This leads back to your thread ...one... and the one I started with a more clarified title albeit in the wrong forum possibly, What role does religion play in the coming age...Perhaps we should bring this subject to the top of discussion again. As you said, "Any sane man would let go of religious texts demanding such things." It is interesting, though, that even Hinduism has its capital punishment for heresy. Even in the Bhagavata, Sati's prescription for heresy and aparadha is graphically vivid and to this day is taken literally by many.
The question is, "Just how many sane people inhabit the earth?"
You asked before, what I meant when I asked if we should let this happen again. We have a growing issue worldwide, with "nations" endeavoring to gain control over nuclear weapons, and proposing the elimination of societies, with no concern for non-combatants. One has to question what the appropriate response is to this. America used the A-Bomb to neutralize the threat it felt coming from Japan. Japan was determined to establish its dominance in the world at the cost of innocent lives with such projects as the "Massacre at Nanking". We have Governments which plot to firmly establish poverty in areas deemed strategically important to do so. We must be careful to spread knowledge as well as compassion.
I haven't declared Israel a terrorist state, but I have signed numerous petitions to stop the war in Gaza. I feel, as you do, that Israel should have obtained the assistance of the United Nations. I also felt that the United States should have done the same thing with regards to Iraq and Afghanistan. More importantly, I would like to say that United Nations should have acted earlier, with more involvement in these issues. When you have a country vowing an all out war at the first chance, you usually have a brewing problem which can stand to be looked at.