Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9602716:


Living Hell 28 2, 4:48pm

@v0ider

No, I'm saying there is no universally accepted standard for what constitutes a 'true' or 'real' member of a religion, as evidenced by the existence of quite a few sects in all of the aforementioned faiths

Also, if your logic is applied consistently, then there are very very few people in this world who could be said to belong to any of the Abrahamic religions (judaism, christianity, islam), because they don't follow the holy book to the letter. Unless your definition of a 'real' member of that religion differs from what I just said. You haven't really been clear on that point, as you've only used vague phrases to define your view. 'Goes against their religion' can mean a lot of things.

You also haven’t commented on anything I’ve said regarding your religion, Christianity. And resorting to an insult, ‘Liberal logic’ doesn’t foster exchange of ideas and sure as hell doesn’t make the insulted party any more likely to reconsider their views.

For the record, I don’t consider myself a liberal. I consider myself a pragmatist. Muslims are comfortably over 10% of the world’s population, and a lot of them are smart, skilled, and/or speak English. That means there’s a significant chance that I’ll meet one, or several, one day who could potentially add something to my life (and I already have). It might be as small as a funny joke or a ride home from a party, or as large as a job opportunity (considering the resources some of those muslim countries have, it’s pretty likely you’ll work with one of them at some point or another too).

Stereotyping entire groups negatively and discriminating accordingly is not only counter to that famous Jesus quote “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, it’s really impractical. And also exhausting. Hatred just isn’t worth the time and effort. I’m not religious, but was raised Christian, and the most important things they taught me in catholic school were “the world isn’t simple” and “follow Jesus’s golden rule” (quoted above).