"But what about the moderates?"

[dyresand]

I only moderately support the dragging down of civilization back to the dark ages.

anything that does make life better and easier and well gives us more knowledge the moderates are the first to jump through a hoop to stop it but are quickly blocked from doing so. i do not wish to live in a society that is dragged down back to the dark ages neither do i want dark age medical treatments coming back.

[Minimalist]

Surely the "moderates" will come out en masse to denounce this atrocity for allah?

http://apnews.excite.com/article/2014112...e7957.html

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — One gunman shot from the right, one from the left, each killing the non-Muslims lying in a line on the ground, growing closer and closer to Douglas Ochwodho, who was in the middle.

And then the shooting stopped. Apparently each gunman thought the other shot Ochwodho. He lay perfectly still until the 20 Islamic extremists left, and he appears to be the only survivor of those who had been selected for death.

Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, attacked a bus in northern Kenya at dawn Saturday, singling out and killing 28 passengers who could not recite an Islamic creed and were assumed to be non-Muslims, Kenyan police said.

Those who could not say the Shahada, a tenet of the Muslim faith, were shot at close range, Ochwodho told The Associated Press.

Seems awfully quiet.

[TreeSapNest]

<struggles to understand how deism isn't also "magical thinking and credence to beliefs about sky daddies">

[Minimalist]

Who said otherwise?


The thing with deists is that they rarely try to poison our schools with their bullshit or bring useless literature to my door or annoy the living fuck out of me playing their vapid music for two months of the year in every store I go into.

I wish there were more deists and fewer jesus or allah freaks.

[DeistPaladin]

<struggles to understand how deism isn't also "magical thinking and credence to beliefs about sky daddies">

Well, partly there's the practical application as Min alluded to. As far as how I live my life, evaluate morality, derive meaning, etc. nothing would change if I were to shift to atheism. It's basically atheism with poetic flourishes.

For me, it's a compromise between my skeptical brain and lofty sentiments about nature and the human potential, a way to have such spirituality yet keep it all grounded in the natural universe. Luckily for me, the natural universe provides a far greater sense of wonder than anything in the Bible or other "sacred" texts. God for deists is less a personal sky-daddy and more the mysterious X-factor behind the natural order as well as all that came together in our evolution that enabled us to have this advanced civilization.

Most atheists I've spoken with have the same sense of wonder about the natural universe as well as the same hope for human civilization. They just don't need the word "God".

EDIT TO ADD: Deists couldn't advocate cruel traditions that "purify" one in the afterlife or acts of violence to "save souls". Most of us don't believe in an afterlife (I don't). Those who do have only fuzzy concepts of it.

[Minimalist]

It's basically atheism with poetic flourishes.

[xpastor]

Today there was a phone-in show on that ridiculous term [Muslim] "radicalization" but I will give them kudos for choosing the "call of the day" made by an EX-Muslim.

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/ontar..._42273.mp3

[robvalue]

Would you call someone who followed their employee handbook as accurately as possible a radical or extremist? I'd call them a good employee.

[robvalue]

Wait, I got another one.

A moderate is someone who talks like they believe their religion is good and true.

A radical is someone who acts like they believe their religion is good and true.

[Minimalist]

Would you call someone who followed their employee handbook as accurately as possible a radical or extremist?

A suck-up.