Interesting perspective on religion...

[dkf]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-ground-zero-mosque-mayocol-b08221020100821,0,6405047.column

Silver went on to say that the Koran, like the Old and New Testaments, is filled with violence in God's name, and there's no hope for peace until all religions accept that scripture isn't the literal word of God.

He said Islam is the most unyielding of the major religions, with no branch that allows the view that the Koran was not written by God. And he said moderate Muslims are "in denial" about the role the Koran plays in inciting violence, with its incendiary verses about converting nonbelievers.

"Islam needs to reform Islam, but it's not all that likely in the near future," Silver said. "This isn't about Muslim vs. Christian, or Muslim vs. Jew, this is about fundamentalists vs. freethinkers in all religions. … The future of humanity is at stake."

[RandomThoughts]

1. I thought on that a long time.

If God did not want people to think and feel, why give them a heart and mind, and why not make everything exactly clear. And text can not be exactly clear unless it could contain all of the mysteries of God.

Then there is the limitation of fitting the wonders of God into text. Even in the most detailed of text, it still requires interpretation. So in my view, God uses many ways to help people.

Why would he just use written text, when he could use everything around us to show us his wonders.

Or that is how I think on it, but that is a choice, and a view, and it is also possible to see the same thing two different ways in two different contexts.


And why would he have something written, then just stop. Why wouldn't he have many people through many years write, speak, sing, act, emote, and share all kinds of his teachings of love.

That how I think on it, but, like everyone, I get things wrong sometimes also, so just my best guess.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. All religious books are full of violence in God's name, but

they are all also full of peace, treating others well, living a righteous life, etc. All people choose which parts they want to follow. And this is true of Islam as well as Christianity. Many Muslims focus on the living a righteous life part of the Koran. Some focus on the violence. We all know that people pick and choose what they want to believe from their religious books.

[dkf]

3. The angle that interested me is the fundamentalist vs free thinking aspect.

You ever wonder if whomever wrote these things put a little bit of everything so they could compel you to be peaceful by following this part and go to war over that part? It sure would help when getting people to do what you want. I know...so cynical of me.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. No one is more cynical about it as I am. I think that all these books

were written by so many different people, over the course of generations. So situations changed over time, and so did views. This is like having a book of "proper behavior" being written over time in Western Civilization. Some times, we have the Inquisition, some times there are wars, Crusades, and all the way through our time with discussion of gay rights and women's rights and issues never considered in the past. A jumble of thinking.

And of course, they always had to find ways to keep the masses behaving. Many of the stories were (I believe) just fables with morals to illustrate something. This is the way they communicated ideas and beliefs to these masses. And can you believe, it is still working!

[RainDog]

4. fundamentalism, or literalism, is the problem - not because of the violence

but because teaching such beliefs and being able to maintain such beliefs requires believers to reject reality and reason.

How can you make rational decisions if you think that an invisible being requires you to deny reality in order to be a good person?

that's the problem.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

6. Here's Something That Became Painfully Obvious To Me A Long Time Ago

No Atheist ever flew a plane into a frickin' building, enslaved an entire race of people, or committed genocide.

I think it would be an interesting project if someone were to go back through the annals of history and added up all the people who died at the hands of religion and came up with a final number. Because that number would rival the national debt.

I'm so freakin' SICK of people who use their faith to justify hatred.

[TheKentuckian]

7. I honestly am not aware of major branches of any Abrahamic religion

That does not consider scripture to be directly inspired by God. They don't advertise very well. Secular Jews? Some Gnostics?