Swazi King Rejects Pants: War on Terror Lost

[Sikander]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Do they have "terrorist groups with international reach?"

That's Bush's criteria.

In Swaziland that only requires an 81mm mortar.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by mindseye
Question: was Swaziland part of the "coalition of the willing"?

I think it was part of the "coalition of the wanting".

[notyoueither]

Yeah. It would be much better if most Western nations still followed the edicts of Rome. Then we could get all worked into a religious lather about the mere existance of Muslims. Maybe some nukes could be worked into that crusade.

[Lord Merciless]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
And Luther didn't set in motion anything that broke the power of "The Church" - he simply created substitutes to hold that power. The Cotton Mathers and whole slews of Calvinists held tighter grips on their communities than the Catholic Church ever did. The Catholic Church derived it's power from the nobility, who co-opted it quite nicely, installing themselves as Cardinals or even Popes, and gave themselves a little "extra" power, since they claimed the legitimacy of God as a basis for their secular power.

Luther, in his later years, was one of the vilest characters around, (read his tracts on Jews, they were a favorite of Adolph Hitler and others). Cromwellian England was more of a religious state than was Spain at the time.

Luther's movement 'democratizes' the church hierarchy and brought diversity into the interpretation of the Bible. Depending upon the support and inclination of local rulers, some of the new offsprings went more fundamentalist, but there were others who went into an 'enlightened' direction. It created 'life' in philosphical and scientific thinkings. Since Europe was fragmented into hundreds different entities at that time, a competition literally happened between the 2 blocs. Eventually, the 'enlightened' nations (post Glorious Revolution England, Prussia) would triumph over the conservative ones (Post Louis XIV France, Habsburgers) in the 18th century.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Cromwellian England was more of a religious state than was Spain at the time.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

That was rich. Thanks, I needed a good laugh.

[Dis]

well in either case I don't feel it is appropiate to blame the catholic church for creating paedophiles. You can blame them for covering it up though. And they did plenty of that. Let's see if I can word this right.

The catholic church doesn't create paedophiles, paedophiles just flock to the catholic church because it can provide access to kids in addition to their trust.

In either case I'm not a church supporter. I dislike organized religion. So don't pull some quote that I support the catholic church. They disgust me.

[SnowFire]

As a brief aside to this mini-religious war:
Yes, Fred Phelps isn't responsible to anyone and is a moron. That said, maniacs like him under a system where the Catholic Church (or any such body) still kept its old level of control would simply kill him, much like they did for people trying to do things like translate the Bible into English. I propose that that'd be worse than having Mr. Phelps running his mouth. (And if the Catholic Church did not institute harsh policies like that, then we'd rapidly have the whole Protestant revolution all over again as everyone would be free to dissent)

[Lord Merciless]

"Organized religions are the crutches for the weak-minded."

- Jesse Ventura, former governor of Minnesota.

[notyoueither]

He's just paraphrasing Marx.

[Lord Merciless]

Originally posted by notyoueither
He's just paraphrasing Marx.

I dislike organized religion, but his assertion that only "weak-minded" follow organized religion is silly.

[notyoueither]

No doubt.

[HershOstropoler]

Originally posted by Lord Merciless


Luther's movement 'democratizes' the church hierarchy and brought diversity into the interpretation of the Bible. Depending upon the support and inclination of local rulers, some of the new offsprings went more fundamentalist, but there were others who went into an 'enlightened' direction. It created 'life' in philosphical and scientific thinkings. Since Europe was fragmented into hundreds different entities at that time, a competition literally happened between the 2 blocs. Eventually, the 'enlightened' nations (post Glorious Revolution England, Prussia) would triumph over the conservative ones (Post Louis XIV France, Habsburgers) in the 18th century.

Where do you get that funny history? Bob Jones?

I'll just start that with Lutherian democracy - read "Wider die räuberischen
und mörderischen Rotten der Bauern" to see how much democracy Luther wanted, especially in the church. The key to Protestant success was that they handed control of the church over to the territorial rulers.

If you want to find someone much closer to a democrat, I suggest Marsilius of Padua's Defensor pacis. Oops, that was a bit earlier, and catholic.

Reformation created life in philosphical and scientific thinkings? You know, things like the platonic academy in Florence existed before Luther.

Enlightened nations? Joseph II was a much more radical enlightener than Frederick II.

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by Lord Merciless


Stood the test of time??? Their civilization was toast even before Babylonians showed up.

If you think leaving stone tablets behind is standing up to the test time, well then...

By standing the test of time i believe he means how long they lasted... somethn like 2000 years IIRC (5000-3000 BC). Very long considering the USA has been around for barely 1/10 that long. Thats withstanding the test of time

[HershOstropoler]

oops

[notyoueither]

Edit. Not quote.