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Comment by Anonymously Yours
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Most religions, that I'm aware of, promote the elimination/murder of non-believers. I don't remember the exact passage in the Bible but it is in the Old Testament. The Bible also promotes ostracism of non-believers as I was a victim in my youth by my supposedly very best friend at the age of 13. I was no longer allowed to associate with my best childhood friend because of his wacky overly self righteous Christian fundamentalist grandmother. Religions promote it but yet a number of my friends are Christians today including my very best friend so therefore religion is really just an excuse by those that wish to exercise it. Throwing all people into one basket is wrong. With the Israel/Gaza conflict it is easy to show the faults of both sides. Fighting over which group is God's chosen people and therefore who is rightfully the owner of that land is an unwinnable position and will probably create conflict until eternity. If they cannot work it out, then neither is obviously worthy of that property. War is a disgrace to mankind and siding with anyone that is continually using the excuse of self defence is wrong. Without interventionism of various governments like the U.S., I would doubt that this conflict would have gone on for so long. We reap what we sew.  Except for those who cannot leave as they have no other place that they can go, I believe the rest to all be guilty of contibuting to the deaths of so many people.  It is surely time to stop fighting.  

 

Comment by Mike Renzulli
Entered on:

Thank you for your response. I disagree with your assertion of guilt as far as wars are concerned. As far as the Bible is concerned, you are correct except that the religions centered around it can reinterpret it and freely ignore parts of the Bible if it is incompatible with a believer's lifestyle or today's culture. Christianity and Judaism specifically are fractured to where a believer in either religion can migrate to another denomination or leave altogether at their choosing. In Islam it is a whole different story. The Wahabbist sect is the dominant voice among Sunni Muslims since it enjoys the backing of the Saudi monarchy and in Shi'a Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood has been responsible for most of the orthodoxy seen among Shi'ites. Yet both sects mostly interpret the religion's 3 central books (i.e. the Quran, Sunnah and Shia) literally thanks to the influence of the MB and Wahabbists. As a result any Muslim who tries to ignore what declared in Islam's 3 holy texts is considered an apostate in which the penalty for doing so is excommunication or death.

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