ISIS..the lowest of the lows.. hiding behind religiosity

[Peacetrain]

religiosity definition here http://www.thefreedictionary.com/religiosity

I have seen a lot of excuses for this organization of misfits, and deranged killers in the media and internet lately.. and it is stupefying..

People rail against one religion or another or all religions or those who are secular..

For people who profess a religious belief.. (I am among them.. a Christian)

People choose to be cruel and indifferent to others ... not a belief or no belief in God.. It is the individual.. and they are responsible for their behaviors.. If we are all made in the image of God, that means God is in all of us.

If we choose to harm others or let others suffer saying "there but for the grace of God go I". we are totally missing the boat. We are responsible for one another. God does not pick a group to destroy to teach us to be better people. We either stand up or we have turned away.. It is not Gods will. It is our will to let others suffer..

For people who are secular or those who are religious and think that they are somehow so much more special than anyone else.. There is no magic.. and talking about how could a great and good God let the world fall apart as it is, or you have been blessed because you have this special relationship with God.. are looking for a magical being and not responsibility for our own actions as humans. For those who have much.. much is expected..

ISIS is a brutal group of people terrifying and brutalizing others for power trying to cover themselves with a religious reason.

For one second think what it must be like in those little towns in Syrian and Afghanistan, when a murderous group comes tearing in beheading and burning.. there is no huge power to come in and save them..they will shake their heads and do what ever those who are threatening them tell them to do.. This is not part and parcel of their belief system.. this is purely trying to survive.

The best thing that can happen is that the middle east comes together to try and dismantle this crazed organization that is targeting those who are criminals or mentally unstable or so young they do not really understand what their values are yet.

This is not the first time we have seen this kind of crazed cruelty.. the internet has made it spread but this has happened over and over.. just thinking of the Nazis and Poi Pot.. just for starters.. People use anything to try and gain and impose power.. the Nazis used purity of race.. ISIS is very similar in that approach.. Imagine being in a small German town when the Nazis marched in.. people shook their heads yes just out of pure survival mode.




Most major religions have this as their core belief the Golden Rule.. including Islam, and those who do horrors in the name of religion, are not a base of the religion, but an aberration..

All things that you would want done for you, Do for others.. Matt. 7:12
Christianity

What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman...Talmud: Shabbat 31a
Judaism

Hurt not others in ways that you would not find hurtful Udana-Varga 5,18
Buddhism

This is sum of duty, Do naught unto others, which would cause you pain if done to you.. Mahaebharata 5,1517
Brahmanism

Surely it is the maxim of loving kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you
Analects 15,23
Confucianism

Regard your neighbors gains as your own gains and your neighbors loss as your own T'ai Shang Kan Yingp P'ien
Taoism

That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself
Dadistan-I-Dinik 94,5
Zoroastrianism

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother which he desires for himself. Sumnah
Islam

[snooper2]

1. "If we are all made in the image of God, that means God is in all of us."

Is god made up of matter?

[el_bryanto]

2. Depends on who you ask.

Some very strongly believe that he isn't, and others strongly believe that he is. And some don't see how the question matters. I tend towards the latter camp, but I do believe he has matter.

Bryant

[CJCRANE]

3. God/Tao/Universe...

It's all the same IMO.

[Panich52]

4. Or...Man created God in his own image

If not, then all ETs would look like us -- hardly likely. And that would mean God also looked like a tiger, an armadillo, bacteria...

But I do agree w/ OP that religious tenets are twisted by some (many) to serve selfish goals. Or did I misread that?
..

[Warren Stupidity]

5. "God does not pick a group" - tribal gods do.

Read your bible. The Torah specifically.

Universal gods also "pick a group" - for example in christianity generally those who submit to the god are "chosen" while those that don't are "damned".

Historically both Islam and Christianity have used violence to enforce obedience to their religions. Both have used lethal force to eliminate non-believers.

Despite all your protestations, your argument is yet again another no true scotsman argument that self-servingly defines out of a data set those elements that disprove whatever assertion is being made.

[riderinthestorm]

6. I completely disagree. ISIS is drenched in religiosity

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

I would respectfully suggest you read this article in The Atlantic. Its the best explanation I've read that fits EVERYTHING this group is doing and why.

[jwirr]

7. Thank you Peacetrain. Mankind always looks for a cover to excuse the evil it does. And it is first

must ignore what its cover statement actually says.

[whatthehey]

8. So to recap

They say they are acting out of sincere religious belief.

They object to exactly the same things that sincere fundamentalist Muslims also abhor.

They enforce laws in accordance with fundamentalist Islamic theology.

They express and act on a desire to establish a new and aggressive Islamic Caliphate.

But somehow they are only faking it. It's not religion, despite what they say, despite what they do, despite how their victims tell it. And somehow not only do they have their victims and the watching world fooled, but they also can pretend to be totally ignorant of the fact that NON-fundamentalist dictators in the region have been more successful and durable than theocracies for the most part, so that somehow they are good enough to fool even themselves that they have never heard of Hussein or Assad or Qadaffi and that the only way to secure power in the region is to go full-metal-burqa. If they are that good at acting, Hollywood would get them far greater wealth and power in the US than machine guns can in desert boondocks.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. You picked out the nice parts.

There is something in every one of those books for everybody, good and bad.