Comments by lesferdinand

1. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115899 by lesferdinand on January 25, 2008 at 2:24 am

And yet another proof that it's impossible for humanity to act decent without the holy word of god...

Comment #115294 by lesferdinand on January 24, 2008 at 12:38 am

Once again a case that shows the problems the Western world gets itself into as long as we keep taking religion serious.

3. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113910 by lesferdinand on January 21, 2008 at 1:50 am

Geert Wilders is an idiot. But unfortunately he's an idiot with a lot of voters behind him. Personally, I think he is a xenophobe and only uses Islam because it's discriminatory and futile to attack immigrants based on their ethnicity.

It would be better if the media ignored him unless there's some real news to report. The amount of attention that this unreleased movie has received is ridiculous. The attention and importance given to this unknown movie almost 'legitimises' an outbreak of violence upon its release.

4. 'Letter to a Christian Nation' now available in paperback

Comment #111568 by lesferdinand on January 15, 2008 at 2:46 am

I'm currently reading "The End of Faith" which is a good read. While I don't always agree with Harris (e.g. I think holy books don't have as much influence on the morals of a society as he argues the koran has on muslims) he was spot on with his argument about the ridiculousness of prohibiting drugs. After the debacle of doing the same with alcohol back in the 1930's we (and next our governments) should know better.

I might give this one a try as well, after I've finished "The End of Faith" and "God is not great".

5. Blind Faiths

Comment #110455 by lesferdinand on January 11, 2008 at 8:01 am

"Eh, no. The Muslims have no right to the land because they came as invaders who committted genocide uppon the native population."

Like the Americans, Australians, New-Zealanders, Brasilians, etc. don't have a right to the land they're currently occupying. When it comes to genocide, there's few religions that had followers as dedicated (and able) as christianity has had... Not to mention the quite recent holocaust. While it's debatable whether or not Hitler was a christian, at least he came from a christian tradition and the majority of the German population was christian.

People from different groups, whether defined by ethnicity, religion, football club allegiance etc. tend to anihilate each other as soon as it becomes opportune. The only reason Western Europe has been quite calm since WWII is the European Union, which showed that trade earns you more than fighting a war and stealing each others lands and resources. Has very little to do with all of us becoming enlightened the past few years.

6. Blind Faiths

Comment #109893 by lesferdinand on January 10, 2008 at 2:30 am

"None of which makes the slightest difference practically. Christ has been seen as the Prince of Peace for something like two millenia of Christianity. Muhammad was always seen as a warriror. Their existence is irelevant; the effects are the same."

Like NakedCelt said, christians (or christian nations) have rarely practiced peace in the past two millenia. I'm not defending islam, I'm equally against all religions.

But blaming just the contents of the koran for the current problems with muslim extremists takes away our view on the solution. We (the world) can't do much about the contents of the koran and arguing with believers is useless, they have to discover the ridiculousnes of faith on their own. We can, however, do something about the socio-economic and political factors that feed the jihadists (though it will be hard to muster support for this, at least it's not impossible).

7. Blind Faiths

Comment #109482 by lesferdinand on January 9, 2008 at 5:49 am

"Ring a bell or two, perhaps?"

You mean people tend to migrate to places where they think their chances of a better life are highest?

8. Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

Comment #109480 by lesferdinand on January 9, 2008 at 5:47 am

"The rise of Homo Sapiens is a very good example of evolutionary mechanics leading to the widespread demise of the dominant species."

True, hadn't thought of that one. Probably too near or something :) Though like the predators we replaced at the top of the food chain, we're mamals.

9. Blind Faiths

Comment #109417 by lesferdinand on January 9, 2008 at 3:12 am

"Really. Well, try the following experiment: Walk around your city for a day with a sign denoucing Christ and Christianity. Now try that with a sign denouncing Muhammad and Islam. Yeah, I thought so."

I don't deny that denouncing islam nowadays is much more dangerous than denouncing christendom. My point is that socio-economic and political conditions have a huge impact on the way a people interprets its holy books. If things had worked out differently in the past and islam 'ruled' the world, with christianity as an oppressed and frustrated group, it would have been more dangerous nowadays do denounce christ.

"This is absolutely basic: Christ was a pacifist, to the extent that he preferred his own death to violence. Muhammad was a warlord, a cruel and evil man who waged continuous raids for booty and slaves, who struck the heads off his captured enemies before sending their children to join him, who cut the hands and feet off jews who displeased him and left them to bleed in the desert."

First, there's not that much evidence for the actual existence of either prophet. Second, there was little pacifism in christendom until Enlightenment. With today's Western morals, christ is interpreted to be a pacifist. While it is quite probable that, if he actually existed, was a radical rabbi with little compassion for non-jews. The "love thy neighbour" of 2000 years back very likely only included fellow tribesmen (thus of the same jewish faith) and not outsiders.

"I am really fed up with this bogus moral equivalence. It's nonsense, and its a way of ignoring the extent of the problem. And it is profoundly unjust."

There is no moral equivalence. But people don't get their morals from their holy books, rather the other way around: contemporary morals dictate how the holy books are interpreted.

10. Blind Faiths

Comment #109398 by lesferdinand on January 9, 2008 at 2:06 am

"I think the difference is not that suppressed Muslims think more global 'West against Umna' than suppressed Catholic's - both are suppressed from their own corrupt governments (filling their own pockets first) or globally from 'Western imperialism'. So the main reason seems to be really Islam."

Many of the non-muslim suppressed people were part of the Western imperialism. Look at South America for example. They can hardly blame the West (so their own forefathers, with the same religion) for exterminating the native people (with different religions) and giving them the land they currently live in…

I still don't think islam isn't the main reason, the main reason is that the oppressor and the oppressed have different religions. Had the situation been reversed, christians would have been frustrated and all the ingredients to fuel a tradition of martyrdom would have been in place.

To make things clear, I'm definitely not advocating islam. I just don't think it's inherently more dangerous than christianity. Socio-economic and political factors are most important, religion is the catalyst. The world would be a better place without religion, no doubt.

11. Blind Faiths

Comment #109384 by lesferdinand on January 9, 2008 at 12:54 am

"If the number of Muslims in the world increases beyond that of Christians it will simply result in an orgy of triumphalism/humiliating of Christians/dawa I suspect."

I don't think so. Religion is a powerful force with regards to human actions but living a life of (relative) luxury is even stronger. When there is an islam superpower, there isn't much reason for jihadists anymore. I don't doubt they will be gloating and will humiliate the conquered in the first century or two. But they will not blow themselves up anymore as they'll have much more effective ways of getting rid of their opponents, much more to loose by doing so and they don't have to fight for media attention anymore.

"But a single individual can trigger a revolution when the dormant anger of people is ripe for it – see Karl Marx."

That was my point: Marx's writings were in accordance with the latent feelings within a large part of the population. He didn't change what they thought, he just put it best to words. Which of course allowed it to mobilise itself get even more support. But if Marx hadn't been there, there would still have been communism. Someone else would have recognised the dormant strength of the poor and would have tapped in to that.

12. Blind Faiths

Comment #109035 by lesferdinand on January 8, 2008 at 7:49 am

"The West has a need to find one source for radicalism. I don't think that can all be pinned on Qutb (although certainly some of it can)."

I personally don't think an individual can change what a a society thinks. "Thought leaders" are generally those that best document/describe the latent thoughts within society. They rarely stand on their own, it's just that their less gifted companions tend to be forgotten by history.

Like I said in my previous post, there is a single reason for the radicalism in islam and that's the fact that it's not the dominant religion within the world and has been 'dishonored' by Western colonialism. While the numbers of its followers are rapidly growing, the Western, christianity inspired culture is still the dominant one. If your people are in a worse position than those of a rival religion, there's two things you can do: 1) rethink your beliefs. If they're true, surely your god wouldn't let you live as a second class world citizen under the oppression of followers of another god. So your religion must be false; 2) see the current situation as a punishment of your god. You (and your people) did something wrong to him and if you stick closely to the holy book and do everything you can to destroy his enemies surely one day your people will be rewarded.

As soon as islam will dominate christianity, the christians will become radical. If you don't have the war machines on your side but everything you believe in or hold dear is threatened, you'll resort to terrorist attacks. The reason you'll rarely see a Western person commit a suicide attack is not because we don't value our beliefs/ideals as much as a muslim does but because there's either little reason to fight (our rights are protected in the countries we live in) or if we 'must' fight, we have better alternatives (cruise missiles, tanks, etc.) at our disposal.

13. Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

Comment #109025 by lesferdinand on January 8, 2008 at 7:07 am

For now I'll stick with the meteor theory as it's logical and simple (the Indian volcano alternative sounds too contrived to me). I'm no biologist but I don't know of many examples (none TBH) in the history of the Earth in which evolutionary mechanics (in this case the rise of insects, flower plants and deceases) lead to complete worldwide eradication of the dominant species in a relatively short geological time span.

14. Blind Faiths

Comment #108977 by lesferdinand on January 8, 2008 at 4:20 am

I don't think that current islam is that different from early christianity (or judaism). Islam so far hasn't had it's own enlightenment that's for sure. But the reason for this isn't so much inherent to the religion itself. I think its origin is political: After the collapse of the great islamic empires, islam became the religion of the oppressed. It's quite hard to enlighten yourself when you feel threatened by and/or inferior to another religion. The first reaction is to cling even stronger to your fundamental truths. It can't be a coincidence that practically each and every current muslim country used to be a Western colony. Had the Europeans/colonists not almost completely eradicated the native population of the Americas and Australia, I'm quite certain they would have islam as the primary religion now as well.

15. Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield

Comment #108943 by lesferdinand on January 8, 2008 at 2:31 am

"What's dangerous about the world today is not belief in God—or secularism or unbelief—but ruthless certainty. If 2008 is the year when we can begin, in private and in public, to concede that we don't know all the answers, then let us say amen."

What a load of bull. 'Atheists' don't claim to know all the answers. They just don't accept a potential answer without proof. I'm not 100% certain god does not exist. But as there's no proof for his existence, I'm as certain there is no god as I am certain there are no leprechauns. If, however, convincing evidence of the existence of god (or leprechauns) surfaces, I will accept that. It would be foolish not to.

16. The Price of Freedom

Comment #77387 by lesferdinand on October 9, 2007 at 7:24 am

Lots of factual errors in the article, most of which have already been mentioned. To add, Submission wasn't a film "that highlighted the maltreatment of Muslim immigrant women living in Holland." but was about the Koran advocating maltreatment of Muslim woman in general.