Of all the subject in the world

Don't know about your local mate but I reckon that's a big thing about the way talk back radio, forums, and commercial media works. Somehow the idea of "the expert " has gone out the window . Now Everybody has "an opinion"

It doesn't seem to matter how ill informed that opinion is , how crazy , how not based in FACT that opinion is .......it's MY opinion. Somehow it's sacred and cannot be challenged.

Just look at the Global Warming debate. Experts, with years of study,experience,published papers,and respect find themselves arguing the toss with shock jocks, newspaper columnists, and guys who wrote a book a while ago about something or other.

Opinion is entertaining but it can also be damaging and hurtful.

Yeah, been thinking of having a moderation crackdown. There's certainly a bit of envelope pushing going on.

Cisco ,can you not distinguish between SBS's Insight and ABC's Q and A......... and some of the racist, bigoted crap on here? come on!

Didnt really know that the policy was not to discuss religious or racial issues in the forum.

So are we allowed to discriminate and rag on the flaws of the Victorians then?



C'mon Log Man.... Bite... Bite....




Ahh... Im just kidding....

But Seriously, Stop Victorians Stealing our South Australian Fish!!!!

Dinsi, my habibi, you should take some credit for the vilification yourself, don't be modest. Didn't you recently paraphrase Hitler by talking about "a cancer in our country"?

Agreed.
It is OK to rubbish Christianity and take the piss but not to state that many Muslims believe in certain things

Like I have said before, do an experiment. Go to a party and tell everyone you are Buddhist, Taoist or something. Then go to a party the week after and tell everyone you are a born again Christian. Watch the difference.
and no, I don't subscribe to any particular religion I just find it annoying that the 'inclusive' types here rubbish Christianity, but if anyone rubbishes Islam they are accused of being racist.

Yes, my apologies, that was pweedas. You sourced that rightwing Koran-vilifying site, it has much less impact, I agree.

As this may be applicable to my viewpoints, let me explain:

I'm an atheist with very strong academic interest in religions. Despite being an atheist, I believe that religions are very useful for many people, and I support them for this reason. In my opinion, which I hope is relatively unbiased, Christianity and Islam are exceptionally similar. Their holy books even talk about the same personalities - Mary (called Miriam in the Koran), Jesus (yes, he's a prophet in the Koran), Abraham, etc... Their attributes of God are identical (omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, you know the spiel...).

In the past, the so-called "Dark Ages", Christianity was the "bad" religion - its Churches instituted numerous Crusades, wrote a book called "Malleus Maleficarum" that was used as a justification to torch numerous women, had the Inquisition, etc... At that time, Islam was much more sophisticated and progressive.

Today, the mainstream Christianity is fairly sophisticated and evolved, has some issues, but is working to resolve them. There are a few cults, but they are in the tiny minority. Islam today has branched into moderate (mainstream majority) and fundamentalist minority, which is serously bad. Unfortunately, this minority has been in the news lately, probably because it does make good news. Perhaps many people watch just news, and maybe that's why so many viewpoints on this forum tend to pigeonhole ALL muslims into the same fundamentalist slot.

This is wrong. Both religions are very similar and have had an equal share of good and bad points and good and bad "churches". I hope this explains why I sometimes post provocative comments about Christianity - it is purely to provide a comparative perspective.

And Dinsdale, it's not declarative vs narrative - I'll gladly continue this debate offline if you are genuinely interested.

Bwahaha - Cisco, I think you one of the most opinionated people here, but with your comments, its more a case of an empty can rattling the most!