Originally Posted by
DogOfDanger
"And already have we written in the Book [of David], after the exhortation, that my righteous servants shall inherit the land."
Does that statement seem metaphysical to you?
How about this one-
"And kill them (non-Muslims) wherever you find them ... kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers (non-Muslims)."
Religion is not simply metaphysical.
Your statement here again shows how astoundingly ignorant you are about religion. Religion is primarily about morality, it provides a comprehensive moral framework, and this in turn has social / political implications. Have you ever read the bible or the Qu'ran? To believe in a religion is to adopt its moral framework. All the major abrahamic religions believe in the same God, they have the same metaphysics, what do you think distinguishes them...? What do you think Jesus was saying: "God exists because before the big bang there had to have been something, so...". No, he was making moral claims and statements, that is practically all he does... that's practically all the bible is about. Same with Muhammed. With the added detail he was an insane murderous megalomaniac ...
Go educate yourself before you speak on these topics, you are astoundingly ignorant.
You seem to take for granted your ideals, as if your ideals are objective and universal ... they follow directly from perception, and so have nothing to do with your own personal values / beliefs. Ideals don't work that way, they are not perceived in the objective world, they're expressions of deeply held values and emotional attitudes. Probably you inherited most your ideals from the culture, and you never really developed a strong foundation within yourself, so you just take them for granted... that would be my guess. Many cultural ideals you take for granted largely originated from the cultures founding religion, which if you're from the West that's Christianity. I know you probably don't like this, but it's quite easy to prove actually.
I think that economic prosperity does have some reductive effect on the religiosity of the population, but it takes centuries for a population to largely abandon their religion, assuming it ever happens... the US is probably the most decadent culture in the world and it has not even abandoned its religion yet... especially a strongly religious population such as Palestine which is 99% Muslim. It's something that could be worked toward, but it's not going to happen quickly. Meanwhile you still are stuck contending with these religious dogmas, which do not yield to reason and which mandate that the Muslims occupy holy Jerusalem. I've proposed in this thread a plan of installing a police state, building up an economy, dousing the population with propaganda, and over time hopefully reducing their Islamic fundamentalism... but at the very least, before any of that could be thought about, Hamas would have to be removed from power. Becuase Hamas is not going to change its mind, I'm sorry but go watch the videos of Hamas training 9 year olds to kill Jews, go read the Qu'ran, go read Hamas's statements - when people are that fundamentalist in their religious views they will hold onto them until death, a little economic development is not going to change the mind of such a person. For example, it is often the case that even plain facts will not change a persons mind (i.e. you're still insisting the PLO is a strictly secular organization). And it should be noted that the Qu'ran very explicitly calls for all of these things - Jihad, occupation of the holy land, etc.. Islam would need to be abandoned in the minds of Hamas for them to change their stance toward Israel.
But once Hamas is removed from power this is something that should be thought about.