Here's an interesting twist to the debate: what if he's right?

I'm not at all religious, don't believe in the concept of heaven and hell and therefore obviously don't agree with what he says. However, even as a confirmed atheist I couldn't possibly know that I was absolutely, 100% right. It's purely just my personal belief.

So playing devil's advocate (pun intended) for a moment; given none of us can possibly know for certain that he's wrong, should he lose his job for speaking what he believes to be the truth?

If he is right then the Bible prophesies just this: "and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."*


* I knew watching The Omen would come in useful one day!

There is no such thing as free speech without limitation. Any speech is subject to libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury. There is of course the restriction on forms of expression deemed offensive to society, considering factors such as extent, duration, motives of the speaker, and ease with which it could be avoided.

Yes. He is bringing the game into disrepute.

Furthemore if you believe the holocaust did not occur in exactly the same way as history records and gave voice to this opinion in most European countries you can expect to go to gaol on top of losing your job.

I cannot believe in 2019 we still have such views on people because of what they choose to do in their private life. What on earth does it have to do with him?

Furthermore a correction to the "mythology" argument, it is readily accepted that Jesus of Nazareth existed (just as Gautama Buddha, Guru Nanak, Joseph Smith, and Lafayette Ronald Hubbard did). Ergo their existence cannot be mythological although I share your view on organised religion.

Whatever does become if it...it's unlikely becoming a Wire will be one solution.

He had a list of 'going to hell' people its not clear if they are in order of who's getting priorty entry, potentially the Devil could get a pretty competive SL team together, sadly Israel, so deluded in his views, would struggle to get a 'sevens' side to meet his exacting views.

Drunks
Homosexuals
Adulterers
Liars
Thieves
Atheists
Idolators

Quote: Phuzzy "Here's an interesting twist to the debate: what if he's right? I'm not at all religious, don't believe in the concept of heaven and hell and therefore obviously don't agree with what he says. However, even as a confirmed atheist I couldn't possibly know that I was absolutely, 100% right. It's purely just my personal belief. So playing devil's advocate (pun intended) for a moment; given none of us can possibly know for certain that he's wrong, should he lose his job for speaking what he believes to be the truth? If he is right then the Bible prophesies just this: "and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."* * I knew watching The Omen would come in useful one day! Well as I'm getting older I find myself slightly less tolerable over the concept of religion (all brands) however I won't attack or confront anyone over it, each to their own unless they get preachy. In which case I suggest they watch this https://youtu.be/y_s73rBBJcc (first 3 mins)

Quote: Phuzzy "Here's an interesting twist to the debate: what if he's right? I'm not at all religious, don't believe in the concept of heaven and hell and therefore obviously don't agree with what he says. However, even as a confirmed atheist I couldn't possibly know that I was absolutely, 100% right. It's purely just my personal belief. So playing devil's advocate (pun intended) for a moment; given none of us can possibly know for certain that he's wrong, should he lose his job for speaking what he believes to be the truth? If he is right then the Bible prophesies just this: "and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."* * I knew watching The Omen would come in useful one day! Well as I'm getting older I find myself slightly less tolerable over the concept of religion (all brands) however I won't attack or confront anyone over it, each to their own unless they get preachy. In which case I suggest they watch this https://youtu.be/y_s73rBBJcc (first 3 mins)

Looks like he may be heading to French RU. Perfect place for him as it is well known that they despise alcohol and have no tolerance for adulterers. There may be a few who share his views on homosexuality but you get a few of those in most societies. I would like to think that the fact he has been sacked shows we are progressing (although possibly not as quickly as we should).

Beat up a student, drink and drive or take performance enhancing drugs = Temporary ban
Post something silly on twitter = Lifetime ban

I think it is a slippery slope when people are having their careers taken away because they parrot their religious beliefs.

Criticise someone's religion in a different context & you become a racist bigot ,even though race has nothing to do with it .

It's really not at all. For me it's okay to believe in religion, it's okay to believe that gays are going to hell. What isn't okay is being a professional employed by a big sporting organisation and sharing those views to millions of people on Twitter. If I did that on my Linkedin and my work saw that, I'd be going to be job centre pronto. I'll bet a lot of South Sea Islander RL players and a lot of Muslims and a lot of devout Christians share Folou's beliefs and agree with him, but those with an ounce of decency and societal awareness would refrain from sharing those beliefs in public.

What this shows is that Super League as an organisation needs to develop a code of principal like the NRL has and stick to it. People with dubious pasts in terms of drugs or criminality should be interviewed at length to ascertain their level of sincerity in being better people now and their contracts should have ultra tight clauses that enable the club to end them if they break the code of conduct. There should also be minimum standards applied in areas such as domestic violence, sexual crimes and hate related areas where sometimes they just say no to a player based on his history like the NRL do. SL doesn't need any negative press at the moment and signing Folou would be a disaster for the competition, despite how good a player he once was.

If superleague & the RFL went through the players rosters with a fine tooth comb our available pool of players would be much less than it is now & how many generations would our international selectors have to go back to find lesser quality antipodeans to join our home squads through ancestral qualification ?

We have had a complaint about this thread. its a contentious set of topics that have been raised, mostly I would have to say with a calm and considered view by the contributing posters. However some of the remarks have clearly been taken as being offensive and since I think the thread has probably run its course anyway, I am locking it.