Quote:
Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
Just Sunnis and Shiites and Wahabbists (?) .... there is no monolithic entity that controls it all either. Their may not be a hierarchy, but there are no important figures who can single handedly pronounce anything for Islam either.
|
Don't forget Bahai...
Quote:
|
Well ... yes, I guess nothing about religious fundamentalists make sense ... except to other religious fundamentalists.
|
Lots of aspects of cultures don't make sense to outsiders, and you need to dig a bit to get an idea of why they exist and what purpose they serve. Take the prohibition against eating pork shared by Jews
and Muslims. Why does it exist? The best explanation I've seen is simple: Both Jews and Arabs originated in Palestine, an area that is semi-arid. Pigs are a tempting animal to raise, because "you can use every part of the pig except the squeal", but they simply require too much water. How do you prevent people from doing something very attractive in the short term that will be damaging long term? One way is "Because
God said not to!"
Quote:
|
Sort of a Torah/Talmud kind of thing ... except that it would be like Moses being the one who first stated the Talmudic law??
|
That was the impression I got, though I think the Hadiths are considered closer to "holy writ" in Islam, and serve a somewhat different function.
I think of Talmud less as a religious document (though parts of it concern religion), and more in the nature of "This is a collection of things we've learned as a people over several thousand years about how we should deal with other people and the world around us." Depending on the precise topic, G-d may or may not enter into it.
Quote:
|
Well, that sounds reasonable. Actually, from what I've read of Mohammad, he seems like he was a pretty decent guy. The one story I remember hearing (from when I was really little) was that Mohammad loved his cat so much, that one day, while he was talking to his followers, there was a call to prayer. Well, his cat was sleeping on his robe ... so he asked one of the men to run and get a knife. He then took the knife and carefully cut the robe off around the cat ... leaving kitty comfortably sleeping, so he could go to pray.
|
I think it's reasonable, too, and I think followers of all religions need to bear in mind that the world was a different place back when their scriptures originated, and take time, place, and context into account when interpreting the scriptures.
______
Dennis