The war on faith.

[DougShrapnel]

In a different thread andyfox post this link

some excerpts

"Americans answered the atrocities of September 11, overwhelmingly, with faith. Attacked in the name of God, they turned to God for comfort; in the week after the attacks, nearly 70 percent said they were praying more than usual."

"After hearing once too often that "[t]o blame the attacks on Islam is like blaming Christianity for the fighting in Northern Ireland," Dawkins responded: Precisely. "It's time to get angry," he wrote, "and not only with Islam.""

"These authors have no geopolitical strategy to advance; they're interested in the metaphysics of belief, not the politics of the First Amendment. It's the idea of putting trust in God they object to"

"It is not just extremists who earn the wrath of Dawkins and Harris. Their books are attacks on religious "moderates" as well—indeed, the very idea of moderation. The West is not at war with "terrorism," Harris asserts in "The End of Faith"; it is at war with Islam, a religion whose holy book, "on almost every page ... prepares the ground for religious conflict." Christian fundamentalists, he says, have a better handle on the problem than moderates: "They know what it's like to really believe that their holy book is the word of God, and there's a paradise you can get to if you die in the right circumstances. They're not left wondering what is the 'real' cause of terrorism." As for the Bible, Harris, like the fundamentalists, prefers a literal reading. He quotes at length the passages in the Old and New Testaments dealing with how to treat slaves. Why, he asks, would anyone take moral instruction from a book that calls for stoning your children to death for disrespect, or for heresy, or for violating the Sabbath?"

But it's more than that. To those that have faith the world is being managed by a fair god. Why would they question anything that happens here? Earthy affairs do not matter to those with faith. For NotReady and Txag, the 2nd coming cannot get here soon enough. If we keep destroying our already incredible shaky relationship with Islamic nations the end of the world may be sooner than you think. Radioactive Jesus riding a mushroom cloud bringing salvation, BluffThis might rejoice.

Avian flu. When God gets mad he often sends plagues. Most of the world will be praying to an imaginary being when a major outbreak hits. Those of us who don't prey should have no trouble getting a vaccine, considering how well stocked we always are ever year in flu vaccines. I mean who could see the flu coming?

If we continue to abuse the environment in the fashion that we do in order to help some of the more unethical businessmen among us, the religious might just get to able to watch us burring in hell. The only problem is that they won't be on the right hand of jesus. No mater they'll say at least they got to watch the righteous punishment of the sinners.

Hawkins believes that if you extend the time line far out enough, a major calamity capable of destroying the human race becomes a certainty. Far out enough to him is 100-1000 years. This doesn't bode well, xtianity still going strong after 2k years, and Muslim has an even later arrival. I sense a strong possibility that enough people will not care about this mortal coil to stop the impending doom. One of the earliest religions espoused the belief that death was just the cure for the ills of life. It seems that the disease we named religion will finally cure us of life permanently.

edit: to add a math question
If something will happen with near certainty(99.9%) within 100 to 1000 years what range of is the probabilty of it happening in a single year?