I am unaware of an entity called Palestine. In any event, the controversy in the region that used to be called Palestine is not primarily religious. Zionism was primarily a secular, nationalist movement, and Arab nationalism had more to do with hostility to the creation of Israel than Islam.
There is a wide swath of Muslim countries that are largely peaceable, from Morocco to Turkey, to Kazhakstan, to Malaysia. Many of them have non- Muslim minorities (almost half of Kazhakstan citizens are Russian ethnics). I have no idea, on a percentage basis, what the relative degree of turmoil is in the Muslim world, and I do not know, in each instance, how much non- religious factors enter in. In any event, there is no comparable turmoil outside of the Muslim world, and it comes down to the inability to separate politics and religion, by dealing with the totalist claims of Shari'ah. I think I will leave it at that.
As I said to Laz, you are missing the main point, which is that they did not suddenly cease to be barbarians, nevertheless.
The mainstream is precisely the point, as representing the primary face of religion today.
Again, you miss what I am saying. Most Holocaust rescuers were highly commited Christians: priests, nuns, pastors, pious laity, not Easter Christians.
I think it would be futile to go into the difference between a sacrament and tea- leaf reading, and, in any case, I don't want to lose my rhythm here. Suffice it to say that it is not superstitious to believe that there is something analogous to Mind behind the universe, even if it is otherwise alien and beyond our ken, and even if you do not find any argument conclusive. Given that, certain things will be plausible, at least, as, for example, that It takes an historical interest in us. After that, well, the argument is more nuanced, but it invites us to examine whether an historical institution is a true mediator between ourselves and it, and to examine the basis of the claim and the practices attending it. Thus, superstition should be used sparingly, I think, for mere credulity towards most supernatural claims.
Do you know how many philosophical sects there were in Athens, or, later, Rome? Not only the Platonists and Aristotelians, but the Stoics, Cynics, Epicureans....later, the Neo- Platonists, Pyrrhonic skeptics, Gnostics (albeit quasi- religious), and Neo- Pythagoreans. It does not take religion to generate significant differences of opinion.
I will skip over the bit about choosing anything particular to believe, for right now, and will let my description of the sense in which religion can be liberating suffice.
You might peek at my discussion with Karen the last couple of days, if you are interested in my thoughts on colorfulness and open contempt......... |
