so, what do i think they should do with the al aqsa / temple mount complex, for example?

what i actually think is that they should turn it into a museum, and i'm not really interested in having a discussion about competing religious access to different crumbling walls here in the 21st century. it's a ridiculous discussion to have, and i'll get up and walk out of the room if it erupts. these people are all idiots that aren't worth listening to.

we need to look towards the future, and leave religion in the past as we walk forwards as equals together.

i've mused in the past about creating a new religion, but it's just a social engineering ploy. it's worthwhile to contemplate it, though. i mean, they say that most of the region converted to christianity, and that was probably something that was invented by roman social engineers to create unity. it worked, for a while. ironically, the muslim invasions would have likely failed if it weren't for theological debates about things like monophysitism, which alienated the egyptians and the descendants of the hebrews, but you learn from your mistakes, right? it did work for a while.

so, if you could create some new messianic religion and then convert both the palestinians (who are the descendants of the jews, remember.) and the jews to it, you could conceivably eliminate most of the root causes of the existing problems, even if you end up creating more in the long run. at the least, prying people away from their existing mythologies is probably a positive step towards an atheistic future.

but, i'm only half serious. and i am half serious.

i don't want to tear it down, it has value to archaeologists, historians and anthropologists. but, we need to find a way to leave this debate behind, because it's really, actually a pretty stupid and backwards thing to be fighting about.