To think that belief in Father Christmas is not comparable to religious belief.

[Throughthelongnight]

Just that really. I have noticed that the expectation is that we all go along with the pretence of FC for the sake of parent's children's sensibility, but the same is not afforded where religious belief is concerned.

Belief, not believe.

Because this is anonymous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For crying out loud. I don't want acid thrown in my face if it got back to the wrong person.
How many times????????????????????

Dionne, you are really being daft now - I have answered the same points from you over and over again. Go back and look.

I'm not answering you again if you ask the same questions Dionne.

no the koran does not tell muslims to hurt non muslims

though i know you will run off and find the verse, read it all in its correct context if you want to understand but if not keep c&p the bits that suit you

my mil welcomed me to her home as an equal i was not less worthy because i was not a muslim and never have been made to feel that way by muslims

but yes of course the verse will be used by those wanting to harm others in the name of religion or to attack the religion

I don't feel a need to offend people. If not agreeing with people, asking questions they find difficult to answer or defend, if calling them out on the questionable or spiteful comments they have made, feels offensive, then maybe it is time I just treated everyone whom I disagree with like they are an adorable little puppy who can't help pissing on the rug. I'd rather treat people like adults, but if they can't handle it, then I'll try to remember that.

Oxford, your comparison of the Westboro Baptists to the Taliban is wrong. The Westboro Baptists don't kill or oppress people. They just go around trying to offend people who don't believe what they do.

no the koran does not tell muslims to hurt non muslims
yes it does, over and over again.
what your mother in law says is 'anecodatal evidence,' ie is worth nothing for the purpose of evidence.

Freudian, it's not just one verse. There are loads of them.

Many people live in fear about speaking out about Islam, including Muslims themselves.

It's all well and good to see it from your point of view, westerners who may never feel the oppression a lot of women do in other countries due to people's religious values.

My family come from a Muslim country. They came here after having daughters and not wanting to bring them up in the environment where other family were wanting to plan marriages for their daughters at age 4, they wanted the girls to have an educated which they could not access over there. They didn't want them to have to wear the niqab. Just a few of the reasons

Kittens, who has threatened to throw acid in your face?

Kitten, how can they be your friends if your mistrust of them is so great?

^no the koran does not tell muslims to hurt non muslims

though i know you will run off and find the verse, read it all in its correct context if you want to understand but if not keep c&p the bits that suit you^

Yes it does. That is all.

Dione
The aim is not to offend, that is a necessary by product. You're not really adding anything to the debate.

Freudian, it is a bit of a silly argument to use your MIL to represent how all Muslims will behave. It's not actually flattering to reduce an entire religious community to one personality type.

How is quoting from the Koran to make a point (and it is apparently the irrefutable word of God, don't forget, so surely it can only speak the truth) any different from quoting Sam Harris, as has been done on this thread? At least the Koranic quotes have been written verbatim as they have been found and not slanderously misrepresented, as was the words of Harris.

Or is it okay when religious types do it, but us Atheists should try to placate and blandly nod along (yourself included)? How does that work?

Dione- I would be grateful for your comments on my post of 21:30:54

Well, maybe they have friends and family too. Maybe they might not be as circumspect as I'd like. You're not denying that there would be a danger, are you?

And anyway, as we have discussed earlier, Muslims can't have non muslim friends. It says so in the Koran.

my family, friends, ex partner

non of them have wanted to cause me harm or those i new when i lived in a muslim country

though i did once get really bad food poisoning when staying with my cousins i guess they were trying to poison me

When people have the same magical thinking of small children, and demand people accept that an invisible magic man lives on the sky, it is inevitable that they will feel offended when people, gently or not, point out why others don't feel the same. It is not a mindset that lends itself to being able to handle any sort of challenge, for if it was, it wouldn't be religious in the first place.

And dione you still won't answer curlew's question about wife beating in the Koran, nor mine about whether you found the child rape was ok 1400 years ago, offensive or not

Dione doesn't answer questions. She just repeats the same old stuff about offending people being wrong.
Dione - what would you say to hitler? Hello, do come for tea, how nice to see you?

And defuse quoted 10 times more verses from the Koran than anyone else, just to prove her point.

i spoke of my ex mil earlier in reply to some comment made about how muslim people showed no respect to non muslims

i spoke of her again as she is a good example of a religious person, the most religious person i know and how she lived by the koran

but again those on here know better as they take little bits to suit their argument

Bags, do you find anybody who does not agree with you silly?

Every argument against you seems to be branded infantile, silly, deluded, mentally ill...you really dont know how to say 'i was wrong for using the term mentally ill in this context' instead you went into a lengthy lecture about mental illness, which convinced no one!

But any mockery or rudeness that comes from you seems to be deemed acceptable - nothing infantile about that huh!