(July 14, 2020 at 8:12 am)Grandizer Wrote: think part of it is some people tend to view religion as this fixed set of predetermined beliefs and ideals that cannot be molded by individuals and societies that incorporate it. For them, Islam (for example) is the set of beliefs that include such statements as encouraging hand-chopping and any belief that contradicts such statements is not part of Islam but derived from something external to it.
Yes, this is a good point.
Religions evolve and grow, like anything else. And a big one, like Christianity or Islam, is full of such different versions that there is very little we can say that is true of all of them.
As always, it is unfortunate that so many people look at such a large and diverse group and declare that its worst members are its essence.