Book burning is a distressing symbol of the devolution of civilisation, this particular pastor is showing himself to be of no better character than the people he is trying to offend. Members here have stated that it's no different to muslims burning Western flags etc in their own countries which clearly shows them to be of 'an eye for an eye' persuasion even if they think themselves as good christians. Lets not forget the people burning flags in middle eastern countries have great reason to be angry with the west when our armies persist in visiting indiscriminate destruction upon their lands and people. As an atheist you may even (stupidly) think it reasonable to burn all religious literature, but in doing so you would be taking up the fanatical fundamentalist mentality of the few idiots that perpetrated the horrific terror attacks upon our countries this decade.

All of the 'Holy' books including the Quran, the Bible, the Baghavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, etc...contain beautiful poetry and valuble moral fables aswell as paradoxical contradictions and absolute fictitious nonsense. Certain english translations of the Bible contain the most bewildering prose and use of language to easily rival Shakespeares classics. These works should be cherished and remembered in the same way as any great literature. The modern problems related to these texts result from (quite possibly malicious, manipulative and intentional) human misinterpretation and the religious demand for faith that they be viewed in some way as truth, or historical fact.

Building a mosque near to ground zero will of course be seen as an Islamic victory over the west, but only to that particular minority of jihadist screw ups that orchestrated the attacks in the first place. To an American muslim it would symbolise a triumph of tolerance, understanding and equality, of the contemporary and enlightened minds that exist in that great country. I disagree with it personally as I am an Atheist, and in my view there are enough (too many) mosques/churches on this earth as it is. Why not build a library dedicated to religious literature? or even better just a library?

Burning books is so 1930s....
Why doesn't this backwards christian sect just use the virtues of modern technology? If they get a 2tb harddisk and the 1,44 mb txt version of the quran from gutenberg.org they could store 1324800 qurans on it - even more if they zip it!
So if they burn the HD they could burn over 1.3 million copies at once - and also save some trees :D

Oh !
I was indeed awaiting this kind of question, just not from you DF. :O:

Basically, what is life.
To those of us who have some aristocratic origins, life is enjoyment and pleasure.
To the others, life is no more than one big stinky pile of sh!t.

Now, what is religion ?
Pure moral philosophy.
Are you all THAT simple-minded to consider the Devil looks like that red supernatural entity that is the personification of evil, do you all REALLY dare to wait for any piece of evidence proving that some Bible-related fact happened at some time in History ? :hmm2:
Sorry, but the camera had still to be invented at the time, so legitimately Jesus's disciples were not able to take a photo of Jesus walking across lake Tiberius to put it on the Bible later.

A religious book is not a report written following police investigation, guys, ROFLMAO.
It's all about belief.
Some have NO luck in life. And reading this kind of book indeed helps them in some way to keep some hope alive when they're inundated with problems, so these people do not need to get drunk and stoned in Eindhoven and all to forget their problems. ;)
And honestly ?
That one is the wise way to me.

That's my opinion anyway.

By book do you mean a book such as the Bible that is based on nothing but belief or a book that was written and documented in part by say the Dead Sea Scrolls?

To my knowledge I have no aristocratic origins. There is no money or property that will be passed to me in the event of the death of my family members. I now live above the poverty line in plymouth because I have worked very hard for the last 10 years in my current job. Life for me is full of both pleasure and enjoyment aswell as suffering and hopeless struggle. I consider myself in the top 1% of the luckiest people who have ever lived, but there is and always will be plenty of room for pain and despair.

Do you truly believe a man defied the laws and facts of physics and actually walked on water? Is it not possible and plausible the writer although believing his statement to be true could have been mistaken? A mirage in the desert reflecting the clear sky can look very much like a large body of water. Of course not having the scientific explanation for such a phenomena, what else could he have thought?

If you expect anyone to BELIEVE it then you should at least offer some evidence to justify it.

Exactly what is wrong with getting drunk and stoned in Eindhoven? Are you yourself completely free of alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, aspartame or flouride? Some people have no luck in life indeed, but I have never known a poor man who gives up because he has no religious belief. Hope is alive inside everybody and entwined with the survival instinct. The majority of people who seem to lose hope and give up come from the priviledged side of the fence and are quite often battling with strongly held religious beliefs or the persecution that others religious beliefs inflict upon them.

Religion provides hope for some, an excuse for atrocities for others. It has some moral lessons as well as some completely inhuman rules. As a sum total it is more harmful than beneficial in my opinion. On top of that it is logically inconsistent, self contradictory in many cases and has no supporting evidence.
The world would be a better place if humans abandoned superstition and myth for reason but a much worse one if religion were to be banned by force.

They have reason to burn flags? Whatever, they burn them because people make CARTOONS. Good reason. Why, pray tell, did they destroy the Bamayan Buddhas? Loads of Buddhist bombers coming from Tibet incited them?

Book burning by individuals is not a big deal one way or another, frankly. My only concern would be that they not burn something with historical value (say multi-hundred year old books, important 1-off documents, etc).

Burning mass-produced modern books is wasteful I suppose, but the book is just paper. I burn newspaper all the time to start my fireplaces—am I bad for destroying the written word? If someone gave me a koran, and I used it to start my fires, would I be bad? I consider it less useful written language than the newspaper, if some muslim ever handed them out I'd take it, then do that I think (save room in my shelves for multi-hundred $ Japanese books on shipping I cannot even read, LOL). At the university, Gideons gave out bibles, and I took one sort of dazed (it was like 7am), realized I had it, then dropped it in the next trash can—what's the difference?

State-sponsored censorship (the only real censorship) is an entirely different story.

:rotfl2::up:

I know, I know, I'm full of surprises:O:

Religion can offer hope and comfort. And perhaps in some way that's a good thing. Sometimes it's better to have false hope than none at all.
But does that mean we should not be allowed to lose our faith? That we shouldn't be allowed to choose what we want to believe for ourselves, and cannot "renounce our forefathers' faith"?

I do not believe in the christian god so I do renounce my forefathers' faith because I simply cannot adhere to a religion I don't approve.


And BTW, the reason I drink (and occasionally smoke weed) is not to forget my problems. I do it to have some fun and feel good;)

I like you:D

Alex.
Your last post is fairly well on the mark

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39074573...s-white_house/

Mr. President, I see your point, but the thing that most endangers U.S. troops in Afghanistan is the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Nailed that one Mookie! :up:

If the media would just ignore it this would be a non issue. I'm sure the media wants it to get out of control though.

Pffft media ignore this, they eat this kind of crap up.

Anyhow it looks like the Revrend has decided to not carry through with his thread.

I dont think he ever planned to really just wanted some publicity.. after all his church only has 50 parishioners. :hmmm:

Amazing really that something so small could make so much noise.