smiting infidels

neutrino_cannon · 8th March 2003, 10:27 PM

Given the chance, if you owned a large, reasonably powerful theocracy (military on par with, let's say sweden) what would you do to religious dissidents.

This is the internet, you can say what you please, no need to be polite or restrained.

(I would make this a poll, but I don't know how)

8th March 2003, 10:53 PM

I don't believe a theocracy is the best means of governing. If I ended up "in charge" of one, I'd have to immediately institute reforms. Who wants to live in the dark ages and actively work to bring them back? Oh yeah, religious fundies.

neutrino_cannon · 8th March 2003, 11:10 PM

/sarcasm tool/ Oh, so I'm the only one here who wants to instate an oppresive government that clinches down on personal freedoms through use of religion /sarcasm tool off/

I'm sure theres others as moral as you evildave. Me? I'm pretty sure I could get myself to do the right thing, whatever I define that to be.

Yahzi · 8th March 2003, 11:17 PM

Quote:

what would you do to religious dissidents.

Serve them on toast, with jam.

If I ran a theocracy, I think I'd be more tempted to torment the faithful, to see just how much they would put up with before common sense asserted itself.

PixyMisa · 9th March 2003, 02:24 AM

If I owned a theocracy, I'd smuggle dissidents out of the country for their own safety, and then work with them on a long-term plan to deprogram my population of zombies.

fishbob · 9th March 2003, 04:06 AM

If I owned a theocracy . . . I would be the King right?

I would give each of the dissidents a bullhorn and a license to use it - kinda like 007. The dissidents would get special secret training in how to yell real loud and change bullhorn batteries. Then they would be instructed to travel throughout my theocracy and watch for wacka-wacka behaviour. When wacka behaviour is observed, the dissidents are to surround and blast the wacker with the following message: DON'T BE SO STUPID.

It's good to be King.

9th March 2003, 07:40 AM

This thread has kinda lost me. Can someone tell me what a theocracy is and what dissident means?

justsaygnosis · 9th March 2003, 07:51 AM

In a theocracy the line between politics and religion would be non-existent.
Dissident becomes a pretty generic term in that circumstance due to the fact that a disagreement toward politics is affecting the symbiosis of religion and vice versa.
I'd sieze the country's wealth and vanish somewhere with a new identity.

9th March 2003, 08:16 AM

Or to put it more simply, the powers that be place "God" in charge, and then say that anyone who disagrees with their permanent martial law, horrible record of human rights abuses and generally poor government are "evil". AKA, "in league with the devil", or other such nonsense.

It's pathetic that people actually buy into it, but I guess when you're given power and absolutely no responsibility (i.e. "God wants it this way, so live with it! (Or we'll make an example of you as a heretic.)"), some people just want to get in on the good deal and run amok.

Salad Monkey · 9th March 2003, 12:41 PM

I would wake up one morning and announce to my loyal subjects that God had told me to have sex with as many hot, young women as possible. Not only that, but the quickest, surest way for a hot, young woman to gain salvation is by having sex with me. I would have a group of gay men travel the country scouting for suitable females. These girls will be sent to regional spas where they will get into peak physical shape, given make-overs, and removed of excess body hair. They will be sent to me or I will go to them in my Love Bus. The Love Bus will be previously have been a touring bus used by The Rolling Stones, refitted to my random specifications.

Females that make the cut will be celebrated, their families will be ecstatic. People that don't get with the program will be dealt with harshly.

Underemployed · 9th March 2003, 01:15 PM

Mmm, Salad Monkey has done the evil dictator thing before. Need a Grand Vizier, Monkey?

Rose · 9th March 2003, 01:23 PM

If I am running a theocracy, then I'd make sure my dissidents were taken in, brainwashed, and put up on television to confess the error of their ways(which would involve animal and human sacrifices to the Evil one, rampant sexual acts across species lines, and not calling mum and dad once a week once moving out of the home). Then the reformed dissidents would be moved into special villages where they would enjoy no privacy and their every action monitored for backsliding. Then their "treatments" would either be repeated, or they'd end up as soylant green.

Behind the scenes, however, I would have the dissidents being "processed" evaluated. Those that show promise would be spared the conditioning process and trained up to my priesthood. I would make damn sure no "true believers" ever reached any position of power in my country. And if I have the means(since this is all theoretical) I'd make sure that those not suitable for priesthood, but who it would be a waste to condition, "escaped" to a neighboring country where they would be free to do what they wish. Start a new life, or plot to overthrow my regime. One needs boogeymen to scare your population with, after all.

8th March 2003, 10:27 PM	#1
neutrino_cannon Master Poster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Seventh circle of limbo Posts: 2,571	smiting infidels Given the chance, if you owned a large, reasonably powerful theocracy (military on par with, let's say sweden) what would you do to religious dissidents. This is the internet, you can say what you please, no need to be polite or restrained. (I would make this a poll, but I don't know how)
	__________________ "Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to the visible objects which interested him, he had employed, to perfect his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his education, one half-the efforts he has put into his researches on the Divinity" -Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

8th March 2003, 10:53 PM	#2
evildave Guest Posts: n/a	I don't believe a theocracy is the best means of governing. If I ended up "in charge" of one, I'd have to immediately institute reforms. Who wants to live in the dark ages and actively work to bring them back? Oh yeah, religious fundies.
evildave Guest Posts: n/a

8th March 2003, 11:10 PM	#3
neutrino_cannon Master Poster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Seventh circle of limbo Posts: 2,571	/sarcasm tool/ Oh, so I'm the only one here who wants to instate an oppresive government that clinches down on personal freedoms through use of religion /sarcasm tool off/ I'm sure theres others as moral as you evildave. Me? I'm pretty sure I could get myself to do the right thing, whatever I define that to be.
	__________________ "Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to the visible objects which interested him, he had employed, to perfect his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his education, one half-the efforts he has put into his researches on the Divinity" -Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

8th March 2003, 11:17 PM	#4
Yahzi Master Poster Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: AZ Posts: 2,672	Quote: what would you do to religious dissidents. Serve them on toast, with jam. If I ran a theocracy, I think I'd be more tempted to torment the faithful, to see just how much they would put up with before common sense asserted itself.
	__________________ ID lives in a cardboard refrigerator box and throws rocks through the windows of evolution's unfinished mansion. ---Beleth Buy my book! www.WorldOfPrime.com

9th March 2003, 02:24 AM	#5
PixyMisa Persnickety Insect Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Sunny Munuvia Posts: 14,913	If I owned a theocracy, I'd smuggle dissidents out of the country for their own safety, and then work with them on a long-term plan to deprogram my population of zombies.
	__________________ Free blogs for skeptics... And everyone else. mee.nu What, in the Holy Name of Gzortch, are you people doing?!?!!? - TGHO

9th March 2003, 04:06 AM	#6
fishbob Seasonally Disaffected Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chilly Undieville Posts: 5,667	If I owned a theocracy . . . I would be the King right? I would give each of the dissidents a bullhorn and a license to use it - kinda like 007. The dissidents would get special secret training in how to yell real loud and change bullhorn batteries. Then they would be instructed to travel throughout my theocracy and watch for wacka-wacka behaviour. When wacka behaviour is observed, the dissidents are to surround and blast the wacker with the following message: DON'T BE SO STUPID. It's good to be King.
	__________________ When you believe in things you don't understand, then you suffer . . . " - Stevie Wonder "Stupidity - a callow indifference to facts or data" - Stuart Firestein -neuroscientist. I hate bigots.

9th March 2003, 07:40 AM	#7
J3K Guest Posts: n/a	This thread has kinda lost me. Can someone tell me what a theocracy is and what dissident means?
J3K Guest Posts: n/a

9th March 2003, 07:51 AM	#8
justsaygnosis Critical Thinker Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 263	In a theocracy the line between politics and religion would be non-existent. Dissident becomes a pretty generic term in that circumstance due to the fact that a disagreement toward politics is affecting the symbiosis of religion and vice versa. I'd sieze the country's wealth and vanish somewhere with a new identity.
	__________________ I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken. I've been wrong lots of times. 'One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike - and yet it is the most precious thing we have.' Albert Einstein

9th March 2003, 08:16 AM	#9
evildave Guest Posts: n/a	Or to put it more simply, the powers that be place "God" in charge, and then say that anyone who disagrees with their permanent martial law, horrible record of human rights abuses and generally poor government are "evil". AKA, "in league with the devil", or other such nonsense. It's pathetic that people actually buy into it, but I guess when you're given power and absolutely no responsibility (i.e. "God wants it this way, so live with it! (Or we'll make an example of you as a heretic.)"), some people just want to get in on the good deal and run amok.
evildave Guest Posts: n/a

9th March 2003, 12:41 PM	#10
Salad Monkey New Blood Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 10	I would I would wake up one morning and announce to my loyal subjects that God had told me to have sex with as many hot, young women as possible. Not only that, but the quickest, surest way for a hot, young woman to gain salvation is by having sex with me. I would have a group of gay men travel the country scouting for suitable females. These girls will be sent to regional spas where they will get into peak physical shape, given make-overs, and removed of excess body hair. They will be sent to me or I will go to them in my Love Bus. The Love Bus will be previously have been a touring bus used by The Rolling Stones, refitted to my random specifications. Females that make the cut will be celebrated, their families will be ecstatic. People that don't get with the program will be dealt with harshly.
Salad Monkey New Blood Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 10

9th March 2003, 01:15 PM	#11
Underemployed Muse Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 764	Mmm, Salad Monkey has done the evil dictator thing before. Need a Grand Vizier, Monkey?
Underemployed Muse Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 764	__________________ There is no punchy, conclusive final sentence for this post.

9th March 2003, 01:23 PM	#12
Rose Thinker Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 154	If I am running a theocracy, then I'd make sure my dissidents were taken in, brainwashed, and put up on television to confess the error of their ways(which would involve animal and human sacrifices to the Evil one, rampant sexual acts across species lines, and not calling mum and dad once a week once moving out of the home). Then the reformed dissidents would be moved into special villages where they would enjoy no privacy and their every action monitored for backsliding. Then their "treatments" would either be repeated, or they'd end up as soylant green. Behind the scenes, however, I would have the dissidents being "processed" evaluated. Those that show promise would be spared the conditioning process and trained up to my priesthood. I would make damn sure no "true believers" ever reached any position of power in my country. And if I have the means(since this is all theoretical) I'd make sure that those not suitable for priesthood, but who it would be a waste to condition, "escaped" to a neighboring country where they would be free to do what they wish. Start a new life, or plot to overthrow my regime. One needs boogeymen to scare your population with, after all.
Rose Thinker Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 154