religion matters

Submitted by onlytruth (United States), Apr 13, 2008 at 10:03

Odd that you didn't "get" the real significance of the story: Muslims forced non-Muslims to "shut the hell up!" while they prayed -- and the feckless hosts complied! How can you rationally condemn all religions and ignore the impact religions have on cultures, such as: The UN's Human Developement Index ranks nations in terms of life expectancy, education and standard of living. The top 50 are non-muslim, except for 5 toy nations like UAE: #12 is US; #76 Saudi Arabia; #102 Indonesia; #136 Pakistan; #140 Bangladesh; #174 Niger.

You would posit that Islam has nothing to do with this dismal record? On a world map of 1900 color the industrialized nations blue. Then color those nations which are/were Judao-Christian white. You will notice that they coincide. Now color muslim nations pink (the color of their military uniforms) and note there is no overlap with blue. All muslim nations were third world, unindustrialized poverty stricken nations. (Note: the UN hadn't "created" Israel yet, so you can't blame Jews).

You would posit that Islam had nothing to do with retarded developement? Clearly, religion hugely impacts the fundamental character of cultures. Even atheists and animists must admit this truth. And regarding animism and global warming here's some new evidence: Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, says it (global cooling) may be happening again.

Overseeing a giant radio telescope he calls a "stethoscope for the sun," Tapping says, if the pattern doesn't change quickly, the earth is in for some very chilly weather. During the Little Ice Age, global temperatures dropped sharply. New York Harbor froze hard enough to allow people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island, and in Britain, people reported sighting eskimos paddling canoes off the coast. Glaciers in Norway grew up to 100 meters a year, destroying farms and villages. And Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile — the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. And here are some clips of old news: New York Times, 02-24-1895: "Geologists Think the World May be Frozen Up Again." Chicago Tribune, 08-9-1923: "Scientist Says Arctic Ice Will Wipe Out Canada." The article quoted a Yale University professor who predicted that large parts of Europe and Asia would be "wiped out" and Switzerland would be "entirely obliterated." Los Angeles Times10-02-1912: "Human race will have to fight for its existence against cold." Washington Post 08-10-1923: "Ice Age Coming Here."

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