[Copernicus]

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all i know is iran's president is out of his [censored] mind.

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Not really. His views and words are entirely consistent with his belief system.

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but when that belief system is irrational doesnt that make him out of his mind? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Most people (actually, probably all people) hold irrational beliefs to some extent. Also, if one is religious (and upbringing is probably the biggest factor in forecasting whether someone will be religious as an adult), one doesn't generally think one's beliefs are irrational. <font color="red"> ones self analysis has nothing to do with rationality. A paranoid schizophrenic thinks hearing voices from dogs is perfectly rational. </font>

Many things are as yet unknown in the universe.

Dark matter comprises well over half of the the universe in which we exist, yet scientists know almost nothing about it.

The scientific method is sound, but the body of scientific knowledge is as yet quite limited (though it has grown by much). So, one may believe to some extent in the unseen or unknown without being crazy. <font color="red"> not really, since there is substantial indirect evidence of its existence. You dont need to see a black hole to locate it and know quite a bit about its nature. </font> Science requires evidence but it is only recently that scientists found actual physical evidence of dark matter to corroborate theory. So a lack of existing evidence is far from being sufficient to rule something out. If a person vaguely suspects that something may well be true, and evidence does not preclude that something, then that person is not crazy for believing in it. So people who believe in religion are not necessarily crazy. <font color="red"> I agree, and was being somewhat facetious. the problem with Ahm goes beyond his religion into the realm of the crazy, though. Eg. I think he absolutely can convince himself that the Holocaust never happened and thinks that there are no gays in Iran. </font>

Ahmadinejad's beliefs are very consistent with his Shi'ite worldview.

As one who believes in the core message of Jesus Christ, I believe that Ahmadinejad is wrong and deluded and that he is being led down an evil path, but his wrongness of belief would not be made apparent by internal contradictions in his belief system, since any such contradictions are probably negligible. Rather, if one looks at the love and good preached by Jesus and exemplified by Jesus' selfless sacrifice of unlimited love, versus what Muhammad preached (and did), one can see which flowed from the God's love and which did not. But don't expect people raised in another upbringing to easily see such things.

Thanks for reading.

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