Fucking Religious Luddite Zealot Terrorists strike again!

[Alyrium Denryle]

Oh Yes, one group of idiots decides to break several of the core commands(Thou shalt not murder, Treat others has you would be treated, etc, etc)

And we're all murdering bastards, thanks a lot. This is like me blaming all Atheist for the actions of certain Athesit regiemes in the world.

Don't be a fucking idiot. No one said that all Christians are like this, only that there is nothing about Christianity which makes it intrinsically less prone to extremist violence than Islam, despite propaganda to the contrary. Do you not have the necessary brainpower to understand the distinction?

I'm so sick of Christians leaping on the "I'm a victim! Help me!" hobby-horse the instant anyone says anything less than glowingly positive about the faith.

Meh, dont worry about it Mike, he was IIRC in iraq.. I would imagine christians arent welcomed there... I can understand if he is defensive

[Alyrium Denryle]

As to the subject matter...

OH FUCK, another subsection of the science I love has just become dangerous to my health, with yet another group of morons willing to kill me...

[Darth Wong]

Don't be a fucking idiot. No one said that all Christians are like this, only that there is nothing about Christianity which makes it intrinsically less prone to extremist violence than Islam, despite propaganda to the contrary.

Well I can see where he thought you were saying that.

Just imagine how Christians would behave if they seriously felt threatened as a group, instead of being firmly in control of the most powerful nation on Earth.

*Shrug*

And you are so fucking stupid that you don't know the difference between a hypothetical question and "it's already that way right now"? I stand behind that statement: Christianity has never demonstrated that it is less prone to violence than any other religion except when Christianity has been prosperous, which is exactly the way Islam was during its height.

[Rogue 9]

If I may, at it's height Islam was doing it's damnedest to conquer the known world. But whatever.

[Darth Wong]

If I may, at it's height Islam was doing it's damnedest to conquer the known world. But whatever.

There you go, being a moron again. Islam actually became quite insular and isolationist at its height, which is why it did not remain at its height. The Christians took the lead by aggressively expanding beyond their territory and conquering the New World.

[SirNitram]

If I may, at it's height Islam was doing it's damnedest to conquer the known world. But whatever.

At it's height, Christianity felt it already had conquered the world, and split it up(The Pope dividing the world up between the European powers), which understandably did things like annoy Japan.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Can someone explain the bible-thumpers to me on this one?

They say abortion is murder. They say the use of stem cells comes from abortions.

Now let's assume for the sake of argument that they are right on both counts. What's the big deal? The bodies of murder victims are used for medical research. If I get killed by some maniac, I would hope that the medical examiner would try to salvage something from a bad predicament and use parts of my carcase to educate people.

These people are INCOHERENT fanatics.

They probably believe that stem cell research will encourage many expectant mothers to suddenly get abortions for the good of society.

This is as faulty a line of reasoning as Larry Niven's "OMG! Organ transplants will cause the government to kill me!"

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Just imagine how Christians would behave if they seriously felt threatened as a group, instead of being firmly in control of the most powerful nation on Earth.

That's strange: I thought that Christian fundies liked to portray themselves as the "oppressed minority", despite the fact that that notion clearly has no basis in reality.

They do. When I was in college, my christian roommate kept going on and on about the poor oppressed christians, and how they needed our help. I am glad I was able to keep myself from snapping and oppressing his ass into the ground.

[DPDarkPrimus]

They probably believe that stem cell research will encourage many expectant mothers to suddenly get abortions for the good of society.

Also because you don't need to have an abortion to donate stem cells. When a science teacher at my school gave birth, she donated the placenta to a research center.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Just imagine how Christians would behave if they seriously felt threatened as a group, instead of being firmly in control of the most powerful nation on Earth.

That's strange: I thought that Christian fundies liked to portray themselves as the "oppressed minority", despite the fact that that notion clearly has no basis in reality.

They do. When I was in college, my christian roommate kept going on and on about the poor oppressed christians, and how they needed our help. I am glad I was able to keep myself from snapping and oppressing his ass into the ground.

I hope I get a roomate like that next year so I can prove them wrong on a daily basis

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I should specify that most of my hostility in my last post was due to my roommate always trying to convert me or turn any plight toward "that's almost as bad as the christians have it in Malaysia" rants. I am not angry at all christians and I certainly do not condemn christians for wanting to help each other out. I just have a beef with that particular person's approach.

[Ender]

They probably believe that stem cell research will encourage many expectant mothers to suddenly get abortions for the good of society.

Also because you don't need to have an abortion to donate stem cells. When a science teacher at my school gave birth, she donated the placenta to a research center.

Exactly. I believe that if you run the numbers, then by volume you can get a much higher volume of stem cells just by processing the afterbirth and extracting them. The stuff normally gets treated as Hazmat, so who cares?

On top of that, I remember reading that due to genetic similarities and how common they are, some scientists were usign stem cells from cows for their basic research, same was white mice are used for biochemical research.

But knowing this would mean reading scientific journals (or just the science part on MSNBC, CNN, or Fox News) instead of obeying blind rhetoric.

[AniThyng]

I should specify that most of my hostility in my last post was due to my roommate always trying to convert me or turn any plight toward "that's almost as bad as the christians have it in Malaysia" rants. I am not angry at all christians and I certainly do not condemn christians for wanting to help each other out. I just have a beef with that particular person's approach.

not to drag it off topic, but i live in malaysia and have a sizable amount of christian friends who do not look opressed to me. hell, some of them "annoy" me by inviting me to church functions where i know i will be forced to stand and look nonchalant while they praise jesus....

what's his justification for the comparision?

[Alyrium Denryle]

It means that he is pissed off because "boo hoo christians dont control the government of Malaysia, they are so oppressed"

[Admiral Valdemar]

As annoying as these braindead fundamentalists are, I find ecoterrorists and animal rights activists a bigger threat in the United Kingdom at least. The gov't has finally given in and started bringing in better protection for similar facilities that are targeted by these nutters instead with near the same intent but for different reasons. I can only guess the Federal gov't is going to clampdown on this terrorism as well, or does a terrorist have to follow Islam and carry an AK?

It retards scientific progress (arguably more relevant to society than religious doctrine), destroys property and, most notably, endangers human lives both directly and indirectly. There are people that have such fanatics tailing them in the street whose only crime is to want to give an infertile couple a baby child or cure some horrific disease.

Any cult that wishes such punishments on people doing good needs to be reorganised. I see no massive condemnation of these acts by the Church/es, or it's hard to find in anycase.

[Alyrium Denryle]

As annoying as these braindead fundamentalists are, I find ecoterrorists and animal rights activists a bigger threat in the United Kingdom at least. The gov't has finally given in and started bringing in better protection for similar facilities that are targeted by these nutters instead with near the same intent but for different reasons. I can only guess the Federal gov't is going to clampdown on this terrorism as well, or does a terrorist have to follow Islam and carry an AK?

It retards scientific progress (arguably more relevant to society than religious doctrine), destroys property and, most notably, endangers human lives both directly and indirectly. There are people that have such fanatics tailing them in the street whose only crime is to want to give an infertile couple a baby child or cure some horrific disease.

Any cult that wishes such punishments on people doing good needs to be reorganised. I see no massive condemnation of these acts by the Church/es, or it's hard to find in anycase.

Well, in the UK, you have large groups that are devoted specifically to literally destroying single biotech frms (SHAC comes to mind0 who have gone on a rampage of terror...*shiver*

[Rogue 9]

I'm going to be hearing a massive condemnation come Sunday, assuming the minister hears of this.

[Darth Wong]

I'm going to be hearing a massive condemnation come Sunday, assuming the minister hears of this.

The well-known churches do condemn this sort of thing when it happens, much as the moderate Islamic clerics condemn the use of violence by Muslim terrorists. Yet for some reason, we blame the moderate Islamic clerics for not doing more, while the condemnation of a Christian wipes the slate clean. I'm curious how that works.

[Rogue 9]

I'm going to be hearing a massive condemnation come Sunday, assuming the minister hears of this.

The well-known churches do condemn this sort of thing when it happens, much as the moderate Islamic clerics condemn the use of violence by Muslim terrorists. Yet for some reason, we blame the moderate Islamic clerics for not doing more, while the condemnation of a Christian wipes the slate clean. I'm curious how that works.

I was just telling Valdemar that, in fact, these things do get their just condemnation. As for moderate Islamic clerics, I appreciate all they can do to moderate radical Islam; sadly, the nature of radical Islam (and radical Christianity, I admit, as demonstrated by Fred Phelps) is to condemn the moderates as heretics, not listen to them.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I would prefer more than a local clergyman speaking out against these radical agents and then leaving it at that. A campaign against such loose cannons would be more to my liking; active steps taken against the forming of such groups that use any Biblical teaching to justify their twisted mission.

It won't solve the problem, but it will at least help the public hear more about this and hopefully come to the conclusion that murdering people to stop "murder" (and I use that in the vaguest sense) is batshit insane.

[Rogue 9]

You think I wouldn't prefer more than that? I would prefer friggin' excommunication followed by immediate turnover to the police, but unfortunately I'm not the archbishop.

[Lonestar]

And you are so fucking stupid that you don't know the difference between a hypothetical question and "it's already that way right now"? I stand behind that statement: Christianity has never demonstrated that it is less prone to violence than any other religion except when Christianity has been prosperous, which is exactly the way Islam was during its height.

In R9's and Magi's defense, I had reached the same conclusion.

Our Chaplain (who is a Southern Baptist...but was a Ranger Before he found God) refered to these guys as "kooks" today.

Of course, he was also the one pushing to get Doom 3 installed on the morale LAN, but there you go.

[General Zod]

the difference is what exactly?

Fundamentalists take Christian dogma quite seriously, without much room for accepting any other way of looking at the issues. That's how I'd define fundamentalism. Not bombing things they disagree with.[/quote]

ah, so the only real difference between the two groups is that one hasn't actually blown up anything yet? despite the fact they possess the exact same mentality. one simply seems to have a greater propensity for active violence instead of just being an intolerant bigot.

[DPDarkPrimus]

ah, so the only real difference between the two groups is that one hasn't actually blown up anything yet?

What, abortion clinics don't count?

[Ender]

the difference is what exactly?

Fundamentalists take Christian dogma quite seriously, without much room for accepting any other way of looking at the issues. That's how I'd define fundamentalism. Not bombing things they disagree with.

ah, so the only real difference between the two groups is that one hasn't actually blown up anything yet? [/quote]Did you not read the fucking artical?