Fiach

From my vantage point in rather secular Scotland, I don't see this entirely in religious terms in Northern Ireland. Catholicism is the banner of Irish Nationalists, and Protestantism is the symbol of English colonialism that remains in Ulster.

There is a delicate problem on what to do with the Proddies whatever they are.

1. Evacuate the Proddies to England, Australia, or USA/Alabama.

2. Merging N.I. with the Republic of Ireland in a Secular State with no religious establishment (a US style Constitution).

3. I suggest a merger of the 95% Catholic Irish Republic with divided Northern Ireland, and mostly secular/minority Proddy Scotland. This would create a Celtic/Gaelic Confederation which could guarantee the rights of all and prevent an established religion. As a country more atheistic/agnostic than Christian, we could mediate between Catholics and Proddies.

I am a member of the SNP (Scottish National Party) and hope for independence from the English soon. Remember that we are descended from Irish (mainly Ulster) colonists in the 6th century with the kingdom of Dal Riata. We are all Gaels in Ireland, N.I., and Scotland. (OK the Vikings and Picts contributed some genes, and maybe further back the Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Nemedians, Tuatha de Danaan, and Milesians. But whatever we are the result.

Air do dheagh shlàinte!

Fiach (Domhnall MacPherson)

Biff the unclean

Three Cheers for Fiach!!!!!!:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

keyser_soze

I dinna ken why you'd send more of the bloody prods to alabama! You could drown in them now!

You're a cold bastard fiatch!

keyser_soze

"It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotsman's understanding"
-Sidney Smith

Fiach

I have driven through the state a decade or more ago. The people seemed friendly enough. Naturally I didn't talk religion there by forwarning. But since then I have learned that in this Buckle on the Bible Belt, there is an active freethought movement, a resort for unbelievers at Lake Hypatia, and a monument for American Atheists who died in battle for America, called "There are Atheists in Foxholes."

Alabama would be a great place with its Gulf Beaches. It is likely that the state's image in Europe is exaggerated.

Jokes by this Scotsman:

Alabama Public Programs not costing any money at all:
State Dental Insurance
Natural History Museums
Genaeology Institute (5 million people but only 8 surnames)

Remember now, it is a joke, eh? Don't get pissed off.

Fiach

Fiach

God invented whisky to keep the Scots from conquering the world.

More later, just got paged.

Fiach

keyser_soze

I take no offense, this is the most backwards place in america. And I've been some places too. Well I guess anyone in alba would understand.

Harumi

My boyfriend's from that state. I know all too well what it's like.

They paddle children in the schools there too! And luckily my boyfriend isn't religious. His family's technically Catholic, but when his mother was pregnant, the priest told her that he was an evil incarnate (because my boyfriend was illegitimate). She left the church after that.

Then when she left her husband because he was a crackpot, other Christians insisted that she remarry him again to become a 'proper submissive wife'.

I just don't get those people. They're all sickening.

Entropic_Gnosis

You can see in the behavior of the fundies that simple fact that they use their beliefs as an excuse of autoctratic behavior. Its no surprise to me that most fundies (that i have met in person) are also right wing, hence the "religious right". The combination of fundimental religion and right wing politics is quite unerving to me.

I was thubing through some old dilbert comics and ran across one in which he is given "the project that wouldn't die" and the boss's instructions were "now go out there are maintain the status quo!" This seems to be the rallying cry of both the fundies and the super conservitives. They see anything new and challeging as an affront to the established order. Orthodoxy and autocracy. . . . .oh joy

philechat

Basically, fundamentalism is an inability to accept complexity. People who tend toward fundamentalism have a particularly weak ego that cannot sustain any difference, any challenges to its own identity, since any affront to their established beliefs is capable of destroying their ego. Therefore they must bind themselves together under a strict ideology--insisting that all people in their group must share the same opinion with them on all matters.

On the other hand, those with a strong mind usually drift apart from one another, form their own opinion on most matters in accordance to their own experiences, and change as they see fit. They are willing to pick and choose what is good for them from a variety of ideas, without relying on any universal authority to legitimize their viewpoint. These characteristics are what thinkers and creators are made of.