Zeke Yewdall wrote:
>>From a religious studies perspective, I believe Judaism, Christianity,
> and Islam are all semetic religions, and originally stem from Judaism
> which was founded (or evolved from previous multi-diety/agricultural
> religions) in the middle east around 4,000 years ago.
Perhaps it's more accurate to say that all three religions stemmed
from the faith of a single man, a "wanderer" (Habiru, in one of the
ancient languages) named Abram who believed in God. His sons, Ishmael
and Isaac, are reckoned as inheritors of the promises God made to
Abram. Islam traces its lineage of faith through Ishmael, the Jews
and Christians through Isaac.
A tragedy in all of this discussion centers upon promises for
prosperity that God made to Abram thousands of years ago. These are
used as a pretext to justify all manner of behaviors which God clearly
does not approve (murder, theft, covetousness, etc.) by the hypocrisy
of ignoring these clear commands for the sake of achieving political
ends. If God made the promises, he should be left to deliver on them
WITHOUT our getting in the way. (After all, if he is God, why would
he need us to help him?)
So now we're talking about possible sanctions against Iran. In an
interview Karl Vick yesterday, NPR broadcast a contention that Iran's
nuclear program was first discovered three years ago, but that it had
been going on in secret for 18 years. What I found interesting in
this centers upon Karl Vick's admission that the Iranians, according
to the provisions of treaties they've signed, have the full right to
develop nuclear power. Yet Mr. Vick, who is a reporter for The
Washington Post, consistently blended the concepts of nuclear power
with nuclear weapons, as if the two were completely interchangeable.
Canada has had nuclear power reactors for many years, but nobody
worries that Canada is developing WMDs. I don't hear the same kind of
concern about nuclear weapons up here that Karl Vick casually mixed in
to his discussion with Melissa Block on NPR. One of the most
frightening things about this kind of talk, is that once the
non-thinking public begins to believe that nuclear power = nuclear
weapons, we're easily maneuvered into thinking that the only solution
to the potential threat lies in preventing nations like Iran (who are
not "good" like us, after all) from building power plants at all costs.
Mr. Vick pointed out, however, that the Iranians see this as
"scientific apartheid", and that there is no "level playing field"
among nations when it comes to nuclear power. Then, he launched into
a comparison of the Iranian president with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez
and "leftist president Morales" of Bolivia. He might as well have
said that the Iranians are in league with the devil, given the
prevailing attitude of most Americans to those particular leaders.
Even though at the very end of the interview he admitted that Iran is
talking about power, NOT nuclear weapons, the damage had already been
done.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5159746
I was a little disappointed that Melissa Block didn't take her
colleague to task over this. It seems like we're being duped again.
robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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