Does Islam Require Forced Conversions?

Yes it is. Stop waging a war on religion.

Are you *** HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE?

I may be critical of religion here on the interwebs and for good reason, I believe it's problematic in its current form and needs reforms to gel with modernity. However, I've come to understand that some people need religion and I have chosen to opt out for my personal reasons. Respect that and we can be bestest buddies ever... till you betray my trust and trigger my issues.

Having a religious system foisted on me by captors who destroyed my culture and replaced it with their own never sat right with me. The arbitrary nature of the 'good book' and its willingness to lapse into violent fits of death, rape, pillaging, brutal torture and other acts of human barbarity are the hallmarks of text written by man rather than anything approaching divinity.

The prescriptions on what to eat, who to marry/***, declaration of applicable taxes and all the other bureaucratic nonsense further lend themselves to humanity rather than some uber-powerful entity. In the infinite universe created by this being of awesome power and strength, everything stops to remind his messengers that besides physics (which he created) that taxes are the second most powerful force in all creation.

Believe it.

Actually I think this list, while seeming simple, actually isn't. Certainly, -I- think all those things are obvious, but at the same time someone else might have different definitions, and that's where the problem is. Because our morality is entirely influenced by those around us, and the religion around us guides that morality, there really isn't anything that truly transcends all religion. That's why religious struggles are so hard to settle, because each side thinks the other is violating obvious moral actions, and there really isn't a way to reconcile that without forcing a religious conversion.

Who's waging which war again? There are so many phantom wars going on I have no clue who's on what side anymore.

It's not so hard to understand. You might not be very bright.

damn straight!

Inability to understand emotional reasoning does not make you smart. Quite the opposite.

Btw I'm atheist.

The issue with wedding is because at the "origin" it was a religious thing, they should have renamed it when we separated church and state to make a difference between religious union and state/paper/official union pretty sure conservative would have accepted it if the name wasn't he same cause in their head wedding=religious act.

Perhaps you mean that you can't empathize with it? In that case, I can understand that sentiment.

Charity transcends religion. I help you when you're in a jam, you feel good that someone took their time to help you.

Love transcends religion. People meet, form attachments and a mutual understanding of eachother. Bonds that can be fleeting or last a lifetime.

Humor transcends religion. Someone gets caught in the rain, we all laugh at someone elses misery. Then we fetch them a towel so they don't catch cold.

Respect transcends religion. The Golden Rule is literally in every religion on the planet. Do you like being punched in the ***? No? Don't punch others in the ***.

Friendship transcends religion. We like fishing? Cool, lets be friends and go on adventures trying to snag the big one.

Honor transcends religion. Do you protect those who can't protect themselves? Go out of your way to save someone from a fire? Help little old ladies cross the street? Carry water for others?

Do you enjoy pleasant days? The ability to partake in recreation and enjoy the planet for the brief moment we exist on it? You enjoy peace. Now fetch me your cultures traditional snack for pleasant days.

You use emotional reasoning, whether you like it or not. It may be subtle, it may even be unconscious, but you use it. You're not special.

What you are seeing of war in the world today is due to greed, thirst for power and god knows what, only the naive would think it has anything to do with any religion.

If you travel long enough you realize that the normal man wants his right protected and to live in peace.

The only thing that need to be taken down with Bazooka is a post like this.

I don't allow emotions to dictate my life at all either.

However, I understand that emotions can play in the decision process of humans, and that the need to express emotions through decisions is a normal and accepted practice that people make.

Just because one doesn't allow emotions to dictate their decisions doesn't mean that you can ignore it at all. You are not a robot, so stop pretending to be one!

Greed on which side though? If you say only one, then you are deluding yourself.

Religion=/=faith.

Do not worry Refreshazure we noticed you're special, but no in the way you think

Religion is a vehicle to do many things. Following certain "holy" books verbatim can lead to some very aggressive and morally reprehensible actions. Like anything though, it's a matter of use.
Subjective and anecdotal experience.
Discussion is incredibly important. It's people who wish to quell discussion that are probably the most dangerous of all.

Is English your second language? I'm just curious

greed for money. Thought it's obvious. Keep trolling.

We did separate but equal in this country before, it was a *** shitshow. No one religion has dominion over the word married, you're free to turn away people who don't fit your cultures definition of marriage (a conservative christian church should be able to say no if they don't wanna marry you) and gay people getting married doesn't invalidate your Christian/Jew/Muslim/Shinto/Hindu wedding. Worry more about keeping your own marriage off the rocks rather than who's taking the plunge.

There is no 'origin'. Every pack of homo sapiens on this planet have had their individual definitions of marriage and theres room for plenty more. The apocalyptic tone of our monotheisms is a self-serving exercise.

Yeah... no. It has also varied from culture to culture.
Now, if you want to say that Christian weddings have been religious things, then sure, that's true by definition. But weddings are certainly older than Christianity/Islam, and likely Judaism as well.

Boredom is an emotion bro.

I'm unfortunately reminded more of a combination of kooljack and jetakuu.