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Congrats Halonachos, you made the Iggy list!!

Even though the literal translation of mesopotamia is "land between two rivers" it can be extended to include the surrounding areas. Also, Israel is directly above the Saudi Peninsula which is also part of the middle east.

I never thought that turkey was part of the middle east, I always thought is was part of the mediterranean like greece.

EDIT: Woot, made someone mad enough to ignore me. Now I can insult him all I want.

When will you uneducated rubes accept that Israel is part of Africa?

It's been proven through modern tectonic theory, and still you hold on to your outdated theories on continental boundaries.

I bet you still think Pluto is a planet, huh?

Pluto is not only a planet, but a way to reach enlightenment.

Once one accepts Pluto as a planet, they are instantly bathed in a glorious light and gain knowledge of everything for a millisecond. That millisecond is the most orgasmic event ever to happen to a person.

Idiots. We all know Pluto is a dog.




Oh wait you meant the planet...never mind

Pluto the dog is a priest for the planet Pluto. That's why they have the same name, duh!

I call shotgun!

I think the modern term middle east is used as a sort of loose catch all for "the Arab states (except north Africa west of Egypt) but including Israel, Turkey, and Iran."

Greebynog wrote:The stereotype is that Americans don't understand what irony is and frequently use the word incorrectly.

The funny thing about this is, I've been hearing about this stereotype more and more, and the more I do, the more I get the feeling that maybe it's actually some British people who are using the word incorrectly, and attributing things to "irony" that aren't really ironic at all. Maybe the reason some Americans have trouble understanding British "irony" is because it's not actually ironic?


That'd be kind of ironic.

Also, Israel might be on the African plate, but it hasn't been on any map of Africa that I've ever seen, and I've seen my fair share of African maps in my time.

Hordini, I was trying to say the Bible is inadequate as a moral text, and that society is prefectly capable of creating a series of ethical values without the aid of religion, as religion only makes things worse. In a nutshell.

Also - Israel IS in the Middle East, NOT in Africa, but you're missing the point. Frazzled said Israel wasn't in Africa in response to me saying it was a tribal conflict, ignoring that 'tribal' doesn't mean 'African'

Also - If anyone thinks Sinead O'Connor's song 'Ironic' contains more than one example of irony...they're wrong, and don't know what irony is. Which, while humorous, is not ironic. Unless they're doing the ironing.

Dictionary.com wrote:i⋅ro⋅ny
1   /ˈaɪrəni, ˈaɪər-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-] Show IPA
–noun, plural -nies.
1. A bit like iron

Synonyms:
1, 2. iron, steel, any silvery metal

Back to religion...

Elessar wrote:

Also - If anyone thinks Sinead O'Connor's song 'Ironic' contains more than one example of irony...they're wrong, and don't know what irony is. Which, while humorous, is not ironic. Unless they're doing the ironing.

Woah! Leave Sinead out of this. The offending song you're refering to was by Alanis Morissette, not the wonderful Miss O'Connor. Her version of Nothing Compares 2 U has to be one of the best covers of all time.

I know. It was a shameless attempt to draw attention to the jokes in my sig. Sorry Sinead, and Alanis, I hope you're sorry for insulting the world with such a stupid song! Sorry, fellow Dakka-goers, for the deception.

And the thread comes full circle.

Elessar wrote:Hordini, I was trying to say the Bible is inadequate as a moral text, and that society is prefectly capable of creating a series of ethical values without the aid of religion, as religion only makes things worse. In a nutshell.

Which would be an interesting point if religion did not happen to be an excellent example of social construction.

It would also be more interesting if you (Elessar) didn't just quote tired examples like the old laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

It's quite hard to find new examples in a 2,000 year old book!

Greebynog wrote:It's quite hard to find new examples in a 2,000 year old book!

You do know they didn't write it and publish it the second after Jesus died right? It's not quite 2000 years old.

On the other hand, the delay between the bible being written and the things written in the bible occurring only reduces it's credibility.

Ahtman wrote:

Greebynog wrote:It's quite hard to find new examples in a 2,000 year old book!

You do know they didn't write it and publish it the second after Jesus died right? It's not quite 2000 years old.

As soon as I hit submit I knew that was coming...

I felt that stating something to the effect of what you posted there may have somewhat spoilt the pithy asthetics of my post.

Can we rename this thread 'Pedantry'? We've just had a three page argument about what counts as the middle east for christ's sake!

Greebynog wrote:

Ahtman wrote:

Greebynog wrote:It's quite hard to find new examples in a 2,000 year old book!

You do know they didn't write it and publish it the second after Jesus died right? It's not quite 2000 years old.

As soon as I hit submit I knew that was coming...

I felt that stating something to the effect of what you posted there may have somewhat spoilt the pithy asthetics of my post.

Can we rename this thread 'Pedantry'? We've just had a three page argument about what counts as the middle east for christ's sake!

All I did was ask if you knew that. You'd be surprised. Once saw a minister who believed that Jesus carried around the KJV of the bible.

Wow, that's truely stunning. I wasn't trying to have a dig at you by the way, hope that wasn't how it came across.

Ahtman wrote:

Greebynog wrote:It's quite hard to find new examples in a 2,000 year old book!

You do know they didn't write it and publish it the second after Jesus died right? It's not quite 2000 years old.

Well that's just lazy really isn't it.

Much of it is of course much older, all the bits kind of prior to Jesus. All the wacky bits with talking animals and bushes.
... or I am I thinking of Madagascar 2 ?

That is in Africa yes ?

And on the Eighth Day God created the Platypus, and said "dude what the is that?"

There's plenty that's newer than what's in the Old Testament.

You know, that's why they call it the New Testament. Because it's newer.

Hordini wrote:It would also be more interesting if you (Elessar) didn't just quote tired examples like the old laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

While I accept your point, Jesus did say that he wasn't here to rewrite the Old Testament, just clarify a little, and add some new stuff. In the intersts of not appearing to be a one-trick pony (or any quadraped in fact) I'm not going to quote any passage here.

However, Orkeosaurus raises an excellent point.

In my experience, the compilation of books that you are mostly talking about is just what THEY want you to believe(THEY being the people who want to have power over you). Someone has chosen which ancient writings to include, and not include. Someone has chosen how to interpret and translate them into our language.I believe that a man, who'm we have been taught to know as Jesus, along with many others throughout time, did go about teaching people about a ONENESS, and that we were created by the ONENESS, are part of the ONENESS, and that ONENESS is part of us. There is no seperation, It's called "entanglement" in modern day quantum physics. NO SEPERATION! Whatever I do to my brother, I do to myself etc. So Jesus may have come to SET US FREE, but a bloody religion was created after his death, to make sure we didn't really get the point. We are the same as He! We are the Trinity, Father Son and Spirit= Purpose, Matter and Energy. The church don't want you to know the Empowerment of this TRUTH, that is why people were burned at the stake for seeing thing different to how THEY taught it. THEY teach obedience, I believe He taught FREEDOM and LOVE and EMPOWERMENT. He was a revolutionary. Then the ba*@$%ds twisted everything to keep us in the dark. WE ARE THE LIGHT! everything is light, for light is electromagnetic disturbances, which is what matter is, EM disturbances in SPACE TIME.
BE FREE, BE LIGHT, BE ONE WITH INFINITY, it is your BIRTH-RIGHT!!!!!!!

It's ridiculous when Zionists tries to demonise Islam while praising Judaism's "holiness".