Pope Benedict throws down the gauntlet

[dreddnott]

So the Pope links Islam to violence, calls Mohammed and his followers unreasonable, and says it's not cool to use violence to spread your religious ideals, and then the entire frigging Muslim world whines about it, kills at least one nun and firebombs some churches, and various mullahs and imams make death threats against him!

If irony was strawberries, we'd be drinking a lot of smoothies right now.

What the pope said is reproduced in a paragraph in the middle of this essay:
http://hnn.us/articles/29989.html

More interesting thoughts:
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10367

How do y'all feel about Islam and its effect on world culture since its inception in ~622 AD?

I would say the reaction of apparently most Muslims who heard about what the pope said was hilarious except for the poor nun being murdered and the churches being firebombed.

[Unknown_K]

Some Muslims are a touchy bunch, then again so are all fringe elements of every religion. If you look at what a few thousand or even hundred thousand Muslims say and or do in public you are seeing a small fraction of the Billion+ Muslims in the world.

What I find funny about the Pope is that most catholics are black africans (since the catholic church has been sending people there for ages to make believers out of the spear chucking heathens) and you will never see many (if any) cardinals or popes coming from africa to live in the Italian surrounded vatican city (the pope would be disowned by the rest of europe and america).

Religion has allways been about controlling the masses (especially during the middle ages where there was no all powerfull government that could do the job). I still laugh when the Muslims bring up the crusades (and those spanned what 100 years or less) to make westerners feel guilty, when the facts show that Muslims had tried to take over all of europe at the point of a knife for 1000 years. Blacks play the race card, jews play the anti-semitic card, republicans play the unpatriotic card, and Muslims play the lets go kill somebody card every time they hear something they do not like. Is this anything new?

[Vlad]

Don't kill me for saying this, (remember I'm a moderator :P)

I think its just a bunch of BS thats all part of a bigger system of control meant to keep us, as wildly unpredictable humans in line. It all starts with your local gov't, laying down the law, then you go higher into Federal Gov't. Then you go higher into something that I'll get yelled at for talking about here. If the Government can't keep you inline, there is always the all seeing eye of "god" who sees your every sin. Its all a bunch of crap to scare you into submission so they can keep you under control. Then when people refuse to be beaten into submission like that, they are viewed as either, athiest, extremeist, or just plain crazy. Its all another form of control, and now the religions of the world are starting to clash with one another (again if its ever stopped). So all in all, its nothing really new. Just the same "don't sin and do exactly what god wants you too or you'll go to hell" controlling nature that has always been around.

Weeoo I feel better..... And I like smoothies.....

-VK

[Luke]

So the Pope links Islam to violence, calls Mohammed and his followers unreasonable, and says it's not cool to use violence to spread your religious ideals...
Pope is infallible... lol

[dreddnott]

Actually, Vlad, I agree with your sentiment but I think you're mistaking religion in general for religion as used/exploited by politicians and the government.

Islam isn't so bad in America because we're not under Shari'a law.

Christians in countries besides the USA and most of Europe aren't so bad because they're actually concerned with saving peoples' souls, and not trying to be another political bloc struggling for power.

In my opinion, that's where Catholicism fails, it's effectively a form of government.

P.S.: were you beaten by nuns as a small child? ;)

[atari2600a]

Wow, my sacrastic post was deleted. What an unnecessary form of censorship...

[Vlad]

P.S.: were you beaten by nuns as a small child? ;)

LOL No, I wasn't. I just have a poor view of any religion because of stuff thats happened in the past.....

-VK

[Terry Yager]

Wow, my sacrastic post was deleted. What an unnecessary form of censorship...

That sound you're hearing is a BlackHelicopter hovering over your house...

--T

[dreddnott]

Wow, my sacrastic post was deleted. What an unnecessary form of censorship...

Next thing I know, you're going to tell me that there are necessary forms of censorship!

The only form of censorship I agree with is self-censorship, but since most people don't oblige...

[mbbrutman]

This is a private web forum and our users are here by priviledge, not right. Therefore, it's hard to complain about censorship. Moderators can't take away your right to say things; but we can prevent it from happening here.

Also remember that this thread is potentially inflamatory, so be careful what you post.

[atari2600a]

Hm, well on a serious note: You hear all these retards blaming an entire religion (Islam) on what a few terrorists groups did. (Kill alot of people)

The Nazi's where Christian, but you don't see anyone blaming Christianity for the deaths of 15+million! (There's a common misconseption that Hitler only killed 11 Million Jews, but he also killed an additional ~4 million people (homosexuals, gypsies, etc...) Sorry if I got the numbers wrong, It's been 2 years since I last researched the Holocaust...)

What I see here is plain bigotry!

(By the way, you know all the unwarranted phone tapping stuff you've heard about on the news? Apperantly the "Heassan" family (my family) was a candidate! (We've caught some people messing w/ our line some years back...))

[Vlad]

Well, the terrorists kill people in the name of Allah, (sp?) Hitler killed people because they were not part of the aryan (again SP?) race. Thats why Christianity didn't get blamed, Hitler killed in his name, the terrorists kill in the name of god.

-VK

[dreddnott]

Most people accept a figure of 5-6 million Jews, 5-6 million other people.

[atari2600a]

Damn, I new I had the numbers wrong! (Note to self: Next time a historical reference is made, double-check w/ Wikipedia)

[Terry Yager]

I'm invoking Godwin's law and closing this thread.

--T