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Where do you draw the line?
Can a person be completely un-observant, follow 0% of the tenets of their faith, break every rule and still call themselves a practicing member of that religion?
Yeah but at the same time not following the more important guidelines does make claims about being a certain religion dubious.
You don't have to live in Edingburgh to be a Scotsman, sure, but you do have to live in Scotland.
Satan, look! (amazon list updated)
IOW, the Abrahamic faiths have a strong tradition in believing that God intentionally obfuscates things for the lulz, and the straightforward reading of a text is not necessarily the only one.
Also, there's no hijab in the Qur'an, and no death penalty for adultery either.
Yes you seem quite afraid to draw any lines, but you're quick to jump all over someone who suggests that someone who doesn't act like a proper muslim may, in fact, just maybe, be a full of shit person claiming to be a muslim.
As if there has never been any instances of foolish people claiming to be something they really aren't. Happens all the time.
So which sects allow eating pork and sleeping around?
I don't really see how setting a particular definition is useful, because the whole exercise will eventually devolve into shifting goalposts to suit the observer or the observed. I generally view it as a "I'll know it when I see it" situation (yes yes, I know it's arbitrary and is what I just said wasn't useful). If you want to be truly objective, though, then you'd view people who aren't perfectly observant as being observant except on issues X, Y, and Z.
This is pretty dumb, Christianity pre-dates the bible. Furthemore, the idea of literal adherence to the bible is a pretty recent development put forth by protestants.
Wait, so your objection to Islam is that it doesn't permit eating pork or sleeping around? I thought we were talking about oppression of women.
oh wow.
I like how they say that while men have the right to marry multiple women, they don't have to so it's all good.
Technically, to be Christian all you really have to do is believe that Christ is the son of God who died to save humanity from its sins, and to be truly penitent for all of your sins. The rest of the bible's strictures pretty much boil down to how you ought to live your life. You can ignore these completely and, so long as you meet those bare minimums upon death, you're still a Christian and are getting into heaven.
Being religious doesn't mean you're 100% faithful and observant. It never has meant that.
Are you thinking I'm making an argument I'm not making?
You presume I'm objecting to Islam at all (any moreso than I object to organized religions in general, which I do, they're all pretty awful).
I'm actually objecting to the idea that anyone can claim to be a member of a religion even if they don't adhere to any of the tenets of it.
It bothers me.
No, but you're knowledgeable about Islam. I keep seeing a particular argument tossed around that there are oh so many sects of Islam, as if somewhere out there I'll find Islamic sects who believe in a rainbow unicorn deity and practice routine orgies.
I kind of suspect that there is substantial common ground between the various sects, and that some people are exaggerating the amount of latitude that Muslims have in certain areas (food and alcohol being chief among them, I have absolutely never met a Muslim who ate pork or drank alcohol).
Thanks for clarifying. I honestly wasn't certain what you were trying to get at, before.
No, there's no sect that says eating pork or drinking alcohol is okay, but there are sects that place less emphasis on the hellfire-and-brimstone and as a result trend towards more lenience where you might find more Muslims doing those things and not stoning one another to death. The Ismailis, for example, don't allow those things per se, but one might drink socially.
My point was more about the specifics I addressed, namely that certain things associated with Islam can still be fiercely debated and are not explicit in the text, such as hijab (and the requirements thereof). Other things we come to think of as inherently Islamic, such as stoning, FGM, etc. are not even found in the Qur'an but come from hadith and scholarly interpretation, and have come under particularly fierce scrutiny in the scholarly community these days.
Like the famous wife-beating verse, there's discussion as to what exactly the verb that has historically been translated as "to beat" actually means (the argument is that it can be used to mean "to separate"). That for 1500 years Muslim men have been taught it's okay to hit their wives (with a toothbrush, lol, as if that nullifies anything, I agree) is undoubtedly an issue, but that doesn't mean that every Muslim man hits his wife, or that the Muslim community isn't still hashing this issue out.
I'm just trying to get that sort of thing across.
This is rather as I expected, thank you for pointing this out to me.
You see I knew already that there was substantial disagreement over dress codes and death penalty in Islam, so yes obviously the religion is not all in lockstep with one another. I just knew that there were areas of, shall we say, rock-hard theology that aren't reasonably open to debate, such as the dietary restrictions and alcohol, praying towards Mecca and so forth. The only Muslims I've been friends with have been converts, and converts tend to be extra-observant compared to people raised in a religion (not always the case, but it's true enough most of the time) so I wasn't sure where the commonalities started to splinter off into matters of sectarian interpretation.
It's always seemed to me that religion was like language. There is no "correct" form of any particular religion, just the different things people do.
Assuming your approaching it empirically anyway.
More important guidelines, sure, but every single one? Bullshit. nstf is wrong, as always.
I also like "Don't be chaste with your slaves or wives."
Answer: It's silly to be chaste with your wife, I mean really.
That one got really got away from you there, didn't it sport
SODOMISE INTOLERANCE
Tide goes in. Tide goes out.
So, it's ok to fuck the help?
what? no.
i put forward the notion, that claiming a devout follower of a religion needs to adhere to his holy scriptures word for word, is ridiculous.
Satan, look! (amazon list updated)
That's fine.
I am putting forward the notion, that merely claiming to be a particular religion doesn't make that so.
Well, then they should rewrite their book, again, so they can actually go about doing gods will and not have to worry about thrown in jail for truly following it. Let's get someone on that, I nominate the pope.
No, the law works fine for that.
They're different. I couldn't tell you how but Christians being able to choose what "Being Christian" means (as opposed to...say, a bunch of random guys on the net) vs the government (society?) defining "Convicted Felons" for the group just makes sense.
Probably on a definite vs abstract sort of way. To be a Convicted Felon you have to be judged as a Felon and then Convicted. Bam.
Being Christian? I guess the same logic can apply, you need to be...Christian? Who's on the authority to decide here?
(Sorry, the post kind of followed a thought process)
Here's a thought, the Bible, like most dense and ancient texts, is chock full of contradictions and its up to the believer what they follow.
Really though, who are you on authority to say "Sorry, you don't follow the book to a T. Not a Christian!"
You're perfectly free to say it but it doesn't make it true and if you weren't on a forum discussing this, everyone would just ignore you anyways.
Also, the Pope is the authority figure for Catholics. Christ, being the authority figure for Christians (also, dead if existed at all) would have to have a say in the matter to get the Christian side to agree.
Then the Mormons would have a fit.
Changing the bible isn't easy anymore.
Their book wasn't designed to be either a field manual or a rule book. By insisting they follow it like one, all you do is come across as an idiot.
They are? I thought Christian dictated that you follow Christ.
Catholics follow mary and god.
What the fuck?
Yeah who is this guy then
You could correct me if I'm wrong here, it would help a lot more.
Christians: Follow Christ as their Messiah. Have several different sects, etc.
Catholics: Follow Mary, God and the Holy Ghost (holy trinity). Have seperate schools so they can teach religion. Also has nuns and follows the Pope.
That's Jesus from Dogma.
They do BELIEVE in Jesus, they just don't revere him as the christians do.
Mary and the Saints are more prevelant in Catholicism and they do in general spend a little less time talking about Jesus than American style Protestants do, but to say they don't follow him is incorrect.
The cross is the symbol of the Church after all.
See post above.
Where does he sit in the heiarchy then? I'm honestly curious. Do catholics actually pray to Jesus like the Christians do?
No. Catholics follow Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit as God in the Holy Trinity. Catholics believe in Mary, mother of Jesus, as a revered saint and to whom they can pray in intercessory prayer (like other saints). The Pope is the head bishop of the Church which is the rock upon which the authority to interpret and guide the Church is derived.
Edit: and yes, Catholics pray to Jesus!
The sign of the cross, which the Catholics use to begin and end prayers, is recited: "In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."