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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (8688)	3/15/2001 3:43:06 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

"There is a well known effect where victims develop sympathy with their captors. I believe that in the case of Arab terrorists, as an example, that if you are desperately poor, your religion represses you and you have little hope for a good material life in the present, that religious extremism can motivate these otherwise good people to do things that are not in their immediate interest (or mine!)" Uh, I think the most famous victim of this in the US is Patty Hearst. You might want to review her case in light of your rationale.

To: cosmicforce who wrote (8688)	3/15/2001 3:55:26 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 82486

"...allows them to do really horrible things in the material world which we all share." I saw the movie "8 millimeter" a couple of years ago. I understand the subject is about a real subculture component of our society. Pretty horrible stuff going on in most of our population centers. But, there are some icky things happening out on the farms too. There is a great deal of bad stuff happening that is not attributed to having a favored status under God. I have already conceded that an oppressive or tyrannical group can use religion for self serving purposes, and that this is not justified in the basic belief systems. I would go further, If the whole world were my religion I don't believe it would be in any better shape than it is right now. If formal religion were banned from the world, it would develop pretty much along the lines of what it has. Its the world dude. Good luck changing it.