Paul Jenkin
Well-known
No, let me enlighten you:
......and the Swastika is....?? Oh, that's right, it's an ideological / religious symbol, meant to protect all Nazi who fight under it. Okay, it was a perversion of an asian symbol, and Hitler used it to his own end but Hitler most definitely was not an atheist. Hitler was a very odd mix of religious and superstitious. He even consulted astrologists over the best time to attack - and canceled invasions because the omens weren't right. He wasn't what anyone could call a mainstream Christian, I will grant you, but not an atheist.
Atheists or, as some people call them, nontheists, do not have ANY religious or theist agenda; nor are they superstitious. They are not all tree-hugging pacifists by any means but they do not have a collective or a flag under which to gather and fight.
You are also conf(using) political regimes (Communists) and other sects / ethnic groups (Tamils) that choose to destroy others / their neighbours as an act of oppression or defence from being repressed. Removing religion by force (as the Communists tried to do in Russia and China) is just a political tool to control the masses. It is ridiculous to call it atheism. Incidentally, I've been to India and Sri Lanka and met and spoken with many Tamils. Tamil may not be a religion in itself - but the ethnic group is made up of Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant and Jehovas Witnesses. Not religious?
Check the following if you don't believe me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Tamil_people#Religion
There is no church of atheist. Atheists don't meet up and decide to go to the local hall and give the Jehovas Witnesses a good hiding or invade Utah to see off the Mormons. We tend to just work our way through life individually and doing our best to avoid the fall out from the jingoist exceses of many of our political leaders who, for their own power-seeking ends, attach themselves to some ideology which often puts us, our families, friends and our countries into conflict (often fatal) with people we don't know - but who are led by some charismatic and power-crazed nutter.
I agree completely that, as nations, must defend ourselves but let's do it because it's the right thing to do and not as some crusade against a whole people or religion. I have many muslim friends and they are as disgusted at what happened in France last week as I am. What can they do about it? Denounce it and get on wth their peaceful lives in the same way as the rest of us try to.
If you really want to know about atheism, read "The God Delusion" by Professor Richard Dawkins. But read it with an open mind.
Addy101
Well-known
I just looked into Nazism once again, and you're right, it isn't atheist. I confused anti-catholic sentiments with atheism.
Communism is an atheist ideology - they have different goals too, but they are violently atheists. You don't like it, so you dismiss it, but they are atheists.
I wasn't talking about Sri Lankan Tamils, I was talking about the Tamil Tigers. From the wikipedia page on the Tamil Tigers: "The ideology of the Tamil Tigers emerged from Marxist–Leninist though its leadership is considered atheist".
Most Muslims also "don't meet up and decide to go to the local hall and give the Jehovas Witnesses a good hiding or invade Utah to see off the Mormons." And most Christians live by Jesus' lecture of love and friendship.
I read "Why I Am Not A Christian" by Professor Bertrand Russell and some other works, don't feel the need to read Dawkins.
Really, atheists aren't something special. Atheists are humans, like everybody else.
Communism is an atheist ideology - they have different goals too, but they are violently atheists. You don't like it, so you dismiss it, but they are atheists.
I wasn't talking about Sri Lankan Tamils, I was talking about the Tamil Tigers. From the wikipedia page on the Tamil Tigers: "The ideology of the Tamil Tigers emerged from Marxist–Leninist though its leadership is considered atheist".
Most Muslims also "don't meet up and decide to go to the local hall and give the Jehovas Witnesses a good hiding or invade Utah to see off the Mormons." And most Christians live by Jesus' lecture of love and friendship.
I read "Why I Am Not A Christian" by Professor Bertrand Russell and some other works, don't feel the need to read Dawkins.
Really, atheists aren't something special. Atheists are humans, like everybody else.
NY_Dan
Well-known
These kind of acts, while not that openly embraced by the moderate brethren of the extremists, are none the less too frequently celebrated by them -- deep down they like it. And I don't label these acts terrorism per se, I call them serial murder by the lowest cowards. JeSuis Charlie is an admirable sentiment. How about JeSuis Jew? Where's the outrage at the constant and increasing number of attacks against them? There's so much hypocrisy.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
And jesuisahmed (the policeman shot in the groin and then in the head outside the Charlie Hebdo offices):
"I am a Moslem. You insulted my religion. I died defending your right to do so."
Cheers,
E.,
"I am a Moslem. You insulted my religion. I died defending your right to do so."
Cheers,
E.,
kuuan
loves old lenses
tu es ma sœur et vous êtes mon frère, nous sommes une grande famille
'je suis Charlie' is good, 'Je suis Lassana' is better: http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.636361
'je suis Charlie' is good, 'Je suis Lassana' is better: http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.636361
gb hill
Veteran
#jesuischarlie
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Not least here. Palestine ring any bells? Waziristan? Why do we need special pleading for ANY group not to be murdered more or less at random? See my earlier post, Regardless of who starts a war, crusade, genocide, etc., it's generally quite hard to say "Well you started it so we were fully justified in..."
See also my earlier post Je suis Ahmed, the (Muslim) cop who was shot in the head while lying wounded on the ground.
But one of the placards yesterday was "Je suis Charlie, je suis flic, je suis Juif" ("flic" is "cop").
Cheers,
R.
Dayrell bishop
Well-known
Je suis Charlie Iam baga too
Je suis Charlie Iam baga too
Of course I stand with the French people on this but cant understand the lack of coverage of more than 2000 people kiled by Boko Haram recently , are westeners more important.
Je suis Charlie Iam baga too
Of course I stand with the French people on this but cant understand the lack of coverage of more than 2000 people kiled by Boko Haram recently , are westeners more important.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Well, quite. The answer to all too many people is unfortunately, "Yes".
As NY_Dan said, There's so much hypocrisy.
Cheers,
R.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Not really. The Israelites slaughtered their fathers, mothers and brothers. You think the survivors were turned on by this and willingly embraced the murderers? How was it NOT rape? And they were "girl-children". You think the conquerors always waited 'til they were (let us say) 18? 16? 15? 12? Of course no one can prove that it was paedophile rape but it's hard to draw any other conclusion.
Also, I have to admit that I'm no Rebbe but how much of the Law applied to non-Jews?
Cheers,
R.
mfunnell
Shaken, so blurred
Well, just the title of this might give something of a hint:
http://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Here-R...sr=1-1&keywords=been+raped+and+speaks+english
(I don't justify the attitude, and I know the author doesn't either, but it does exist and can't be eradicated, only attenuated.)
...Mike
frank-grumman
Well-known
As I watch the replays of videos taken by observers, I cannot help but think what an utter shame that those videographers who took the video lived in a country where they had nothing else with which to "shoot." RIP to the deceased. 
Paul Jenkin
Well-known
Same could be said of Ebola. If that outbreak had been in a developed nation, I suspect by now there'd have been a cure - or at least a way of making it non-fatal - at the very least.