Comment Re:Read a comment by a US naval commander (Score 2) 1319
For the record I'm a Polish-Canadian atheist.
this was a series of rather shallow arguments:
1. "Muslims never winning a war unless fighting against each other" .. from the top of my head : history of Ottoman empire, fall of Constantinople, crusades etc etc..
2. Accepting God's will does not imply any sort of fatalist passive attitude in Islam or Christianity. Jihad in itself means striving to better oneself and our surroundings ie "God helps those who help themselves" attitude. You have a similar concept in Christianity, and in most major religions.
3. Islam never having a renascence: It had one when Europe was in the middle of dark ages. Medicine, Science, philosophy flourished.. just google "Islamic golden age" . Wikipedia has a good article on that. Which goes to show that Islam and science are not mutually exclusive.
4. As to Islam not moving on. I don't know how to respond to that .. what does "move on" even mean? Islam is made up of dozens internal branches that move in different directions progress at different speeds; some are more orthodox then others .. just like Christanity really. Similarly any moderate Christian is as hard to define as a moderate muslim. It all depends on your point of view.
5. You imply that all technology has western civilization as it source (Bit with the Turks and their cellphones). I won't even bother commenting on that.
6. Culture clashes are also the source of some of our greatest achievements and discoveries. If the Arabs didn't invade Europe we'd still be using Roman numerals. If the Romans didn't invade half the world, we wouldn't have the legal system we have now. If Cortes didn't invade Aztecs .. etc etc..
Personally I do not believe in higher power but have enough respect and insight to actually appreciate religion's contributions to science, philosophy and art. In an age when our moral development lags far behind technological one we could learn a lot from major religions even if we do not believe in God. There are many reasons to criticize religions for but if if you do at least do a bit of research beforehand. Otherwise you make us atheists look like unreasonable, uneducated zealots.
this was a series of rather shallow arguments:
1. "Muslims never winning a war unless fighting against each other"
2. Accepting God's will does not imply any sort of fatalist passive attitude in Islam or Christianity. Jihad in itself means striving to better oneself and our surroundings ie "God helps those who help themselves" attitude. You have a similar concept in Christianity, and in most major religions.
3. Islam never having a renascence: It had one when Europe was in the middle of dark ages. Medicine, Science, philosophy flourished.. just google "Islamic golden age" . Wikipedia has a good article on that. Which goes to show that Islam and science are not mutually exclusive.
4. As to Islam not moving on. I don't know how to respond to that
5. You imply that all technology has western civilization as it source (Bit with the Turks and their cellphones). I won't even bother commenting on that.
6. Culture clashes are also the source of some of our greatest achievements and discoveries. If the Arabs didn't invade Europe we'd still be using Roman numerals. If the Romans didn't invade half the world, we wouldn't have the legal system we have now. If Cortes didn't invade Aztecs
Personally I do not believe in higher power but have enough respect and insight to actually appreciate religion's contributions to science, philosophy and art. In an age when our moral development lags far behind technological one we could learn a lot from major religions even if we do not believe in God. There are many reasons to criticize religions for but if if you do at least do a bit of research beforehand. Otherwise you make us atheists look like unreasonable, uneducated zealots.