Secular laws alone cannot bring about peace and justice on earth. While secular governance is important, without personal Godliness it is incomplete. Morality cannot be legislated. Secular laws cannot limit the wandering eye of a would-be rapist as he scopes his next victim — instead the burden is placed on women to avoid getting raped. Secular laws cannot limit the greed of the super wealthy as they pound the poor with extraordinary interest rates advancing perpetual poverty and misery. Secular laws cannot hold accountable those who wage illegal wars in which hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians die — instead the burden is placed on the helpless who are left to deal with the emerging terrorist groups.
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Religious laws do not stop that kind of thing either, as the state of many majority-Muslim countries has shown. Indeed they often have the opposite effect, especially in regard to Qasim Rashid's first and third examples.
I can't tell if Mr. Rashid is arguing in favor of theocracy, or merely arguing the position that religion provides a moral compass above and beyond what the law provides. If it's the latter, it's a debatable position, but not fundie. If he's a theocrat, on the other hand, then yeah... fundie.
Secular laws alone cannot bring about peace and justice on earth.
Morality cannot be legislated.
Secular laws cannot limit the wandering eye of a would-be rapist as he scopes his next victim instead the burden is placed on women to avoid getting raped. being raped.
Secular laws cannot limit the greed of the super wealthy as they pound the poor with extraordinary interest rates advancing perpetual poverty and misery. improve their position in society. Conveniently enough, the wealthy in a theocracy curiously tend to be people of both political and religious power. Funny how that works out.
Secular laws cannot hold accountable those who wage illegal wars in which hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians die
instead the burden is placed on the helpless who are left to deal with the emerging terrorist groups.
I actually agree with much that this guy says. The comment on rape picks up on the way defence lawyers willl try to shift the blame onto the victim - she led him on, etc. - which means that many women are loath to report rape out of fear of how they'll be treated in court. Values have to be taught in families, in communities, they cannot be imposed by law. However, if the implication is that secular society should give way to any sort of theocracy then no, a thousand times no. The huge strength of secular society is its pluralism, and that above all is what progressives must defend. One thing that unites Trump, the so called Christian Right, and Vladimir Putin is that they detest pluralism and diversity and would prefer a one party state, which Russia has already. Rashid would like one as well, albeit Islamic. No thank you.
>without personal Godliness
The keyword there is 'personal.' So have at it, and stop trying to cram it down everyone else's throats.
Which god? There's the rub in "peace and justice on Earth" with religion, isn't it?
Morality can't be gotten through "godliness" either, or the religion-ruled Middle East would be a haven of peace and harmony.
Wandering eyes and rapes can't be stopped through "godliness" either, or there wouldn't be religious rules about rapists getting off punishments if they marry their victims. In religion-ruled ME, raped women are stoned to death for adultery. Talk about placing the burden on women...
Religion can't limit the greed of the super wealthy either, or there would be no televangelists with their Mega churches.
Religion can't stop people from waging wars either.
Actually, yes. Secular law can and does do all of those things. Rapists go to prison, interest rates have legal limits, and there are even laws of war (as certain groups are about to learn courtesy of the ICC).
So you're just flat wrong across the board. Try again.
@#2020980:
"The comment on rape picks up on the way defence lawyers willl try to shift the blame onto the victim - she led him on, etc"
so a man is accused of knowingly having sex with someone without their consent, and their defence lawyer tries to build a case that the sex was consensual.
how dare that monstrous male lawyer fiend do his job, it's a travesty of justice.
...in your ideal world do men accused of rape get a trial by jury or the defence of a lawyer?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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