Are we moving backwards?

Not sure about this Luckygirl. But I cried when I saw on the news that the Taliban are going door to door in areas they have captured. Looking for girls and women between 12 to 45 years old to keep for their fighters. Those girls and women have no chance in their evil clutches.

I’m not sure that the whole world is going backwards, but there seem to be examples of it. The Taliban being one example, I don’t care if anyone objects, but I think they’re savages.

That is truly evil.

What is truly evil FarNorth? That I said the Taliban are savages?

Or did you mean about them going door to door?

Or the anti-vaxers

I meant what the Taliban are doing.

I agree maddyone . I saw an interview with one of the Taliban commanders last night when he talked about stoning for adultery and only allowing girls to be educated until they are 12 years old. Sharia law is evil.

I worked with a male colleague a few years ago who was from a similar/sympathetic school of thought to the Taliban. He seriously believed that I was an abomination and should be killed by having a stone wall pushed on to me or stoned to death because I was a lesbian and in a relationship. This was in the UK.

The Taliban is evil. They have no respect for women and kill indiscriminately.
I don't think we have gone backwards there have always been people like them.

I don't think we've necessarily gone backwards Luckygirl but I think we're not moving forwards at the rate we might expect. People will still believe their feelings and opinions before they actually believe scientific fact. Look at climate change.

We saw the Taliban commander on the news last night talking about stoning, and education for girls up to the age of 12 only; I said to DH, they're just medieval, and they are.

Then interview with the Americans as well, when the pastor said less than 1% of his huge congregation were vaccinated, I almost fell off the sofa.

Gwyneth

I agree maddyone . I saw an interview with one of the Taliban commanders last night when he talked about stoning for adultery and only allowing girls to be educated until they are 12 years old. Sharia law is evil.

Sharia law is not ‘evil’ in itself. It is a legal system like any other, with things we may find positive and things that we may find unacceptable. I agree that the Taliban’s interpretation and application of Sharia is evil, however.

I was struck by the similarity between the two news items in that both are about crude and primitive interpretations of religious texts from thousands of years ago.

I was pondering what it is that attracts people towards this.

I found it rather depressing pondering, as it seems to me that behind this is a desire for control at all costs, regardless of the fact that this results in deaths.

Is this simply a natural instinct (especially in men?) that no amount of human progress can damp down? Is humankind doomed to stay in the dark ages however much progress is made?

Since 2000 there have been many human rights violations that do suggest we are at the very least standing still if not going backwards. I’ve been trawling the net and it makes for very sober reading.

1. Uganda - as many as 20000 children are trained as slave soldiers (boys) or sex slaves (girls)

2. Australia still has in law that underaged disabled girls can be sterilised without consent.

3. Afghanistan - amongst other atrocities such as stoning to death, whipping and violence against women, their human rights to move freely, education and socialise with the opposite sex is completely removed. Forced vaginal examinations take place if their “morality” is under question.

4.Uganda - life in prison for homosexual men.

5. Modern sex trafficking is an enormous problem throughout the world, further enabled by the gender inequality seen as acceptable in many countries and cultures.

6. Taliban in Afghanistan - have run vast concentration camps, enslave women, extermination of the Hazara minority. Will introduce Sharia law once again when they have completely retaken Afghanistan.

7. Chinese repression of over 1000000 Uyghurs. Forced “re-education” in camps.

The list goes on and on.

So yes I do think that the world is certainly not progressing and in many cases going backwards.

This is also a huge issue

FarNorth thank you for your clarification.

Alegrias1

I don't think we've necessarily gone backwards Luckygirl but I think we're not moving forwards at the rate we might expect. People will still believe their feelings and opinions before they actually believe scientific fact. Look at climate change.

We saw the Taliban commander on the news last night talking about stoning, and education for girls up to the age of 12 only; I said to DH, they're just medieval, and they are.

Then interview with the Americans as well, when the pastor said less than 1% of his huge congregation were vaccinated, I almost fell off the sofa.

Me too Alegrias.

Yes, the Taliban is medieval without doubt.

I also saw the interview on television about the lack of vaccination in America and in the Christian community there. It is indeed mind boggling. Just one question, why?

‘We’ can’t even protect these abused women in our own country.

www.haloproject.org.uk/honour-based-violence-W21page-3

We can look closer to home for regressions too, Hungary for example. Though I think our own country has issues with how democracy is applied

maddyone, I did feel for you that you thought the evil comment was about you, you poor thing!

Biden pulled the US troops out. It was only ‘force’ that maintained law and order in so far as it could be maintained. There are many examples of what the op calls primitive religions whose values we may feel are unacceptable on scientific and humanitarian grounds. There are, however, still good people out there and we should not lose track of that.

Yes - lots of good people of all religions and none. But it is the primitive aspects of these religions that are being latched on to as a way of living, and I find that very scary. It is almost as if they are deliberately wanting to turn the clock back. Modern western culture is imperfect, but at least there is an underlying bedrock of humanity. Why are there groups that want to wipe this out and force a reversion to primitivism.

Is there no age of reason, or is this where we will always finish up?

I try to understand and accept what people believe but have never understood why the Taliban (amongst others) is against the education of girls and women - perhaps they think woman have higher intelligence and allowing them to be educated would be a threat to male dominance allowing the continuance of such atrocities as enslaving and raping women and girls.

As for those who claim religious objection to vaccines - I seem to recall when someone was faced with this objection asked who they thought had given the scientists the intelligence and ability to create the vaccine!

the Taliban are against the education of women just like the Catholic church used to be; that way you keep society controlled. Amongst the many things that anger me about the Taliban and other such medieval religions is that they, the man, are happy to accept modern technology such as motor vehicles, arms, mobile phones, modern medical advances to save their 'soldiers' from battle field wounds which would have killed them in past times. I just cannot begin to imagine how Afghan families with daughters must feel right now. Then people wonder how the people traffickers find their customers. As for the USA fundamentalists, preaching what they preach while living in a modern society, they disgust me.

geekesse what are the positives of Sharia law?