A Religion Without Tolerance is No Religion at All

By Chad Stroh

What do you think about when you hear the word terrorist? A lot of people probably think of the middle east and the Muslim religion. It's incredible how a few fundamentalists and radicals can make a whole religion look bad in the eyes of people across the world. I know this is true because of my own thoughts and stereo types. I started to think differently when I heard a story about a Sikh man who was shot and killed in a subway after9/11. He was killed because he was wearing a turban on his head.Turbans are worn primarily by Sikhs who are neither Muslim or Arab and have nothing to do with Muslim Fundamentalism. If the man who shot him would have studied geography a bit more, he wouldn't of killed an innocent man. Today more than ever, we need to sit down and study the physchology of people today.The world is in a tender moment. Every country is power hungry based on fear of larger countries. North Korea is testing Nuclear weapons, even though majority of North Korean people just want to live safe. The world becomes like this when two or three major leaders change the role of their country in the world. South Korean farmers are burning American Flags because of our trade policies. Because of a bad trade policy, thousands of South Korean people automatically hate me because I am American. The world is a mine field and we learned that on september 11th. Everyone obviously knows that war is a bad thing, but I think it is necessary to fight terrorism. Many Muslim Fundamentalist's literally devote their whole life to bring down western society. They have taken the Muslim religion and reconfigured it without tolerance. They have minimilized it to a very close minded ethnic religion. I believe that any religion that is not open to every person of any race is not a religion of all. This usually happens when people fail to understand their own personal beliefs when they are trying to find meaning in the world. This is the same for people. Any person who is not open minded to the world and other people has trapped themselves within their own body. Muslim Fundamentalists have trapped themselves in their own religion. I think to understand Muslim terrorism, we must understand that even though Muslim Fundamentalist have their roots in the Muslim religion, millions of Muslims do not think like that. Christianity is popular because it is a universal religion that accepts everyone, but not everyone thinks this way. The Ku Klux Klan are radical Christians who find text in the Bible and blow them out of proportion and use it to hate people that are not caucasian. I am a Christian caucasian and I do not think that way. My advice to people learning religion is to first read texts like the Quran and the Bible to fully understand it before practicing it. You will find that almost all religions are based on tolerance and love, no matter how the text is misunderstood.

The Rise and Fall of Technology

By Chad Stroh

Being born at the beginning of the information age I've seen many things come and go. I've seen the cassette tape fade away along with VHS. I have seen the short life of the CD, which is being lost in a world of MP3. I have seen video stores completely change their whole invetory to DVD. Technology and information are allowing new mediums of information. A song was played on a cassette and now it is played on an Ipod. It is important to remember that nothing can ever replace a live performance. There is something appealing about witnessing live emotion. The question I wonder is if technology causes us to lose true emotion. I have always liked writing letters and postcards to people. Something about writing allows you to express your thoughts and emotions in an organized way. A call on the phone has those time where both people are not talking about anything. As technology improves, are we really improving as human beings? Well that depends on how you view life. Many people think that everything should be quick and easy. Shoot and fire. If you are like this, than you probably find technology appealing. I am not one of these people. I love listening to the radio and not knowing what the next song is. I think that there is a fascination with technology and so called "progression", but I feel in the next two hundred years we might see a sort of "resurrection" of human emotion. Robots are already taking over millions of workers jobs. I will leave my argument with this point. I read an article about how computers can play a perfect game of chess. How do you define a perfect game of chess though? I think it is one where both opponents are equal, not when one side has all the right moves. Sometime we have to redefine perfection. That same article said a computer cannot walk across a room full people because it can predict random human movement. A three year old girl can walk across a room.