religion makes societies do crazy ****, in the name of god, like support flying airplanes into buildings and honor killing of women. Or burning cities to the ground to reclaim a “holy land”. Crazy stuff.
In 9/11 speech, Bush contrasts unity he witnessed after attacks with 'violence from within' seen today "In a 9/11 memorial speech Saturday near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, former President George W. Bush contrasted the unity he witnessed in the days after the attacks with the division that exists in the nation today. Violent extremists at home and abroad are “children of the same foul spirit,” he said, in what appeared to be a reference to the Jan. 6 rioters." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...=857693951420692326&utm_medium=Email Sailthru Bush made some good points today.
Religious beliefs taken to extreme and fanatical degrees have been the root of much destructive and inhumane conduct through the ages. dying for a belief is psychologically fanatical .......People who fly planes into buildings are not that different from the cult mentality that brought Jan 6. Being willing to do atrocious destructive things in the name of some"god" or one person........is as crazy as it gets.And are usually based delusional thinking.
It's worse than pre 9/11 because they have had 2 decades of war to sharpen their craft, Biden has given them new toys, and PC/woke culture is far more ingrained.
I agree. Spirituality without organized religion is what the world needs. Dictators, religious fanatics, or any other structure that puts power into the hands of a few elites never ends well. They may start with good intentions, but power always corrupts. Nobody should have control over anybody but themselves.
Indeed. Personal spirituality......is just that: PERSOnaL. akin to personal philosophy , No"Organized " group or individual should dictate what to believe or how to believe.........
My reflections. On 9/11 I was working at 1500 Penn. Ave. We were watching the Trade Center attack on TV. All of a sudden the Secret Service (Uniformed Division) began running from door to door yelling "get out of the building." I believe they had knowledge that the plane that went down in the PA field was inbound with the White House as a possible target. Everyone ran into Lafayette Park which is across the street from White House -- I could feel explosions through the soles of my feet -- probably secondary explosions from the Pentagon. A woman I worked with ran up to me and said, we need to find [our boss] and see what he wants us to do. I said eff [our boss]. We need to get out of here, i.e., the White House was obviously a prime target and milling around in front of it was not a good idea. The metro was still working so I took the metro, and then a bus as close to home as I could get and then called my wife to get me. The next day I went to work as per usual and the Secret Service had closed off the streets for 2-3 blocks around the White House and they were on the street carrying MP5s and gas mask bags. It was a scary and uncertain time. The major person impact to me of 9/11 was that my oldest son went on to do 5 infantry deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. I never thought his service and that of so many others, many who paid a price, would be so cavalierly disregarded and undone by a cowardly, dishonorable, and senile President.
Exactly. When people believe that certain individuals have control over who gets to go on to the afterlife, or that they have influence over the fate of their souls, that gives them ultimate power. People with that kind of power can get their believers to do literally anything if they think it will save their soul. Spirituality is what will save this world. Religion could well destroy it. These days politics has become as influential as religion.
Sadly I think that visual violence is sort of only the tip of the ice berg. America hasn't been this divided since the time right before the Civil War. The news media is feeding people false perspectives, and people seem to be living in separate realities concerning what they perceive to be happening in society and politics. Most especially alarming is the creation of "facts" these days, by scientists, those in the medical community, and schools, and the attempt to silence facts that don't align with the official "facts".
Absolutely spot on. "religious " leaders of any stripe have a lot of power........ over their followers. The most controlling factor is the afterlife thing......... and because no one knows for certain......... the yan use it to make their followers do all kinds of stf. eg: give them LOTs of money. why do you think the Catholic church is so rich?? Catholic guilt is a real factor with its followers.. People do a lot of things to overcome their guilt. The People can be manipulated quite easily with the "fear of god" thing. Just as potent is the belief of doing something in the name of "god"......... with promises of rewards in the afterlife.
Let's admit, the answer to that is a little bit complicated. There's obviously something inherent to their religion that leads to these groups. And there are huge segments of the population across the Muslim World that really don't like the US and don't think very highly of non-muslims. If you went to some muslim country, selected 100 random people in a crowd, and put them in a room with a button that, if pressed, would kill all Americans in the government and military, it's a near certainty one of them would press it. When was the last time a Buddhist committed a suicide attack??? Could you imagine this happening if the roles were reversed? muslim stabbed a Priest in Montreal Cathedral
Jesus, have you guys ever sat down and talked with muslims before? They are not monsters. At all. They are just normal people. They hate terrorists as much as we do. They just want to live in peace. I've befriended many. many muslims, been invited their homes, had dinner with them. They were just as eager to keep their families and neighborhoods safe as we were. They wanted their children to be able to get good education and have good jobs, and be able to play outside without being killed by a suicide bomber. They risked their own necks getting us information to hunt down the insurgent extremists, and were far more brave and noble than the dumb ****s here who just assume all muslims are out to kill westerners.
The poster you responded to is typical of the ignorant who choose not to inform themselves and give themselves to blind hate and ignorance. For example, the FBI witness who brought down Omar Abdul-Rahman and the other WTC bombers(from the first attempt) was an Egyptian ex-army officer who was inserted as a mole in the circle of Islamist extremists who pulled off the first bombing. He is a Muslim. He was recruited by NYPD Intelligence and had already infiltrated the group that eventually pulled off the bombing. “Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy and needs feeding. “
I think you mean the 99% of them that don't try to use obscure quotes in their holy book to justify the slaughter of innocents. What you are saying is like saying the Protestants attending the church down the road here are "the moderate watered down ones who don't seriously believe in their religion too much" because they are not slaughtering muslims like they did in Central Africa. There are billions of muslims all over the world, and you are lumping them all in with the tiny percentage that live in third world war torn hellholes. And even the vast majority that live in those places are good people, not animals. https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...1adbb2-9032-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html
That is why those elements do well in groups.......... as they then self reinforce their own thinking. and beliefs.
