If ISIS Is Not Islamic, then the Inquisition Was Not Catholic

New Republic.com ^ | 09/15/2014 | Jerry A. Coyne

[SeekAndFind]

[SNIP]

Well, if ISIS is not Islamic, then the Inquisition was not Catholic. The fact is that there are no defensible criteria for whether a faith is “true,” since all faiths are man-made and accrete doctrine—said to come from God, but itself man-made—that becomes integral to those faiths. Whatever “true faith” means, it doesn’t mean “the right religion: the one whose God exists and whose doctrines are correct.” If that were so, we wouldn’t see Westerners trying to tell us what “true Islam” is.

No, if “true” means anything, it must mean “true to some principles.” As far as I can see, there are only two such principles: true to scripture or true to some code of conduct that the writer approves. But these definitions often contradict each other, so no “true” religion can be specified.

First, the truest religion could be that which sticks the closest to scripture. In that case the “truest” Christianity and Judaism would be literalist and fundamentalist. They would adhere to the creationism set out in Genesis, as well as to the immoral behaviors sanctioned by God in the Old Testament. These include killing those children who curse their parents, as well as adulterers and those who work on the Sabbath. Although these are clear moral dictates of God, no modern Christians or Jews obey them, for the rules are reprehensible. Nevertheless, there is a case to be made that a fundamentalist Southern Baptist is a “truer Christian” than a liberal Unitarian, and a misogynist Orthodox Jew a truer believer than a modern reform Jew.

You can cherry-pick the Qur’an as easily as you can the Bible, for both are filled with calls for violence and genocide that distress us.

[Tzfat]

Every time you show that you have apparently never read a single book or article about the topic you’re posting about I win.

Typical. You assume that your word is proof enough, but demand a different standard for your debaters. In a debate, you lose. In real life you lose, because the entire world (except some whacky RC purists) knows the Inquisition was Catholic.

[Kandy Atz]

If my last post seemed rude, I apologize. Let me try one last time to diffuse this.

My original post was never about establishing a definitive date for the start or end of the dark ages - that was your focus. I took offense to the abrupt tone, the degree dropping, and then telling me I need to read more. I should have ignored it.

I responded to a post suggesting that without the crusades, we would all be speaking Arabic. I disagree. Here was the key paragraph:

In my opinion, the crusades had little military significance in stopping Muslim expansion. The muslims reached their highwater mark in Western Europe (Spain & Southern France) 300 years before the first crusade, finally defeated in France by Charles Martel. And they were at the gates of Vienna (Ottoman Empire 1683) long after the last crusaders had left the Holy Land at the end of the 13th century.

You are welcome to agree or disagree. But IMHO, the crusades had little military significance in stopping the spread of islam further into Europe for the reasons listed above. The rest of the post was a general observation of what freedom (both religious and political) can do for a nation, which seems rather obvious when you look at the growth in Europe, and the rapid decline in muslim lands, leading to the colonization of many of them by the European powers just a short time later. Again, you may agree or disagree, it is merely an opinion. It was not a dissertation on dark ages, reform, military history, or anything else you may have imagined.

[vladimir998]

“Typical. You assume that your word is proof enough, but demand a different standard for your debaters.”

Typical. You assume that your baseless claims which are based on nothing at all apparently.

“In a debate, you lose.”

You never showed up for a debate. If you have not studied these things, then you know nothing about them.

“In real life you lose, because the entire world (except some whacky RC purists) knows the Inquisition was Catholic.”

Show me where I denied the inquisition was Catholic? The inquisition was a Roman invention used by bishops and then the papacy. If you’re going to accuse me of something at least get your facts straight.