On May 23, 2008, at 8:15 AM, David Henderson wrote: > > On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 10:57 AM, Chris Gehlker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > The Imperial Japanese army had 5 million members at it's height. It > committed acts of terror including suicide bombings. It did have an > official religion, Bushido, which is a form of Buddhism. Therefore > Buddhism *is* the most terrorist inspiring religion in history. > > Bushido is *not* a religion. It is a combinatory word form of Bushi > and Do or warrior and way in english.
I think you're being way to literal about something that was clearly tongue in cheek. The fact is that Bushido in WWII became a tool to develop militaristic rituals to fire up the soldiers. The rituals practiced by the Taliban that we have all seen on TV have about as much to do with Islam as the Banzai chanting thousand stitch scarves and the rest of the WWII bushido crap had to do with the teachings of Buddha. The fact is that *every* military and quasi-military organization, even the Red Army, develops some form of cult practices and something like chaplains. WWII in Europe was trapped out as a crusade by both sides. I simply don't think that the fact that the anti western forces in the middle east are moslem explains much. -- The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. -Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945) _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
