Lars

Yes but the government is contemplating preventing the protests, not contemplating preventing the abortions.  Every country has whack-jobs who wave their religious literature around, but there’s no pro-life/pro-choice battle going on in the streets, the government or the churches.  It’s not a political issue.

I don’t know, Unseen.  I seriously could not tell you whether giving food would work better than delivering bombs.  I do think the attitude would be flavored differently though, for both the donors and the recipients.

Oddly, it seems to be something objected to solely on religious grounds.  I know the objections are couched as ‘humanist’ but obviously they aren’t, or there would be more effort put into funding children’s health care (CHIPS was permitted to expire on Sept 30th this year).

In the UK, there are no abortion debates in politics – it’s consid…[Read more]

tom sarbeck wrote:
the world owed the Jewish people a homeland

The Palestinian area has been occupied by outsiders for millenia. Palestinians went from having overlords from the Caliphate to the meddling Ottomans to slightly benevolent British Rule and now a pretty cruel Israeli occupation. I would say Palestine certainly deserved their own in…[Read more]

Yes…David. I really do think that this is by far, the most important question.

How is it that any modern society can accept any justification for these terrible acts of religious violence?

While it may seem that some Gulf countries are “modern” they are only superficially so. There is still female subjugation, virtual slavery and other forms o…[Read more]

Belle, there are no stupid questions.  I have always admired your willingness to open your mind, and ask for input.  I took some time to find you a short and simple summary with decent credentials :). Never apologize for your thirst to learn!

How the Six Day War brought elation and despair

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-40117270

This is a massively truncated explanation, Belle, from the BBC website – hopefully it answers your question regarding the origins of the dispute.  There should be links from that page too, if you’ve a mind to read further.

Flash forward a few weeks. The President of Catalonia fled to Belgium (to avoid Spanish prosecutors trying to jail him for holding the vote). Four cabinet ministers from Catalonia sit in jail awaiting a trial (in the same prison as murderers…in fact…a fellow inmate was stabbed during a worship service). Spain has taken over Catalonia (a…[Read more]

The thing is, poverty linked to terrorism is something of a myth. It is true, some very down trodden people end up being recruited an do the unthinkable, but there is absolutely no shortage of middle and upperclass Americans and European (even non-muslims who converted) who went to Syria to help do (which they knew well in advance) was u…[Read more]

When you give billions of dollars to a government to distribute benefits, I think you probably lose the credit for it as the government claims it.  Distribution of food regularly, accompanied by mechanisms for those populations to create their own food source, may need to be done in a different way.

I wonder how many food and medicine packages we could drop instead of bombs, for the price.

He can’t, @trexdgr he’s in the sin bin and won’t be back.

What would you offer to the young men that would be a better option for them than joining the jihad movement and getting food and water for you and your family?

@renaissanceman (aka John Phillip)  May I point out to you that joining an Atheist forum and asking/telling us/me that I will be sorry when I bump into your mighty creator vassilates between a child running up and ringing a doorbell as a prank, and an act of aggression against people not of your faith.

Neither is particularly becoming for an a…[Read more]

Hahaha @Robert the caller married an atheist, BUT he’s a good person :).

I hope you’re safe