41–50 of 126 posts
I hope this "Bal Thackeray" is happy now too: he caused two girls to be arrested. I hope he is happy too wherever he is now. What nice way to go out with the bang!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, would you disagree with that the world would be a better place without religion in this day and age?
It depends. I would say that religions give a lot of people a meaningful life by providing values, hope and guidance on what they should aspire to. But there are always those on the extreme fringes, who make the rest look bad.
The question is not "what role does religion fulfil", but rather, "if religion wasn't there, would things have been better?". Because, e.g. many recreational drugs ALSO provide values, hope, and guidance (on one hand), and some religions like Mormonism and Scientology also provide them, but apparently forbid leaving them (read about excommunicating in either) to the point that I find unacceptable in a society.
Disregarding the obstacle of definition of religion vs. e.g. cult vs. value system[1], my opinion would be, based on observing mostly-religious states vs. mostly-secular states (like Sweden and Norway), would be that value provided by religion is a net negative.
[1] if you insist, I will say that beleief X is a religion iff there's a government of a country with >10M residents that accepts it as a religion for the purpose of its law. Specific definition is immaterial - they will all coincide for 99% of the population, and will have essentially no effect in the grand scheme of things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, nobody said that about all religions (e.g not for "virgin sacrificing daemon worship" -- though it does sound fun), and for all people practicing them. Christianity didn't make Torquemada any good, but it worked quite well for St. Aquinas. With that said, the story doesn't have much to do with religion. The guy who funeral they said shouldn't matter was a political leader, not a priest. The guys that sued/prose…
But if there were no "religious sentiments", there will be no law. Religion looks even worse in this case: they're a politican's bitch (psychology term) and they seem to be content with that.
Which is no argument at all. It's like saying, "if there weren't blacks, there would be no racism".
You can have restrictive laws based on everything, no need to single out religion. Sources of restrictive laws range from health (like the drug laws), to tolerance (no hate speech), to patriotism (too many to mention), to children (internet censorship etc).
That doesn't mean the sources are bad themselves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can I take not being arrested? Because this seems to be the best thing the religions don't provide. Also can I take religion not being shoven in my face? Because where I live (Russia) this seems to be the trend despite decades of atheist state. The problem with religions is that you can't always opt out.
Ah! I see what bothers you. It's the lack of respect for free speech, it pisses me off too. On one side we have these somewhat free states driven by a set of religious values. On the other side we have totalitarian atheists regimes driven by a set of sociological principles. And in the middle we find ourselves without acces to basic rights like free speech. I frequently ask myself how could we solve that without hurt…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can I take not being arrested? Because this seems to be the best thing the religions don't provide. Also can I take religion not being shoven in my face? Because where I live (Russia) this seems to be the trend despite decades of atheist state. The problem with religions is that you can't always opt out.
Ah! I see what bothers you. It's the lack of respect for free speech, it pisses me off too. On one side we have these somewhat free states driven by a set of religious values. On the other side we have totalitarian atheists regimes driven by a set of sociological principles. And in the middle we find ourselves without acces to basic rights like free speech. I frequently ask myself how could we solve that without hurt…
So if you already have a totalitarian state (see Shah Iran) bringing in religion will make it worse, not better (the current mullah Iran).
Sadly, I don't see any good perspectives. In rich countries, the main voting power belongs to people of considerable age. And they don't use much freedoms therefore freedom is not a selling point for politicians; medical care and pensions are.
And in poorer countries you can always band together enough Red Guards to establish a totalitarian theocraty if you don't have one already.
Although this girl might be arrested today, this general trend (growing accessibility to information) will show more and more people that there is a world beyond their immediate experience and what they are being told by people like Bal is false. Bal Thackeray was a bigot. He sought and exploited communal tensions and it's a shame that one can't openly criticize such a reprehensible person. Furthermore, his party Shi…
[deleted]
Although this girl might be arrested today, this general trend (growing accessibility to information) will show more and more people that there is a world beyond their immediate experience and what they are being told by people like Bal is false. Bal Thackeray was a bigot. He sought and exploited communal tensions and it's a shame that one can't openly criticize such a reprehensible person. Furthermore, his party Shi…
[deleted]
Although this girl might be arrested today, this general trend (growing accessibility to information) will show more and more people that there is a world beyond their immediate experience and what they are being told by people like Bal is false. Bal Thackeray was a bigot. He sought and exploited communal tensions and it's a shame that one can't openly criticize such a reprehensible person. Furthermore, his party Shi…
[deleted]
"a mob of some 2,000 Shiv Sena workers attacked and ransacked her uncle’s orthopaedic clinic"
No girl's arrested. They just made up the story to stop negative online trend related to Bal Thackeray. His death made a lot of people to start a worthless debate on facebook and twitter.
I hope this "Bal Thackeray" is happy now too: he caused two girls to be arrested. I hope he is happy too wherever he is now. What nice way to go out with the bang!