Originally Posted by Smidgey:
People are free to criticise religion, especially when they think that it is false and that it does more harm than good.

And people are free to criticise secularists, Christianophobes and atheists when they think that their views are wrong and false and when they think that their views and approach do more harm than good.
[Rep]

We are all free to criticise each other. My point is that Dawkins does it in a rather nasty way, like he has a superior smell under his nose or he is trying to make someone cry or las out. He sounds like a cerebral bully and I think he does his corner no good.

I know quite a lot of atheists and agnostics and none would stoop so low. In fact they wouldn't begin to stoop!
[Rep]

In my opinion Religious belief or lack of it, is a personal thing and either way should not be imposed on others. To debate it in my opinion is OK, but none of us can categorically say to the other, you are WRONG!
[Rep]

Originally Posted by Britannist:
And people are free to criticise secularists, Christianophobes and atheists when they think that their views are wrong and false and when they think that their views and approach do more harm than good.

Indeed they are.
[Rep]

Originally Posted by kernow:
In my opinion Religious belief or lack of it, is a personal thing and either way should not be imposed on others. To debate it in my opinion is OK, but none of us can categorically say to the other, you are WRONG!

Very true (except for us atheists who rightly say that ALL religion is wrong!) but what can be said is that just as a flower in the wrong place is a weed, so some religions in the wrong place are wrong.
[Rep]

Originally Posted by arden forester:
We are all free to criticise each other. My point is that Dawkins does it in a rather nasty way, like he has a superior smell under his nose or he is trying to make someone cry or las out. He sounds like a cerebral bully and I think he does his corner no good.

I know quite a lot of atheists and agnostics and none would stoop so low. In fact they wouldn't begin to stoop!

Well, that's his choice. I will stop doing so only when religion stops influencing itself over my life and the lives of others.

The problem is the law, not religion as such (although I still think it's false, but then I also think a lot of people believe things without critically examing them, whether they be religious or not).
[Rep]

Originally Posted by Smidgey:

The problem is the law, not religion as such

I can’t agree with that in the case of Islam.

Islam is an ideology that sets itself above man made law substituting archaic laws and even in some cases punishments for breaking of some laws.

The rejection of democracy as the means of determining and maintaining laws to suite changes in society in combination with the way that Islam represents the world as those places in which Islam dominates and those places that it does not YET dominate all adds up to a very nasty and dangerous thing.

A thing that may suite the circumstances when Mohammed climbed his mountain and made up what he claimed to have been reveled to him, but certainly doesn’t suite our post renaissance and enlightened world.

Then throw in the absolute requirement for every Muslim to advance Islam at each and every opportunity and what you end up with is a thing that is like a cancer in more ways than its malignancy and propensity for metastasising in society.
[Rep]

Originally Posted by Smidgey:
People are free to criticise religion, especially when they think that it is false and that it does more harm than good.

Free to criticise at the moment, what about the future?
How many legal cases will there be concerning someone saying a bad thing or viewing certain people in a negative way if the balance of power shifts and a new majority emerges from it's cocoon? How eager are we going to be then to open our mouths and speak what's on our minds? Putting ourselves and possibly our friends/family at risk for enraging a group?
[Rep]

Originally Posted by The Bear:
I can’t agree with that in the case of Islam.

Islam is an ideology that sets itself above man made law substituting archaic laws and even in some cases punishments for breaking of some laws.

The rejection of democracy as the means of determining and maintaining laws to suite changes in society in combination with the way that Islam represents the world as those places in which Islam dominates and those places that it does not YET dominate all adds up to a very nasty and dangerous thing.

A thing that may suite the circumstances when Mohammed climbed his mountain and made up what he claimed to have been reveled to him, but certainly doesn’t suite our post renaissance and enlightened world.

Then throw in the absolute requirement for every Muslim to advance Islam at each and every opportunity and what you end up with is a thing that is like a cancer in more ways than its malignancy and propensity for metastasising in society.

I agree; while there are certainly "moderate" muslims who integrate pretty well into society; the orthodox ones want to destroy it.

Obviously, it would be completely illegitimate to ban Islam. That would be atrocious, just as I would not seek to ban Nazism or racism.

It is the Islamic states that are the real problem; what we now have is an organised movement to make the west into an Islamic province. Just as the fields of Carthage were sown with salt; the pride of Islamism must be sown with the best weapons at our disposal. As Germany was to Nazism, now Iran is to Islamism. When will we get a leader willing to defend freedom? It is sickening that our forces are now propping up the brand new Islamic state of Iraq.
[Rep]

Originally Posted by The Bear:
A thing that may suite the circumstances when Mohammed climbed his mountain and made up what he claimed to have been reveled to him, but certainly doesn’t suite our post renaissance and enlightened world.

The World, and people have not changed one jot.

..."our post renaissance and enlightened world. " <<< Ha ha ha

The girls and boys on this forum have no laid down moral rules to guide them
and make rules by the minute.
"...our post renaissance and enlightened world. "
Is a cesspit..........
[Rep]