Totally nonsensical statement...once a Muslim/Christian always one? That's bizarre, of course people can change/leave religions (at least if their co-religionists let them, something that seems to be an issue with quite a few Muslims) in the modern West. And given that Christianity and Islam have universal aspirations and ultimately want everyone to conform to their norms, your distinction between religion/politicised religion is very dubious...this only works to some degree even in Europe and the US; it's totally besides the point in much of the Muslim world where politics and religion have never been separate.

Yes, I meant I like your idea about Merkel and Juncker having to do menial work :-)

I'm afraid it's a real possibility...the Christian Democrats have created some weird personality cult about Merkel...and there's no one left in the party who could possibly replace her.
The Social Democrats are a spent force, nothing to expect from them.
The Greens are open borders fanatics, even worse than Merkel; and the Liberals are just spineless opportunists.
Maybe AfD can create something viable, but they've got a lot of idiots as well and are demonized by the media and the entire establishment.
So prospects look rather bleak :-((((

What about Reddit?

https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/4mhrwr/the_bbc_insists_it_isnt_racist_for_refusing_to/

Reddit is not journalism but opinions of some people. Nice to get some idea what people might be thinking but as a primary source of informationen not really usable.

Beware, you're on a slippery slope there.... ;)

It was a joke about the BBC. Did you click the link?

It's hilarious, in a very depressing way.

Again, you're confusing politicised religion with personal faith. People can't pick and choose what they believe in. They don't sit and believe in the Abrahamic God, Buddha's teachings or any number of the Siku or Hindu gods because they brushed through a catalogue and said "I want that religion". Sure, they might lose faith and switch to another religion, but this happens astonishingly rarely. Others convert (which is basically feigning belief) to marry.

More often than not, people just lapse into non-practising adherents.

Neither Christianity nor Islam have "universal aspirations" beyond proselytising. Some denominations or religious schools, however, may aspire to more violent conquest, but that's not something that can be attributed to an entire religion. The religion is basically just the prophetic legacy - it's through exegesis that the problems arise.

It's generally poverty and poor education that breed the kinds of religious fundamentalism that you refer to. We see this not only in the Middle East, as you say, with some Islamist states, but also in Africa with Christian fundamentalism - the most extreme example being the LRA. In the few countries where living standards and education are somewhat more advanced, so too are the problems with these kinds of religious fundamentalism less pronounced.

The AfD stopped being viable when Bernd Lucke was effectively ousted. The signs of the party basically turning full Nazi were there when Gauland started raising his profile. Since then, all the other right-wing extremists have followed suit. The media coverage is very much accurate and to the point - no unjust demonisation there. Or are we to believe that the catchphrases "Islam doesn't belong in Germany" and talking about shooting migrants at the border were misquoted?

There's one AfD politician I have a modicum of respect for, even though I disagree with many of his positions - Jörg Meuthen - and quite frankly, I have no idea what he's still doing in the AfD. He himself doesn't seem to have recognised that the party has changed beyond all recognition. He's respectful, both of minorities in their own right and of the constitution and refrains from the kinds of hyperbolic rhetoric you otherwise often hear in the AfD, whereas the bulk of the party members and its electorate are vile, vicious animals who only differentiate themselves from Nazis by deliberately avoiding the use of the swastika and deflecting criticism by accusing everyone else of being dictators.

Personality cults tend to develop around any electorally successful party candidate, regardless of political orientation: Thatcher, Blair, Schröder, Kohl, Clinton, Bush, Obama. They know that a character - not policies - wins elections, so they focus on character traits and centre everything around that candidate.

And the far-right is worst for creating cults of personality around its candidates: look at how carefully Nigel Farage's image is maintained and pruned in the UK. The only exception is Germany, where the far right parties have traditionally avoided centering publicity around any one candidate. Note how the AfD consistently and strategically bounces the spotlight back and forth between Petry, Gauland, Meuthen and Höcke - the gender minority, the old man, the moderate and the extremist.

(Sanctioned = allowed? I have to ask as Google translate indicates it both as something positive (allowed and approved) and negative (a penalty for something))

I agree, people should realize that everything they hear is not necessarily true. Scepticism is good.

Unfortunately, not everything is clearly true or false, but open to interpretation or even a mere opinion. Like this whole patriarchy thing that sometimes sounds like some kind of coordinated conspiracy of all men of the world against every woman. Does such thing really exist? Hard to really prove true or false, so it is merely how you interpret the world around you.

Or, is islam a potential threat to the western way of life, the freedom of speech etc.? Or those anti-immigration people, are they really bringing the Third Reich back among us and Europe into fascism?

You say people can't pick and choose a religion to believe in, then say people might lose faith and switch to another religion.

Please back up your claim that people rarely lose faith, the number says otherwise.
http://qz.com/403261/in-america-christianity-is-declining-as-non-religion-takes-hold/

'Ere we go,'Ere we go,'Ere we go again.

impossible to replace her? she is like a puppet on a string , in a very similar way Pinocchio was when Gepetto carved him from a piece of wood, and wished he was real, then the fairy came along (a blue one i think it was, or a green? ) and Pinocchio came to 'life' (well not really like a human yet but pretty close)
The thing is , Pinocchio proved himslf by sacrificing himself to save Gepetto (thats with the whale scene)
he was awarded by the fairy for his bravery and his selfsacrifice to save his father Gepetto.... and she turned him into a real boy ( a human).

With Pinocchio the nice old friendly Gepetto was pulling the strings and made Pinocchio dance, but who makes Merkel dance? No one knows for sure.

Will merkel do a selfsacrifice part in the near future like Pinocchio did.? guess not ....
So she should be easier to replace,then Pinocchio would be, cause he started of bad, but turned out right in the end, which cant be said about merkel.
Anyways, Pinocchio had a funny face , merkels looks sad , tired, and depressive,and dissatisfied and angry.

http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_large/public/thumbnails/image/2016/03/08/19/pg-20-merkel-getty.jpg

You are the one who is confusing personal faith with organised religion. Nothing is stopping you to join any of the existing religions. You don't have to believe in anything in order to preach that 'masturbation invites the devil' or 'adulterers have to be stoned'. On the other hand, that, what you believe in, might not be represented by any of the existing religions.
So to say that organised religion is above criticism just doesn't follow. It is a constructed system to exploit the tendency of humans to believe in a greater power.

On this topic (and just about everything else he speaks about) I agree with Pat Condell:

Hate speech = free speech that progressives don't like

Progressives = people who will defend someone else's right to shut you up because they find you offensive


And a 6 year old (but still relevant) video about the state of free speech in Europe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWw7H4m389o

"Criminalizing opinion is an open admission that lawmakers have lost control and created a situation they can't handle. But that's what happens when the people are never asked for their opinion and when they give it, it's ignored."

"Curbing free speech is like taxing air - nobody has the right to do it, no matter who they are or who they think they are."

Your very own source backs up my statement: To summarise, the overwhelming number of people who are irreligious become so at a young age. The number of people changing their faith in adulthood, which is what I'm talking about, is minor by comparison.

Irreligion is growing by default due to past generations of religious elders dying off. This isn't just limited to Christianity - atheism is on the rise in the Middle East in both typically Muslim countries as well as the predominantly Jewish Israel.

Of course, it stands to reason that people converting to atheism in Arab countries have their own problems to contend with, given that many of them are living under theocratic governments of varying extremism - the political suppression of apostasy makes it difficult for many apostates to make themselves known.

But there's a difference between being born into irreligion (and in the Middle East, feigning religiosity to gain social acceptance) and converting to another or no faith. I think most people - especially atheists - know what it's like to be raised religious, to walk the walk and talk the talk, but never to really be able to believe in the divine and to embrace the humanism in themselves when they're old enough to understand.

As it stands, and as an atheist, I'm concerned that our very own belief set is going through a phase of radicalisation. A lot of the rise of the extreme right in Europe is attributable to a distinct hatred of not just Islam but religion in general. I think atheists are about to find out the hard way that disbelief in a divine being doesn't exempt us from being capable of the worst atrocities in the name of our disbelief and perceived superiority.

Religion. Can we please go back to regular hate speech talk? Religious debate is boring. You believe, you don't believe. I don't give a shit.

On the first day of creation, God created internet forums and he saw that it was good. On the seventh day of creation God saw what man had done with his gift and then he rested. Amen. Please pass the butter.