Is atheism a liberating and good experience?

[Vincenzo Vinny G.]

What, an extremist political movement exploiting Islamic fundamentalism to gain recruits is suddenly and inextricably a religious problem?

Yeah, exactly. Because it's damn hard to convince people to fly airplanes into buildings without getting them to believe there's a reward in the afterlife.

Besides the fact that it's nearly impossible to get someone to kill themselves in the name of no-god and the fact that it's so easy to get the devoutly religious to do some damn crazy things (Christians are guilty of this as well, not just Muslims). See, saying 'God wills it' protects your argument from logic or reason. You could turn around and say 'Maybe flying airplanes into buildings isn't going to help our political cause' and the response is that you're questioning god. Maybe you could say 'I'd rather find a way to continue serving god after this attack, so I'm not ok with a suicide attack' and the response is that you're questioning god. You could say 'Know what? I think you catch more flies with honey than vinegar' at which point they accuse you of questioning god. Do you see a pattern here, Vinny?

Off the top of my head, the only time I've seen that level of blind faith in strictly atheistic institutions was the soviet takeover of Russia an eastern Europe, but all they did was change the philosophy slightly: instead of blind fath and allegiance to god, they promoted blind faith and allegiance to the state. Either way, that kind of blind, unquestioning faith is extremely dangerous, whether it's from secular or theistic sources. The problem with religion is that so much of what they tell us encourages blind faith.

And this disproves the conclusion of a half a dozen political think-tanks on both political wings about the origin of Islamic extremism how?

Most of the people who fight and die are poor. Isolated. Alienated from the culture. Unemployed. Uneducated.

They will listen to any bullshit, get emotionally invested into any cause as long as they love the leader and trust his message.

Surprisingly, if you build enough love/hate in someone, they will willingly fight and die for a cause, afterlife or not. Look at the IRA. Look at the Palestinian civilians who willingly choose to die. Look at the US Army, kids joining to fight and die.

Shit's not hard.

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You know they found tons of porn in OBL's man-cave right? How could he have been a "true Muslim" if he was caught fapping to "Hot and Sexy Heartthrobs Sexy Nurse Lady Time 12"?

Do you really think that religious fundamentalists are as squeaky clean as they claim they are? "True Muslims" or "True Christians" are no less prone to perusing porn than anyone else.

It certainly makes you a hypocrite.

And it explains how OBL selectively ignored some commands of his religion while obeying others.

Picking and choosing what to obey based on what fulfills his actual desire- an Islamic caliphate.

You think he was trying to oust Israel and their supporters, but his aims were much more sinister. He was using Israel as an emotional chip to gain the popular support of people all over the Middle East.

One thing I'm confident about with religion- if you are truly a devout follower, you will forever be wrapped up in the foibles of your religion.

A short, easy to read writeup that captures his vision nicely:

http://www.hnn.us/articles/7378.html