Who said this?

It strikes me as something from some of the more virulent and intolerant strains or Christianity, but I'm interested in knowing who said it.

I've now read the link and I wish I hadn't. Obviously, this guy's got a bug up his ass about people not believing the same thing as him.

But what struck me was his equation that rejection of his version of monotheism is somehow the same as moral relativism. The idea that one has to subscribe to a single god, specifically the Judeo-Christian notion of god, or one can't have any moral ideals is one of my pet peeves. One doesn't need God or Buddah or Allah or whatever conception of some diety that people come up with to arrive at set of fairly universal moral standards.

Of course, doing so without consulting his particular religious dogma in this case may mean that I'll disagree with his choices in some of those matters, or more likely, I'll disagree with the scope of his moral choices (I tend to stick to a very small set of moral "rules" and leave people to do what they want provided they don't hurt others). But, of course, disagreement is heresy!

Oh well, this is just one more little mark in my book of reasons why I can't stand organized religion...

I can't find the link, but I probably shouldn't read it anyway.

Stupid argument. This is not a war between Islam and Christianity. It's a war between Islam and everyone else. And anyway ... what's the point of saying it? "Oh! I see! Well, I want to win this one, so I'll just change my religious faith and my entire conception of the world and how it works. Mmmm, shiny thing. I wonder what I'll buy at Starbuck's today?"

Definitely a buffoon. I am not a pagan, but I have always liked those novels about Jesus as a mystery religion teacher who was born Jewish. They make very entertaining reading, not to mention that the Gospel of John sounds more neo-platonist than modern Xian, and is one of the best books of the new testament. I agree with the tenor of the comments here that this guy is nuts, but I do think he may be slightly less dangerous than OBL.

I can't stand organized religion either; it's why I picked a disorganized one.

Really, though, what gets me the most about this is the whole conception of morality as requiring attachment to some god. Technically, Christians, Jews and Moslems worship the same god. A Christian could not deny the god of the Moslems without denying the god of the Jews, and thus their own god. Both Christians and Moslems explicitly say that their god is the god of Abraham.

Given this, how can one say that morality is only valid if attached to a particular god, but then go on to deny other moral codes attached to the same god?

I think Christianity has one of the best moral codes extant (in theory, too frequently not in practice): love thy neighbor as thyself. I prefer the Wiccan moral code: an it harm none, do what thou wilt. (It removes the sociopaths from absolution.) But in general, such a moral code is a response to the problem of people living together in (hoped-for) tranquility, rather than a characteristic of one's mode of worship of the Divine.

This issue also relates to teh "Holy Sites"(TM) of Islam. Both Islam and Christianinty have made a practice of placing their religious sites on the location of sites of religions they were trying to displace - many examples in England and Mexico for Chrsitianity, the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque in India on the site of the earlier temple to Ram, being examples for Islam.

I would claim that there are only two ways for religions to coexist:
1. By putting society/government first and protecting all religions - anathema to Islam asfar as I can tell.
2. Adopting a syncretist approach, as Hinduism and the Greek and Roman pagans did: just coopt the god by bringing him/her into your pantheon. - also anathema to Islam.

Conclusion: Islam is f**cked, and at least some Mulsims know it and are resisting.

Counterpoint: Shi'ites generally believe that government cannot be GOOD until the hidden imam returns, which make most of them keep away from politics. The Iranian brand due to Khomeini is rather exceptional in this regard.