• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Is it even proper to use the verb "to believe" as an indicator of adherence to religion?

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
So one Muslim's response means that all Muslims should be tarred with the same brush?
Hardly.

It just turns out that Islaam, despite a lot of effort to present itself (and to be presented by non-Muslims) as highly heterogeneous, actually is not.

One would expect a lot of variation in any comparable group (well over a billion people and a millenium of history).

But if anything, the actual variation is disappointingly limited, boring even.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
People can believe in what they want.
Definitely.

They can not, however, expect in good faith that other people will feel any duty to protect or support their beliefs just because.

Particularly, when those beliefs exert other forms of significant demand from other people.
 

The_Fisher_King

Trying to bring myself ever closer to Allah
Premium Member
It's been awhile since they were around. I remember them well in the 1980s. It was an example. Yes, someone getting in your face and refusing to let you by such as an anti-abortion protesters outside of a medical clinic. ..or worse, blowing it up and shooting anyone who goes inside.

Barring gay marriage, barring or severely limiting abortion, drug laws. All have a basis in religion. In the case of the gay marriage ban, it was in conflict with the 14th Amendment.

Then on both scores, I am with you.
 

The_Fisher_King

Trying to bring myself ever closer to Allah
Premium Member
Hardly.

It just turns out that Islaam, despite a lot of effort to present itself (and to be presented by non-Muslims) as highly heterogeneous, actually is not.

One would expect a lot of variation in any comparable group (well over a billion people and a millenium of history).

But if anything, the actual variation is disappointingly limited, boring even.

There are some basic cornerstones to the religion, to be sure. If you are missing variation even in the basic cornerstones, then the religion ceases to be. What kind of variation would you expect to see in Islam that would still mean that one could plausibly call the religion Islam?

But to the point I was addressing, not all of us would view atheism in the same terms as paarsurrey.
 
Top