Quote:
Originally Posted by elphenor
the fact that there's radically different interpretations of the same religion indicates that culture morphs religion moreso than anything
so maybe I misspoke in attributing it all to politics, history and culture matter although these things are largely determined by politics
religion however seems to me to be simply window dressing
and all 3 of the major monotheistic religions are practically identical in my eyes with the practice of each being determined by the predominate region of the world in which they're popular
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There are different interpretations of any religion, political ideology, or cultural norm for that matter.
The problem with shifting the emphasis to culture while down playing religion is that religion actually plays a massive role in shaping culture.
Especially with regard to Islam. Islam is probably the biggest single source of cultural impact on the current Muslim world in the last 2000 years. It's the reason that Arabic is spoken widely outside of Saudi Arabia.
Conversely, Arab Bedouin culture went a long way in terms of shaping Islam. That's once again why Arabic is spoken so widely. Why the Quran is only considered to be in its pure form when in Arabic; many Muslims who don't speak Arabic still opt to learn to recite the Quran in Arabic without actually understanding the words rather than read a translation.
It's the reason that Western converts to the religion often change their names to something Arabic and wear clothes based on Arabian culture.
Also, I don't understand why liberal defenders of Islam somehow find it "less racist" to say that these people stone adulterers based on their "culture" rather than based on their religion. So it's alright to condemn a culture but not a religion? It's a poorly thought out form of apologetics.
As for the major 3 abrahamic faiths being identical.. not quite but they are similar in many ways. The main distinction is that most jews and Christians stopped following their holy books so closely where as the Muslim world is still keeping it real. Really real.