If there is one thing that should be banned in life it is....................

The ideas of progressive humanism unleashed by the French Revolution have caused more death then any religion. Although you could argue it was just a new religion of the individual, which worshipped the cult of personality and a belief in continuous progress. Many nation-builders from the Jacobins to our own regime-changers and democracy-promotors of today have appropriated for themselves the monopoly, once reserved to God, of creating the human world and violently removing all obstacles in their way.
Meanwhile. If you think it's simply a belief in God which has seen tens of thousands of young men recoiling from dysfunctional nation states and crooked elites rushing to join ISIS, you are sadly mistaken. Nearly all so-called Islamic terrors have an extensive background in petty criminality, not to mention routine but nonetheless un-Islamic levels of drunken behaviour and drug-taking. Al-Zarqawi the spiritual father of ISIS, had been a small-town pimp and drug-dealer before he set out to establish a Caliphate in Iraq.

 

I'm not into banning things. As far as I'm concerned we've already banned the things that need banning: hurting others, robbing stuff, drink driving, smoking indoors in public places...

I'd like us to start unbanning things, primarily personal drug use. Stop fighting a losing battle, stop criminalising people who don't hurt anyone else and start tackling the causes of why people use drugs: unhappiness, loneliness, worthlessness - give people support and make them feel valuable members of society. Every single place that has adopted this method has seen habitual drug use reduce. People who don't take drugs aren't not taking them because they're illegal, they're not taking them because they don't want them, because they know there's much more to be gained from life from relationships with friends and family, from a good job, from being a decent person. You'll never make people with problems become that by criminalising them If they turn to drugs and precluding them from ever getting a good job and feeling valued.

One thing I am uncomfortable with is how acceptable gambling has become with advertisements in areas that are frequented by kids. I know how damaging and addictive gambling can be and although I'm not advocating banning it, I don't like how much our society encourages it. I'd legalise all drugs but I'm not for a second suggesting we advertise them, and I don't believe we should be advertising another vice that can cause just as much misery.

 

That is just not true mate....

 

Be going some to beat mosquitos. Currently averaging nearly a million per year just from malaria..

 

Why on earth would anyone with any sense post such a naïve and fatuous message on a football forum.

It would be interesting to know how the O P or others who replied to his post actually define 'religion.'

 

Believing in a fictional super being and believing that the instructions given by somebody who claims they were passed on by this fictional super being must be followed.

 

Couldn't agree more. The "war on drugs" worldwide has been a disastrous policy, both in terms of criminalizing users, and handing control of the industry to criminal gangs, with all the associated ills - from extortion and murder, to the supply of a completely unregulated and therefore unreliable product.

As for the reasons people take drugs - that's an extremely complex issue. Heroin and meth addiction generally stem from wanting to numb the pain and misery of living in abject poverty and hopelessness. But what about somebody dancing in a sweaty club to techno music, hugging their mates after a couple of pills, or rolling round laughing at each other on mushrooms? People primarily do this because it's fun. Not only is it fun in its purest sense, it's also a social bonding experience. In general the sort of people who enjoy recreational drugs of this sort at a weekend are students, most of whom go on to gain a decent degree and a good job, or young professionals, who are able to indulge in such entertainment without any ill effects until they realise that turning up to work completely knackered on a Monday is not an option when you work in a law firm or a clinic rather than a bar. So in short, they grow out of it. In my very humble opinion, the failure to differentiate between recreational drugs, and "hard", physically addictive drugs, lumping them all in together so ecstasy and acid are legally no different from heroin and crack, is yet another massive failing in a long line of failings in current drugs policy.

 

And socialism.

The left-wing/Islamic alliance is what is destroying society.

 

A bit of a bizarre comment, seeing as the vast majority of left-wingers I know are also atheists, and generally pretty progressive. There's not very much in my mind that connects a progressive outlook on life, and the medieval doctrines of fundamental Islam.

 

Education is the answer to eradicating religion. Banning it would only make the problem worse. Its the respect religion holds that is a problem. If a adult said they believed in farher Christmas and the tooth fairy you would think they were mad. They believe in a invisible man in the sky then oh that's ok its religion. Of course they are entitled to believe what ever they like but the rest of us need to be allowed to say well that's just silly.

The whole islamophobia thing is a prime example, i openly admit i dislike greatly, i think it is a horrible hate filled religion. As is Christianity if you actually read what is in the bible. The subtle difference is i dislike Islam not Muslims. I dislike Christianity not Christians.

 

Hardly.

Left-wingers won't criticise Muslims for anything; homophobia, misogyny, terrorism, child abuse, racism, FGM, no criticism at all from left.

 

I must have imagined reading Christopher Hitchens then.

 

Aye, cos Christians don't do any of those things

 

Woah woah woah what's this about the tooth fairy?

 

6d!.............we were lucky to get threpny bit

 

I criticise people for those things. If those specific people are Muslim, I criticise those specific people, if those specific people are Christian, I criticise those specific people, if those specific people are atheist, I criticise those specific people. What I don't do is criticise a whole group of people for the actions of a few.

 

I'm well left of centre and I thoroughly condemn Islam for all those things you mention. Funnily enough everything you mentioned apart from FGM can also be attributed to Christianity and I condemn that equally.

 

And me, but what is FGM?

 

Female genital mutilation