On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:35:29 -0800, Stephen Trapani
wrote:

Bruce In Bangkok wrote:
On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:06:39 -0800, Stephen Trapani
wrote:

Bruce In Bangkok wrote:
On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:11:25 -0800, Stephen Trapani
wrote:
Snipped...

When we see Israel and the US setting up a secular/democratic society,
were the vast majority of citizens subject their religious books to
rational criticism and reject the parts that are racist or wrong in some
way, we shouldn't condemn those societies because they still follow
parts of those books, we should congratulate them for making progress
out of the dark ages and do everything we can to help them flourish,
especially when they are surrounded by extremists who want their own
version of the dark ages to return.

Stephen
So, you are going to rewrite three holy books? I don't believe it's
gonna work.

First of all there are at least two versions of the Christian's holy
book and one of them used by a bunch that argues they were appointed
by the founder of the religion and another gang that insists that the
first lot is corrupt.

The Moslems believe that their book is the actual word of God.
Dictated by him/her/it directly to Muhammad.

The Jews believe that certain parts of their book is, again, the
direct word of God, handed down on tablets of stone.

I'm interested, who are you going to get to manage this project?
No need to rewrite. Just do what all denominations do: Offensive
passages are thought of as metaphorical or not actual commandments for
our time (only relevant to the times they were written in). Using this
method you can make the actual words say almost anything you want them
to say.

Stephen

Won't work. Absolutely for the Moslems who believe that, as I said,
the Koran is the actual word of God. The Jews have centuries of study
of The Law and probably won't accept an outsider interfering with
Their Law.

You don't get it. There already are numerous Moslem and Jewish
denominations who already do it. The "extremists" take the violent and
aggressive parts seriously, the rest don't, etc. I'm not sure what you
don't understand. Israel itself is not based on the Talmud. They
specifically put rationality above the Talmud.

True - the "Modern Jews" and the Orthodox. the problem is the Orthodox
guys are the noisy ones who don't want their interpretation of the Law
changed.

The Christians? Well, maybe start a new sect?

The Christians have no monopoly on sects. The Shia and Sunnis are both
Muslims and kill each other over their differences about what the Koran
says. Moderate Muslims also live in free societies without clashing with
the laws like extremists do. I'm not sure what you're not getting here.

True, but they are all Moslems when it comes time to dealing with the
Infidel. The Shia and Sunnis are divided by who legally inherited
Muhammad's authority not by interpretations of the Koran. Cultural
differences also interact here as the main Sunni grouping is Saudi
Arabian while the Shias are stronger in the old Persian areas. Iraq
is, of course a mixture with the resulting havoc. and of course there
are a number of sub groupings like Wahabis, et al. But he fact remains
that they all believe the Book.

As far as Moslems living among the infidel without clashing with the
law see the recent Dutch legislation emphasizing that Moslems must
obey Dutch laws; the Moslem youth burning cars in France; the Moslem
youths bombing subways in England. I suggest that it isn't a marriage
made in Heaven.



Stephen
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)