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[quote=”cemapu”]Abolish all religions, we are all the same.
Abolishing all religion is a good sentiment but not a good way to go. People should be allowed to believe AND profess any nonsense they like. But when nonsense is professed it should be challenged and if no evidence is forthcoming, it should be rejected and then ridiculed.
The ridicule is to insure that craziness and fanaticism don’t get a public foothold. People can be such followers of wishful thinking.
[quote=”Blade Runner”]Sprite,
You just don’t get it.
I am just tired of going to the [b]Costa Rica Living Forum[/b] and getting suckered into a caustic thread on either Politics or Religion. Take your bigotry someplace else.Joe[/quote]
Joe, You are obviously one of the people who should probably avoid even reading topics such as this one since they upset you to the point of name calling. The word bigot doesn’t apply here since it means that one is intolerant of ANY creed, religion, race, etc which differs from one’s own. I love Costa Rica because of its differences from my own culture. Most of us appreciate and accept differences which we perceive as positive. I just don’t see Islam, or any religion as a positive in the world. If you want to go through life with your hands over your ears and singing “lalalalala” while the adults talk over issues, go ahead. But please don’t try to stifle the rest of us who want to talk about things which matter to us.
Religion is an important part of Costa Rican culture as is agriculture, education, banking and government. Are you suggesting a separate forum for each and every topic? What would the purpose be? What is your objection to seeing a topic which includes a lively discussion about religion or politics?
That some will get angry? We are not children on an unsupervised playground. We are adults exchanging information and ideas in cyberspace within rules of established western civil behavior. This isn’t the Saudi Kingdom where apostates are executed.Scott, your experience and wisdom on this matter is appreciated. As long as participants don’t break any laws and avoid liable personal insults, I think there is no harm in talking things out. It is one thing to criticize a belief or position as unsubstantiated or ignorant, it is quite another to point those words at a person.
[quote=”twinzor1″] -And finally, yes, you ARE trying to offend- when you foist such views in a public forum with a pre-emptive mea culpa, you know exactly what you are doing.[/quote]
Yes, I do know that I am offending. It is not my intention but I am aware that what I say will offend the religious. Too bad. They need to get used to it. Their beliefs are not superior to any others and all beliefs are subject to critique on this side of the planet…..so far.
By the way, since I was talking about barbarism, what is the punishment for a Muslim who renounces his faith?A typical religious view has been expressed above that says that I, as an individual, do not have the right to disapprove of a religion. Well,here I am anyway, disapproving to my heart’s content. I live in the west
and until and unless a repressive religion like Islam takes over here, I will continue to do so. I can walk in front of any catholic church in Costa Rica and NOT cross myself..and not a single Tico is offended.All of the holy books in question DO instruct acts of violence and incredible barbarism because they were both developed by a primitive, violent iron age tribe of village raiding nomads.
Religious moderates carry around a terrible dogma: they imagine a path to peace once each of us has learned to respect the unjustified beliefs of others. The problem with religious moderation is that it does not permit any criticism of religious literalism…and we all know how dangerous religious literalism can be.
I don’t think we can afford any longer to be politically correct on this matter. There is a price to pay for tolerance of ignorance. If religious people are going to be insulted when we question their absurd beliefs, too bad. No belief should be left unquestioned and unchallenged.
Ticorealtor, thanks for responding with points I would have also made. All religions have extremists and all extremists in those religions are given ground on which to stand by the moderates, those kind, well meaning believers who unwittingly support the extremists by holding up their ridiculous, incredulous, primitive religions as truths.
2BNCR, the ignorant position is yours if you think beliefs are harmless. Beliefs lead to actions. Some christians beat their children with rods per biblical instruction, some Muslims kill wives and daughters per the Koran. Some nations enforce Koran laws.
Costa Rica may not be as far removed from Canadian culture (is there such a thing?) as it is from Muslim culture, but I’ll bet it is far enough removed from Canadian culture to be upsetting for the author.
Thanks for those articles, Maravilla. It always a good thing to read Chomsky after coming up against such unenlightened views from the far right or from the far gone.
I came of age in the late sixties when the youth culture was perhaps one of the more starkly contrasted generations in a long while. It seemed then that the country was politically divided in such a strong manner that violence was inevitable. And violence happened. Back then, the great divide was along generational, gender and racial lines and the main catalyst was an immoral and illegal war.
Today, the divide has little to do with gender, age or race. However, the usual immoral and illegal war that empire drums up regularly for all the imperial reasons is once again a primary catalyst. Look at all the consequences and legislation that can be generated by a war and the costs of a war. It reaches everywhere.
People, regardless of gender, age or race either see who the real enemy is and always has been, or they do not. And this is what defines the two camps. You either want a government which facilitates a fair, cooperative and inclusive society, or you want a government which facilitates an elite and exclusive society of owners and slaves;the left and the right, respectively. You may not consider yourself a slave, with a a few new cars and a pool home in Boca Raton. But wait until the day arrives when you can’t take that wealth with you should you want to leave the country.
Capital Control, as far as I can tell, is not aimed at the little guy. It is aimed at the high rollers, the people and corporations that drove the US into the ditch. And just as a general principal, I always like to see the government stick it to them. People who have gotten into trouble with the IRS owing very large sums of money in unpaid taxes or hidden wealth to avoid taxes get no sympathy from me. They are the greedy rich trying to get richer, trying to join that top 2 percent of the US population which controls over 50% of the nation’s wealth.
They cry the loudest against socialism because they have the most to lose under a system which attempts to fairly spread the costs and rewards generated by a society. They are the ones who manage to exploit fellow citizens in an unregulated economic system.Conservatives complain about the cost of national health care while vigorously supporting more tax money for the military industrial complex. Few examples more clearly show where their priorities lie. Does anyone have an idea of the cost of national healthcare compared to the cost of our recent military expenses?
My bank debit card (Banco de Costa Rica) requires monthly use
or they cancel it and you have to show up at the bank to renew it.More reason to stay in the mountains of the beautiful central valley….Coasts seem to attract mosquitos, crocs, dengue, drug dealers, thieves, extreme heat and humidity and a lot of wealthy gringos who think paradise requires sandy beaches, an ocean and coconut trees.
There are conspiracy theories regarding shadow governments. I do not know enough to subscribe to any one of them but I do know enough to be highly distrustful of the U.S. government and I oppose nearly everything that government does just on principle alone.
Any latin american country which has had the misfortune of being closely associated with the US by choice or otherwise has suffered a good deal of violence and poverty. I am happy that Costa Rica has kept under the radar with regards to the United States. This has enabled our adoptive country to live under socialism in peace. I would not choose to live anywhere else south of the Rio Grand.
