Please read what Rahvin wrote (bolds inserted by me):
Rahvin writes:
Education, a lack of meaningful successes, tyrannical theocratic laws, and simple attrition are already weakening Islamic extremism in
Iraq, where recent reports have suggested the youth
of Iraq are turning away from Islam entirely due to the violence the extremists bring - and I don't just mean IEDs.
Among those who do not have to live every day with the consequences of militant Islam, that theology may be spreading. But among those who know all too well what it has wrought for them and their families, it is losing popularity.
Your two scenarios of Muslims hell-bound to convert all the world to Islam and of Christians hell-bound to convert all the world to Christianity are identical in that they are two
self-fulfilling prophesies of destruction. The first time that Bush was "elected" our RPC (RPs are chaplains' aides) asked me a question regarding what bearing Bush's religious beliefs should have and I replied that in general they should not, but if those beliefs include any role the US would have in stearing the world to the End Times and Armageddon, then the prospect that he would turn those beliefs into self-fulfilling prophesy was something that I found very frightening. I had specifically referred to his "having his finger on the button", but instead he has succeeded in doing much more damage.
The alternative is for reason to prevail. But judging from teen4christ's remarks (based on his own religious upbringing) about the inability of fervently religious to even perceive reality), it does appear that we are doomed to destruction. Not because those prophesies have any real merit, but rather because there are so many believers zealously working to fulfill them.
{When you search for God, y}ou can't go to the people who believe already. They've made up their minds and want to convince you of their own personal heresy.("The Jehovah Contract", AKA "Der Jehova-Vertrag", by Viktor Koman, 1984)
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world. (from filk song "Word of God" by Dr. Catherine Faber,
No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.echoschildren.org/CDlyrics/WORDGOD.HTML)
Of course, if Dr. Mortimer's surmise should be correct and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws of Nature, there is an end of our investigation. But we are bound to exhaust all other hypotheses before falling back upon this one.(Sherlock Holmes in
The Hound of the Baskervilles)
Gentry's case depends upon his halos remaining a mystery. Once a naturalistic explanation is discovered, his claim of a supernatural origin is washed up. So he will not give aid or support to suggestions that might resolve the mystery. Science works toward an increase in knowledge; creationism depends upon a lack of it. Science promotes the open-ended search; creationism supports giving up and looking no further. It is clear which method Gentry advocates.("Gentry's Tiny Mystery -- Unsupported by Geology" by J. Richard Wakefield,
Creation/Evolution Issue XXII, Winter 1987-1988, pp 31-32)
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