Originally Posted by
Peter
History is littered with examples of people believing some pretty ****ed up stuff when it is drummed into them from birth, reinforced through peer and societal pressure and particularly where it is enshrined in common law, or at least in its practical application. Just fifty odd years ago large parts of America was still lynching black people, we deemed homosexuality illegal and using a tuba on a rock n roll record was considered acceptable.
There is a huge difference between belief and deed, obvious in this example as in many others. One may profess to believe that some fat bloke flew to the moon because his religion tells him it did. None of us are in a position to say whether that individual genuinely believes it or not. A Church of England Vicar reads from the bible- do you really think he believes all the **** in there? That he follows it to the letter, takes it as a literal instruction on how to live?
Scholars in every religion exist to interpret the word of God into something palatable to a modern audience, to transform a laughable statement into a valuable parable.
You must be able to see the difference between ‘believing’ that old **** and butchering strangers in the street. One makes you the product of your environment, unquestioning, perhaps even weak willed. The other makes you a murderer, and all but very few people will have been brought up in an environment that taught them that this is wrong, whatever else they may have been compelled to believe.
There is nothing wrong with stating that there is a problem with some schools of radical Islam, or that they sponsor, encourage, recruit terrorists. The problem comes when you attempt to blame the religion itself. One may as well chastise Christianity because of the Klan, or the Jewish faith because of Israel.
I have told you before, jokingly, that all religion is a form of mental illness. Yes, believing some of that **** as literal makes one appear rather crazy. However, when the same book promises you things you like the sound of if you are willing to believe it, it starts to sound less mad. Chuck in the fact that your parents and everyone around you believes it and it begins to look inevitable.