The three young girls who have purportedly fled to Syria

50 miles soontobe! You must have nerves of steel!

In general, no.
If it was advancing, and got to within about 50 miles of me personally, that would probably be enough to frighten me.

Soon - do YOU not find religious mania frightening?!

I only ignored it Mishap because I have seen you say it before on other threads, so thought I wouldnt comment this time.

I agree that human-imposed trappings have indeed led lots of religion in general astray.

Scientists are as imperfect as any human being, but their training is to apply their minds to find the best answer they can, and to document all the moves they make in finding that answer so that they can be reproduced by someone confirming the findings - or not, as often happens.

Discredited research is research that could not be replicated. Usually it means that there is some detail that has been missed, or the research was not rigorous enough. Subsequent investigations reveal this, and other scientists learn from the mistakes.

Experts even do research into the Bible, and have done for centuries. They know when and where many things were written, what was going in historically at the time, who the characters were who are mentioned. The Bible is a document, and has characteristics that can be studied.

Neither god nor science have all the answers and that is probably why some people cling on to their superstitions because they regard them as being fundamental truths, and nothing can either prove or disprove them. Faith simply is, and it cannot be disputed or challenged.

Science sometimes gets it wrong, as do religions. At least science takes a hard look at itself and acknowledges subsequent advances and new discoveries.

Luckily most people with a religious belief also have doubts and questions and are tolerant of other beliefs. It is those who do not that we need to fear, and they appear to be on the increase.

I notice soon that my fundamental point about kindness was ignored! It is the basis of all religions and prophets' pronouncements, but the human-imposed trappings are what has led religion astray.

But also Elegran, sometimes eg a piece of work that was done in say 1950 can become partly discredited. Which is not merely an add on, but some take aways as well.

Yes I believe that God has all the answers.

I think I have been slow to realise that those that dont believe in God at all, are finding religious mania, as you call it, frightening.

Science is looking for the bits where what is already know doesn't add up, and working to find out what fills those gaps. That is what causes the changes in the latest scientific knowledge - addition.

So the "latest" was once (for instance) that the sun and stars circled the earth on the inside of a hollow sphere of the sky. We now know a lot more about the movement of the stars, and that our magnificent sun is only another star, not a very significant one at that. We trust that new knowledge because we can read the accounts of how it was all acquired, and redo the experiments that revealed it.

We can't go back to a state of non-knowledge. We hold on to the results of their work.

soon I will take that in the cheeky way it was meant. You surely do not believe that god has all the answers? Really? Bit tricky for those of us who don't even believe in a god and are frightened of where religious mania is leading the world, whether it be ISIS or the terrifying fundamentalist christians.

A quick cheeky answer Mishap, could be that science never has all the answers. And is quite happy to be proved wrong the following week. So people cannot hold on to science.
Whereas God is a rock.

End of Days and Rapture - heavens above, no wonder we are in such a state!

Could this be fear of science that leads people to believe and cling onto this utter nonsense? What is it about reason and rationality that pushes people in the direction of these primitive beliefs? It seems that the more we understand about how the world operates, the more people are drawn towards primitive superstition.

It is tragic that intelligent scientists have striven for hundreds of years to rid us of this stuff and yet here we are, heading back to square one.

Perhaps they feel that science and reason have failed because they have not yet come up with all the answers, so they are hedging their bets and clinging on to illusions.

It is all incomprehensible to me - and so very very dangerous.

Kindness, for goodness sake, is all that matters; and the best we can hope for.

You could be right absent. I didnt know that until you posted it, so I googled.

I am not sure if they are right or not, as in whether it is a prerequisite or not, but for what it is worth, and personally, I dont think that the End of Days is coming anytime soon.
The timing of it is down to Jesus. I never envisaged the historical boundaries being forced though.

The End of Days and Rapture thing that so obsesses extreme Evangelist Christian cults in the US is the reason they are so supportive of Israel. It's not because they have any understanding about the Palestine/Israel political situation or give two figs about Jews, but because they believe that until Israel's historical boundaries [sic] are restored, the End of Days and Rapture cannot take place. This might be seen as fairly harmless, if wilful stupidity, but with the long-standing consensus on Israel between Republicans and Democrats beginning to to break down, particularly in the light of Mr Netanyahu's forthcoming visit to the USA, it is very likely to have a serious effect on the approaching presidential election – and the outcome of that will affect virtually everyone in the world.

The subject of discussion is extremists, not the mainstream.Try googling End of Days and different religions.

That is not what the bible says. So christians and Jews dont believe anything near that. I am not sure where and what you have been reading.

I have been reading about the many religious groups,including IS ,that believe we are heading for the End of Days. IS believes that the Mahdi-saviour - will come to the area they have seized and that they are fighting for good against evil in the battles that will rage all over the earth till the Mahdi comes. It astonished me to read that Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu,Buddhist, Zoarastrian and other religions believe close versions that this will happen. Apparently more than 60 young British women have gone to Syria to be on the side of good against evil leading to the End of Days.

Does anyone else have FreeSat. There was an old Western movie on earlier today. It was about a young girl from a religious community who fell in love with the bad guy and went to join him. Who would have thunk it all those years ago.

I agree, Mishap. The family did not seem sincere to me either. Scotland Yard officer stated some months ago on BBC that family and friends are very likely to know what is being planned. If it is a cultural thing, surely the authorities are breaching Human Rights in stopping them from joining their kin in other countries. These girls are portrayed as academics. They surely then know how to work out right from wrong. Still. They can always come back here and continue their education or whatever. They would get great assistance to re-integrate into the community. Off on another subject. Has anyone read "Agent Storm"? Worth reading if you want to follow how the caliphate operates. And I am not an academic either.

These fifteen year old girls have made an educated decision , yet we have recently had men going to jail for sexual abuse on sixteen and seventeen year old vulnerable ! girls who chose to have sex in the hope of finding work as Models or getting on telly

Of course they know it's wrong loopylou. They will have undoubtedly seen the news reports and the harrowing videos of innocent people being burned alive and having their heads chopped off like something in some sick horror film. They know what kind of people ISIS are and what they stand for. Despite what some others might think. We are after all, each entitled to our own opinion and mine happens to be that if they so desperately want to be with these evil monsters then we are better off without them on our streets. These are not "innocent,naive" young women. These are clever and well educated young women who have made an educated decision, which must have taken quite a bit of plotting and planning too.

Exactly jingle. The young followers of Hitler had no idea until it was too late. These girls have seen it with their own eyes !

Listening to the news this morning it's just occurred to me that surely these girls know that murder is wrong regardless of being innocent, naive etc? It's in the Koran so that's no excuse either for joining the jihadists. 'Grooming'? Perhaps so, but still no excuse.

Update the list, I forgot Syria, which they have bombed two sides.

While I feel disgust at the jihardists and their fifteenth century ideals. The US has bombed thirty three countries since the Second World War. They have moved borders and overthrown democratically elected governments. I remember when we joined in the War on Terror thinking we will pay for this. Well we certainly are paying for this, but we live in peaceful countries, not like those who are now being terrorised by IS. Imagine your seven year old GD being sent into a market place with a bomb strapped to her. Finding out your son was beheaded or put in a cage and burnt alive. I can't imagine the grief these families are experiencing. I can imagine the absolute hatred some of these people who have illegal wars brought upon their countries have for the west.

The US (with our help) has caused the deaths of approximately 20 to 30 million people since World War Two. Who would have thought that many people would lose their lives after the end of the war.

The young followers of Hitler did not know how evil he was. Or what crimes would be perpetrated. These girls knew and were therefore complicit.