But Bla, you've got to consider, there are also people out there (like me ^.^) who don't believe in divine magic (if that's what it's called),
I don't deny that at all
we believe religion doesn't exactly mean what it says, that religion is just a big metaphor.
Like God doesn't directly intervene with the Universe, but has created the initial Big Bang in a certain way so all of things he wanted to happen would happen. You see what I'm saying?
Yes, but that raises more problems. For example:
- If your god is good, why does it not directly intervene in the universe to prevent innocent people from suffering? How can it sit by and watch world wars unfold and millions of innocent people get oppressed and killed?
- Why did it create the initial Big Bang in this certain way, that would inevitably result in all the suffering we see on Earth? It was omniscient, so it knew it would happen, it was omnipotent, so it was capable of preventing it, and if it is also omnibenevolent, it would have prevented it, and thus is incompatible with the universe we see. In creating a universe where natural disasters are inevitably bound to kill innocent lives, we can see what kind of mentality such a god would have. A mentality that isn't concerned with random people dying every day for no reason. That doesn't seem compatible with the presumably "good" gods of many religions at all.
In addition to these issues, there's no evidence for the claim that the universe was created by a god. It simply raises the question, where did the god come from?
And I often see people saying religious books are meant to be taken metaphorically. While I appreciate they don't want to take all the barbaric verses serious, that is really all I can take it for. I don't see any reason why a divine being would be so unclear in its communication that it sends a holy book down to Earth, that so many people end up committing atrocities in the name of. The omniscient god would know this was bound to happen. If it didn't want it to happen, it could've just freaking said what it wanted people to believe in the book.
To me it seems like they just want to bend the meaning of the religion to whatever they themselves feel most comfortable with.
So in the end, while I don't have a problem with people believing the Big Bang was created by a god, whether they want to call it the one from the Bible or Quran or a unicorn, in the end, I don't see the point of it.
A large portion of Muslims are extremists. You shouldn't bias a religion by what it's followers do.
If the religion is based on a holy book created by a presumably pretty clever and almighty god, a large portion of people committing barbaric acts in the name of the book is a sign that the god didn't achieve what it intended with the book. And again - if the god is so almighty and knows the future etc., it knew what the result would be of all its actions and holy books, so I do think a religion of a good god is somewhat incompatible with all these atrocities.
But I agree the religions must ultimately be defined by the text in their holy books and not by what their followers do.
However, I'm not a big fan of all the metaphorical interpretations for the reasons I gave above. When I see the Bible verses, like Leviticus 20:13, I don't make up a fuzzy interpretation for it that feels more comfortable. I read what it says, "a man should not lie with a man as one lies with a woman, if they do, they should be killed", and think "if this stuff can end up in your holy book under supervision of a deity, your religion is plain simply crazy."
I'm not as familiar with the Quran (I know you don't believe in the Bible) but it looks to me like
there are plenty of examples in there that look similar to the stuff in the Bible.
For example, Muslims were never told to shun or kill gays, just not to encourage that (I'm sorry if this offends you >.<)
The Quran isn't as bad as the Bible when it comes to view on homosexuality
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/gay/long.htmlBut from the verses here (click the numbers), I'm still disappointed. Homosexuality isn't unnatural at all (not that I see any reason why it matters).
If it truly wanted to be a good religion, its god should've gotten rid of those verses and written "treat LGBT people as equals". Maybe that'd have made Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taleban and others think twice before killing thousands of LGBT people and actually have made the world a better place (at least on that issue).
I've heard about this atheist guy who was sightseeing at a pond or something, and this priest walks up to him and asks him if he would like to pray at his church (Well of course everyone you run into should be the same religion as you! ). The tourist declines, explaining that he's atheist. Of course, the priest gets mad at him and starts ranting on about creationism shite etc.
But I don't immediately judge people by their religion. When they start acting like that^, I start judging.
Agreed.