Hi AU – that’s a fair comment. There are many religious people who think atheists will be forgiven too. My comment was directed more at those who think people who marry someone of the same sex are going to hell, who are usually (but not always of course) the same ones who think atheists are going to hell.

That’s a MASSIVE generalisation – there are many religious people who think God is the most merciful and even atheists will be forgiven.

“Heather, I especially applaud your recognition that Muslims too can overcome inherited prejudices and stand up for fairness and human equality. We are all humans.”

Muslims aren’t unique, we all inherit prejudices, atheists included. The greatest prejudice however is to believe that their side has the prejudices and our side doesn’t/

A hornets’ nest has been stirred up in the Middle East – people are joining DAESH if they’re Muslim in the same way they join gangs in the inner city. It’s about power and identity and feeling like they matter and are a part of something bigger than themselves as much as anything. That situation though has been created just as much by the crappy leaders in the Middle East as by the interfere from the West. Instead of helping, we’ve just made things worse, but I’ve got no idea what the right thing to do is.

China certainly could be a huge problem long-term – the building blocks are being created every day. Short-term, I’m most worried about Russia, or rather Putin. Although there’s a valid argument he’s been provoked in some ways, that is not enough to justify what he’s done. The only thing stopping him launching a takeover of Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, the Baltic states and Georgia is Saudi Arabia using their power in OPEC to keep world oil prices low, thereby putting the economic squeeze on Russia. He’s one scary dude imo.

I should also add that DAESH is a name only used by it’s enemies. In the Middle East, only supporters of IS call it that – it became that when the group that then called itself ISIL/ISIS declared a caliphate just over a year ago and were now just Islamic State.

Hi Paxton, you’re welcome, and yes you can. What I haven’t written about in my response to you is the strong link between the medieval tradition of pilgrimage and crusade, and that was really where the idea originated. Medieval people wanted to experience their religion physically, and it was through relics and pilgrimage that they did this. Crusade was simply an armed pilgrimage in the eyes on contemporaries. I’ve just found an essay I wrote about the link between pilgrimage and crusade. Another reader suggested I write something about the Crusades during a discussion on WEIT a few months ago too. It’ll take a bit of mucking around with the formatting, but I’ll post it later today or tomorrow. It’s hard for us to understand how religion infused every part of life back then, and until we do we can’t get our heads into the same space as medieval people.

Cheers Paxton. It is great that things have changed so quickly. It’s not long since homosexuality was decriminalized in NZ (1986). By 2001, only 15 years later, we had same-sex civil unions, and another ten years after that (2011), same-sex marriage. All in a single generation. It gives me hope that all the other prejudices that still plague us can change just as quickly.

I agree with you assessment of what has happened in your country too. There’s a strong Hobbesian streak in some areas that is buttressed by the Second Amendment.