| Topic: |
Science > Philosophy |
| User: |
"Sir Frederick" |
| Date: |
19 Sep 2006 05:36:40 PM |
| Object: |
Paying tribute to ignorance |
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/pruden091906.php3
Paying tribute to ignorance By Wesley Pruden Sept. 19, 2006
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue, political correctness is the tribute
intelligence must pay to ignorance.
That's the moral in the controversy between Benedict XVI and radical Muslims, which cooler heads are working to prevent becoming a
war between the Vatican and the "religion of peace."
The chronology of this dispute is a ride through the fun house: The pope, in a theological lecture to scholars at a Roman Catholic
university in a small town in Germany, cites a long-dead emperor's rebuke of the long-dead prophet of the Muslims for instructing
his followers to kill infidels in the name of peace. And what happens? Muslims eager to demonstrate what a canard it is to accuse
them of violence slay a Catholic nun and firebomb a half-dozen Protestant churches. (Who wouldn't be "deeply sorry" about that?) You
can't talk about some things because ignorant people might misunderstand, so it's safer to keep the conversation low and dumb. A
peaceful believer might cut off your head.
But logical or not, you can't blame the Muslims for thinking they're on to something. They've got a lot of the civilized world
looking for a hole to hide and hunker. Muslim holy men, alas, often look and sound a lot more robust than ours.
The radicals may be outnumbered by their moderate co-religionists but they're never out-shouted or out-rioted, always making it
abundantly clear on these occasions that they expect Jews, Christians and other infidels not merely to tolerate their religion, but
to pay it the same servile tribute they do. Islam for the radicals is less a religious faith than a political ideology, to be
enforced with dour Stalinist resolve.
The argument at hand is about what the pope said, but the underlying issue is whether the civilized West will accept the proposition
that Islam must be "respected" as the radical Muslims and the terrified and cowed moderate Muslims insist, that everyone hold it
above not only criticism but above nothing less than mindless obeisance.
Benedict reminds his hysterical critics that he merely quoted the Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Palaeologus, much as he might have
cited Hitler, Stalin or even Godzilla: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and then you shall find things only evil
and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith that he preached." He did not say, as some of the Muslim hysterics
are saying he said, that Mohammed was evil. Even the emperor, however much he might have thought it, did not say that. It was the
spreading of the faith by the sword that is evil. Who but a crazed jihadist would argue with that? "Faith" by the sword is an
oxymoron, anyway, since faith, like love, is embraced only willingly and held as private and precious in the secret places of the
heart. This is the essential difference between the heartfelt Christianity of the Bible and the cold, severe Islam of the Koran.
The pope's point, clear enough to everyone but people who riot for a living, is that reason and truth are under siege, and he wants
to rescue them and put them once more to work in the public arena where reasonable truth-seekers can argue, debate, dispute and
contend, and depart with their scimitars sheathed.
Certain old women among us, terrified of unsheathed scimitars, naturally counsel retreat, apology and escape. The danger, writes
author Karen Armstrong in London's Guardian, the chief repository of British media squishiness, is that Islamic violence is merely a
myth fed by papal indulgence: "We may even be strengthening [the myth] by falling back into our old habits of projection." The West,
in this reading, bears the responsibility for Iraq, "Palestine", Lebanon.
There's a shrinking market for squishiness like this. The Australian minister for multiculturalism called his country's Muslim
leaders in for tea on Sunday and — speaking of rioting — read them the act: "We live in a world of terrorism where evil acts are
being regularly perpetrated in the name of your faith," said Andrew Robb, the minister. "And because it is your faith being invoked
as justification for these evil acts, it is your problem. You can't wish it away, or ignore it, just because it has been caused by
others."
Unless the Muslims themselves do something about it, big trouble lies ahead for everyone. You don't have to be a prophet to see
trouble coming.
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| User: "gibbs" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
19 Sep 2006 07:13:41 PM |
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"Sir Frederick" <mmcneill@fuzzysys.com> wrote in message
news:nrr0h2997kf6hf75bg29ie5aaah0j27e43@4ax.com...
That's the moral in the controversy between Benedict XVI and radical
Muslims... This is the essential difference between the heartfelt
Christianity of the Bible and the cold, severe Islam of the Koran.
A major point the Pope made concerns the mutually enriching encounter of
Greek and Biblical thought. Acting without Logos (reason) becomes seen as
contrary to god's nature. Forced and violent conversion, which is
inherently unreasonable, is therefore seen as contrary to god's nature.
Obviously he is stating that the jihadist way is unreasonable and therefore
contrary to the nature of god.
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| User: "Brian Fletcher" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
20 Sep 2006 02:41:24 AM |
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"gibbs" <gib459@fakedemailaddress.edu> wrote in message
news:C7idnV2SDus2FI3YnZ2dnUVZ_r-dnZ2d@comcast.com...
"Sir Frederick" <mmcneill@fuzzysys.com> wrote in message
news:nrr0h2997kf6hf75bg29ie5aaah0j27e43@4ax.com...
That's the moral in the controversy between Benedict XVI and radical
Muslims... This is the essential difference between the heartfelt
Christianity of the Bible and the cold, severe Islam of the Koran.
A major point the Pope made concerns the mutually enriching encounter of
Greek and Biblical thought. Acting without Logos (reason) becomes seen as
contrary to god's nature. Forced and violent conversion, which is
inherently unreasonable, is therefore seen as contrary to god's nature.
Obviously he is stating that the jihadist way is unreasonable and
therefore contrary to the nature of god.
Given that there is an evolutionary generations gap between the two faiths,
it would be difficult for the jihadist to see anything other than hypocracy
coming from the Vatican.
BOfL
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| User: "gibbs" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
20 Sep 2006 06:10:18 AM |
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"Brian Fletcher" <brianf88@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:Eg6Qg.32555$rP1.28420@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Given that there is an evolutionary generations gap between the two
faiths, it would be difficult for the jihadist to see anything other than
hypocracy coming from the Vatican.
Considering that Christians have practiced forced conversion in the past it
is easy to see why someone would think his words were hypocritical. Of
course, the Pope renounces that practice and implies that everyone else
should since it is against the nature of god.
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| User: "Brian Fletcher" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
20 Sep 2006 09:04:43 AM |
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"gibbs" <gib459@fakedemailaddress.edu> wrote in message
news:ucadnfLV6dM9vIzYnZ2dnUVZ_qqdnZ2d@comcast.com...
"Brian Fletcher" <brianf88@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:Eg6Qg.32555$rP1.28420@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Given that there is an evolutionary generations gap between the two
faiths, it would be difficult for the jihadist to see anything other than
hypocracy coming from the Vatican.
Considering that Christians have practiced forced conversion in the past
it is easy to see why someone would think his words were hypocritical. Of
course, the Pope renounces that practice and implies that everyone else
should since it is against the nature of god.
He is trying to put an old head on young shoulders.Bad practice.
BOfL
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| User: "gibbs" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
20 Sep 2006 02:35:31 PM |
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"Brian Fletcher" <brianf88@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:%TbQg.32812$rP1.10760@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
"gibbs" <gib459@fakedemailaddress.edu> wrote in message
news:ucadnfLV6dM9vIzYnZ2dnUVZ_qqdnZ2d@comcast.com...
"Brian Fletcher" <brianf88@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:Eg6Qg.32555$rP1.28420@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Given that there is an evolutionary generations gap between the two
faiths, it would be difficult for the jihadist to see anything other
than hypocracy coming from the Vatican.
Considering that Christians have practiced forced conversion in the past
it is easy to see why someone would think his words were hypocritical.
Of course, the Pope renounces that practice and implies that everyone
else should since it is against the nature of god.
He is trying to put an old head on young shoulders.Bad practice.
But a worthy goal. Without all the god-talk, I think it insults what we are
(thinking creatures who can decided whether or not a religious doctrine is
persuasive or not) to force religion on people.
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| User: "tg" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
20 Sep 2006 06:38:26 AM |
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gibbs wrote:
"Sir Frederick" <mmcneill@fuzzysys.com> wrote in message
news:nrr0h2997kf6hf75bg29ie5aaah0j27e43@4ax.com...
That's the moral in the controversy between Benedict XVI and radical
Muslims... This is the essential difference between the heartfelt
Christianity of the Bible and the cold, severe Islam of the Koran.
A major point the Pope made concerns the mutually enriching encounter of
Greek and Biblical thought. Acting without Logos (reason) becomes seen as
contrary to god's nature. Forced and violent conversion, which is
inherently unreasonable, is therefore seen as contrary to god's nature.
Obviously he is stating that the jihadist way is unreasonable and therefore
contrary to the nature of god.
But since the Pope is infallible, and can decide what is reasonable and
what is not, this is nothing but propaganda.
-tg
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| User: "Brian Fletcher" |
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| Title: Re: Paying tribute to ignorance |
20 Sep 2006 09:06:04 AM |
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"tg" <tgdenning@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:1158752306.309816.142120@d34g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
gibbs wrote:
"Sir Frederick" <mmcneill@fuzzysys.com> wrote in message
news:nrr0h2997kf6hf75bg29ie5aaah0j27e43@4ax.com...
That's the moral in the controversy between Benedict XVI and radical
Muslims... This is the essential difference between the heartfelt
Christianity of the Bible and the cold, severe Islam of the Koran.
A major point the Pope made concerns the mutually enriching encounter of
Greek and Biblical thought. Acting without Logos (reason) becomes seen
as
contrary to god's nature. Forced and violent conversion, which is
inherently unreasonable, is therefore seen as contrary to god's nature.
Obviously he is stating that the jihadist way is unreasonable and
therefore
contrary to the nature of god.
But since the Pope is infallible, and can decide what is reasonable and
what is not, this is nothing but propaganda.
-tg
More like impropaganda I would have thought :-)
BOfL
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