Why does the rest of the world hate America

[Stopper]

I enjoyed this thread. It should be up here with its partner, Why Does The Rest Of The World Hate Venezuela.

[DirtyDishSoap]

This is to all foriegners and americans who think they know why America is so hated. please only post one reason at a time and i will try to answer them all. this is related to the "does america need a revolution" topic so post accordingly

Bush

enough said

[corner G]

I don't see how almost everyone in america doesn't like their president

[jay_a2j]

This is to all foriegners and americans who think they know why America is so hated. please only post one reason at a time and i will try to answer them all. this is related to the "does america need a revolution" topic so post accordingly

Bush

enough said

Yeah, ok. I think it may be because of the extreme arrogance of many Americans. I never understood why people can be so ethnocentric. A lot of Americans feel that "we" are better then other nations. I think its foolishness myself.

[unriggable]

This is to all foriegners and americans who think they know why America is so hated. please only post one reason at a time and i will try to answer them all. this is related to the "does america need a revolution" topic so post accordingly

Bush

enough said

Yeah, ok. I think it may be because of the extreme arrogance of many Americans. I never understood why people can be so ethnocentric. A lot of Americans feel that "we" are better then other nations. I think its foolishness myself.

Well the US politicians claim to be the world's last superpower, the citizens who say that (note that I don't consider that to be true) stick to that key idea.

[Guiscard]

This is to all foriegners and americans who think they know why America is so hated. please only post one reason at a time and i will try to answer them all. this is related to the "does america need a revolution" topic so post accordingly

Bush

enough said

Yeah, ok. I think it may be because of the extreme arrogance of many Americans. I never understood why people can be so ethnocentric. A lot of Americans feel that "we" are better then other nations. I think its foolishness myself.

Yet you're willing to take that same viewpoint when discussing religion...

[jay_a2j]

This is to all foriegners and americans who think they know why America is so hated. please only post one reason at a time and i will try to answer them all. this is related to the "does america need a revolution" topic so post accordingly

Bush

enough said

Yeah, ok. I think it may be because of the extreme arrogance of many Americans. I never understood why people can be so ethnocentric. A lot of Americans feel that "we" are better then other nations. I think its foolishness myself.

Yet you're willing to take that same viewpoint when discussing religion...

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Not a good comparison as most Christians do not believe that they are "better" then anyone else.

[got tonkaed]

This is to all foriegners and americans who think they know why America is so hated. please only post one reason at a time and i will try to answer them all. this is related to the "does america need a revolution" topic so post accordingly

Bush

enough said

Yeah, ok. I think it may be because of the extreme arrogance of many Americans. I never understood why people can be so ethnocentric. A lot of Americans feel that "we" are better then other nations. I think its foolishness myself.

Yet you're willing to take that same viewpoint when discussing religion...

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Not a good comparison as most Christians do not believe that they are "better" then anyone else.

jay i find it difficult to believe you cannot see where the comparison is drawn....and even if you wish to engage in a technicality there....if you are comparing how people view their religions, i would still argue you (perhaps necesarily so) are rather enthocentric when discussing different faiths.

[Dancing Mustard]

A lot of Americans feel that "we" are better then other nations. I think its foolishness myself.

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Not a good comparison as most Christians do not believe that they are "better" then anyone else.

Oops, looks like you've managed a semantic sleight-of-hand somewhere inbetween those two quotes there Jay. It's not about whether Christians consider themselves better as individuals than other people; but whether christians consider themselves better as a collective (as you seemed to be stating that Americans feel). Y'know, feeling superior as a collective would
include things like believing that they were the only people on the planet who were doing things in the correct fashion, and who knew the 'truth' about every single truth that their sacred text saw fit to comment on...



...just so y'know

[Dmunster]

A big GFY to everyone not blessed to be living in this great nation. From the beating American heart of opulence, corruption and waste that is South Florida!

[b.k. barunt]

More like the throbbing big toe.

[jay_a2j]

I think its time for another lame comparison. You have 5 cars, each one is going to a different US city. One Chicago another Boston another LA another Dallas and the last one NYC. Now the thing is, the drivers of all 5 cars tell you that they are going to NYC. ALL 5! ONLY one of the 5 are actually going to NYC! So you have 5 choices to get to NYC....but only one of the cars is "the way" to NYC. You can try to get to NYC in any of the cars but ONLY one is headed there. Just as it is with the different faiths. They all claim to know the way to God...Jesus is in car #5 (the one actually going to NYC) saying, "Hey! Going to NYC?...hop in!"

[got tonkaed]

I think its time for another lame comparison. You have 5 cars, each one is going to a different US city. One Chicago another Boston another LA another Dallas and the last one NYC. Now the thing is, the drivers of all 5 cars tell you that they are going to NYC. ALL 5! ONLY one of the 5 are actually going to NYC! So you have 5 choices to get to NYC....but only one of the cars is "the way" to NYC. You can try to get to NYC in any of the cars but ONLY one is headed there. Just as it is with the different faiths. They all claim to know the way to God...Jesus is in car #5 (the one actually going to NYC) saying, "Hey! Going to NYC?...hop in!"

Think you meant this for the why are religions fake thread friend

[Dancing Mustard]

I think its time for another lame comparison. You have 5 cars, each one is going to a different US city. One Chicago another Boston another LA another Dallas and the last one NYC. Now the thing is, the drivers of all 5 cars tell you that they are going to NYC. ALL 5! ONLY one of the 5 are actually going to NYC! So you have 5 choices to get to NYC....but only one of the cars is "the way" to NYC. You can try to get to NYC in any of the cars but ONLY one is headed there. Just as it is with the different faiths. They all claim to know the way to God...Jesus is in car #5 (the one actually going to NYC) saying, "Hey! Going to NYC?...hop in!"

Which if you ask me, directly contradicts what they said earlier in this thread...

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Not a good comparison as most Christians do not believe that they are "better" then anyone else

Wouldn't you say?

[jay_a2j]

I think its time for another lame comparison. You have 5 cars, each one is going to a different US city. One Chicago another Boston another LA another Dallas and the last one NYC. Now the thing is, the drivers of all 5 cars tell you that they are going to NYC. ALL 5! ONLY one of the 5 are actually going to NYC! So you have 5 choices to get to NYC....but only one of the cars is "the way" to NYC. You can try to get to NYC in any of the cars but ONLY one is headed there. Just as it is with the different faiths. They all claim to know the way to God...Jesus is in car #5 (the one actually going to NYC) saying, "Hey! Going to NYC?...hop in!"

Which if you ask me, directly contradicts what they said earlier in this thread...

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Not a good comparison as most Christians do not believe that they are "better" then anyone else

Wouldn't you say?

No, we're not better then anyone else. We're just in the right car!

[Dancing Mustard]

But you'd say that's a better position to be in than the wrong car? Right?

[jay_a2j]

But you'd say that's a better position to be in than the wrong car? Right?

Depends.... maybe you prefer "Weeping and gnashing of teeth".

[Dancing Mustard]

What's that supposed to mean precisely?

[got tonkaed]

its a reference to Hell as mentioned in the New Testament....Mustard i find it hard to believe that you think someone who has choosen (at least eticly speaking) a particular religion as their hope for eternal salvation would ever really have a problem beleiving that in making that particular exclusive choice (once it is made) that other religions or other people who do not make that choice are in error.....

it is merely the result of making such a choice (eticly speaking, of course)

[jay_a2j]

its a reference to Hell as mentioned in the New Testament....Mustard i find it hard to believe that you think someone who has choosen (at least eticly speaking) a particular religion as their hope for eternal salvation would ever really have a problem beleiving that in making that particular exclusive choice (once it is made) that other religions or other people who do not make that choice are in error.....

it is merely the result of making such a choice (eticly speaking, of course)

Hmmmm or it could be Jesus saying, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me."

[Dancing Mustard]

Well thank you for the clarification of Jay's somewhat obscure response Tonaked.
See, I don't have a problem in accepting or believing that somebody who puts their faith in a religion would regard all other people making similar yet different choices as being in error. In fact, that's precisely the thing that I'm trying to point out that Jay has done. The point of it is that Jay seems determined to use a rather spurious metaphor in order to evade the fact that by regarding his/her taken choice as superior to all other possible choices, he/she is indeed claiming superiority in one regard to other choice-groups. I.e. Jay has said that Christians have made the only possible valid choice, and as such must be 'better' in some way than other people.

What I was trying to draw out of Jay (and what Jay was trying desperately to avoid admitting) was that Jay does think christians are better than other people, and is in fact being grossly hypocritical stating in one breath that he/she does not think that this is the case, and in the next demonstrating that he/she believes that it is.

Sorry if you didn't think I could grasp so simple a concept, but I think you've misconstrued what I've been trying to do here. Sorry for the confusion.

[heavycola]

I think its time for another lame comparison. You have 5 cars, each one is going to a different US city. One Chicago another Boston another LA another Dallas and the last one NYC. Now the thing is, the drivers of all 5 cars tell you that they are going to NYC. ALL 5! ONLY one of the 5 are actually going to NYC! So you have 5 choices to get to NYC....but only one of the cars is "the way" to NYC. You can try to get to NYC in any of the cars but ONLY one is headed there. Just as it is with the different faiths. They all claim to know the way to God...Jesus is in car #5 (the one actually going to NYC) saying, "Hey! Going to NYC?...hop in!"

Which if you ask me, directly contradicts what they said earlier in this thread...

Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Not a good comparison as most Christians do not believe that they are "better" then anyone else

Wouldn't you say?

No, we're not better then anyone else. We're just in the right car!

Everyone who believes in a god of whatever description: allah, krishna, l. ron hubbard, rael, ra, etc etc believes just as fervently as you do that they are in the right car. So your refusal to recognise this comes across as sliiiightly high-handed; i think that is what the foxtrotting condiment is trying to say

[got tonkaed]

Sorry if you didn't think I could grasp so simple a concept, but I think you've misconstrued what I've been trying to do here. Sorry for the confusion.

sorry i didnt mean to paint you in a wrong light, i was simply perhaps venting a little bit, i dont for a moment believe that you dont understand such a thing and i may agree with you to an extent about some things....i understand and agree with you and heavycola on this issue, and just posted a long paragraph in essence explaining why.

however i have other things to accomplish in this post....i understand that my last post may have offended some, and i hope this helps to better understand my position (from a pm i sent which i think explains things a bit better)

Now for what its worth, there are a lot of things which probably can be discussed about this, and this is the danger of taking something which is emicly understood and looking at it from an outsiders perspective. In a simliar fashion to you, i do believe that religion is (at least when not pursued merely as an intellectual activity) a matter of will. As best as i can understand it (because i dont believe in a God that chooses us) we decide what religion we believe in. Now if an individual chooses to believe that a particular religion is the one particular religion (as many christians will, considering the verse that Jay uses frequently, the way the truth and life verse) is the only way to salvation, then they must (although perhaps on a subconcious level believe that their religion is better than the others. After all, if your goal is to attain salvation, and other religions do not lead you to heaven, then they are not as good in terms of their purpose as religion. I feel that this claim is rather strong, and i dont blame anyone for having such a claim, although it sometimes isnt the most politically correct claim, if you truly believe that your religion is the only way to heaven, you must believe other ways arent, its fairly simple. Of course if you believe there are mulitple ways to heaven, and that Christianity is one of them, then it is a different discussion.

[Stopper]

If I may be so bold as to summarise the above: of course jay thinks he's better than everyone else; what do you expect? He's a friggin' devout Christian!

[got tonkaed]

If I may be so bold as to summarise: of course jay thinks he's better than everyone else; what do you expect? He's a friggin' devout Christian!

coming to bookstores soon....how to take an explanation/apology/clarification post and reopen a can of worms by Stopper.....The title may need some work lol.