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28589. wonkers2 - 10/8/2006 1:19:17 AM Does that mean you support tighter gun control? 28590. jexster - 10/8/2006 1:24:09 AM I support the right to bear arms in Oakland-Alameda Coliseum for the duration
Don't show your face around here Capn 28591. Jenerator - 10/8/2006 3:17:06 PM Wonkers,
How about we enforce the rules we currently have! 28592. wonkers2 - 10/8/2006 5:59:50 PM I'm in favor of enforcing the current rules as best we can with all the loopholes. 28593. thoughtful - 10/9/2006 3:44:15 PM Interesting 4 part series ongoing in the NYT on religion and government. They are pointing out that, rather than religion being under seige as so many try to point out, religion in this country enjoys extraordinary exemptions from regulations that apply to everyone else.
First part talked about the regulations required of day care centers run privately including requirements for staff training, requirements for a food-only sink, requirements for filing financial statements, etc. vs. those run by a church where none of those regs apply.
Second part covered a nun who was 'fired' as the convent couldn't afford her needed breast cancer treatments. Rules and regs that apply to any employer regarding hiring/firing, nondiscrimination, etc. don't apply when the employer is a religious institution.
28594. jexster - 10/9/2006 9:03:39 PM As a public service Deacon (fomerly Cap'n) Dirty will be recalibrating Grand Old Pederasts Moral Compasses now until Election Day
 28595. wonkers2 - 10/10/2006 12:30:45 AM Deacon Dirty sez, "The GOP moral compass points only one direction--due south." 28596. judithathome - 10/10/2006 1:25:54 AM Yeah, but just watch how they try to deflect all this crap off onto the Democrats to justify keeping their guys in office...they will make excuse after excuse for voting for the party of morals...ha!...because they just can't admit they were used by BushCo...it's easier to keep the guys in office who only use then for votes than to admit they've been duped, big time. 28597. wonkers2 - 10/10/2006 3:38:01 AM Stop GOP Pedophilia! [Credits to Ohio, Jexter.] 28598. jexster - 10/10/2006 6:05:02 PM From a letter written by Episcopal Bishop of California Nichols, dated 8 November 1918, to SF Mayor Rolph:
"Irreligious democracy will be but a poor substitute for pharisaically religious autocracy." 28599. jexster - 10/11/2006 3:36:49 AM Which party best represents your moral values?
Dem 47
Reo 38
Gallup
Deacon do your Dirty Deeds 28600. jexster - 10/12/2006 3:20:58 AM Mark Your Calendars!!!
Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Power) will be October 20th and it is "better than a thousand months!"(97:3).
16 things you can do on the Night of Power
Any action done on this night such as reciting the Quran, remembering Allah, etc. is better than acting for one thousand months which do not contain the night of Qadr. 28601. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/20/2006 4:57:49 PM ZEN JUDAISM
* If there is no self,
whose arthritis is this?
* Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
* Attain Nothingness,
And then what do you have?
* Drink tea and nourish life.
With the first sip... joy.
With the second... satisfaction.
With the third, peace.
With the fourth, a danish.
* Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.
* Accept misfortune as a blessing.
Do not wish for perfect health
or a life without problems.
What would you talk about?
* The journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single "oy."
* There is no escaping karma.
In a previous life, you never called,
you never wrote, you never visited.
And whose fault was that?
* Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.
* The Tao does not speak.
The Tao does not blame.
The Tao does not take sides.
The Tao has no expectations.
The Tao demands nothing of others.
> The Tao is not Jewish.
* Breathe in. Breathe out.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Forget this and attaining Enlightenment
will be the least of your problems.
* Let your mind be as a floating cloud.
Let your stillness be as the wooded glen.
And sit up straight. You'll never meet the
Buddha with such rounded shoulders.
* Be patient and achieve all things.
Be impatient and achieve all things faster.
*To Find the Buddha, look within.
Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers.
Each flower blossoms ten thousand times.
Each blossom has ten thousand petals.
You might want to see a specialist.
* To practice Zen and the art of Jewish
motorcycle maintenance, do the following:
Get rid of the motorcycle.
What were you thinking?
* Be aware of your body.
Be aware of your perceptions.
Keep in mind that not every physical
sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.
* The Torah says,"Love thy neighbor as thyself."
The Buddha says there is no "self."
So, maybe you are off the hook.
* The Buddha taught that one should practice loving
kindness to all sentient beings. Still, would it kill you
to find a nice sentient being who happens to be Jewish?
* Though only your skin, sinews, and bones remain,
though your blood and flesh dry up and wither
away, yet shall you meditate and not stir
until you have attained full Enlightenment.
But, first, a little nosh 28602. wonkers2 - 10/21/2006 6:43:51 PM "There is a religious mafia among the priests, they protect each other, they help each other."> 28603. alistairConnor - 10/28/2006 1:23:21 PM In the International thread, Concerned posted :
7890. concerned - 10/27/2006 9:17:33 PM
[quoting me]On the other hand, you don't seem too keen to discuss the bloody verses of Christianity or Judaism.
I have a better idea. Let's discuss the " verses of Christianity or Judaism" that exhort the believer to lie to, cheat, defraud and murder those of other faiths.
Can't find any? Oh, well, there's plenty of them in the "verses of Islam" to make up for it.
This could be a long and fruitful discussion. I'm not intimately familiar with the Old Testament, but this is an interesting opportunity to learn.
I suggest we start with Genesis 34, where the sons of Jacob don't like the idea of their sister Dinah marrying Sechem, a Hivite, on the grounds that he and his people were not circumcised, i.e. were of a different religion.
And we can discuss how they dealt with this problem. 28604. alistairConnor - 10/28/2006 1:48:03 PM How about Numbers 15?
Here we have an explanation that people of other religions are subjected to all the strictures of the Jews when they happen to be among Jews :
15:15 One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.
15:16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
Not, in itself, an injunction to religious tolerance. At best, we can say that it is even-handed.
There follows an explanation that when sins are committed out of ignorance, they may be atoned for by the correct sacrifices. This applies equally to Jews and non-Jews :
15:29 Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
The next passage, an anecdote, is a little bit puzzling. One would expect it to be an illustration of what has been explained.
15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
This guy is presumably a non-Jew : he is not part of the "children of Israel".
So shall we discuss what happens to him?
This is fun. Shooting fish in a barrel. 28605. jexster - 10/28/2006 5:52:16 PM Start with the Reconquista, thence to the Inquisistion and let them come forth with examples of forced conversionas of Christians and Jews
Bring it on you historians of Islamofascism 28606. jexster - 10/28/2006 7:59:45 PM You'd think that if forced conversions were a fundamental feature of Islam that you'd at least find it in the history of Islam in India where the monotheistic religion met the "pagans" - a group unlike the favored Christians and Jews is looked down upon, at least in its Meccan form.
Coincidentally, I'm just now watching a History Channel production "India" and they are quite emphatic. For 500 years or so, Muslims lived in India, even ruled at times and it wasn't until the invasion of the Mughal's that religious intolerance appeared. Until then, the Arab amd Turk muslims stressed cultural integration and tolerance.
India today contains the world's second largest Shiite population second only to Iran 28607. jexster - 10/28/2006 8:02:27 PM 2:256 There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way. Whoever therefore rejects the forces of evil and believes in God, he has taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way, for God is All Hearing and Knowing. 28608. concerned - 10/29/2006 3:38:05 PM With all due respect, jexster, wrt Islam that's bullshit. For instance, as well as being the most prescriptive and limiting major religion on earth, Islam as practiced generally prescribes the death penalty for apostasy (leaving Islam) for whatever reason. From Wikipedia:
The Hadith (the body of quotes attributed to Muhammad and claimed eyewitnesses' accounts of Muhammad's life and deeds) includes statements that Muslim scholars such as Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid see as supporting the death penalty for apostasy. [2] Only those from Sahih Bukhari, which are considered reliable by most Muslims generally are given below:
"Allah's Apostle said, The blood of a Muslim, who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims." 9:83:17
Narrated 'Ikrima: 'Ali burnt some people and this news reached ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.'" 4:52:260
The legal regulation concerning the male and the female who reverts from Islam (apostates). Ibn 'Umar, Az-Zuhri and Ibrahim said, "A female apostate (who reverts from Islam), should be killed. And the obliging of the reverters from Islam (apostates) to repent. Allah said: — 'How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after their belief and (after) they bore witness that the Apostle (Muhammad) was true, and that Clear Signs had come unto them? And Allah does not guide the wrong-doing people. As for such the reward is that on them (rests) the curse of Allah, the Angels, and of all mankind. They will abide there-in (Hell). Neither will their torment be lightened nor it will be postponed (for a while). Except for those that repent after that and make amends. Verily Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. Surely those who disbelieved after their belief, and go on adding to their defiance of faith, never will their repentance be accepted, and they are those who have gone astray.' (Sura 3:86-90) Bukhari Volume 9, Book 84, Chapter 2, p. 42-43.
57. Narrated 'Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'" 9:84:57
58. Narrated Abu Burda: Abu Musa said, "I came to the Prophet along with two men (from the tribe) of Ash'ariyin, one on my right and the other on my left, while Allah's Apostle was brushing his teeth (with a Siwak), and both men asked him for some employment. The Prophet said, 'O Abu Musa (O 'Abdullah bin Qais!).' I said, 'By Him Who sent you with the Truth, these two men did not tell me what was in their hearts and I did not feel (realize) that they were seeking employment.' As if I were looking now at his Siwak being drawn to a corner under his lips, and he said, 'We never (or, we do not) appoint for our affairs anyone who seeks to be employed. But O Abu Musa! (or 'Abdullah bin Qais!) Go to Yemen.'" The Prophet then sent Mu'adh bin Jabal after him and when Mu'adh reached him, he spread out a cushion for him and requested him to get down (and sit on the cushion). Behold: There was a fettered man beside Abu Musa. Mu'adh asked, "Who is this (man)?" Abu Muisa said, "He was a Jew and became a Muslim and then reverted back to Judaism." Then Abu Musa requested Mu'adh to sit down but Mu'adh said, "I will not sit down till he has been killed. This is the judgment of Allah and His Apostle (for such cases) and repeated it thrice. Then Abu Musa ordered that the man be killed, and he was killed. Abu Musa added, "Then we discussed the night prayers and one of us said, 'I pray and sleep, and I hope that Allah will reward me for my sleep as well as for my prayers.'" 9:84:58
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