Salman Rashti? Yup.
I may have. Not sure.
I have heard and read a lot of stuff. So?
I'm only 55 and probably a wee bit faster than Jack.It is only a matter of time. I think if Jack could reach through his monitor to ours, he would rip out our esophagus'.
Agreed, but that doesn't excuse religion. You argue as if religion were some abstract body of truths that people just misinterpret to suit their own ends, thus excusing religion itself from anything bad done in its name. I don't see the logic of that at all; religion's a human invention, in fact it's the ultimate tribal marker and division between groups of people. Hitchens correctly points out that power corrupts religion uniquely, because of its absolute truth claims. As Jacob Bronowski remarked, standing in the pond at Auschwitz, "When people believe they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave." He's right. The history of religion, or any other unthinking ideology that makes absolute truth claims, with secular power is a dismal tale of slaughter and repression. Religion's not much of a danger in the West anymore because it's been largely stripped of its secular power, though the religious right in the United States is a little alarming, but look at any place around the world where religious and secular authority are vested in the same people and institutions. Almost without exception you will find oppressive tyrannies. Actually I can't think of an exception. Anyone? That's the true nature of religion.
Ah, I hadn't thought of that one. It doesn't come to mind when I think of nations. You're not sure in what sense, whether it's an oppressive tyranny, or whether it's really a place? :smile: It's certainly an odd place, a nation of nominally celibate men, except perhaps for the Swiss Guard. I googled Vatican citizenship and found this:
I'm not sure if it's autonomous from the rest of Italy, or even Rome.
