14th June 2011
“In the Muslim world denial of things like evolution, support for theocracy, the stoning of those who have sex outside of marriage and etcetera is rife because literalism as a method of interpretation is almost universal. It is a very unsophisticated religion, which explains its brutality.”
Anon.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:53
Islam is ” UNSOPHISTICATED ” ????????? HAH !!!
why sweeten it up ??????
Islam is PSYCHOTIC.
June 14th, 2011 at 8:48
In any religion, sophistication is applied to explaining away evidence of reality.
June 14th, 2011 at 9:16
@archaeopteryx
Very astute, religion gets sophisticated when forced to by science and reason, the emporer gets to wear prettier clothes as a result. Islam has only recently emerged into the west sufficiently enough to be exposed to such challenges. This is why in the middle east it is so anti intellectual, but in the west it is developing its own theodicies and apologetics, essentially going through the stages christianity went (kicking and screaming) through.
June 14th, 2011 at 15:31
What would be an example of a sophisticated religion? I like your comment Archaeopteryx – A religion is only sophisticated to the degree it has well developed apologetics? Still, I’m not sure this is sophisticated so much as sad but reasonable people can disagree. I’ll agree that a reformed christianity is far preferable to one that stones people for witchcraft (which still happens in places). The world will certainly be a safer place when Islam undergoes it’s own reformation. Until then the rest of us need to know appeasement will only get you sharia law. How moderate muslims are in western societies is inversely proportional with their percentage of population. This proposition will be tested in Europe due to their high birth rates.
June 14th, 2011 at 20:23
@Capn
I don’t buy your premise bout creeping Sharia, I have more “faith” in human rationality than that (hopefully not misplaced).
Sophisticated religion is not by any means safe or sanitised. What it is, is a meme forced to evolve in adverse circumstances. Personally I find this more of a threat than fundamentalist Islam as it becomes a retrovirus on the body of rational thought, attempting to use the language of science to promote its own survival.
June 14th, 2011 at 22:43
It seems to me that ‘primitive’ religion poses greater immediate risks to individuals and liberty.
Evolved, sophisticated religion is far more insidious and trickier to disentangle from rational and mainstream thought, I’m not convinced it’s more of a threat though.