DeliberateConfusion

My other foot stayed up on the step and I was split like a wishbone.

http://i.imgur.com/pTixu2V.gif

Hey man, congrats on the weight loss. Can I ask 1: how tall you are and 2: is there any way you can post a pic of this loose skin? I'm trying to lose a lot of weight and I want to know what to expect :/

Actually, that's not what I said. I said that to suggest that ISIS's actions have nothing to do with Islam is completely delusional. I have no idea what "true Islam" looks like, as you put it. All I know is what the Islamic holy books actually say, and there is just a mountain of divisive nonsense in them that gives a person all the justification and motive they need to do something exactly like what ISIS is doing. ISIS is telling us that they are doing this because of their faith in Islam. I believe them because, like it or not, they are giving a very straightforward version of the faith. It's not surprise to me that the behavior of Muslims around the world are contradictory and incomprehensible, because Islam's holy books are contradictory and incomprehensible.

If you had to speculate, why do you think the Kurds have been able to keep away from Islamic fundamentalism to such a large degree? Or are there more problems than the average Westerner hears about?

That isn't what I said at all actually. You can quibble about what the books actually mean or how they're interpreted all you like, but the books actually do say the things ISIS is proclaiming, so the justification will always be there. I am looking at what Islamic fundamentalists are saying all over the globe and they draw their justification directly from scripture. Beliefs guide behavior, and if your beliefs are violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive towards children, then your behavior will reflect that; and Islam almost perfectly engenders all those things. Do I think that only ISIS represents the truth of Islam? No, but it is also delusional to even suggest that they do not represent a form of Islam. I say that Islam is a patently absurd and untrue ideology that deserves nothing but ridicule and contempt, even more so than other religions because of the staggering amount of needless human suffering it has caused just in my lifetime because of the dangerous and violent ideas it puts into people's heads. All things being equal, good people will do good things and bad people will do bad things, but if you want to get a good person to do a wicked thing, that takes religion.