Whats left?Follow

Religion fills a void in peoples lives and gives them a meaning and purpose they often otherwise lack. The need for a purpose is a universal one. Regardless of whether you agree with it or not, religion will always be there to fill that need.

Speaking to the OP, I'm confident that humans will always find someone to hate.

As has been said, humanity will always find a new line of division to fight over. National hatred is still quite strong in the world. Those who are overweight in the U.S. are starting to see it less as a disease to correct and more of a differential between them and thin people, so there's a new war. I can guess the winner of that one though...

Hell, people riot over winning or losing soccer games.

Humanity will never get along in peace and harmony, it's not in our make-up it seems. Even if we all looked alike, spoke alike, lived in the same country, wore the same clothes, and did the same jobs, somehow we would discover some small difference and argue over it.

In 20 years, I see Furries as the "new" LGBT community.

And after reading some of the posts over at Furtopia, I can honestly say I will be on Gbaji's side during those debates.

Creepy motherfuckers, the lot of them.

In Western Europe. And even then, slowly. There are very few countries in Europe that allow for gay marriage. Civil unions, sure but the fight for completely equal rights is far from over. And then you have countries like Italy, Spain, or Ireland, where the Church is still quite strong, and where gay marriage is still far from becoming a reality. The further East we go, the worst it gets. Russia, for example, is incredibly homophobic. Some states in the US are the same.

We're getting there, but very slowly. And some European countries are not making making much progress at all.



And that's the key. In England. England is not a very religious country at all. It's probably the least religous country in Europe, with France. The CoE is not really "religious" at all.

But look at other EU countries: Abortion is illegal in Ireland, Spain and Italy are still strongly catholic, Greece's orthodox church is extremely influential, the main political party in Germany is the "Christian-Democrats", Norway has a church state that premeates through-out their society... Poland wanted Christian references in the EU constitution... I could go on, think about the Balkans, about Turkey... And that's in Europe, arguably the least religious of all the continents.

If you look at other continents, forget about it. South America is still very religious, North America too, Asia incredibly so... Most of the modern conflicts have religious causes, or at least under-curents: Israel and Gaza, Sri Lanka and the Tamils, Pakistan and the Talibans, Kashmir, Darfur, Chechnya, Lebanon...



In England. Maybe in France. In other european countries, the church will still influence politicians decisions, and more importantly, the cultural norms of society.



No. China is the next big thing. People that worry about fanatic Islamists are barkig up the wrong tree, at least in the medium/long-term. They are far too divided amongst themselves to be a real threat in the "Clash of civilisations" way. China isn't.

Think about it. Let's say China decides to invade Taiwan tomorrow. What do you think will happen? Is the US and the EU going to to war with them over it? Impose an embargo? Is there anything effective we could do about it? Is there anything we can do about Tibet? About the lack of pressure China is putting on NK? About China's neo-colonialism in Africa?

I agree with you in the sense that the only thing that can stop China being the next super-power in the world, bigger than the US or India, is China itself. But considering that they know this as well as we do, it's unlikely they will make huge mistakes. On the international stage, I don't think there's any doubt that they will be the next big thing.

Never link that **** here again...

I swear, now I'll have nightmares about retards in mascot outfits...

I liked your OP, Gwyn. I didn't think it was xenophobic or small-minded. Inaccurate and simplistic maybe, but it had good intentions.

I don't think you're overtly PC either, I've always thought you were rather center-right. You read the Telegraph, you sympathise with the Country Alliance, and you'll vote Tory in the next election, right?

I never said Gwyn's intentions were bad, and the OP is not one of the overly PC things I've noticed.
I just thought I knew where Nobby was coming from a bit.

Also, I think xenophobic is the wrong term for any of this (except her remark about the Scotsmen ).

I'm no good at trolling.

So long as Saudi Arabia remains as it is, you can't claim that any of those four issues have been decisively solved.

I don't know if this deserves a or a

In other news, pollsters are reporting that 97% of the Asylum think your sig is, and I quote, "sooooo last month." Nobby disagrees, as he firmly believes it's still April 17th 1874.

No links but a c'n'p from an older post:

Yes, water - and air. If emissions trading takes off it could pave the wave for natural resources as traded commodities.

(start filling and stashing those water jugs!!)

By then Fleas's womb should be all healed up and ready for gymnastics again.