Probably more pro boner.
I can’t find a citation on this claim … US citizens fighting abroad is regulated, one would need State Department permission, but it’s not outright illegal. The US didn’t sign the UN agreement prohibiting such activities. This article in the New York Times Magazine “Meet the American Vigilantes Who Are Fighting ISIS” doesn’t mention anything about violating the law.
This strikes me as very silly and mushy-headed, but I’m an atheist so w/e.
History of religion stuff, it doesn’t require belief.
I think if you really do have devout belief, it won’t scan.
So, you’re not even going to pretend to make sense?
Apparently we’re not speaking the same language, because…back atcha.
You don’t know shit about philosophy or logic.
If philosophy and logic depend on a knowledge of shit…you’re doing it wrong.
QuickSilver - you wouldn’t by any chance happen to be a fan of this movie, would you?
If so - thumbs up. Great scene. 
This is a curious standard. You hold others in contempt for not risking their lives for - not even their actual day-to-day needs, but a political belief. Unless you are also actually risking your life to defend your political beliefs, this seems to be a very unfair standard to which you hold others. Even were you doing so, this seems to me to be most uncompassionate. I wouldn’t hold others to standards that at minimum I could not meet; there are limits to hypocrisy.
I emailed my two devoutly Christian friends to weigh in on whether they believe Muslims worship the same god as Christians. So far I have received one response, to wit:
So your devoutly Christian friends know a lot about Islam? More than you? What does being a Christian have to do with being Muslim?
Put it this way. I am an extremely well educated if not exactly devout Jew. Educated enough that I’m helping write curriculum for a religious school right now. Muslims worship the same God I do. The exact same one. Its actually explicit in Judaism that Islam evolved from Ishmael. So if Christians worship a different one… Well that’s news to me. Your friends would know better I guess.
I think the whole “monotheism” thing pretty much decides that.
So by that logic, all polytheists worship the same pantheon of gods?
Yeah, and I know several Baptists who claim Mormons aren’t Christian at all, either. Whether or not a particular Christian or group of Christians claim otherwise, Muslims consider themselves to worship the same God, albeit in a different manner.
That said, what the holy fuck does it matter? It’s an asinine distinction that makes not one whit of difference to the original point, which was itself asinine to begin with.
They are quite obviously right to make that claim! And believe me, there is not much I agree with most Baptists about.
Probably just as many of them claim that Catholics aren’t Christians either.
And yet, most Christians (at least in the US) accept Mormons as Christians, which they consider themselves to be.
Are you really going to rely on a “No True Scotsman” argument? This thread is already chock full of weak arguments without tossing in a flagrant error like that.
Sure, because Catholicism loaded up a more basic religion with a lot of polytheism, goddess worship, thrones, crowns full of baubles, etc. It’s reasonable to look at that with a pretty jaundiced eye. Which is a big reason why the Protestant Reformation even happened.
For that matter, it’s pretty clear to me that Paul himself hijacked the religion a long time ago. There were, for a while, clearly Christians who saw this clearly, but we don’t get to see their angry letters–only Paul’s responses.