h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

one more, from the Qur'an:"Marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with them, then only one or one that your right hands possess. That will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice." (Qur'an 4:3)
While this holds true of men, the double standard steps in and stops women from reversing the act.

Uber Phreak, I await your selective quotes from the bible. Especially the bits about stoning women (but not men) who commit adultery and throwing slaves into lions dens for entertainment etc

He-he! I find this quite amusing! Can we say "Don't understand other religions!"?LOL

Ya'll woried about not understanding the Muslem faith, I'm intrigued about the earlier assesment of Mormons.....it 'twernt the "Apostles" who came to the "New World". We are told it was one of the lost tribes of Israel. Thats' only a bit of the misunderstanding, but I don't have the energy to go back and find the posts!(To the poster....if you'll let them 2 "guys wit' de' badges" in next time, they'll give you what we believe! Then you won't have to hear it "secondhand"!LOL)

As far as your questions, LOONy.....thats' Old Testament. If you're Christian, those rules have been changed. "Whosoever is without sin"....need I go on?

As far as the Jewish scripts, I cannot attest. From what I understand, they match up closely to the Christian "Old Testament".

Last I checked, their stuff hadn't been updated!

NM

Maybe the Communists were on the right track when they sidelined organised religion...?

Yeah, I posted that, and I was wrong.

The Mormon story goes something like this: The prophet Mormon and his son Moroni 2 were part of the 'lost tribe' of Israel, by some miracle having made it to America. Before dying Mormon inscribed gold plates with his wisdom, then his son Moroni 2 completed the plates. He then buried them in a stone box in a hill not far from where a man named Joseph Smith lived. The angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about the plates. Smith recovered the plates, who translated and published them as the book of Mormon.

This is the most rational version of the Mormon faith. Many things that Smith had preached as gospel is now downplayed as being a little ridiculous... When Smith originally came out of the wilderness, all wild-eyed and bushy-tailed, he was raving about a burning salamander. Mormons still believe in polygamy, and all women wear a body stocking under their clothes that covers them from neck to ankles. And they're still utterly convinced that a tribe of Jewish people once lived in Utah. Hey, stranger things have happened, but it all sounds very unlikely.

I suppose if we're going to pull quotes from the Qu'ran, then we need to start asking questions about how far the Muslim faith has diverged from the original text. Christianity has its own text, but many of the ideals are from the Old testament.

Hi.
Just wondering how many other countries you've lived in. One of the major complaints I've heard from colleagues is that America has too much freedom. We've overdone it. That's not why America is not universally loved. A lot of them wonder how we've survived so long.

Unfortunately our business practices have followed the line of a certain oil company executive, who said he didn't care about the country as long as the company was making a profit. Certain corporations have made big profits at the expense of their local workers which makes Americans look very bad. Remember that athletic shoe company which paid its workers some dismal sum per hour? Or was it per day? Our business practices are what cause America to be unloved, plus our tendancy to be do-gooders, meddling in other people's business, even if we do mean well. Little arrogant statements like mine really don't amount to much in comparison.

... "When Smith originally came out of the wilderness, all wild-eyed and bushy-tailed, he was raving about a burning salamander."

Hmmm...maybe I need to read more...don't recall anything about a "burning salamander".

"Mormons still believe in polygamy"...Did, don't anymore. Some offshoot versions(can we say"extremists"?sure, I knew you could!) still claim it, but the church does not accept them anymore....by, about 100 years!),

"and all women wear a body stocking under their clothes that covers them from neck to ankles."..... So do active, practicing males. No difference in the treatment of the sexes. What one does, so does the other.

" And they're still utterly convinced that a tribe of Jewish people once lived in Utah."....... Nope...wrong again!LOL We don't know where they were...all we know is that the US government, and "kindly US religious leaders" drove the founders to a place that they thought no-one would approach to persicute them again.....Utah. What can I say...who would've wanted it.

Looks like they did a fair job with a bit of unusable soil!

"Hey, stranger things have happened, but it all sounds very unlikely."..... And I'm still wondering if there is any such thing as a "likely" religion.

Religion is never likely...its' faith based. Facts, or logic, have nothing to do with it.

Enough of this...last I checked, Mormon ain't Islam...and I think that is what this thread is about.

NM

halavana....The situation you discribe is referred to as a "sweatshop". Those have been outlawed in the US and Europe for longer than any of us can remember.

In other nations they are commonplace. The shoe factory I think you refer to was a Nike shop in China.

Very bad press here, and closed soon after, if I'm not mistaken.

We don't buy from sweatshops if we know that is the source.....but we have to know that information to make the decision. Third world counties are not always quick to admit to it....it would cut down on profits.(and they say WE'RE greedy!)

NM

In response to Uber Phreak...

Paul 14:34 > "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

Part of the 'new' testament. I could go on at length, but let's just say that the holy books of both religions can appear deeply sexist and unjust to disbelievers, but that this need not reflect badly on practitioners of either faith.

-Xanthia (don't get me started... )

Fairly Strange, Uber Freak

Amending or quoting out-of-context religious texts is a major step in propaganda. Do you really want to add to the hatred here? I made the point about 'Love Islam, Love America', but from your posts it appears to be 'Love America, Hate Islam'! Please don't feel I'm getting at you, but I will fight against bias.

As for sweat-shops, it is a sad fact that they do exist. Admittedly illegal, and certainly old-fashioned, but definitely contemporary. They happen in England as well as in America, and when they're shut down they restart again elsewhere. Wanting them not to happen doesn't mean they don't.

x x Fenny (sadly waiting for a day with Zero Intolerance and Zero Hatred)

Islam is not the West, and the West is NOT Islam.
I am sure that many Muslims can find many flaws in the Western value system and whatever it was based on. Don't you think?
no wonder that we have people like the Prime Minister of Italy saying what he said about the West and Islam, and then the next day an article in the Wall Street Journal appears to say that the Prime Minister should not apologize. And why should he?? he certainly feels superior..

Peace & Love for ALL

ME@SF, is ME a suitable shortening? It won't be a surprise to you that I would fight against your words, but I think you've highlighted an attitude that's unfortunately prevalent. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but I can at least take verbal action. Or written action.

x x Fenny (hoping and praying for Zero Intolerance now and forever. Or, Peace and Justice to all - good sig.!)

Who said I didn't have a problem with the Bible? I am against ANY dogmatic belief that stresses belief over logic.

Talking about Hollywood

Richard Gere and Steven Seagal are fighting it out to play the Dalai Lama in He Ain't Heavy, He's My Buddha. But it's been confirmed that Sean Connery will definitely play Reese Witherspoon's love interest in Yeah, Right. Harrison Ford was tipped for the role, but says he has committed to a new actioner helmed by Jerry Bruckheimer. Ford will play a Catholic archaeologist from Uganda whose discovery of a trinket in Moscow threatens to destroy his faith. The subplot calls for him to kill Libyan terrorists who have hijacked a snowmobile in the Antarctic. Ford's love interest, Julia Roberts, plays a mysterious Tahitian brain surgeon who steals a valuable painting in Johannesburg. Filming on the MGM lot has already begun.

Thank you. This was part of the point I was trying to make about how America is perceived in other parts of the world. It doesn't matter that America, England, etc, have outlawed sweatshops in our own countries. If we do business with them elsewhere, even though we don't know it, we are still to blame, from a certain point of view. When the 3rd world "powers that be" limit news and accurate information to the masses and broadcast only disinformation, it's no wonder they riot. When the only Americans or Europeans they see are from Hollywood, they are bound to hate us. We may be able to see products from Hollywood as only entertainment and not a reflection of the American lifestyle, but people who don't live here can't.

Likewise, our business practices still need some pretty serious reevaluation if we want to avoid becoming truly Ugly Americans instead of the one portrayed in the novel by the same name.

Sorry for being so longwinded. God bless...

Lentilla & ME@SF

The original Palestinian Charter of 1968 can be found at yale-dot-edu. This document has been criticized by many organizations including the U.N. The more recent draft constitution can be found at Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Pcpsr-dot-org. This draft is, or at least in August of this year, was still unsigned. The draft constitution would deliver a more democratic style of government to the Palestinian people. It is opposed by HAMAS and the hard line Islamists.

There have been several attempts to define the Palestinian people. Over the last few years
Yasser Arafat has set various teams of specialists to work on this issue but an historical claim for either Jews or Palestinians is impossible to define. This region has been stamped over by so many different nations (Including the Mongols) that any specific definition is patently ridiculous. Palestine has always been the name of a region, never a country and derives from the Romanised word for Phillistine. Historically speaking there are two different peoples bearing this name. The first was the Amsarru who hailed from the Anatolia/Armenia areas. The second were Greek settlers who arrived at approximately the same time as the Hebrews. Phyllistia, Goliath, Gath(Gaza) are all Greek names. Roughly speaking the Phillistines occupied the area, which is now Coastal Israel, and the Hebrews occupied the littoral area, which includes the Palestinian Territories. Ironic when you look at the map of to-day's territorial claims.

There have been several occasions when agreement came close to settling the issue between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and each and every time it has been scuttled by the extremists on both sides.

If you care to go to my page, there is a thread "please elaborate" which is an example of many situations between ordinary people. The advocates of "Absolute Power" deny such situations between different races and religions can ever exist.

Fenny Reh Craeser ..........

I'm a bit confused. You wrote......

<>

eeerrrmmmm.....if you will re-read the posts above, I believe you'll find that the only scripture I quoted was the first four words of an obscure verse found somewhere in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.(I couldn't even attribute it, 'cause I'm not sure where it is myself!) Seems there are others a bit more prolific in this matter than me.

If you count my short desertation on Mormonism(note no scripture quoted...in or out of context), I am sorry. That subject does not belong here...I agree...but I tend to defend my own anytime I see misinformation on the subject.

Also, would you be so kind as to point out anything I have said that would seem to indicate that I "hate Islam"? If so, bring it to my attention so that I may either explain my comments, or appologise.

To paraphrase.... Please don't feel I'm getting at you, but I will fight against being falsely accused.

NM

Oh, I'm sorry. Posting from work I misread so much and type so quickly, it's a wonder I make coherent sentences! Reading back, I'm not sure what prompted me to include you in the first paragraph. It's possible I was just directing your attention to the para about the sweatshops, but I do see how you would take offence (I would too!) And now I have to apologise to Uber Freak, in case I've upset you unjustly. So

"Sorry"

to all who deserve it.

x x Fenny (briefly surfnig during a search for Zero Intolerance)

LOL....no problem on this end! I hope I did not come off as arrogant, self-serving or angry in my last post. It was, in no way, meant in that manner......tired eyes, tired fingers and a tired brain. Its' sometimes hard to make the written word say what one is thinking.

With the onslaught of backlog recently, and the seriousness of the subjects, I'm amazed any of us can see anymore, much less comprehend what has been said and by who!!

May it all settle soon. I'm not foolish enough to think it will.....but, as I have said for years: "Hope for the best and expect the worst...you won't be disappointed!"

NM

are you saying that the world can not define the Palestinian. This is strange!! I see no problem in identifying Jews who have the right to come and live in Israel and the Occupied territories, which the United Nations identifies as Arab lands occupied by Israel, which will make the homeland for Palestinians....
SO if I was an American/Argentine/ Brazilian or even a Jew from the North Pole, I ll have claim to the land the UN identifies as occupied, but the people who have lived in that land for over 1000 year have no right!!...don't you find that a little strange???

Fenny: I think we agree on many subjects, maybe not totally, which makes the conversation more fun, as long as we truly seeking Justice and peace in this world.

Peace and Justice for ALL