Evil of religion, and investment into IBB, Islamic Bitcoin Bank

[Gabi]

Another good question. I suppose not, it was just an arab territory, of course not everyone was a religious person.

[nedbert9]

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At least in the US, ppl are getting dumber.

Makes me want to go live on a deserted island.

[ryu-fk]

Let me make it clear right now that Iran is not a Muslim country!

But how is Iran not an Islamic country?

Religion in Iran is dominated by the Twelver Shia branch of Islam, which is the official state religion and to which about 90% to 95%[244][245][246] of Iranians belong. About 4% to 8% of Iranians belong to the Sunni branch of Islam, mainly Kurds and Iran's Balochi Sunni. The remaining 2% are non-Muslim religious minorities, including Bahá'ís, Mandeans, Hindus, Yezidis, Yarsanis, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians.[38]

I understand the subtle difference between Islam as a religion and Muslim as a follower of said religion, but what specifically are you referring to that makes Iran not an Islamic country?

And how is this all related to IBB anyways?

The Twelver shia sect has actually introduced so many new practices and has deviated from the original practices to the extent that it is not really Islam, It's kind of like a separate religion.

[netbios2000]

Long live free society, viva la bitcoin. Give the money/power to the people.

[matthewh3]

I think the Zoroastrian Religion is the oldest and Sexagesimal pre-dates arabic-indo numbering system.

[matthewh3]

I think the Zoroastrian Religion is the oldest and Sexagesimal pre-dates arabic-indo numbering system.

Oldest practised recorded religion.   Sexagesimal base60 (1-60) arabic-indo base10 ( 1 - 10)

[mem]

I <3 IBB

[P4man]

if anything is scientific fact (not theory) i will believe in it,

That makes no sense. Theories is just about the only thing science has to offer. Maybe you meant to say hypothesis instead?
In science once a hypothesis is tested and validated, it becomes a theory. It doesnt get much better than a theory. Gravity is a theory, not a scientific fact. Scientific facts dont attempt to explain anything, a fact is little more than a repeatable observation. Believing only in scientific facts, is like only believing what you see, but not trying to understand what it is you see. You need theories to explain that.

[bb113]

if anything is scientific fact (not theory) i will believe in it,

That makes no sense. Theories is just about the only thing science has to offer. Maybe you meant to say hypothesis instead?
In science once a hypothesis is tested and validated, it becomes a theory. It doesnt get much better than a theory. Gravity is a theory, not a scientific fact. Scientific facts dont attempt to explain anything, a fact is little more than a repeatable observation. Believing only in scientific facts, is like only believing what you see, but not trying to understand what it is you see. You need theories to explain that.

Indeed, scientific "fact" according to who? If they call it fact they are either a crappy scientist, bad/lazy at explaining things, or not a scientist. That's the whole point...

[grondilu]

if anything is scientific fact (not theory) i will believe in it, new evidence comes along and theories change, believing in Adam-Eve doesnt mean you are backward / unscientific. There are many scientists who don't believe in evolution.

Yeah right.  When someone shows you a book supposedly written by a prophet of God you just accept it without discussion.  And yet when someone gives you a materialist explanation of why life is so diverse and how it evolves, you just reject it and ask for "facts" because you think a weird explanation such as "it's just that God made it so" is better (although it doesn't explain anything: it just gives a name "God" to the explanation).

Science is full of theories about how things work and I'm pretty sure you accept them without so-called "facts", because you know they make sense and do not hurt your religious belief:  you may accept plate tectonics and yet you will never ever in your life see a continent move with you own eyes.  But I guess plate tectonics does not hurt your feelings.

Ibn Haitham http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Haitham either arab or persian Alhazen made significant improvements in optics, physical science, and the scientific method. Alhazen's work on optics is credited with contributing a new emphasis on experiment. His influence on physical sciences in general, and on optics in particular, has been held in high esteem and, in fact, ushered in a new era in optical research, both in theory and practice

Then call those civilisations persian when they are persian and arab when they are arabs.  Western cultures come from roman and greek civlisations but usually we call them just romans even if we're talking about people who where living very far from Rome.  Anyway we do not use the roman religion to name them.  We don't say that the western culture comes from the civilisation of Zeus.

Islam and science describes the relationship between Muslim communities and science in general. From an Islamic standpoint, science, the study of nature, is considered to be linked to the concept of Tawhid (the Oneness of God), as are all other branches of knowledge.[1] In Islam, nature is not seen as a separate entity, but rather as an integral part of Islam’s holistic outlook on God, humanity, and the world. This link implies a sacred aspect to the pursuit of scientific knowledge by Muslims, as nature itself is viewed in the Qur'an as a compilation of signs pointing to the Divine.[2] It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science was tolerated in Islamic civilizations, specifically during the eighth to sixteenth centuries, prior to the colonization of the Muslim world.[3]

Just get rid of this stupid book and you'll do even better in learning nature.  It's a waste of time for the mind to read and accept a book just because it is "revelated".  It is contrary to scientific method to accept an ad-hoc idea just per se, as a dogma.  This is the main reason why religion is very little compatible with science: it diffuses the idea that it is acceptable to use autorithy and blind faith to determin whether something is true or false.

You can talk however long you want about how great were some muslim scientists.  There is no point as I will not deny that some of them made great discoveries indeed.  Yet I may ask why then your great God didn't gave more hints about science to your prophet and put them in the Coran.  Why didn't he write the equations of Maxwell, the list of the elements and the axioms of quantum mechanics for instance?  All this could have been written on one or two pages.  Yet it seems your God wanted all this to be discovered by non-muslims, and he wanted the people he chose to be quite limited to maths, astronomy and medecine, and still to be over-powered by non muslims in these fields anyway.  Go figure!
 
This is BS, seriously.  I've seen some documentaries about madrassas, islamic schools, where young chidren were spending their all day long learning the Coran by heart during years.  How on earth do you want such kids to learn anything about nature?

In the arabic world, in the persian world or whatever makes what we currently call the "islamic" world, there were great scientific discoveries that were made.   Yes, but it is true also before that in the greeko-roman world (which arabs transmitted the legacy to us, thanks for that!), and also in India and probably in other civilisations I do not know about.  Those civilisations had religions two, damned it!  And yet we never insist on using the name of these religions to qualify them, as you keep on trying to do.

[frisco2]

+1 grondilu

Those scientists that were religious, be it Islam or Christianity (Newton, Pascal, Leibniz), were so because of their time and culture around them. Moreover, I bet they believed in God = nature, like Spinoza, rather than faith into teachings of a particular book.

For the record, Omar Khayam, a great arab poet and mathematician, whose work in both fields is still popular today, was speaking against religion.

http://www.nndb.com/people/043/000031947/

[J.K. Schmidt]

IBB is not going to have significant influence nor power for very basic reasons.

I don't see what we should worry about.

[kokjo]

"Those civilizations had religions two, damned it!  And yet we never insist on using the name of these religions to qualify them, as you keep on trying to do."

because we are proud of islam and we give credit first to God , then to the scholar/scientist.  at that time, it wasnt a persian civilization or arab civiliztion, it was all those people combined together under islam , that form the islamic civilization.

so yes islamic science / islamic invention / islamic civilization / islamic bank / islam this / islamic that , if you dont like it , then i dont know what i can do about it.

"Yet I may ask why then your great God didn't gave more hints about science to your prophet and put them in the Coran.  Why didn't he write the equations of Maxwell, the list of the elements and the axioms of quantum mechanics for instance?"

because the holy Qur'an is a not a book of science

"I've seen some documentaries about madrassas, islamic schools, where young chidren were spending their all day long learning the Coran by heart during years.  How on earth do you want such kids to learn anything about nature?"

what is wrong with children memorizing the Qur'an ? some children go to sunday school, some go to 'madrassa' and learn the quran, and they also go to normal school to learn all other subjects.

"You can talk however long you want about how great were some muslim scientists.  There is no point as I will not deny that some of them made great discoveries indeed."

thank you , so you agree muslim scientists invented in the past. my point was you are telling me to stop reading the Qur'an, yet those who read the quran and follow shariah / islamic law invented and produced wonderful things.

"Just get rid of this stupid book and you'll do even better in learning nature."

no , thank you

"That makes no sense. Theories is just about the only thing science has to offer. Maybe you meant to say hypothesis instead?"

i meant something like Earth being 6,000 years old, that is not scientific fact.

why are you using fancy colors? it hurts my eyes!

[Dutch Merganser]

The Semitic religions are a curse on all humanity. The use of supernaturalism to manipulate and control people is the world's oldest confidence scheme, it relies on the ritual abuse of children at their most impressionable stage by adults who have themselves been made childish for life by these artifacts of the primitive mind.

Subsidize this sickness? Better to cut off its air supply completely.

[grondilu]

    "Animals engage in a struggle for existence; for resources, to avoid being eaten and to breed. Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to offspring."

---------

see, muslim scientists have no problem with coming up with theories, yes god created everything, but we still try to explain everything using science. If islam was not compatible with science and quran was against science/logic this scientist al-Jahiz wouldnt have come up with with his ideas/theories.

You're the fisrt muslim I ever encounter who supports evolution.

Maybe I'm wrong about muslims and they are not as obscurantists as I thought.  I still whish you were not refering to islam with everything you do, though.  Including banking and bitcoins.

[Gabi]

Two days ago in Italy they arrested a person who converted to Islam and was planning an attack on the synagogue of Milan
Then they found a group of people recently converted to Islam that were contacting Al Quaeda and other terrorist organizations and organizing trainings in places like Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/23/209705.html
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/17656009/italian-police-arrest-muslim-convert-over-terror-plot

[Gabi]

While Breivik was a catholic fundamentalist.

[bitcoinsydney]

Milton Friedman's series on Capitalism:
http://www.freetochoose.tv/
 
Richard Dawkins -- anything
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMqTEfeqvmM
 
Ayn-Rand -- Capitalism the Unknown Ideal
http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Unknown-Ideal-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451147952
 

I love 3 of those links you posted, but it's amazing that I don't share your views at all. Not even a little bit.

[frisco2]

To paraphrase Ayn Rand: "There are no contradictions in reality, only bad premises".  Either you are not thinking logically, or we have different premises.  My premise that a man has a basic right to act as he wishes, as long as doesn't interfere with property rights of others. In the case of Sharia prohibiting a girl to wear skirt (at the punishment of death), it is an infringement on basic rights, because she

- doesn't interfere with property rights of others
- acts according to her idea.

Same goes for adultery, sleeping around. It is a personal choice of individual of what they want to do with their body.

As well, Sharia doesn't permit anyone to question it. It prohibits freedom of speech in your own media.  I can't have my own news paper and market it on the street. I would be thrown in jail a disruptor of peace.

[teflone]

Im not religious at all, OP is an ignorant troll..

The Ayn Rand ref's say everything you need to know about OP..   

OP should hook up with Atlas and marry each other...








Sen, keep fighting the good fight my brother!