And nobody's been killed for doing so. Of course, I guess you could argue that Scientology is not a religion. Oops, I just did it.

when the mockers are of the original congregation, and not of the splintered sect - or is that stated backwards? Gawd, it's so confusing.

If this is in reference to Geller, yeah she is an islamophobe bigot, but that is her right, and in no way justifies trying to shoot the shit out of her event.

anti-Westboro people do... (and in the process, completely neutralize Fred Phelps' bullshit with humor) then I suspect "mohammed cartoons" wouldn't even be a thing, for much longer.

You can't just pick a couple.

Try call out their bigotry in Religion.

RC Cola is an abomination.

my sister was addicted to it in the 70's, i remember her drinking 6 16 oz bottles a day

NOT diet

gained a lot of weight

My sister and I drank that in the 1970s. It had a lot of grape in it and was pretty good. We didn't live anywhere near Delaware so I don't know about the origins of it.

Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco, Texas, home of the Vatican City of the Baptists, Baylor University. And yes, once Playboy did a feature on the girls of the Southwest Conference, with a few girls from Baylor, they were jokingly called the "Baylor Bares". Baptists tend to be humorless assholes, in my experience as a Texan.

Or something like that. If he didn't say it, I did.

Here's a link to the full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3187

Excerpt from Chapter I:

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]The problem, however, is that people don't want to look at one's position in a broader perspective. They want to make judgements on a single post.

If you are making a critique of Christianity, then you are anti-christian and won't criticize Islam. Make a Critique Islam and you are an islamophobe who doesn't criticize Christianity. Critique Jud....well you get the idea.

No one wants to look at the larger picture or that a person HAS INDEED criticized other religions. And more often than not, those who go "what about..." are bringing up other religions not so much out of concern that one religion is being unfairly singled out, but more so as a way to derail or shut down a conversation.

It is the religious version of "Not all men..."

And when they aren't doing that they are misrepresenting atheists as talking about all members of a religion no matter how many times we say not all Christians, not all Muslims, not all Theists, not all men...It is being intentionally obtuse and putting words into people mouths to make political points while ignoring what is actually said.

If you don't put the qualifier "some" or "fundamentalists" or whatever on EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE, even if you made it clear earlier on that you were focusing on those subgroups, then you are talking about every adherents. Just like if a feminist doesn't put the qualifier "some men" before every sentence then MRA types instantly make it out as if they are talking about all men.

For many it is not actually about not broadbrushing groups, as much as it is about derailing any critique of religion. [/font]

.....here (DU) and in this country when one says "religion", it is often taken to mean "Christianity".... even when atheists mean, y'know, RELIGION.... like in general.... like any one with a god or two... plus Buddhism, which has no god really (they sorta make the Buddha one tho')


No one even asks what Geller's religion is. She's a Jew, not a Christian.

Who does that here? Hands?


Tell it to those Christians who mock Scientology and Buddhism.... and other Christian sects!

We can't seem to sound a single critical note about the uniquely awful problems with Islam without first saying we hate all religion, the crusades were awful, mentioning murdered abortion doctors, Fred Phelps, etc. Only then will even the mildest criticism of Islam be permitted without whipping out the Islamophobia and racism cards.

Don't believe there are specific problems with Islam today? Check out the opinion surveys of Muslims in the middle east and Europe, the state of women and minority rights in Muslim-dominated countries, and the completely over-the-top violent reactions in many parts of the world when even the mildest mockery of that extreme right-wing ideology, Islam, is made.

Bringing up thousand year-old history and isolated incidents involving Christians or Hindus is a deflection of the problem at hand, and betrays in inability to face the truth. Some of that mere cowardice. Some of that is misguided political correctness, in which a (presumed non-white) believer would get a pass the way, say, a Mormon never would, and some of that is the soft racism of the left, which will never expect to hold muslims to the same standards as it does anybody else.

has been killing people by the hundreds across the world on a regular basis, it's the large body count and the continued oppression of women that make it the most attractive target and one that many will talk about.

I find it absolutely amazing that supposed progressives are continually defending a religion and culture that treats females as chattel without rights to even leave the house or drive a car without permission. As though such a culture and religion were deserving of the same respect as a progressive culture that recognizes the rights of women, gays, minorities as equals under the law.

Catholicism has its sex scandal and continued idiocy spewing from the vatican, and protestants have their own idiots happily engaged in disrupting funerals because their god hates gays and kills soldiers as punishment.

But those religions are not daily, in 2015, rounding up women in a host of locations around the world to be used as sex slaves for jihadis.

We can continue to pretend that islam fundamentalists are no more dangerous than the WBC or recognize the simple fact that holding up a moronic sign at a funeral and acting like a jackass hardly compares to entering a mall and murdering a few hundred people.

Fundamentalist islam is the largest and most dangerous religious issue of our time. Pretending otherwise out of some fear of being perceived as a bigot is simply not being intellectually honest.

I never once said that all muslims are dangerous killers, but out of all the fundamentalists from a variety of religions in the US or worldwide it's pretty clear fundamentalist islam has on qualms about using the murder of women and children as a means to expand their power.

Consequently that religion and its fundamentalist adherents should be exposed under a spotlight and a bullhorn each and every day until either the moderates get control of their murderous fundamentalists or we wipe those fundamentalists out with high order detonations and the use of high velocity kinetic energy.

How many Muslims are there?

A BILLION

do you want to fight them all?

Your attitude can lead to that unless you are willing to dialogue with the several hundred million of them who are not radical or dangerous.

as I had hoped, I didn't intend to intimate that I meant you, but I've seen countless examples here and over at the DI site where supposed progressives struggle to call out islam for its murderous and oppressive ways.

Sometimes violence is unavoidable, I don't believe that's the case with the majority of muslims.

But then again we've not actually suggested that they globally lose their religion.

Islam is going thru theirs.

I'm not quite sure what your complaint is - from the OP on, it seems to be the usual complaint that this group is picking on poor li'l Islam and giving a pass to other religions.

You must be brand new here, and have never read much of this group. At least I'll try to be charitable and assume that. But before you go accusing us of the dreaded Islamophobia, you should read some of the previous threads. This group is wonderfully ecumenical in bashing all religions.

On Islamophobia, as I've said too many times - I lived in Muslim countries for about 6 years. (Saudi Arabia and Egypt.) I have literally put my life in the hands of Muslims more times than I can count.

In that last "growing pains" post, you seem to be comparing medieval Xianity with modern Islam (as many people do). I don't consider that a valid comparison for several reasons:

1. Xianity is no longer allowed to burn witches and heretics because its power was finally broken by the rise of the secular state.

In modern fundamentalist Islam, the religion IS the state. That's the very meaning of "sharia" law - law based strictly on the Koran.

2. Modern Fundamentalist Islam also divides the world very clearly into two spheres: Dar al-Islam, the House of Peace, which means nations living under sharia law. And Dar al-Harb, the House of War. That's everywhere else. Not much room for respectful Interfaithy dialogue in that view.

3. Are you trying to say Islam needs a Renaissance? It's already had several, including the famous Abassid Dynasty. In modern times, Muslim nations have had several Ba'ath parties - "Ba'ath" is the Arabic word for "renaissance." And those political parties gave us such Renaissance men as Moammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein. I'm not sure how much more of that Renaissancing the world can stand.

4. There's always the insistence that we non-believers need to grovel and show "respect" and "tolerance" for religion. Well, I have certainly witnessed "respect" and "tolerance" operating in Muslim countries. In Egypt, riots between Coptic Xians and Muslims were not uncommon. In almost every case, those riots happened because either a new mosque or a new Xian church was being built in a neighborhood. The usual respectful, tolerant response to the new neighbors was to burn down their church or mosque.

christians who love to attack Islam etc

but then they dont mock themselves, do they

We've always been equal opportunity mockers.

And our "intolerance" of religious bigots pales in comparison to the things the religious do to further their cause.

You don't see atheists lobbying to deny women and lgbt people their human rights.

Religious bigotry is perfectly acceptable.

Just look at the hate speech Pope Frankie uses when talking about lgbt people, and he's hailed as a progressive on DU.