There’s not really anything to be said for differing birth rates, as Miller pointed out. Muslims comprise about 7% of Europe’s population now (concentrated in a few countries); they’re no more in danger of taking over than Jews were in Weimar Germany.
In your opinion, do the ends justify the means? Give power to a man who will undoubtedly use his power in corrupt and evil ways, as long as he appoints a pro-lifer to SCOTUS?
This is a man who said he has never asked God for forgiveness. A man who thinks turning the other cheek is ridiculous, and if hit, he’ll hit back 10 x harder. A man obsessed with money. A liar. A pussygrabber.
Even worse, he said he’s done nothing to ask forgiveness for.
Still waiting to learn the relationship between Bruiser1036 and Urbanredneck.
Give him some time, he needs to double-check what login he’s posting under.
Knock off sock accusations.
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What I want to know is why people like the OP have no faith in their god? If everything happens “according to God’s plan” then everything is unfolding as it should. Why question what’s happening? It’s clearly what God wants. Apparently, you don’t have faith in your god.
Also, who cares? If the OP were the only person on Earth following his religion’s rules, then he’s going to be ok. Why worry about what the other 7 billion people are doing? If I want to go to hell and be sinful and do whatever, how does that affect the OP’s chance at getting into heaven? It’s so telling from people like him that they don’t really believe in their god, they just want to control what other people are doing. It’s blatantly obvious. Otherwise, why would they give a damn about people they don’t even know? Follow your made-up rules. Leave me out of it.
Well, think like a fundie. They think that abortion is murder, and abortion in the US since Roe v. Wade has, as a result, led to the murder of over 50 million people. Five holocausts over the period of half a century. It kinda makes sense from their priors - if electing trump leads to an end of abortion in America, he’d have to be “starts a nuclear war” bad to make up for it.
Yes, there are a lot of problems with this (banning abortion doesn’t get rid of it, just pushes it underground; abortion is not murder; etc.), but if you think like a fundie (i.e. very badly)… Yeah. It kinda makes sense. And speaking of thinking like a fundie…
Do you believe, even for a second, that this passes an ideological turing test? That is, if you presented this as a representation of fundamentalist ideology, other fundamentalists would believe, even for a second, that it was from a member of their ingroup? They don’t actually think like that. This logic makes no sense. It makes no sense based on christian doctrine. It makes no sense based on basic human decency. How do you suppose the OP is thinking?
Many Christians hold that the world is not run according to God’s will, but is manipulated by Satan. God wants them to oppose the wicked secular leadership of the world.
Also, many Christians believe they are bound by the Great Commission, and that they must go out and proselytize, because that’s what Jesus commanded them to do.
Neither of these ideas is intrinsically awful. People should be free to believe in what they want, and actively to encourage others to believe the same. Yay freedom. It’s when they get in power and start passing laws compelling others to follow their dogma that some of us get a bit unhappy.
Because Christianity succeeded so well because it is an MLM scheme. Not only do you need to follow the rules, you need to convince 10 of your neighbors to do it also.
Especially effective since love your neighbor means kill them if they don’t want to join up.
Of course it doesn’t pass the test. It’s not supposed to. It’s a deconstruction of their beliefs, not an attempt to share them in a favorable light (as would be required for your test). He’s arguing that, despite saying that everything is a part of God’s Plan, they don’t actually behave like it is. And then he cites examples.
Granted, there is a counterargument. But it needs actually be made, not just reference something that has nothing to do with what he is arguing.
The counterargument is simply “we are a part of God’s plan.” Their actions are a part of what God wants. The other is that they don’t get to heaven if they turn an indifferent eye towards your sins. They have to give everyone a chance to repent. If they don’t, then, as the Bible says, your blood is on their hands.
That said, there is a part that speaks badly of them. They will sometime use “it’s all a part of God’s plan” as an excuse to do nothing about an evil in the world. They can’t have it both ways.
In cases like this, an example is how they will fight against Islam, but then ignore the refugees. They make excuses for this, but it boils down to “No matter how small a threat, our security matters more than these other people.”
I used to be conservative. I was raised Pentecostal, which is Fundamentalist adjacent. I very much do know both the arguments they make and what the actual underlying concepts are. I have no reason to put the positive spin on their actual underlying beliefs.
You do have a point. Why isn’t, “If God had wanted them otherwise, he’d have made them otherwise.”, enough?
I mean, it makes more sense than a ‘gay agenda!’ (Anyone following the gay marriage debate in the Aussie papers? Yikes!)
The important part of the test is not “I am kind to your beliefs”. It is “I can fairly and accurately represent your beliefs”. And while they may or may not believe that everything is part of God’s plan, it does not in any way follow from that that they should take no action to prevent suffering or sin. In fact, they are commanded by their god to undergo certain actions. I have nothing against a deconstruction but it needs to make sense.
Me neither. But intellectual dishonesty bugs me. Understanding what your opponents believe is important, because you cannot convince someone with a straw man of their position unless their position is not strongly held or incredibly vague and poorly-understood. Neither applies to fundies.
My vote is that the population is very very slowly becoming more intelligent, and needs not rely on a magical sky fairy to get through day to day life.
Quite apart from the fact that most of the cites you provided were filled with gross falsehoods and the one reliable source given pretty much debunked what you said about it, the greater imminent threat to both Europe and the US is the rise of the far right. You may recognize some of these groups by the fact that they think white nationalism is a pretty nifty idea. Even the FBI considers extreme-right terrorism to be a greater threat than Islamic-extremist terrorism.
Note I only went as far as “decent”. I’m not yet ready to commit to “good” (although BoDeans’ chipotle sauce is so good it will upgrade pretty much anything to “edible”).
Maybe on average. But there are substantial pockets that actually appear to be regressing, into the simple and clear world where all you need to know is what somebody tells you is in a book, where you’re on the side of Good and will be rewarded for it someday, where there’s a God who hates the same people you do. It’s pretty damn attractive not to have to think or question or explain or engage, just believe and denounce the unbelievers.
So don’t live in Iran or Saudi Arabia.
Are you going to apologize for posting links to absurd lies?
Well at least some European countries have the sense to put a stop to this like Denmark which has banned the burqua. Also Belgium, France, Bulgaria, and Austria. Germany might be next.
Denmark also recently had a crackdown on Muslim schools where it was found that anti Danish and anti Jewish curriculum was being taught.
A quote:
“Two former teachers at the Nord-Vest school described how the children at the school spoke of Danes in terms of “them and us”. In a school poetry contest, several of the children composed poems that detailed their wish to beat up and break the legs and hands of the “Danish pigs”.”
Well you all seem pretty proud of your European ideas of being open and all but I still think you have something going on which you should not ignore.
Urbanredneck, please answer the question. You believe that Muslims are going to take over Europe. How do you see this happening?