to set things we saw as natural
laws as rules in a religion because people weren't observing them
otherwise. Actually what happened was Mohamed, seeing the ongoing wars
between the war lords at the time invented the religion to put an end
to it. We have better ways of dealing with war lords these days. And
we need to do it rather than letting them continue to run amok.
On 01/07/2015 12:55 PM, [email protected] [FairfieldLife] wrote:
---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote :
Ah, the bravery of the liberals who think they have a perfect right to
insult anyone's cherished beliefs just because they want to.
Brave for sure. They just paid with their lives.
Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to insult other people's
religion. They don't like it and it is not helpful to the situation.
You should have learned that in grade school.
Lampooning others' beliefs is a time-honoured tradition in the West.
---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
*From:* "s3raphita@... [FairfieldLife]" <[email protected]>
It's an odd kind of duty to publish cartoons that mock the founder of
one of the world's largest religions in the way that is plainly meant
to be deeply offensive to adherents of that faith. You say things cut
both ways, and the matter of respecting the faith of others does also.
Why should anyone *respect* a faith they regard as intolerant of
gays or women or free speech? Respect has to be earned. I support
anyone's right to criticize Islam as robustly and satirically as they
wish; just as I support someone's right to argue that liberal
attitudes to sexuality are repugnant. Let everyone say what they wish;
we can listen to their claims and come to our own conclusions. What
are you afraid of?
*/Thank you for saying this. /*
*/
/*
*/There is this terrible meme we have inherited for centuries -- both
in the East and in the West -- that says, "If we call it 'religious',
it's *protected*. You can't say bad stuff about it or criticize it."/*
*/
/*
*/During many of these centuries, the people saying this were IN
CHARGE. Their religion *ran* things. So if anyone *did* say anything
critical of their "religious" beliefs, they just killed their asses.
Simple as that.
/*
*/
/*
*/What we're seeing today in radical Islam and in the fundamentalist
extremes of religion such as Hindu Supremacy is a bunch of religious
people wishing that the world still worked that way. They'd really
*like* to KILL anyone who doesn't believe the way they think they should.
/*
*/
/*
*/Currently on planet Earth, only one major religion is actually
consistently claiming to be PROUD of doing that -- killing anyone who
doesn't believe the way they think they should.
/*
*/
/*
---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote :
It's an odd kind of duty to publish cartoons that mock the founder of
one of the world's largest religions in the way that is plainly meant
to be deeply offensive to adherents of that faith. You say things cut
both ways, and the matter of respecting the faith of others does also.
---In [email protected], <s3raphita@...> wrote :
Re "That other people don't see the world the same way you do should
be the first thing they have to teach at these "faith" schools.":
Well, yes. But can you imagine a state, secular school teaching kids
that some people regard homosexuality as an abomination, or that
women's place is in the home, etc, etc? It cuts both ways.
John Stuart Mill in On Liberty argued that we should always have some
private (non-state) schools otherwise the state would simply use its
monopoly to push the ideology of the ruling Establishment. He was
right then; he's right now.
The problem is we have two opposing fundamentalisms: religious versus
new atheist/PC thinking. I don't subscribe to either as I want people
to question all authority. But you don't learn to question authority
in school! I suspect you don't *learn* it at all - you either have an
enquiring mind or you don't.
Anyway, salutations to those killed at Charlie Hebdo. They died in the
line of duty.
