<Shock and horror>

[asterroc]

I am officially rescinding any tolerance I had for fundamentalist Islam. I heard about this on NPR this afternoon - an Afgan man is on trial for converting away from Islam (to Christianity, but that part's irrelevant) 16 years ago. It's his own family that turned him in. The legally required sentence under sharia law is death.

The article doesn't say but NPR did, that after statements from Bush, the prosecutor wants to allow the defendant to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, in which case he will not get the death penalty.

ETA: I got a better link (hooray BBC!) from q10.

Comments

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

And we support this bastion of freedom?
I have severe problems with fundamentalism in general, but this brings it to a whole new level.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I support freedom of religion, even if it's fundamentalism - EXCEPT when someone's religion infringes upon mine (and that of others).

Of course, the counter argument to that could be that my belief in freedom of religion infringes upon the Islamic fundamentalist belief in sharia law. I don't have a good counter-counter argument to that. (It's starting to sound like a lightbulb joke.) I could either say "well, but my belief's better!" which is stupid, or I could come up with some wishy-washy "well, more freedom's better!" that I can't describe well.

Hee, I entertain myself: I just decided that my religion is disorganized agnostic atheism. :-P

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

The reason you stated for not supporting a religion, infringement on the beliefs of another, is my exact reason for disliking fundamentalism in general. I used to take a commitment into a youth correctional facility, and there was a group of born agains who went in at the same time, and we frequently had to wait in the gate house together. It seemed like everytime one of them would try to convert me or the guy I shared the commitment with. I have never had a positive experience dealing with fundamentalists.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I just feel it's exceedingly disrespectful. It's one thing if it's somebody knocking on your door, b/c then you can just tell them to go away, or shut the door in their face, but it's another if it's someone you know. Those're the ones that actually bother me the most. It's like my friendly acquaintance doesn't respect me enough to allow me to make up my own mind. They'd be irritated if I started preaching atheism at me, so why should it be ok for them to preach their Protestantism at me?

It makes me lose respect for them too. Especially when they start either quoting the Bible at me, or trying to convince me of personal miracles they've experienced. Y'know, my beliefs require physical evidence, which your Bible isn't, and no, your filling doesn't look like it's been turned to gold, it looks like there's food caught in it.

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

Basically. Except for replace aethism with various Buddhist teachings for me.
But I have a patio chair that has been weathered to look almost as if there is a face on it. I should claim it is Jesus and sell it on eBay. Apparently crap that looks like jeebus if you really really want to believe that it does sells pretty well on there.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Oh my, I can just picture fundamentalist Buddhist monks, shaved heads and orange robes, knocking on my door...

I'm all for polite discussions of varying beliefs though. The only instances I have trouble with keeping it cool are when others aren't polite, or when people insist that religion is scientifically true - i.e., the Earth was created 6,000 years ago, man walked with dinosaurs, Pluto rules my sign, the chakras or chi of accupuncture, aliens built the pyramids...

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are some sects of Buddhism that are pretty fundamentalist though. Which is somewhat alarming in that it pretty much goes entirely against the teachings of the Buddha. Other than the eightfold path there is nothing really set in stone about Buddhism. To say that something must be done a certain way goes completely against the whole concept of a way or path that the individual must find for themselves and follow.
I remember a conversation with a coworker from back when I was married, I asked on of my coworkers to draw the chinese translations of a few words (I don't remember them all, but I know one was harmony, and another was peace) for the reception antifiance and I were then planning. He mentioned something about them being christian principles. I replied that they are also buddhist principles, and he made a comment about there being a difference. That is one of the major problems I see about religion, the extent to which people focus on differences rather than similarity. Humanity is far more similar than dissimilar.
While I have no idea about why accupunture or accupressure works, I have had accupressure done and it works wonders for pain. But the dinosaurs and mankind walking together always makes me laugh.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I think the primary reason accupuncture/~pressure work is the placebo effect, however it's possible there is a nervous system connection. I do not buy the wishy wahsy "connected flow of energy" or whatever New Agey thing they say - it's just not falsifiable.

And your comment on differences reminded me of a post I wanted to make...

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

I think it is most likely a nervous system thing. Depending on the type of stimuli, pressure points can cause or relieve pain (rubbing will cause one, while poking will cause the other). For my kung-fu teacher's teacher's birthday, we had a kung fu family reunion, and one of my teacher's training brothers has a degree in classical chinese medicine, so the lesson he taught focused on pressure points. It was a really cool class.