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Why just the new testament BTW?

As I understand it, with the coming of Jesus Christ, the old laws (from the Old Testament) were basically thrown out, and new ones were provided by him.
However, I too am not a Christian.

Jesus said "I have not come to overturn the Law, but to fulfill it." Nothing was thrown out, what he did was say "You fucking idiots didn't get it the first time, so let me phrase it another way."
For example- the idea of "an eye for an eye" did NOT mean that if someone took your eye, you deserved to take theirs in return. Rather, it meant that you should never receive MORE than their eye in return for taking yours- or in modern terms, "the punishment should not exceed the crime." Note that Islam has the same requirement, which is rationalized away as "only applying to Muslims- anything goes against the Godless Infidels". Also note that this same rationale was used by the Christians at various points in time to oppress others- the idea that the "rules" only applied to the "Holy".

Most of what was actually "changed" or "thrown out" of the Old Testament was done so not by Jesus, but later by his groupies. Errr, followers. For example, the removal of dietary restrictions (pork, etc.) didn't happen until Revelation when someone got his hands on some Mescaline and started tripping balls.

Marxism, or whatever bastardized collectivism Europeans worship, is a kind of religion, making those governments pretty much godless theocracies.

Iranians backing the regime in their country are doing it because they're social conservatives. And, on the other side of the pond, most people in the R-camp are social conservatives as well. Oh, they'll start with taxes, but if you bear with them you'll hear it all about gays and godless atheists ruining the country.

The brave cyberwarriors of the theocracy can on one hand fight for the glory of their dogmatic institutions, while using the technology that the infidels invented, that they wouldn't even possess, without assembly in infidel lands.

How is God great when it is the godless who provides the tools used to prove God is great?

You're thinking of Saudi Arabia not Iran. Iran is somewhat progressive and secular. The Taliban is not in Iran as far as I know. Not saying Iran doesn't have problems but by middle east standards they are among the most advanced.

The brave cyberwarriors of the theocracy can on one hand fight for the glory of their dogmatic institutions, while using the technology that the infidels invented, that they wouldn't even possess, without assembly in infidel lands.

How is God great when it is the godless who provides the tools used to prove God is great?

Blasphemy is illegal in some countries. Why? Largely because Islam forbids reinterpretation and that's so much part of the system that it is law. You need to remember many take the religion seriously, as in they spend many hours reading the texts, and taking the authority of the religious leaders as truth. Yes there are many economic factors, but religion is a factor too, just like Western philosophers who were just writing some books and spreading ideas, were a factor in the development of Western modernity. Modernity says, choose Progress or choose God. So to some extent, when these guys hold up signs saying, "God is great, Islam will rule the world", that is literally what they intend. From a Moslem perspective, Christianity and Judaism got it wrong ––those religions turned out soft and undisciplined, and that's why the West is filled with godless pornography and women with jobs. A certain percentage of Muslims do not want to make that mistake again. They want a return to the Golden Age. That's why a principle like "free speech" which an English philosopher was writing about in 1870 or so, is seen as a mere "excuse" by Islamists. To some extent the religious thinking, is part of the cultural thinking and attitudes towards modernity, and they largely reject it. The question is how many? What percentage of Islamic countries are modernising, and what percentage are just biding their time until they can gain more power.

"I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents" This is a clear indication that Woz is a godless communist and should never be allowed anywhere near Cupertino ever again. :)

... but you are not obliged to go to church by law.

That's the entire point of the creationism controversy: we do not want to be forced to endure Christian religious indoctrination in public school where we are obliged to go by law. Keep religion out of our schools. Christians want to have it both ways: be able to go to church on Sunday, and also spew their superstition to a captive public school audience. Deny them this and they cry "Persecution! Atheist conspiracy! Godless science!"

Agreed. This is just one of those many threads that bring out all the folks that'll start quoting that Godless piece of bigotry that is www.thereligionofpeace.com, and get modded up by others who insist on believing that all 1.4 BILLION Muslims around the world are terrorists, which makes about as much sense as equating all Protestants with the Klan. I'll probably get modded down just for posting this, but I really don't care...that sort of crap makes me ashamed to be an American.

I'd say that a high death-toll is pretty terrifying, but it's somewhat in relation to the chance of one (or one's relations/friends/etc) being potential victims of a future attack.

There's a combination of visibility and impact
More people harmed = likely more of impact and visibility
Harmed in a cruel/unusual way = Higher visibility (see the recent killings in France)

People die due to violence in big cities all the time. After reading about it in the news you become desensitized to reading about gang violence and bystander harm, etc if it's not in their neighbourhood. However, take a few higher-profile cases like the Canadian greyhound killer or the "bath-salts" attacks, the gruesomeness and randomness makes it a lot more frightening.

Same effect if a lot of people die at once, particularly in a violent/gruesome way.

Dying is scary to most people. A lot of people dying gets attention. Or to quote a similar way of thinking in Firefly:

Mal: [so only Jayne hears him] Now, you only gotta scare 'im.
Jayne: Pain is scary.

Pain is scary. Death is (generally) scary. Lots of death is more scary. Lots of gruesome death is really scary, but it also increases the risk of retaliation or alienation of those that support the terrorists. The IRA wouldn't have gotten much support for targeting large amount of children, etc. Religious battles sometimes get away with this more because they play the "godless heathen" card, but even that doesn't work beyond a certain level (and note I say religious, as *MANY* religions have been involved in atrocities)

You HATE America!!!!! You are going to burn in eternal hell-fire, you godless, pot-smoking, pinko, hippie, latté-sipping, communist!!!!

Good luck with that. You must be from that parallel universe where laws are made out of words that have meanings. I'll bet marihuana is legal over there too and alcohol illegal, since alcohol fits the bill for a Schedule I substance, while marihuana misses on most if not all criteria.

Besides, who cares about heathen yellow people anyway? If they were half as virtuous as us, they'd stage a rebellion and overthrow the communist government and welcome God and Man Jesus and everything would be magically milk and honey. That's the way it works, you know. Anybody who's going to let some damned technicality get in the way of me and my iBling is a no good Godless heathen and deserves to be put to work in that factory. Maybe it'll teach them some character.

To be fair:

The Soviet Union was the first state to have, as an ideological objective, the elimination of religion[1] and its replacement with atheism.

In places in the Soviet Union religious believers were actively harassed/persecuted.
The words "under God" were added to distinguish Americans from Soviets, but it could be argued that it ignores the beliefs of American atheists. But we weren't the only ones trying to portray the Soviets as "Godless heathens", as they were actively and openly trying to suppress the practice of religion in the USSR.

Godless heathens? Tell that to Pussy Riot...

I was an American teenager in the 1970s. Back then, people made fun of the Soviet Union. One of the most popular jokes referred to a Soviet citizen's internal passport, which apparently they were supposed to carry even when going from city to city. And of course there were all the stories about the KGB.

The most popular joke is our Pledge of Allegiance, which until the red scare, did not include the words "under god". Communists were portrayed as being godless heathens, and thus atheists and agnostics were frequently profiled (to use the modern vernacular) by police and the authorities. Of course, sixty years later, revisionist history has all but forgotten it. This country has a long and inglorious history of sacrificing its citizens on the altar of public opinion whenever an external threat was perceived. "I hold in my hand a list of 80 names of communist party members in the democratic caucus" is laughed at as an example of how 'backwards' people in the 50s and 60s were, even as we nod our heads agreeably to watchlists containing tens of thousands of names of suspected terrorists.

Change the names and places, and people forget it's the same dance.

What really pisses me off about these godless Chinks is that their despicable behavior is influencing some of the brightest talents here in the west to launch themselves off tall structures as well.
RIP Tony Scott. I was really looking forward to Top Gun II.

Kinda doubt that Romney wants a theocracy. Unless you think he is an idiot you don't really believe that either. Mormons are a distinct minority with a history of persecution, on religious grounds. So unless he thinks his election will suddenly result in millions and millions of conversions it would be kinda daft to want to make a religious state that would, if history is a guide, have his people on the short list of those who go against the wall first. The fact they might go after the godless commies would be scant consolation.

Please try to think before mindlessly parroting the standard talking points. Sometimes they don't apply. Sometimes they don't apply in such a screamingly obvious way that it just makes you look like a total idiot.

"What about the Free journalists in countries like the USA where they should not be considered "dissidents"? Perhaps this was just an oversight on your part. In the USA, many Journalists are called dissidents by US Government Agencies (CIA/DHS/TSA) but that is not correct constitutionally." - Silly hippie, free speech is one step away from godless communism and definitely an un-American activity.

No, if we, as natural animals, cause the extinction of another species it is because it was unfit to survive and should be left extinct. Human beings are not outside nature and its methods of determining which species are worthy of survival.

Mother Nature isn't some fucking primitive fertility godless, its a bunch of organisms living together. There is no conscious mind directing a divine order for things. If you want to being back something extinct, go do it. Don't give me this bullshit that 'it wasn't fit to survive'. We change the environment whenever we feel like it.

In Soviet Russia, the godless religion of political correctness censors your apps.