Quote:All I can do is point you at the texts. There are story after story of how Mohammad does some horrific thing, and when his followers question how this can be morally tolerable, he makes a statement of how this is God's will to humiliate the infidels. I'm paraphrasing, but that is what I read from it.Whereas, when God commands Moses to butcher the male inhabitants of a city, but take the women, children and cattle as plunder, that's just a mistake of hermeneutics? When King David takes eight wives, that's culture? When Paul tells us that women should be utterly silent and subservient, we're just maybe not understanding him right? When Jesus tells us that he's the son of God, and that the world is coming to an end immediately (like, 2000 years ago immediately), we're to be charitable about the state of his mental health?
I don't object to the idea that the Koran is filled with violence, or that Mohammed said and did things that would be utterly unacceptable in our society, or even most societies. I believe I've said as much. My point is that this is true of basically all religious text, even the "peaceful" ones. Read in context, they're a mishmash of mythology, history, and philosophy, appropriate to their time and place, suitably edited by subsequent generations for their own purposes. Read out of context, they're the rantings of a bunch of lunatics which have to be heavily redacted to glean even the smallest bit of helpful sense for our current existence.
-Jester
(Edit: In deference to the "son of God" controversy, if you're theologically touchy on the subject, substitute "sent by God." Doesn't make much difference.)