Hi CobaltBlue; Re: "Also, it appears that you're lazy, because you haven't made any effort to actually see if I am right except by looking out your window."
I've read the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran several times (in English translation). Of these, the only one that doesn't widely support the use of violence is the New Testament. But the New Testament is the only one that was written by people who were not in control.
The New Testament is a "revolutionary" document in that it was written by people who were not in power. As soon as they did get into power, they exercised power pretty much the same way as everyone else, with the liberal use of force.
The Koran, like the Old Testament and Torah, was written down by people who were in control of a government. Religious documents of this nature tend to support the use of violence. But that does not make the religious groups that hold those texts sacred to be necessarily also violent. The Koran has many very peaceful passages. You could find these too, if you look. Or just read the whole thing, but don't settle down with a translation that was made by someone trying to make a point. If you find a website that only gives you translations of specific passages, then you can be pretty sure that they're not giving you a realistic view of the text as a whole. See Juan Cole's commentary here:
juancole.com
For example, here is a typical passage from the Koran, referring to Jews and Christians:
“We have assigned a law and a path to each of you. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about.” 5:48
answers.yahoo.com
It's quite easy to make a text look very ugly. Just quote it out of context. Where do you suppose I found the following: I know the ablasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
As an example outside the Judeo-Christian-Moslem tradition, the Bhagavad Gita (from which the quote "I am become death, destroyers of worlds" originates) consists of Krishna telling Arjuna why it was his duty to kill his relatives:
en.wikipedia.org
-- Carl |
