The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #85850 Message #1595005
Posted By: Lonesome EJ
01-Nov-05 - 11:17 AM
Thread Name: BS: Muslim Violence
Subject: RE: BS: Muslim Violance
Carol said "The Christian religion does not have any "long standing tradition of separation of church and state" as a paraphrase of what I said.
That's not at all what I said. I said "in most Western democracies" (meaning the United States and the European and South American democratic republics which followed shortly after)"there is a long-standing (since 1781)tradition of separation of church and state". The founders who established the government of the United States set up a system that would be free of the influence of religion. They had as a negative example the dominating influence in England of the Church of England, and in France, Spain, and Italy the influence of the Catholic Church.
I would never say that the Christian Religion has such a tradition, and believe it to be quite the opposite.
As to this....
"LEJ, if you mean that you think extremist fundamentalist Islam is the greatest threat to humanity today, I think it would be a very good idea to make sure you communicate exactly that, and that you don't make blanket condemnations of "the Muslim religion". I know you can understand the distinction that I am making... the distinction between the statement, "the Muslim religion is the greatest threat to humanity today", and "extremist fundamentalist Islam is the greatest threat to humanity today", and why it is so very, very important to enunciate these distinctions"
What I believe is that most "moderate" religious practitioners are primarily rational humanists, and by clinging to the more mystical, mythological elements of their respective godbooks, they aid and abet their more fundamentalist brethren in their twisted thinking, and are thus complicit in their actions. The Muslim Religion, therefore, because of this, and because of their inherent need to put their god in their government, is in my opinion, the greatest danger to man's continued existence. It is, simply, the most aggressive current strain of a virus called religious belief. Therefore, I stand by my statement, while agreeing that the fundamentalist segment is the primary problem.