Saudi court sentences poet to death for renouncing Islam

[Da Bomb76]

[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;49221763]1. a table that is sitting underneath as my desk, 4 legged and wooden, holding a PC
2. a table that has three legs, rounded on one edge but flat on the others to it can be put in a corner
3. a table that has no legs but is instead a solid object so that it simply rests on the floor, an outrageous table
4. a table that rotates so pass food around, spinning and perhaps without legs at all

what is the point of the word table if it somehow fails to capture all essences of this table??

yeah, and of course i looked at african christianity, because africa is an area of social turmoil akin to what you find in a destabilized middle east[/QUOTE]

Now you're being obtuse. A table is a piece of furniture that you can put things on top of. A trivially easy definition that captures every table you can conceive of. Now, tell me: what is Islam? I asked this question a few posts ago and I you have yet to answer. What makes someone a Muslim? What are the requirements? I've heard people say "everyone who loves his fellow man is a Muslim" so are you and I both Muslims? (Assuming you're not a misanthrope)

[Cloak_Raider]

[QUOTE=Da Bomb76;49221858]Now you're being obtuse. A table is a piece of furniture that you can put things on top of. A trivially easy definition that captures every table you can conceive of. Now, tell me: what is Islam? I asked this question a few posts ago and I you have yet to answer. What makes someone a Muslim? What are the requirements? I've heard people say "everyone who loves his fellow man is a Muslim" so are you and I both Muslims? (Assuming you're not a misanthrope)[/QUOTE]

a piece of furniture that you can put things on top of?

like a chair right? you can put things on a chair

i mean you can put stuff on the floor as well, in fact, i'd say you can put stuff on basically any piece of furniture

so your trivially easy definition doesn't actually tell us what a table is, i thought you said it was easy

[Da Bomb76]

[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;49221875]a piece of furniture that you can put things on top of?

like a chair right? you can put things on a chair

i mean you can put stuff on the floor as well, in fact, i'd say you can put stuff on basically any piece of furniture

so your trivially easy definition doesn't actually tell us what a table is[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Da Bomb76;49221858]Now you're being obtuse.[/QUOTE]

[Cloak_Raider]

[QUOTE=Da Bomb76;49221890][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Da Bomb76;49221890][/QUOTE]

no i'm not being obtuse, you're asking me to define a muslim, i'm asking you to define a table

so far, you've totally failed to define a table - something that is, by your own admission, extremely easy to define

so define a table

[Sobotnik]

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;49219976]Islam is growing faster and has a higher percentage of younger people than other religions. It's anything but in decline.[/quote]

The birthrates of the Moslem nations is in a sharp decline and some countries are already suffering the consequences of it. The Islamic Republic of Iran has had a low fertility rate for years, and while the population is young now, in about forty years it will cause massive problems for them. Adherence to the faith is also weakening, especially (again) in Iran, which is a prime example of a fundamentalist revolution having "succeeded". In reality it has only produced nepotism, corruption, economic stagnation, and the creation of a vast young population indifferent to Mohammed. The same process is underway in Syria, Egypt, and Libya especially. The Moslem faith has been in decline in these countries (the Arab Spring and subsequent civil wars hasn't helped). A lot of the refugees from the countries ravaged by war are themselves often abandoning the religion.

While there are people who say "Islam is the problem" and they get called racists for it, the truth of the matter is that a lot of Moslems are starting to believe that themselves now.

Islam underwent its first crisis when the European powers progressively took over half of the world and superseded the Moslem nations in every measure from economic and military strength to social reform and the wealthiness of the citizenry. These embarrassments to the faith reached their peak in the 20th century when the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and Israel was created. The "resurgence" of Islam as of late is due to the activities of groups such as the Taliban, Al-Queda, Islamic Iran, the Arab oil states, etc. A lot of them achieved major success by either kicking the Soviets out of Afghanistan or controlling the worlds oil. New fundamentalists promised a new type of Islam suitable for the modern world and one that would rectify the first crisis. The reality is that all of them have failed. The Islamic State is one of the last attempts to avoid this, a pseudo-state which survives largely because semi-westernized Moslems come fight for it and it gets propped up with stolen resources or emirs in Arabia with deep pockets. It will either collapse or be doomed to decay into a less revolutionary state, but the impact will be all the same. For many Moslems it's only going to further discredit their religion as something unable to adapt to the modern times. And unlike last time, there's no theological safehole or trapdoor to hide behind.

I think the crisis is only starting now, but it will rapidly develop as the consequences of the Arab Spring bear fruit and the oil age comes to an end. Places like Qatar or Dubai have no future, and Saudi Arabia is doomed to a civil war once the oil runs dry or the gerontocrats find themselves unable to play off the factions and maintain their unsustainable economy. The consequences will spread far and wide.