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  1. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    Jesus wept. The way to demarcate religious ideologies from not religious ideologies is simply that religious ideologies are religious. What an amazing insight! I’ve discussed this topic with dozens of people here and you are the first who has been literally unable to conceptually understand...
  2. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    The political is just the implementation of values and interests in governance. Adherents of secular or religious ideologies try to do this. I agree that some religions have more formalised sets of rules for doing this than others though.
  3. Augustus

    Why Does Religion Exist

    3 and 5. Humans need to make sense of the world so we construct narratives that create meaning where none (objectively) exists. Some of these narratives may be “religious” and others “secular” but there is no meaningful way to demarcate religion from “not religious” worldviews. Hopefully...
  4. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    Why? Marxists thought that they were implementing the objective end point of history. Thinking you are objectively correct and justified in violence differentiates these ideologies from most other ones sure, but this is not a factor that stems from the ideology being religious or secular in...
  5. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    The point was that, while religions are often held up as being fundamentally different from “secular” belief systems, there is no real way you can differentiate them. They are functionally identical (that does not mean all ideologies are functionally identical, just that being religious or...
  6. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    Wtf are you talking about? :D You initiated the discussion by replying to my post with something that didn’t remotely address what I actually said. I told you that you seemed to have misunderstood as your reply was irrelevant to what I said. You still failed to grasp your misunderstanding...
  7. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    Yes, I read it that’s how I know you didn’t understand. “LOL” :facepalm: What you identified is that ideologies, be they “religious” or otherwise, generally have their own symbols and doctrines to differentiate them from other ideologies. Just as Nazis might pose with a swastika and copy of...
  8. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    You seem to misunderstand. They are identifying themselves as jihadis, the same as someone might identify themselves as a Nazi or Communist terrorist. Religiously motivated violence is ideologically motivated violence though. A religious ideology is no different from a secular ideology, and...
  9. Augustus

    Peak Australian Islamic groups seek to whitewash religion of religiously motivated terrorism in my view

    The distinction is pretty meaningless in all circumstances. There is no meaningful way to differentiate a religious ideology from a non religious ideology imo. They are functionally the same thing.
  10. Augustus

    Did Jesus Christ Actually Exist?

    No. I said he said: “But even besides that, no expert opinion on this is sound that is not informed by reading Carrier 2012, the latest peer reviewed research on this matter.” Insisting that an expert’s opinion cannot be sound unless you have read his article is the height of conceit. Yet...
  11. Augustus

    Did Jesus Christ Actually Exist?

    Verbatim: “But even besides that, no expert opinion on this is sound that is not informed by reading Carrier 2012, the latest peer reviewed research on this matter.” So you also ape Carrier’s tendency to claim other people haven’t read stuff while misrepresenting them. Btw, you didn’t...
  12. Augustus

    Did Jesus Christ Actually Exist?

    Strange that evidence begins in 2014 on this issue, yet you consider a 1913 paper to be highly authoritative on another one, and also a 1996 text on another issue. Also, using your/carrier’s logic, Theodora Jim’s 2022 monograph on soteria renders all earlier works null and void because they...
  13. Augustus

    The Profit of War

    I think the US has been unnecessarily antagonistic in its foreign policy. But that doesn’t mean it is entirely to blame or that things would have been peaceful if they had simply let Russia have its own way. You can always say “they started it, it’s not our fault”. The fact remains we have no...
  14. Augustus

    The Profit of War

    What did you mean by the above then? The notoriously honest and ethical Putin who, like George Washington, could never tell a lie or a bit of a fib or even be somewhat economical with the truth?
  15. Augustus

    The Profit of War

    Every Western backed war from Kosovo onwards has had the same canard applied to it. The fact that, with hindsight, the “war for oil” thesis has not been supported by the post war facts doesn’t seem to have any impact on the trope being rehashed for the next war.
  16. Augustus

    The Profit of War

    Based on what? How do you know this? Perhaps NATO expansion is what prevented Russia from further irredentist and revanchist wars. War has always been an instrument of foreign policy, and the idea that the West is the only catalyst for war is not supported by any evidence.
  17. Augustus

    The Profit of War

    Many Ukrainians seem to think getting weapons is indeed preferable to capitulation and being conquered and subjugated by Russia. Russia could also end the war today if they wanted by simply moving all of their forces out of Ukraine and back to Russia. People don't simply think in terms of...
  18. Augustus

    The Profit of War

    The money doesn't all "go over there". Most of the money goes to US companies, their suppliers and workers who make the weapons being given. Some comes back as tax revenue from these companies (or came back when they were originally purchased). Many of the weapons would become defunct...
  19. Augustus

    Did Jesus Christ Actually Exist?

    Not quoting texts because you are short of time and on a phone is quite common though and doesn't mean they have never actually read anything on the issue. Now that I have a computer and a little time to waste: That some gods died and that some of the gods who died had some form of...
  20. Augustus

    Did Jesus Christ Actually Exist?

    Not only rulers, for example Antinous Numerous mystery cults were based around real people. Paul thought Jesus to be a man, with a human mother and a brother he had met. The exact point he was deified is open to debate, but is fairly early. Perhaps I should have said 'gods' who are written...
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