Posted on 09/11/2014 4:40:24 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Atheism is little more than peremptory antagonism. It specifies no moral qualities, but ironically requires abstract moral inventions of its adherents — divine designs such as “humanism”.
Perhaps Maher is secretly an agnostic.
Lol. Partly true. I am guessing something else, too, though.
ROSE: Well I do. But I don't believe --
MAHER: So to claim that this religion is like other religions is just naive and plain wrong. It is not like other religious. The New York Times pointed out in an op-ed a couple weeks ago that in Saudi Arabia just since August 4th, they think it was, they have beheaded 19 people.
WHOA... Maher gets it...
this just shows that charlie rose is more stupid than Maher to be disagreeing
“Quick, someone check whether hell is freezing over.”
“Hell” doesn’t come up on Accuweather, can’t help out here.
You had better believe it. I have never heard anyone make a calmer and more logical argument against islam than Maher did in that clip. Very powerful stuff. And even more powerful because Maher cannot be dismissed as a rightist loon.
As you said, every last person should see it. Maher truly is a hero in this particular instance.
Wow. I watched the video. I never would have guessed Bill Maher was that smart.
He isn’t smart. Just scared. Fear is the deciding genetic factor, in wavering by liberals. Stupidity vs Fear- reality wins every time.
What do people hope to achieve by making this argument? What does this argument accomplish? Does it excuse the murderous behavior of muslims?
Can’t always figure Maher out - he’s obviously intelligent. Sometimes I think he’s playing Devil’s Advocate to mess with folks’ minds. He’s like the Madonna of the “news” world - he knows what sells and is very good at it.
Quick, someone check hell see if it has frozen over...I think Joe Biden is down there...
Funeral: Here lies an Atheist - all dressed up
and no place to go
Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria, in his 2006 speech, simply titled “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections,” Benedict characteristically took up a knotty concept — the interplay of faith and reason. He wanted to show how reason untethered from faith leads to fanaticism and violence.
To illustrate that case, Benedict dug up a 14th-century dialogue between a long-forgotten Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, and a Persian scholar about the concept of violence in Islam.
“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,” Benedict quoted the emperor as saying to his Islamic interlocutor.
In Islamic teaching, Benedict said, “God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.”
OBAMA: ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE
THE REAL FACE OF ISLAM
OTRANTO - MASSACRE OF CHRISTIANS BY MUSLIMS
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana
800 Italians Men Beheaded in Otranto in 1480 for Refusing Islam, by the Turks, with the Approval of Sultan Mehmet II
On August 14, 1480, a massacre happened on a hill outside the city of Otranto, in southern Italy, here 800 of the town’s men were taken to a place called the Hill of the Minerva, and, one by one, beheaded in full view of their fellow prisoners. It became known as the Hill of the Martyrs. They died because they refused to convert to Islam. The 800 men of Otranto were martyrs. But due to their sacrifice, however, the Ottoman invasion was slowed and Rome was spared the same fate that had befallen Constantinople only 27 years before.
The city of Constantinople had been taken in 1453 and for 3 days its people were made slaves or killed or raped and the city was looted, all with the permission of the Sultan, Mehmet (Muhammad) II,who was then 21.Mehmet is the Turkish way of saying Muhammad.
The people of Otranto knew of the siege of Constantinople and that when that city fell the Muslims pillaged the city, but the key moment came when they reached Hagia Sophia.
After breaking down the church’s bronze gates, they found inside a huge throng of Byzantines who had taken refuge and who were praying that the city might be delivered by some miracle. The Christians were seized and separated according to age and gender. The infants and elderly were brutally murdered; the men, including some of the city’s most prominent senators, were carted off to the slave markets; and the women and girls were taken by soldiers to be raped or sent into a life of slavery.
At Otranto, the terms of the Muslims were ostensibly generous. If the town surrendered, the defenders would be permitted to live. They said no, it was repeated and again it was no. It was the city against 18,000 Muslims and it lasted 2 weeks.
Slaughter, Sacrilege, and Slavery
Turkish troops entered and killed anyone in their path. They made their way to the cathedral. As in the Hagia Sophia, the invaders found the church filled with people praying with Archbishop Stefano Agricoli, Bishop Stephen Pendinelli, and Count Largo, the commander of the soldiers. The Ottomans commanded:
1.The archbishop to throw away his crucifix, abjure the Christian faith, and embrace Islam. When he refused, his head was cut off before the weeping congregation.
2.Bishop Pendinelli and Count Largo likewise would not convert and were also put to death, reportedly by being slowly sawed in half.
3.As was the custom, the priests were murdered and the cathedral was stripped of all Christian symbols and turned into a stable for the horses. The Ottomans then gathered up the surviving people of Otranto and took them as captives.
The people of Otranto faced the same end as the Christians of Constantinople. All of the men over the age of 50 were slaughtered; the women and children under the age of 15 were either slain or sent away to Albania to be slaves. According to some contemporary sources, the total number of dead was as high as 12,000, with another 5,000 pressed into slavery.
800 Men who Survived told to Convert to Islam or Die
The Muslim commander ordered the men of Otranto, 800 survivors of the battle, those who were not over 50 and had not been already killed in battle or later, or were not children and had not be killed or enslaved, to be brought before him. He gave them one chance to convert to Islam or die. To convince them, he instructed an Italian apostate priest named Giovanni to preach. The former priest called on the men of Otranto to abandon the Christian faith, and they would get many benefits.
One of the men of Otranto, a tailor named Antonio Primaldi (he is also named Antonio Pezzulla in some sources), came forward to speak to the survivors. He called out that he was ready to die for Christ a thousand times. He then added, according to the chronicler Giovanni Laggetto in the Historia della guerra di Otranto del 1480:
“My brothers, till today we have fought in defense of our country, to save our lives, and for our lords; now it is time that we fight to save our souls for our Lord, so that having died on the cross for us, it is good that we should die for him, standing firm and constant in the faith, and with this earthly death we will win eternal life and the glory of martyrs.”
At this, the men of Otranto cried out with one voice that they too were willing to die a thousand times for Christ.
The Execution
The next morning, August 14, the 800 prisoners were bound together with ropes. The victims repeated their pledge to be faithful to Christ, and the Ottomans chose the courageous Antonio Primaldi as the first to be executed.
The old tailor gave one final exhortation to his fellow prisoners and knelt before the executioner. The blade fell and decapitated him, but then, as the chronicler Saverio de Marco claimed in the Compendiosa istoria degli ottocento martiri otrantini (“The Brief History of the 800 Martyrs of Otranto”), the headless corpse stood back upright. The body supposedly proved unmovable, so it remained standing for the entire duration of the gruesome executions.
Stunned by this apparent miracle, one of the executioners converted on the spot and was immediately killed. The executioners then returned to their horrendous business. The bodies were placed into a mass grave, and the Turks prepared to begin their march to Rome.
Thanks...the true Islam. I read it all
Some other respondents to this post felt it necessary to try sidetracking the extremely important theme of Maher’s effort and instead continue their assault on Maher. That's a shame. Maher isn't the one pledged to murder them. These few should be recognizing an issue that could unite conservatives, liberals, democrats and republicans.
no, there’s no hope. That was two years ago and he’s said a zillion really liberal stupid things since then.
BUT THIS WAS GREAT. And if it was ALL I ever saw of him, I Would think he’s conservative congressman material.
So I’ll make believe this is all I ever saw of him and leave it at that :)
Maher flirts with sanity at times, there’s an occasional ray of hope for the guy. But then he always reverts to form.
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