Do these polls gauge how flippant these opinions are or how attached to their identity these opinions are? How many Christians would casually answer yes to a question about being under "Gods law"? That's the issue with judging humans based off these type of polls. It doesn't explain how flippant or how attached to their personal identity these answers are.
One Abrahamic religion follows a figure whose teachings are summed up by a commandment to "Love your enemies, turn the other cheek and do good to those that hate you.". The other.....not so much. The central figure of one being a supposedly "sinless" person who promoted love of others, neighbors. The other religion has a founder who killed people, had sex slaves and was a pedophile. Is this not true? One religion has holy book whose scripture and teachings could in no way be interpreted as a reason to commit violence or harbor hatred against another. The other religion's book has been easily interpreted and used by terrorists and extremists to commit violence and hatred towards "others".
Eh shows how unimportant religious text is. Judiasm doesn't have a new testament. It's still under the cruel "I'm going to genocide your people because dudes had butt sex" order. But I don't think people here can muster up the "courage" to claim Judiasm is evil. If you lived in 1650 AD in Europe as a non Christian. You'd be like "why are Christians far less tolerant than Muslims". You are a victim of the moment in history.
The first commandment of all three is supposed to be Thou Shalt Not Kill, but apparently that is easily dismissed by followers.
All three religions believe in justifiable killings. For example butt sex on all three religions is grounds for death. God committed genocide because of butt sex according to all Abrahamic faiths.
Yeah - South Asians do very well in the United States in general. Indians and Arabs (mostly Muslim) and Pakistani's are not in general very religious in the USA. Many first generation are, but by second and now third generation, maybe they follow some traditions for marriage or something like that .... but even that isn't always the case. I know a fair number of South Asians that have ZERO interest in religion or even South Asian culture, because they grew up and live in the USA - and they do very well in the USA and that is the "culture".
I think the ideology and how it is practiced by fundamentalists IS horrible. The same would be true of Christianity if fundamentalism was practiced to the same extent as Islam. I honest do not like the Abrahamic religions. Christianity with Christ I suppose had potential to have some positive traits, but for the most part that has been a failure..... I have a strong issue with guiding modern day morality based on the technicalities of books and traditions that are over 2,000 years old in some cases. IMO most people that practice these faiths were born into them and they often times are twisted by those wanting power and control over other people, typically less educated or vulnerable people.
Here is the thing.... Everything you said about Islam in terms of rhetoric in scriptures can be applied to Judiasm. It's an old testament religion with all its draconian values. But i have a feeling you'd be far less comfortable saying "Judiasm is evil". Id feel uncomfortable saying it also btw. But I'd feel uncomfortable saying ether of them are evil.
Nah - the text followed by Judaism is pretty evil, and it is an incredibly self centered and narcissistic message with lots of brutality. Even though the central figure of the New Testament is a very progressive and forgiving figure - he is surrounded by death and despair, and Europe was a brutal place until secularism emerged. I have spoken on what my view of the Quran - it is very poorly written, very oppressive and brutal and cultish well beyond the other faiths. Having said that - all three have had periods of extreme brutality, and I have little need for any of them.
Yeah - the scripture used by Judaism is evil - and it is adopted as the Old Testament by Christians....... it has no real applicability to the modern Western world, yet it lives on...... the only way it is compatible is to overlook huge portions of the testament. I have no issue labeling all Abrahamic religions as having barbaric texts and all of them have done atrocious things as well. I don't have an issue with them from a cultural standpoint - as they are a big part of the past historical culture of the world - I have a problem when someone becomes a fundamentalist. In the Middle East and it is a real problem right now, because secularism has almost no sway in some parts of the Arab world.
Secularism has produced a more gentle Christian but that is quickly going away. Christianity is going back to its historical norms… which isn’t dissimilar to fundamental Islam.
I believe since the West has tasted secularism, the fundamentalists are basically kicking and screaming to maintain their stranglehold and becoming more extreme but that's at the expense of more young people being turned off from Christianity. So yes Christianity as of late is becking more extreme but it's at the expense church attendance. Young people in the West have deprived secularism their entire lives and they are not willing to let that go. But in the mean time the existing Christian population will become more extreme as a lashing out mechanism.
I googled secular and communism and this came up as a definition of secular religion. Obviously, there can also be many flaws within purely secular societies and ideologies. Among systems that have been characterized as secular religions are liberalism, anarchism, communism, nazism, fascism, egoism, jacobinism, Juche, Maoism, Religion of Humanity, the cults of personality, the Cult of Reason and Cult of the Supreme Being. I have no odea what Juche is.
This is incorrect. Those who want to defend the "religion of peace" always try to come up with excuses and try to claim "but other religions...". Yeah, **** off with that. Other religions are not being used as a motivation to murder people at scale in this century.
I'm sorry but all thee religious have the story of praising genocide because of butt sex. Unfortunate reality you have to deal with.
(been offline for a few days) I've always valued your posts since you don't play silly internet game and do think through things. I think I get where you are coming from. BUT... Can something be evil and at the same time have practitioners that are clearly not only NOT evil but are peaceful and loving? Maybe. And if so, what's more important? The practitioners or the "religion"? And how do you explain it? The easy and obvious answer is religion is not set in stone. Practitioners, some devoted, some not so, INTERPRET religion in their own ways that are shaped not just by the text but by their upbringing, their culture, and their surroundings. As I said before, we can almost find any Abrahamic religion as evil if we look (not even that hard) enough at particular "'biblical" texts, historic events, and in today's current society, fundamentalists that are extremists. p.s. This perspective is significant because it illustrates how external factors such as culture and governance influence the interpretation and shaping of a religion. If something is inherently evil and unchangeable, it should be eradicated. However, if this viewpoint leads solely to the suppression of a religion through likely violent action, it raises the question: who truly embodies evil? So, no, Islam is certainly not evil and if it is evil, it is due to very narrow views that ignore how religion has been and is currently practiced, and a bigoted view otherwise. The comparison to Trumpism doesn't quite work for me. It's too new and frankly isn't a religion, but more of a political cult. If it one day established into a religion, I think my same stance applies.
