Killing in the name of religion (Islam): This time in Turkey

[Phlegmak]

I meant the fact that "every country has murderers, who commit their crimes for some reason" has nothing to do with religion or this particular crime being committed for a religious reason. Other than giving people yet another opportunity for islam-bashing and/or turk-bashing, I don't see why the reason of this particular murder merits a thread whereas there are countless other murders everyday for money, lust, drugs, psychological reasons, etc., as well as murders with no reason.

So basically you think no thread should ever be made for murders, such as the Virginia Tech massacre.

 

[El_Machinae]

I meant the fact that "every country has murderers, who commit their crimes for some reason" has nothing to do with religion or this particular crime being committed for a religious reason. Other than giving people yet another opportunity for islam-bashing and/or turk-bashing, I don't see why the reason of this particular murder merits a thread whereas there are countless other murders everyday for money, lust, drugs, psychological reasons, etc., as well as murders with no reason.

I would think, though, that there isn't an effort to convince us that the roots of all those murders are actually benign. Most people think of hard drugs as a 'bad thing' to become addicted to, etc. However, there is a lot of political and social pressure to view Islam as benign. In other words, we're encouraged to not think of Islam as a potential social illness, even though we think of lust, greed, drugs, as being so.

If there was a large social movement to view hard drug use as 'acceptable', I'm sure similar tactics would be used.

Spoiler Abstract :

Modeling the Relation between Suction, Effective Stress and Shear Strength in Partially Saturated Granular Media

Decades of geotechnical research firmly established that the mechanical properties (shear strength and deformation characteristics) of soils can be explained by “effective stress”, i.e. the stress carried by the solid matrix. The remaining stress is carried by the pore fluid in the form of pore pressure. In unsaturated soils, coexistence of water and air results in negative pore pressures, which are termed “soil suction”. A clear link between soil suction and effective stress has not been established.

This research develops a hypothesis for linking the effective stress to total stress and soil suction, for uniform, spherical particles, at low water contents. The hypothesis includes analytical formulation of water geometry and forces at the micro-scale. The change in effective stress due to soil suction is estimated from this particle contact scale, also involving relative density in the estimation. A way of inferring the effective stress in an unsaturated soil from strength test results is also proposed as a side-hypothesis.

In order to examine partially saturated mechanical behavior of granular materials, a triaxial test setup was modified to accommodate an MIT Tensiometer as its pedestal. Materials consisting of uniform spherical particles (glass beads) were tested, under both saturated and unsaturated conditions, to match the hypothesis. In order to accommodate the unique difficulties of constituting a specimen made of glass beads, new test preparation procedures were developed. New corrections, which are applicable to any triaxial test measurements, were proposed.

With the experimental program, new behavioral features unique to such idealized materials were investigated. Coupling saturated and unsaturated shear strength tests, through the side-hypothesis, effects of suction on effective stress were inferred. The experimentally obtained increase in effective stress due to suction is significantly larger than the hypotetical estimate. However, many observed aspects of unsaturated behavior are in parallel to the main hypothesis. Therefore the discrepancy may originate from the side hypothesis linking effective stress to shear strength, leaving merit to the main hypothesis for effective stress in partially saturated granular media.

Thanks! It sounds somewhat interesting, but (probably) moreso to people other than me. Though I get images of broken and shattered beads when I read that.

 

[knigh+]

So basically you think no thread should ever be made for murders, such as the Virginia Tech massacre.

I guess I am just pissed off that whenever I search CFC for Turkey I get a thread about how bad Islam is supposed to be percieved.

I would think, though, that there isn't an effort to convince us that the roots of all those murders are actually benign. Most people think of hard drugs as a 'bad thing' to become addicted to, etc. However, there is a lot of political and social pressure to view Islam as benign. In other words, we're encouraged to not think of Islam as a potential social illness, even though we think of lust, greed, drugs, as being so.

If there was a large social movement to view hard drug use as 'acceptable', I'm sure similar tactics would be used.

The comparison is not with drugs, it is with penicillin. See, drugs are bad for everybody, so they should be labeled as bad. You can't interpret drug use in good or bad ways, but multiple interpretations are unavoidable with all religions.

But penicillin is good for most people, while being bad for some (who has allergy). Similarly Islam makes good people out of most of its adherents, while some people interpret it differently than the majority and become bad. So unless you are willing to ban penicillin, you shouldn't label Islam as bad.

 

[Bill3000]

I guess I am just pissed off that whenever I search CFC for Turkey I get a thread about how bad Islam is supposed to be percieved.

That's any thread about Islam, actually. Just so happens that Turkey is an islamic country.

 

[plarq]

IF we use drug metaphor, I guess religions should be considered as placebos. Placebos don't guarantee anything, but a minority take too much of it and become obsessed.

 

[El_Machinae]

But penicillin is good for most people, while being bad for some (who has allergy).

I like the idea that the people who 'abuse' Islam are metaphorically 'allergic' to religion. That's a neat way to see it.