HaaJ

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monster_gardener
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Protestant vs. Catholic & Orthodox Athiests.

Post by monster_gardener »

Alexis wrote:
Endovelico wrote:
Ibrahim wrote:Perhaps because the entire point of Christianity is that the Divine became physical and mortal? Emptiness is not a suitable analogy for such a feat.
Emptiness is a very apt religious concept...
One of the slanders some ancient Romans directed at Christians was to call them Atheists.

Made sense: these people refused to adore natural forces as gods, mountains as gods, stones as gods, concepts as gods, nature as god.... and what have you. The most basic tenent of Judaism, then of all religions which in some way derive from Judaism is "God is not....what I can see / what I can perceive / what I can conceptualize"

I sometimes wonder if modern Atheists could be described as extremist Christians* :) ... they go the full way towards the arguably extreme "God is not"

Do they have the moral courage to continue while others have floundered and stopped in the way?

Or should they stop to listen to the signs left by the one who cannot be known?
Looking up 1 Kings 19:10-13
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.


* or Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Bahais, Mormons... any religion centered around a transcendant and one God
Thank You VERY Much for your post, Alexis.
I sometimes wonder if modern Atheists could be described as extremist Christians* :) ... they go the full way towards the arguably extreme "God is not"
I remember Bertrand Russell making that claim in one of his books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

IIRC Russell also classified some atheists as liberty loving 'Protestant' atheists like him who took Protestant iconoclastic tendencies all the way....

And other atheists as liberty hating 'Catholic'/"Orthodox' atheists like for example Stalin who try to recreate the hierarchy & dominion of the Church which they had in some cases rejected.

Mind ;) that this is Russell's opinion not necessarily mine ;)
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Endovelico
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Re: HaaJ

Post by Endovelico »

Atheists and agnostics would do well to silence their misgivings about religion, as they will never be able to convince a religious person that he may have it wrong. But some religious utterances are so intellectually offensive that one may excuse non-religious people for their critical comments. Not to mention the occasions when sharia loving fundamentalists (of all religions) try to impose their nonsense on others.
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Parodite
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Re: HaaJ

Post by Parodite »

Atheists who make a big point out of atheism do so, it often seems to me, as some sort of withdrawal symptom after dumping/rejecting important elements of their religious background/upbringing. Don't see what's wrong with that though. Give 'm a break.
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: HaaJ

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

Y'all are really not discussing atheism, which is just another faith based belief system centered around the faulty logic of lack of evidence proving nonexistence. What you are discussing is the epistemology of religion http://www.iep.utm.edu/relig-ep/.

In any case, the topic is Hajj. There are non-religious aspects to pilgrimages, so why not argue those?
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Ibrahim
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Re: HaaJ

Post by Ibrahim »

After this link is a documentary made by VICE co-founder and Pakistani-Canadian Muslim Suroosh Alvi during his Hajj. Technically a violation of the rules, but I don't find it offensive and it gives an accurate depiction of the contemporary Hajj.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7q_LcqbvKI
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YMix
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Re: HaaJ

Post by YMix »

People, stick to the topic at hand, please.
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Typhoon
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Re: HaaJ

Post by Typhoon »

YMix wrote:People, stick to the topic at hand, please.
Namely, Haaj.

Off topic posts have been sent to Hell: The Usual Sectarians [Haaj]
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