Free Republic

  Finally, a leader has spoken about the real, essential differences in the struggle between the West and Islam, as it emanates from a contest within Islam itself over the most important things. With startling -- indeed alarming -- clarity, Pope Benedict XVI told his audience in Regensburg, Germany, in a 2006 lecture, that not only is violence in spreading faith unreasonable and therefore against God, but that a conception of God without reason, or above reason, leads to that very violence. To ensure everyone knew what he was talking about, the pope quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor,...

University of Minnesota professor Paul Z. Myers made good on his pledge to desecrate the Eucharist today. According to his statement on the subject, “I pierced it [the Host] with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash.” Saying he did not want to “single out just the cracker,” Myers also tore pages from the Koran along with a few pages from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and nailed them to the Host. He then said, “They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. (His emphasis.)...

While there are many world religions, there are only three that call for worship of one God: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. All of the other major religions, from Hinduism to Buddhism to Shintoism, don't really deal with the issues of salvation as we understand it, of heaven and hell. For instance, Buddhism is really more of a philosophy than a religion, primarily concerned with reaching “enlightenment.” While Hinduism worships seemingly infinite Gods, and looks at life as a kind of wheel, where we return, time and time again to "try and get it right". If we reach the summit of...