Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 13:29:49 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Religions (was Re: helping victims of terror) Message-ID: <20011004132949.D16297@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20011003210717.0442cb20@localhost>; from brett@lariat.org on Wed, Oct 03, 2001 at 09:18:09PM -0600 References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010924170815.0180aee8@threespace.com> <20010925001027.A750@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20011003210717.0442cb20@localhost>
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Brett Glass said on Oct 3, 2001 at 21:18:09: > http://www.secularislam.org/call.htm > > and > > http://www.secularislam.org/wtc2.htm Well, it's not the first time that I've read these views, but it's the first time I've read them expressed by Muslims. I think it's appropriate that the authors give, as an example of a peace-loving religion, Buddhism and not Christianity. Christianity has become modernised by permitting questioning of the Bible and rejecting parts of it; if you believe the Bible is the literal truth, not only will your views be medieval and somewhat barbaric, but they may to large extents be self-contradictory. Islam must start to develop the same sort of worldview, emphasise the positive aspects of the Koran and ignore the unpalatable parts. It is certainly possible. In India, starting from a few hundred years ago and to some extent until today, strains of Islam (Sufism, etc) developed that were strongly influenced by Hindu thought and were quite multicultural and non-violent in nature; the tombs (dargahs) of some of these Sufi saints are, even today, pilgrimage centres for both Muslims and Hindus. The most famous is that of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer. I admire Buddhism because its founder encouraged questioning and scepticism from the start, did not talk about God, discouraged rituals, worship and belief in miracles and omens, and emphasised only correctness of one's actions and compassion towards other living creatures. I'm particularly astonished that, 2500 years ago, he rejected astrology; at that time, not much was known of modern science and astronomy, and for all anyone knew the stars could indeed have been up there to guide our lives. But the Buddha found the metaphysical objections to this sufficient to reject it. He said that it is only our actions that determine the future, and not the stars or omens or prayers. Today in the 21st century, it is still hard to persuade the majority of the world's people of this. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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