"Pagan" essentially means "country bumpkin". I find it fitting for folk religion. I refer to the superstitious elements of modern religions as pagan aspects... Usually they are rooted in old religions.
Every religion that has survived and new religions based on old cantain something the pagan religions did not: a moral basis in empathy and some importance to human deeds.
All religions either changed to incorporate it, formed within old religions to expand it, or displaced religions that did not have it.
For every person killed in the name of religion, many more converted. And it was not simply out of fear but often out of an advantage. Many more died in tribal clashes before modern religion.
Modern religious conflicts appear to be relapses of the way it's always been.
But I don't think new religions actually increased the slaughter any more than old ones would have had we proceeded down the same social evolutionary path with only that different.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Hey......stick to 2006.........stop burning incense...........I can post 100's of images of death and destruction caused by Islamic Holy warriors........

You CANNOT do the same thing showing EQUAL Christian brutality RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW in 2006!!

Islam has been hijacked and all you can do is refer to the Crusades as some kind of excuse for it????????

Mortal relativism is a sign of intellectual WEAKNESS!

What is your opinion as to why there are 1000s of blood thirsty killers roaming the planet in the name of ISLAM?? TODAY??

SHOULD they be ignored??....reasoned with??....or be killed???.....

FOR MORE EVIDENCE GO TO:

http://www.ogrish.com/archives/2005/...g_hanging1.jpg

Hey... we'll post as we see fit.
Hey... stop dropping Willie Pete and burning people.
How proud you must be!
That's because Western press generally doesn't get out of the Green Zone in Baghdad. The Islamic press will post all the images you want of Christians brutalizing Middle Easterners.
1. Islam has been hijacked.
2. Christianity has been hijacked.
3. Bush the Lame's reference to our efforts in his "war on Terror" and a crusade was a very poor choice of words. But what else is new?
It's a sign of intellectual strength. Your overheated posting is a sign of weakness.
At the end of WW2, the West had fairly good relations with the Islamic world. The creation of the state of Israel and the overthrow of the Iranian government and the installation of the Shah were great blows. The presence of western troops (with women, Jews and bibles) in their holy land of Arabia ignited many including Osama and the Wahhabi sect.
1. Cease the occupation in Iraq.
2. Stop aid to Israel until they treat the oppressed Palestinians as brothers.
3. Develop trading relations with former enemies.
I know these steps will frustrate your desire for holy war but I think it's high time for rationality to come to the fore.

But you're claim is that Islam is inherently evil. If that is so, it will never change.
I show that Christianity was once very brutal. It changed.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

That has to be the classic quote of the week.

Yeah.
I used to say calculus was a sign of mental weakness. Then I just admitted that I had no interest in putting any effort into thinking about it.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Something that Muhammad said about women–

Muhammad and his buddies were rapists–

Allah even sent down a verse in support of the Muslim's rape of captives!

Doesn't matter.
People ignore parts of religion that no longer help them in life. Fundies complain about it. People who attack religion prefer to focus on words. But the truth is that in all religions, things can be shifted in their order of importance and altered in interpretation.
And sometimes, most I'd argue, this is a good thing.
Religion must adapt to the times... or it is useless.
Islam will do it in time as did its sister religions.
Otherwise it will be replaced.
The key is to modernize the Middle East (the radical fundies know that this will happen. That's why they oppose modernization).

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

The kind of material that I posted can't be, "altered in interpretation". At least, I think it would be very difficult to do so. The material could be ignored however. The thing is, is that material along those lines makes a religion difficult to reform.

However the fact that some Muslim women already ignore it or reinterpret it shows hope.
In any case, if the situation is changed as such that equality for women becomes important the religion will be reformed or replaced.
I think the first spot where we'll see this occur is in Europe. There the Muslim unemployment is high and jobs tend to be low-paying for Muslims. It will become necessary for Muslim women to join the workforce.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside