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It really is not about young people like Shamima Begum; it is about the virulence of religion; its ability and power to destroy the development and exercise of people's sense of personal responsibility and critical thinking.  And probably even worse than that, is the 'legitimisation' which society has given to religion.  The fact that society has allowed, legally and morally, religious faiths to promulgate and practice their fictitious doctrines, as if they were based in fact.  Have allowed them to perpetrate dangerous and detrimental frauds on people.  The same kind of fraud which is responsible for Shamima and others like her to give herself to ISIL, believing that she was doing something worthwhile for 'her religion' and for 'Allah.'  And, in so doing, completely missing the point that, her, like the focus of all the 'faithful', should not be to be doing this and that for 'her religion and Allah.'  Unless wh

'At a time when mortal humans who was formerly held in high esteem, are being called to account for the wrongs they have done in the past.  Should not the gods of the theistic religions also be called to account for the wrongs they have done to us mortals?'   Believing, as the early Christians did, that it did not matter what became of our earthly human bodies. And that what really matters was and is the 'saving of our souls.' Being the highest assumed representatives of God, the early priests, the Popes, Archbishops, Bishops, the Patriarchs, et al.   Whether they are or were the earthly heads of the Catholics, the Protestants, the Russian, Eastern, Greek, Romanian or other Orthodox Churches.  Were considered to be above 'the laws of man', of human, and therefore not accountable to it.  At least, prior to secularism making great inroads into displacing the dominance of what could, rightly, at the time, be called the 'spiritual paganism&#

' Whatever your religion, if it is a theistic one, then, be not afraid to ask profound questions of your God, and do not interpret silence or the words of any religious interlocutors as an answer.   Unless it be interpreted to mean your God is not hearing you or cannot answer you, for reasons which you probably know the answer to. If only you were courageous and honest enough to acknowledged it to yourself and to others.  A man or woman might become an expert in a particular religion, but  a pious man or religious scholar is no more competent than an ordinary person.  To comment on whether or not such a God/s do exist, since neither can command or successfully invite them to show themselves. In having been spared the everlasting torture and boredom to which you have subjected me, in imagining and conceiving me as an entity that lives forever. T.: So, L.G.! It is as simple as that; there is no divine, god-ordained purpose to or for the existence of us humans

In the case of Shamima Begum, she did not go to Syria to find herself a husband, but to become a part of what she probably thought was a 'great religious movement.'  Now, when we put on our objective prism, the thought of a teenager giving up all the prospects that the 'relative freedom and independence of the western way of life', has to offer.   To return to and embrace the oppressive past, and the fairy tale promises which is what religions of all kinds are about. That leaves us feeling incredulous.  However, if we allow ourselves to understand that this is, in fact, the  'real world'  in which many Muslims live their daily lives.   Then we might begin to understand the attraction; the ease with which they might be seduced, 'indoctrinated' and radicalised into not only perceiving it as being 'normal', but also desirable.  For them, they are only being 'faithful to the Quran, to Allah.' It is about 'fana

And despite the fact that Shamima's appearance during her interview with the reporter, is not one of arrogance, but of, in my interpretation, self-effacement and the projection of a certain sense of resignation, of humility.  The organization which she has joined, bear no comparison to the current version of the Christianity which was to appropriate the both the Child Christ and his mother, as rocks on which to build their faith.  Several centuries ago, their would have been a similarity between the brutality of the then Islamic Caliphate, when humans were in the age of darkness and brutality, but not now.   Not in the 21st Century, when the Age of Reason, of Enlightenment, has wrested the fate of humans from the destructive, cruel and suffocating hands of religion.  At least, in probably most of the world. When humans are more able to breathe again, to think and use their/our intellect, and no longer fear the voyeuristic gods and their cruel and misgui

Declaring it to be the 'holy will of the British people', which must be achieved; whatever the cost.  Even if that means, like the latter-day 'Islamic Caliphate', it coming into existence, but only to be incinerated, like some Icarusian feat.  The realisation of a perceived and longed for achievement, but on which results in such a high cost that it sours the taste of 'victory.'  Like one who becomes greatly enticed with the exotic smell of a meal, only to lose their appetite by the time the meal is ready. And now, is the people of Britain, and, indeed, the European Union, confronted with a most complex and grave dilemma.  With the United Kingdom having taken the decision to 'make good on the 'holy writ' of their electorate', by throwing themselves into the torrent of the unknown.  And finding it just as difficult to 'return to the known of the EU', as it seems to be for them to continue to paddle and feel their wa

The logic of your argument does not escape me. And I can imagine that you were going to say, 'no God ordained plan within which to fit humans and decree some sacred purpose for their/your existence.' Or something similar to that. T.: I could not, as us humans do tend to say, L.G., put it better. It is as if you were reading my thoughts. L.G.: Really, T? You are not suggesting that I am upto my purported old tricks again, indulging in a bit of voyeurism; are you, T? T.: Not really, L.G. After all, it is probably not at all surprising that you should seem to be able to 'read my thoughts.'   Considering that, as another old saying of us humans noted, 'God in all of us', probably because each of us is our own God.  Just as how each of us must find our own purpose for continuing to live, while we are alive. Even if it is only our fear of dying. L.G.: Yes, it really is as localise and seemingly mundane, probably even as simple as that, T.

If humans are able to accept that they/we are the product of a still on-going process of evolution.   Then we should also be able to accept the reality of there not being any predetermined purpose to our existence Nothing beyond that which we have given it, during our lifetime. T.: Are you saying that that is how humans and other life forms came into existence, L.G? That we are more likely to have evolved than to have been 'created'? L.G.: Well, what do you think, T, when you put on your logic and scientific cap and view things through your experiential and scientific prism? T.: Just this, L.G. That whether us humans like it or not, we are expendable, and we only have one life; that which we live on the Earth.  That, once we die, that is it; nothing beyond that for any of us who have die. At least, not within the context of ergosumness.  But also that, probably even more importantly, there is no good reason why it should be otherwise, as there is

'When us humans, irrespective of our increasing knowledge and enlightenment, uncritically allow the rituals and fictitious beliefs of our ancestors to to be our guide in the present and the future. Then, we become slaves to the past, and an obstacle to the evolutionary and philosophical progression of our species.' She whom the Christian God has reportedly chosen as the mother of his Son, Jesus Christ.  A woman's whose virtue apparently is beyond repute, despite the 'fact' that she gave birth to God's Son.  Having done so while she was Joseph's wife, and still does not apparently pose any dilemmas, moral, logic or otherwise, for the Christian Church.  Arguably, Mary is the symbolic 'mother of the Christian Church. Mary is a woman of great substance and elevation in the annals of Christianity, as well as being venerated by the Islamic religion. And what of the young mother of the infant covered in swaddling clothes; how does sh

It does seem to me that they share the same kind of dogma which has driven the Islamists' in their attempt to setup and maintain their now vanquished 'Islamic Caliphate.' The 'Caliphate' was willing to have their 'state' at any price.  Whether that price had to be paid by their members, or anybody and everybody who did not share their vision, or was not willing to be vaccinated by their malignant religious virus.  They allowed dogma to rule over logic and rationality. They became oblivious, blinded to the human cost of them maintaining and expanding their 'Caliphate.'  Doubtlessly, as they choose to see it, to the greater glory of Allah. Which means that, instead of having a God who protects humans, they had one who destroys humans. As they chose to replace sentient humans with 'Islamic clones', all being of the same religious and world view, and undifferentiated appearance.  The kind of state which would a living death