Yes, we are often intolerant of others.
We also have differing levels of education.
Both can be resolved with non-religious solutions.
..so Muhammad, peace be with him, was sincere but deluded?
No one can say for sure. All we can do is examine the Quran, what he wrote, and what he believed, and make an assessment. Those who lived in times before science and reason, with the exception of the Greeks, had views that were superstitious and made assumptions that a supernatural exists and is the cause of what exists and how it functions. So perhaps in the 8th century what Muhammed believed was the best he could do without modern knowledge. It isn't fair to judge those from the past for having beliefs that are determined wrong or flawed with assumptions with modern perspectives.
The question is why modern people believe in these concepts and texts. The easy answer is cultural evolution that has allowed these ideas to be passed on to next generations, and those offspring maintain the beliefs. In many Muslim countries we are seeing citizens wanting freedoms beyond what the religious tradition allows, and thses citizens face imprisonment and execution. The world condemns these religious/cultural traditions that are obsolete in modern sensibility. Out of curiosity, do you support the revolution in Iran? Do you think the citizens have a right to oppose the harsh leadership of Iran, and challenge their hardline Muslim authority?
..yet many rational people do, including doctors and other highly educated people. It cannot just be explained by "tradition" .. many educated people have a fair knowledge of Islam, and do not reject it.
Right. It's called compartamentalism. It's where people can be skilled thinkers about some things, and suspend reasoning where it comes to ideas that involve culture, identity, conformity, etc. We have discussed this already.
But those who are determined to hold rational understnading about all things in life, they do reject the influences of irrational social and cultural beliefs, and examine concepts with an independent mind. I've known many very smart people who believed in their religious tradition. Some admit they don't really believe in God but will go to serivices for the sake of tradition and family. Heck even I went to church with a girl I dated many years ago.
Let's look at Obama as an example. He is a very smart and well educated person and has discussed his religious faith. I'm a little surprised he's a believer, but I suspect his belief is more around family and community. Obama understood the separation of church and state, and his political views were very secular. Contrast this with many republicans who seldom, if ever, talk about their faith yet hold very religious-influenced poiltical policies, namely on abortion rights. The last three Supreme Court justices were picked for their religious/political views. They are supposed to be secular, but it is very apparent they are not, and they were picked for their religious views. Their plan worked, they overturned Roe v. Wade.
So being educated and highly religious can be a problem. One of my uncles is a chemist and very religious, actually believing in creationism. It was at their house that I learned of creationism because they had books about it. I was in high school and I laughed at these books thinking they were parodies, as one book had a cover that showed dinosaurs and humans living at the same time. No, they took it seriously. My unclue's religious beliefs cost him some advancement opportunities, and they moved quite a few times for new jobs. He did well financially, but the whole family knew they were having trouble in that one area. So being smart, having an education, does not correspond to being able to assess religious concepts objectively when there is social influence at play.
Yes. They have different origins.
Is this all you have to say? I asked if all texts have validity at face value to your mind. If you dont want to answer my questions just don't ansewer.
..so you believe that Muhammad was deluded? He only thought that the revelations he had were from God, but really it was his subconscious mind playing tricks on him .. and Muslims are all fooled by this?
I answered about Muhammad above. The human mind is not a machine, it is subject to social influences, drugs, illness, emotions, available resources, stress, etc. We can't diagnose Muhammad but his views can be said not to be factual or valid if written today. The only thing that gives the Quran significance is billions of believers who were either conditioned to believe, or found the religion a better alternative to what they were used to. Is Islam the truth? Not any more than Hinduism or Judaism. Religions don't exist as statements of fact, but as literature that offers meaning to many folks seeking some form of connection.
No. it isn't.
Faith is strenghened by observing the ritual worship that never ceases .. and the light that comes on people's faces as a result.
This doesn't rebut what I stated. Religion does activate the reward centers of believer's brains, this is a fact revealed in fMRI and pet scans. What you describe here is a result of your learned religious behavior, and it is satisfying in part due to how the human brain evolved to experience ritual.
Many people believe that Jesus, peace be with him, was not fraudulent or deluded. They believe that he was who he says he was. i.e. sent by God [the Father]
Yup, people believe in all sorts of non-factual and irrational concepts.
The human brain is not a machine. It is a biological instrument that has a overly functioning fight or flight fear mechanism and this has caused us trouble in making consistently sound judgments. Look at the many MAGAs who got caught up in Trump's lie about election fraud, and they went so far with their belief that they broke into congress on Jan 6, 2021. Over 800 have been arrested and are facving jail time, some as high as 7 years. Many of these folks NOW realize they were duped by Trump. Of course the fault is not Trump, but why these people allowed themselves to believe such stupid claims that Trump presented to them. This illustrates how our brains are willing to be deceived, and will be complicit with the deception for reasons that are satifying to the self.
Nobody has to believe something "in their heart". They either believe the Qur'an is from God, or they don't.
And we critical thinkers can't believe any of it because we are requiring facts, and there is not sufficient evidence.
Well, quite.
I think "Divinely inspired" means that the authors are sincere and do not lie. It doesn't necessarily mean that the authors beliefs must be inerrant.
That is an exceptionally low standard. A person can be ignorant but sincere, so what they write must be divine.
This low stndard seems to me an excuse for you to assign the Quran divinity, and thus worthy to interpret at face value.
Do you think the Uriantia book is divine? It is over 2000 pages of great detail about other planets, other beings in the universe, about Jesus, etc.
