From: Tony Williams 

Adam > wrote:
> Tony Williams wrote:
>> I can't really disagree with much of that and it seems to reinforce what
>> I said - get out of the region and concentrate on making sure we don't
>> need its oil.
>
> Or it's religions?

Well, not running countries anyway. The whole "separation of church
and state" thing strikes me as a really good idea.

> Was Galileo a "renaissance man"? If so how come he got
imprisoned by the
> religious types for asserting the earth went round the sun.

Because the religious types had political power? Just a wild guess ...

> Fifty years earlier & he'd have been burnt. 100 years later & he'd have
> toured Europe giving lectures.
>
> People get the gov they deserve. My view is to let people vote in
> Islamist govs as govs always end in failure. Tis the way with power.

I'm not disagreeing, but the problem is they tend to blame their own
failure on the evil neighbours who pray facing the wrong direction and
therefore cause all the woes in the world. That's not unique to Islam.

> i.e. so long as there are elections every X years & so long as the gov
> does not become the state & thus misuse state law enforcement, money,
> media control etc to perpetuate itself  [...]

Hmm - does free market worship count as religion?

--
Tony

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