FROM TOM R. (via a shipmate) - If you are interested, I just finished reading "The End of Faith - Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason" by Sam Hall, an excellent book which chronicles the clash of religion and reason and the role of religion in all the wars, past and current, in the world. He writes compellingly that Islam will eventually rule the world and you will either be a believer
or you will be dead. The rapid spread of Islam, coupled with the Koran's simple believe or be killed commandment, and their inevitable acquisition of nuclear weapons will not be a pretty picture. I'm currently reading "America Alone - The End of the World as We Know It" by Mark Steyn. He believes that old Europe is already gone - low white European birth rates combined with high Muslim birth rates have doomed the continent, including Russia, and their fall to the Muslim hordes is inevitable. Most European countries will not last more than about 20 - 40
years. A birth to death ratio of 2.1 is required to sustain a population. Most of white Europe has a rate of less than 2.0 and Russia's is 1.14, etc. Meanwhile, the Muslim segments of their population (as high as 30% in many French cities) has a rate of 6.0+++. Italy (1.23), Greece, France, Spain, Germany (1.35), Russia, etc., are all going down as is Canada (1.48) and the
rest of the West with the possible exception of the U. S. The EU average is 1.38.
Combine that with the high cost of their social programs and the fact that the average age in many Muslim countries is less than 20 years. It's a simple mathematical problem - the West is not going to have enough people. The prospect of another "Dark Age" is quite real. Interesting stuff backed up by lots of facts, figures and logic - not the thing of liberal propaganda. Meanwhile, the apparent ignorance of our politicians combined with their unwillingness to deal with the problem is not only disgusting but criminal. People like John Kerry who routinely claim that we should be more like Europe are nuts.
Another shipmate reports (this one a tree hugging - granola crunching lib from Oregon)- We too were very impressed by End of Faith. Author is "Harris" rather than "Hall" and he has been getting quite a bit of attention on the talk show circuit. I have historically been an economic determinist and figured that religion, nationalism, patriotism, etc. was window dressing but events of the last decade or so have forced me into rethinking things.
