A Global Struggle for Security and Progress

[error]

Some idiot bureaucrats want to rename the war on terror to "A Global Struggle for Security and Progress." Oh, and throw liberty out the window.

http://digg.com/political_opinion/A_Global_Struggle_for_Security_and_Progress

[J’raxis 270145]

GSFSAP? GSSP? Last gassp before the empire collapses?

The comment in their memo about liberty is accurate:—

The experts we consulted debated the word "liberty," but rejected it because many around the world would discount the term as a buzzword for American hegemony.

Liberty and freedom, when uttered by the U.S. Government, are nothing more than empty slogans.

Calling Al-Qa'idah a death cult is pretty amusing: Not only is that an apt label for any religion that promotes the rewards of an afterlife at the expense of this life (fundamentalist Christians calling fundamentalist Islam a death cult...?), but Orwell's Ingsoc referred to the Eastasian philosophy as death worship.

[error]

And let's not forget that government is the biggest death cult around.

[John Edward Mercier]

GSFSAP? GSSP? Last gassp before the empire collapses?

The comment in their memo about liberty is accurate:—

The experts we consulted debated the word "liberty," but rejected it because many around the world would discount the term as a buzzword for American hegemony.

Liberty and freedom, when uttered by the U.S. Government, are nothing more than empty slogans.

Calling Al-Qa'idah a death cult is pretty amusing: Not only is that an apt label for any religion that promotes the rewards of an afterlife at the expense of this life (fundamentalist Christians calling fundamentalist Islam a death cult...?), but Orwell's Ingsoc referred to the Eastasian philosophy as death worship.

A little different... one promotes the killing of others as the path to rewards in the afterlife, the other promotes the killing of others as the path to damnation in the afterlife.

Your generalizing that because both promote an afterlife, they are the identical.

[Vitruvian]

The term death cult refers to a group whose members exhibit a preoccupation with and a veneration for death.  Therefore, both Christianity and Islam (as well as virtually every other religion) would qualify as death cults.

[Nathan.Halcyon]

A little different... one promotes the killing of others as the path to rewards in the afterlife, the other promotes the killing of others as the path to damnation in the afterlife.

Your generalizing that because both promote an afterlife, they are the identical.

And he is correct in his argument, as is Vitruvian. Both promote the rejection of the experience of this life along with a strict regimentation of the body and mind according to the dicta of some deity in the hope of attaining some grand reward in the afterlife. Dying to this world to live in the next.

[J’raxis 270145]

The term death cult refers to a group whose members exhibit a preoccupation with and a veneration for death.  Therefore, both Christianity and Islam (as well as virtually every other religion) would qualify as death cults.

Exactly. It's not about whether or not the religions "promote killing" (and actually, the more sanguine fundamentalist Christians sects do, but that's another story); the categorization is based on how the religion itself views this life vs. a purported "next" life.

One way I've heard of grouping religions is into "life-worshiping" (eros) and "death-worshiping" (thanatos) religions. Religions that venerate life, care little of an afterlife (or have no belief therein whatsoever), don't promote self-denial, &c., would fall in the former category. Most such religions are extinct now, many having been conquered by the latter. Religions that promote self-denial are inevitably composed of more belligerent followers, and in a twisted sort of irony, are able to out-compete (in the Darwinian sense) the life-worshiping religions.