Where Does it End? Religion vs Freedom of Speech
This is an answer to Cogitatum's posting.
To Island: No one is unimportant. I disagree with that.
To Cogitatum: I live in a country founded on the principle of freedoms - of speech, of rights to live, etc. Unfortunately, when it comes to religion, it seems that all will sweep aside those rights to defend their beliefs as the only ones to be of any value. People die all the time in these skirmishes. I have no idea what the exact right answer is. In hindsight, I am sure someone at that first paper realises it was folly and an open invitation of disaster to print those cartoons. But where does it end? And why is it that religion is the one thing that pushes humanity not to its best, but clearly to its worst, behaviour?
I don't know. I do know why I am a poor believer in any religion - this seems to underscore that. I just can't help but feel that anything that causes this much turmoil in its own species is something that has lost its value.
It certainly seems good, doesn't it? It sounds great. Be a good person and there is a big reward when you die. I'd like to think so - even though I see death up close and personal, I still find the idea of not existing... well... discomfiting. But to kill another human being over this reward - which surely seems it will take away your opportunity of ever getting this reward! And where is the God of love that all religions espouse? How do we breed killers from a god who is supposed to represent all that is good in us? How does that happen?
I don't know. It is really a pity. All this bloodshed and for what? What has it accomplished aside from making one or more coroners busy?
To Island: No one is unimportant. I disagree with that.
To Cogitatum: I live in a country founded on the principle of freedoms - of speech, of rights to live, etc. Unfortunately, when it comes to religion, it seems that all will sweep aside those rights to defend their beliefs as the only ones to be of any value. People die all the time in these skirmishes. I have no idea what the exact right answer is. In hindsight, I am sure someone at that first paper realises it was folly and an open invitation of disaster to print those cartoons. But where does it end? And why is it that religion is the one thing that pushes humanity not to its best, but clearly to its worst, behaviour?
I don't know. I do know why I am a poor believer in any religion - this seems to underscore that. I just can't help but feel that anything that causes this much turmoil in its own species is something that has lost its value.
It certainly seems good, doesn't it? It sounds great. Be a good person and there is a big reward when you die. I'd like to think so - even though I see death up close and personal, I still find the idea of not existing... well... discomfiting. But to kill another human being over this reward - which surely seems it will take away your opportunity of ever getting this reward! And where is the God of love that all religions espouse? How do we breed killers from a god who is supposed to represent all that is good in us? How does that happen?
I don't know. It is really a pity. All this bloodshed and for what? What has it accomplished aside from making one or more coroners busy?
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