Jim

The control of the border issue is all the more ridiculous considering the UK and Ireland were the ony Western European countries not part of the Schengen treaty meaning people still had to present passports or ID at the border while I could drive from Lisbon to Warsaw without a single border check. The UK really had the best arrangement, a…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Nationalism is a bit like a drug. You don’t have to think or work and yet you feel better. You see the far left align with immigrants and you imagine the death of your national culture and way of life. There are elements of truth to the fears.

To  some extent, yes!

Simon Paynton wrote:
in the Abrahamic religions the norms are at a high standard and are strictly enforced explicitly by the religion.

Only to the extent that the religion pervades every level of society. In countries which have secularised, Christianity and Islam may preach strict control of individuals but that doesn’t transfer into laws or…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
But why is religion strict in the first place?

That’s an over-generalisation again. Not all religions are strict. The Abrahamic religions are strict, but they developed from the same original source. It came from a semi-nomadic group of tribal people surviving in a desolate part of the world with social ostracism, enslavement…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

I think the reason why Islam is so strict…

It is strict because in such countries they fulfill two essential conditions:

1 Its based on an Abrahamic bookswhich are all full of ridiculous laws as well as prohibitions and brutal punishment.

2. Religion pervades all levels of society and informs laws and behaviors as well…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
I still think it’s a puzzle why religious norms seem to be so much stricter than secular norms

Nope. This is sort of the case in Humanist countries like EU, Canada, Australia, NZ and the US but it is not the case in secular countries like China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, parts of the  USA etc.

I think its really important to…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
It’s a thin red line and I oscillate back and forth.

Indeed. I always come back to the case of the Westboro Baptist church, something I’ve mentioned several times here). The ones who went to the funerals of fallen US soldiers in Iraq. They chanted that they were killed (and deserved to be killed) because the US lets fags get m…[Read more]

Pope, unfortunately the majority of muslims adhere to a rather conservative and opressive form of Islam. The overwealming majority of muslim women are very held back, homophobia is nearly universal, freedom of religious dessent is rare and acts of adultary are met with strict punishment. If by moderate you mean they don’t support terrorists, then…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The paranoid feeling of threat is made up BS,

This is often the case. As though Westerners plan to take their religion away from them, force them to enact progressive laws and invade their countries for religious reasons. I’ve heard this time and time again in Iran, Turkey, Jordan and even Morocco. The paranoia is…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:

which in this case [moderates] are by far in the majority

Unfortunately I beg to differ. As the increase of extremism and violence has increased in the last few decades, some see moderate Muslims as those who do not agree with violent Jihad and who make a couple progressive exceptions to common oppressive customs. But this…[Read more]