A religion of peace? They make it so easy for conspiracy theorists...

I've been doing a bit of trolling around the web, mostly laughing at conspiracy theories about September 11th and other bombings around the world. The way out whacky thoeries of some of these guys just begger belief...some even quote "Occams razor" (basically, the simplest answer is often the correct one), and then go on to list a long, convoluted arguement of intricately linked and highly implausible "facts"...methinks they should go and read a dictionary.

One thing I will say though...I came across a list on such a website which actually had a grain of truth to it...it was about that shining religion of peace, Islam. I'll reproduce it here because I really think it needs to be said:

"* Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and buses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. NOW Muslims are outraged, demanding the death by beheading of "those who don't believe Islam is a religion of peace".
Not all Muslims are terrorists.
Virtually all terrorists are Muslims.

As much of a stereotype as that kind of thing is, it is 100% true...we are dealing with a primitive religion which cannot stand any sort of critisism or ridicule, otherwise practitioners with thier heads firmly based in the 1400's will want you dead.

It has been said, even by Koran scholars, that if you read through the Koran and want to find verses which promote peace, you can find them...if you want to promote war and genocide, you can find them too. In this instance, it is pretty much like the Bible. They are just a little more dedicated to the tradition of offing anyone who doesn't believe in them, and the Christian religion has outgrown that sort of thing nowadays, not that it had much of a problem with it in the past...

All religions now need to take a long hard look at themselves...we live in a world of reason and science, showing us more and more about the world every day...it is no use still clinging to a primitive "Don't know how that happened...must have been God/Allah/Buddha/whoever".

It's time that rational people moved on, realised that the Bible and the Koran are interesting literature with an interesting history, but they certainly aren't the inspired word of God, and they certainly don't give us any great number of rules we should base our lives on.