I know this one wasn't directed at me but I'd like to take a stab at it...
Answer this: why do you think so many people today who "seem" to have it all are unhappy? Countless amounts of people are rich, have great families, giant houses and everything someone can dream of, yet they feel an emptiness inside them, that leads them to do stupid shit sometimes like resort to drugs, alcohol abuse, gambling, cheating on their wives, etc.... Well that's a Spiritual Emptiness my friend.
We Athiests know this is complete and utter BULLSHIT.
First of all there no such thing as a "spirit" but I don't expect you to believe that so I'll give you a pass on that answer.
Secondly, there are countless reasons that could cause such unhappiness... usually psychological baggage that your parents or society place upon you unknowingly. For instance, our TVs tell us that we should all look like models, but we don't, right? It's a shitty realization for most and more often than not they can't cope with it and live with a fantasy image of themselves. I bet many here do that too. -And this is just one of many such mindfucks that can make you feel like you're "spiritually" searching for something.
What Dr Mehmet OZ (Top 50 most influential Americans, mind you!) is saying is that religion does not matter as long as you feel your personal connection with god (or call it a higher energy if you want).
I would be willing to wager that the people he has influence over are among the bottom of the IQ barrel of america. -Which is in the vast majority these days. You're not going to impress anyone on WF by telling us he's influential in the US. So are our landers!
Back to the topic, criticize religion all you want from your narrow-minded uncultured view, but the majority of religious people I've met through my travels in Asia were very welcoming and treated me like I was one of theirs (including Muslims!). That's one of the commandments of every religion actually.
"Treated me like I was one of theirs" is extremely relative and if you don't see their daily lives when you are not present how the hell could you know that?
Anyway, read the their version of the Koran and get back to us with what they were really thinking before you make such claims. Odds are, if they were the kind of Muslims who read the Koran often, you'd find out that you just barely made it out of their presence alive.
What the media shows you is what's sensational, the 1% of fuckups that you don't want to see. If you're going to judge over a billion people based on what a few thousands are doing, you're dumb and I feel sorry for you.
While one cannot accurately judge over a billion people based on what a few thousands are doing, it is perfect science to compare the damage done by koran readers versus Bible or Torah readers.
Are there thousands of Christian or Jewish fundamentalists blowing the hell out of the rest of the world on a daily basis? No. Not by a long fucking shot.
ALL MUSLIMS ARE GUILTY of not stopping their religion's problem from being so damn extreme. They don't try to stop the worst among themselves like we do.
If the tables were turned and Christians were doing this same thing to them, do you think the muslim world would stand by and say; Well, I guess it's only your most extreme people killing us by the boatload daily... I have no ill will against you normal Christians who read the same bible that they do.
Fuck no; they'd rise up against christianity and kill every last christian they see, like Muslims used to back in Benjamin Franklin's day.
Shouldn't we at least demand that Muslims take matters into their own hands and stop their conflict internally? Like sanction their entire religion or something?
Shouldn't "Good" muslims WANT to stop the evil in their ranks so they themselves don't look so bad for the association?
Bottom line here is that "Good muslims" are enabling the bad ones, and never do good muslims try and stop them.
Every time a christian extremist ever murdered an abortionist, the extremist was arrested and imprisoned; meanwhile the airwaves were jammed with other Christians distancing themselves from that "lunatic," praising the fast police work to catch him. I've seen them set up christian charity funds for the family of the abortion doctor...
Not so with Muslims. Their responses, if any, are just to say, "I do not condone this attack." -Never anything stronger, never any "let's rally the mob and root out this bad dude," never any attempt to stop more attacks from happening.
The Muslim world needs an MLK.
Until they have one & he's successful and changing their hearts away from accepting the evil amongst them, it is only SMART to keep yourself and your loved ones as far away from every muslim worldwide, period. (And I bet some muslims would agree, too.)
imp:
