(September 11, 2016 at 4:30 am)Arkilogue Wrote: What does it matter what a person believes if the practice of it produces no harm and even some benefits?But can a religion survive if none of its practitioners inflict any harm? I imagine that if all Christians and Muslims at this moment decided that from here on out they would practice their faith in a truly benign way, which is to say, they would no longer give preferential treatment to the ancient stories to the point that all other knowledge is, by definition, secondary, and, where conflict appears to arise, distorted, incorrect, etc.; if they abandoned the presumption that each word in their holy texts is infallibly true; if they demanded reason and evidence for the claims made in their books as they do for any other proposition of a similar nature, and remained opened to revising their opinions where facts or probabilities suggested otherwise; if they instilled within their children a curiosity to hear opposing viewpoints where there are credible arguments to be made; in a word, if they became less dogmatic, could they even call themselves Christians or Muslims in such a way that is consistent with the spirit and letter of the Pentateuch/Gospel/Koran? I'm doubtful.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza