>> ^Sagemind:

dead - video has been removed by the user.


fixed

This song is fantastic, and probably my all-time favourite christmas song, but this attempt at animating it , while charming, really doesnt do the song justice, in my view. For one, it is full of, or rather, (it is in many ways only), what Dawkins once referred to as "Lord Privy Seals", that movie-making mistake of always showing the words, ie "whenever X is mentioned, there must be an X in the picture at that moment", where X in this video could be replaced with: Christmas, religion, Dawkins, Desmond Tutu, consumerism, ancient religion, selling, playstations, beer, Jesus, dad, brothers, sisters, gran, mum, white wine, sun...

Oh and that baby girl that looks like a tiny bald man.. creepy.

>> ^quantumushroom:
"The most awful thing to happen to anybody is to fail."
WRONG. The most awful thing to happen to anybody is to fail and not try again.


Way to go Dwight Schrute. You totally took that out of context. It was not a statement in and of itself, it was in reference to a viewpoint based on a particular attitude.

the quote is this, pay attention to punctuation:

"In our culture, in our modern culture, we set (high ??) by success; [whereby] the most awful thing thing to have happen to anybody is to fail... And so we worship in the temple of cuttthroat competition."

So even though i can't literally understand what he is saying, the quote is still in context now as a statement. Perhaps someone can fill in the blank. In your head.


Plus even out of context.. it depends on your definition of fail. If you define it as to "stop operating or functioning", than it fulfills your criteria:: that the removing of the ability to exist in a state capable of continuating/operating towards a goal is 'the most awful thing to happen to anybody'

But even there you're wrong. I think torturous pain is about the worst thing. This is some good shit.

>> ^Peroxide:
Funny thing about the Christian bible is, it doesn't ask me to go out and lay waste to the 'infidels' or beat my wife, or anything of the sort.


But it doesn't say those things, thats a common misconception, the Qu'ran was written as book of religion, of law and of warfare, because the Prophet was not only someone of faith but also a warrior and a statesman. Further more there is plenty in the Christian bible that is also cruel and archaic anyway as well so. It does contain passages on conduct of warfare, that does not allow killing of innocents, women and children that seeks to accept negotiation over war.

Of course extremists bypass this conveniently by saying infidels are "against" Islam, or rather are seeking to eliminate the faith and thus its okay to kill those who are not Muslim. But a closer examination shows that more Muslim people are killed by terrorist actions then anything else, major scholars of modern Islam have spoken against that and against Osama himself. The events of 9/11 brought more hardship and misery upon Muslim people then any western populace.

With regards to womens rights, you are diluting the issue again by thinking that Saudi Arabia which forces women to wear head covering is the example of what Islam is. That is nonsense, Saudi Arabia practices Wahhabi Islam, a extreme reading of Islam with various add on rules, people there in itself question that here is a video of a Saudi writer questioning this. The faith there has more to do with keeping political power then anything else. Frontline's documentary the House of Saud explains this issue very well.

The Wilder's assumption that Islam would destroy Europe is vapidly stupid, Europe was ruled by Islam already, another aspect covered in the Islamic History of Europe. Here is a quick clip that shows how the interchange of information from the Greeks to Muslims to Europeans lead to Renaissance. Also When the Moors Ruled Europe.

There is much more that is seen all over http://islam.videosift.com, the religion is not perfect but you need to look at it with a wider appreciation to History and actually understand it before claiming simplistic uninformed views from a few extremist talking heads. Start with What is Islam.

A good post dealing directly with Extremism is Doha Debates video. Where At the second Doha Debates Special on February 28th, 2006 guest speakers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Professor John Esposito and Diana Buttu, answered questions from the student audience on the issue of how to combat extremism and improve relations between the West and the Muslim world.