Something vaguely interesting in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.

[Viva Prat Vegas]

There are 2 chaps comatose on the pavement as I look out the window, what looks like cider cans and a white wine bottle beside them.



The tourists are kind of standing off them, curious. I suspect some think it is street art/performance.

Just another day

[Ash]

Indeed. Sometimes they just used to do the advanced warning and not bother with the bomb. Hearts of gold really.

This used to happen at my school in Lisburn. They'd ring up and say there was a bomb in the place and we'd all stand outside in the rain for two hours until the all-clear came. How we laughed.

[Sir C]

There are 2 chaps comatose on the pavement as I look out the window, what looks like cider cans and a white wine bottle beside them.



The tourists are kind of standing off them, curious. I suspect some think it is street art/performance.

Could be Brits on a stag, of course.

[SWv2]

This used to happen at my school in Lisburn. They'd ring up and say there was a bomb in the place and we'd all stand outside in the rain for two hours until the all-clear came. How we laughed.

We had that as well, it was fun.

Then the small explosive device went off in the toilets beside the computer room. Less fun for the 1980s nerds who chose to do computer science.

[SWv2]

Could be Brits on a stag, of course.

No, they are all in Temple Bar in one of 4 pubs.

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

Yeah but you had Hawkeye Pearce and Trapper John to take care of you and the promise of a crafty squeeze of Margret Hoolahan's tits during convalescence

[Monty92]

Right, but a bloke off his tits is going to spout some nonsense isn't he. Just happens he chose that mob.

There has to be something wrong with you if you believe that old cobblers and prepared to kill for it.

Nutters, the lot of them.

Yeah, funny how it "just happens" that all suicidal terrorists choose that mob.

Peter, at what point does belief tip into mental illness?

Is it the point at which their beliefs compel them to commit an atrocity? What about if you aren't prepared
to commit such acts yourself, but think others are justified in doing so based on the precise same beliefs ( as we know millions of Muslims do)?

Surely this would also meet your criteria of mental illness?

Millions upon millions of educated, high-functioning Muslims believe that Mohammad flew to the moon on a winged horse. In any context other than religion, if someone solemnly declared such a view I am pretty sure you would consider them mentally unhinged.

I'd be keen to know why you think the ability to sublimate your bat-**** mental beliefs makes you sane but acting on them does not.

[Ash]

Less fun for the 1980s nerds who chose to do computer science.

No need to get personal, old chap.

[Peter]

Yeah, funny how it "just happens" that all suicidal terrorists choose that mob.

Peter, at what point does belief tip into mental illness?

Is it the point at which their beliefs compel them to commit an atrocity? What about if you aren't prepared
to commit such acts yourself, but think others are justified in doing so based on the precise same beliefs ( as we know millions of Muslims do)?

Surely this would also meet your criteria of mental illness?

Millions upon millions of educated, high-functioning Muslims believe that Mohammad flew to the moon on a winged horse. In any context other than religion, if someone solemnly declared such a view I am pretty sure you would consider them mentally unhinged.

I'd be keen to know why you think the ability to sublimate your bat-**** mental beliefs makes you sane but acting on them does not.

History is littered with examples of people believing some pretty ****ed up stuff when it is drummed into them from birth, reinforced through peer and societal pressure and particularly where it is enshrined in common law, or at least in its practical application. Just fifty odd years ago large parts of America was still lynching black people, we deemed homosexuality illegal and using a tuba on a rock n roll record was considered acceptable.

There is a huge difference between belief and deed, obvious in this example as in many others. One may profess to believe that some fat bloke flew to the moon because his religion tells him it did. None of us are in a position to say whether that individual genuinely believes it or not. A Church of England Vicar reads from the bible- do you really think he believes all the **** in there? That he follows it to the letter, takes it as a literal instruction on how to live?

Scholars in every religion exist to interpret the word of God into something palatable to a modern audience, to transform a laughable statement into a valuable parable.

You must be able to see the difference between ‘believing’ that old **** and butchering strangers in the street. One makes you the product of your environment, unquestioning, perhaps even weak willed. The other makes you a murderer, and all but very few people will have been brought up in an environment that taught them that this is wrong, whatever else they may have been compelled to believe.

There is nothing wrong with stating that there is a problem with some schools of radical Islam, or that they sponsor, encourage, recruit terrorists. The problem comes when you attempt to blame the religion itself. One may as well chastise Christianity because of the Klan, or the Jewish faith because of Israel.

I have told you before, jokingly, that all religion is a form of mental illness. Yes, believing some of that **** as literal makes one appear rather crazy. However, when the same book promises you things you like the sound of if you are willing to believe it, it starts to sound less mad. Chuck in the fact that your parents and everyone around you believes it and it begins to look inevitable.

[Monty92]

History is littered with examples of people believing some pretty ****ed up stuff when it is drummed into them from birth, reinforced through peer and societal pressure and particularly where it is enshrined in common law, or at least in its practical application. Just fifty odd years ago large parts of America was still lynching black people, we deemed homosexuality illegal and using a tuba on a rock n roll record was considered acceptable.

There is a huge difference between belief and deed, obvious in this example as in many others. One may profess to believe that some fat bloke flew to the moon because his religion tells him it did. None of us are in a position to say whether that individual genuinely believes it or not. A Church of England Vicar reads from the bible- do you really think he believes all the **** in there? That he follows it to the letter, takes it as a literal instruction on how to live?

Scholars in every religion exist to interpret the word of God into something palatable to a modern audience, to transform a laughable statement into a valuable parable.

You must be able to see the difference between ‘believing’ that old **** and butchering strangers in the street. One makes you the product of your environment, unquestioning, perhaps even weak willed. The other makes you a murderer, and all but very few people will have been brought up in an environment that taught them that this is wrong, whatever else they may have been compelled to believe.

There is nothing wrong with stating that there is a problem with some schools of radical Islam, or that they sponsor, encourage, recruit terrorists. The problem comes when you attempt to blame the religion itself. One may as well chastise Christianity because of the Klan, or the Jewish faith because of Israel.

I have told you before, jokingly, that all religion is a form of mental illness. Yes, believing some of that **** as literal makes one appear rather crazy. However, when the same book promises you things you like the sound of if you are willing to believe it, it starts to sound less mad. Chuck in the fact that your parents and everyone around you believes it and it begins to look inevitable.

.
"All but very few people will have been brought up in an environment that taught them that [murder] is wrong"

Yes but millions upon millions are
brought up to believe Islam exists to conquer the world. If not directly, then by dint of the fact they are taught that the Koran is the literal word of god.

It is only in modern secular societies that we believe murder is wrong.
State-sanctioned murder of gay people and apostates is still murder according to our own moral code.

Do you believe the rulers of Iran,
Saudi Arabia et al are "mentally
ill" for killing people for acting against the rulings of Islam?

No, you don't. So why are
you so quick to assume a 22
year old who blows up
a pop concert for the precise same reason Iran and Saudi kill gays and apostates must be mentally ill?