You are welcome, John.
I would not like to live in any theocracy and would be happiest to see all superstition consigned to the city dump. No matter what the name of the god worshiped, it seems to be ingrained in the psyche of the human being to seek a Great Controller to deal with contingencies he cannot control. Which is just about everything in the human lifespan: earthquakes, deadly disease, winning the lottery.
To this end, mankind has sought to placate the gods. Sometimes, in our more peaceful eras, by building Gothic churches and writing cantatas. In fiercer times by sacrificing weaker creatures, children, war captives and slaves. Always this violence: make Baal happy by sacrificing the firstborn, feed Huitzilopochtli by daily ripping out the hearts of some sacrificial victim, ensure good crops by hanging a ritual number of male animals and humans in honor of Woden, ad nauseam. Agamemnon killed Iphigenia so his ships could sail to Troy. Jephthah sacrifices his daughter as a thank-you present for having defeated his enemy. Abraham hears voices and is ready to kill his son Isaac, until another voice rises in his psychotic fog to call off the assassination.
Oh, but we have come beyond that, you say. But modern Christian churches are full of crosses showing the barbaric sight of another son tortured and killed by the will of his father.
Is it surprising that in our day young men full of testosterone and superstition seek a short-cut to everlasting life by annihilating people who do not believe in their god.
Of course ISIS is a threat. There have always been threats, sometimes called Crusaders, Jacobins, Bosnian Serbs, Buddhist Brigade, Boko Haram, Nazis, Brit HaKanaim, Army of God (a Christian terrorist anti-abortion organization), Rote Armee Fraktion or whatever. The list is long.
But the majority of people whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or nonbeliever just want to live a good life. Celebrate their children's birthdays, go out to have burgers and ice cream or merguez and baklawa.
Enough with the Muslim-bashing.
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