Mycernius
The Hairy Wookie
Neither is christianity, especially catholism, or Judaism. Of the top of my head there are only really a couple of major religions that are constrainted by national borders being Jains and Shinto. Ask the Sikhs in your local area if they are more Sikhs than English. I know for a fact that some see themselves as Sikh first, then english. Some even don't see themselves as english first, despite being born in this country.I write that Islam is a theocracy because Islam is not constrained by national borders.
And yet there are islamic countries that are not theocracies and base their ideals on democracy and human rights rather than the sayings of a arabic warlord. But let us see what the definition of a theocracy is:Because of this differentiation between the concepts that we have regarding the make up of the world and the Islamic view so I state (correctly) that Islam is a Theocracy.
Well that covers islam, christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, et alhttp://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=theocracy said:theocracy (a political unit governed by a deity (or by officials thought to be divinely guided))
theocracy (the belief in government by divine guidance)
What else do we have:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocracy
Wikipedia gives us three current theocracies in the world, two of them islamic, one of them christian. It strikes me you are trying to redefine theocracy to suit your own needs.
I call christianity a cult of Judasim. All religions are cults of one form or another. Islam is no different to any other. But shall we look at the definition of the word religion:Islam is a religion only in the broad use of the word. Islam is very much more, much closer to a cult than a religion.
Not trying to redefine words again are you because as far as I can see all religion fall under this definition, including islam.http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/ said:•a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality"
•an institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own faith contradicted him"
I atke it you are not familiar with orthodox Judasim? That also gives them a set of rules which they follow from birth to death. Same with strict buddhists. Yet I know plenty of muslims that do not follow the letter of the law as told by islam.Islam dictates every aspect of life from birth to death and even the way that a Mohammedan wipes his backside, which hand to use, how many stones (yeugh!) to use, and even what to do with them afterwards.
As does christianity, mormonism and scientology.The religious, perhapse “theist” part of Islam is what binds the whole thing together by threat and promise.
Ermm, yes it does, just because people don't follow the message as they should it is founded on religious principles.Christianity does NOT have a religion at its core.
Oh dear, using no true scotmans fallacy.At least true Christianity and not Christian churches such as the Roman Catholic church that is a singularly un-Christian organisation (reach for my tin hat!) that has Christianity at its core
Again, I call bollocks on that. The very idea of democracy predates christianity. Are you saying that rape, murder and stealing are a result of judeo-christian laws? These same morals that were used to condone slavery? yet there are not rules or morals that condemn peadophillia in biblical texts, yet we hate it. The problem is that crime rates and religious priciples do not match. Japan, a non-christian country, has one of the lowest murder rates in the world. What are there morals based on, because they have no judeo-christian roots?Our Western democracies do have Judeo-Christianity at the core of our democracies, not the rules and commandments of these religions, but the basic morality.
We evolved them, as did every other countriy in the world, but not because of religious ideals, but, as you mentioned, by becoming more secularised. In other words we removed the religion from morality and made society better.Our cultures have evolved with these moralities about not stealing, not killing, not lying, not doing things that cause social or family disruption, and the very strength of our democracy has resulted in our societies now for the most part becoming politically secular while retaining the decency and values we take for granted and assume others do also.
Your point being?I wonder how many people realise that lying in Islam is not only permitted but advised under certain circumstances?
A person of dubious existance and has many attributes you would find in pagan religions. See here for comparisons with Horus. Also with Sol Invictus and MithraismIs Christianity a warped and plagiarised religion, a mish mash of misunderstood twisted and even deliberately distorted things that provide the stick and the carrot to impose and excuse discipline on those caught up in? No. Christianity is following the teaching of Christ and believing in him as a personal saviour
Again with the No true scotmans fallacy. I'd expect this from a theist.Most self proclaimed Christian churches, now that’s a different matter. Many if not most are distinctly un-Christian.
Good.:cool-v:Am I a Christian? No. I’m a dyed in the wool “hard” atheist.
Every theists cherry picks from his holy book, from sikhs that smoke to hindus that eat beef to muslims that drink.Cherry picking from the “holy” books.
Funny, seing most to the quran is plagurised from the bible.To start with it’s utterly misleading to think of The Bible as being in the same category as the Koran.
I have read the damn thing.The former is a very politically biased collection of separate books assembled in the case of the OT generally in time order, and the NT a series of accounts, most non contemporary of what they describe followed by a series of commentaries and letters from Paul. In order to make much sense of the OT, especially the Pentateuch, it’s necessary to read it in context with events taking place at the same time.
Still is as far as most religious christians are concerned. Then there are the Fred Phelps in this world. (I wonder if he was sexually abused as a boy?)That, for example, explains why early on in the Bible homosexuality was strictly forbidden, and yet later on when time has passed and circumstances changed David and Jonathan were plainly at it like knives
But is also a book with basic social ideals in it that improve the lot of the people at the time that lived in the arabian pennisular. You might not agree on the rights women have according to the quran, but it was a lot better than the rights (bugger all) they had before. Women in the arabian pennisular before islam were nothing more than property, no better than cattle.The Koran on the other hand is very different. For one thing it is not (usually) presented in time order, for another it is not intended as a history,
Just as christians do with the bible. How many times has a christian said to you that they don't use the OT because Jebus changed all of that, despite Jebus saying "I come not to change the law, but to enforce it".and for a third it is intended to be remembered and recited and above all to BE cherry picked from.
At least the bibles contradictions are in some sort of orderWhat is also worth note is that when the various sura are assembled in time sequence what emerges is a mass of contradictions, of changes to suit Mohammed’s needs and wants, and even some big time embarrassments
Boy oh boy, a prophet pulls something out of his arse. Well, that has never happened before.Embarrassments such as the Gharaniq business that are now known as the Satanic verses, things that Mohammed rapidly pulled out when it was pointed out they ran counter to his claims about his “Allah”.
If they followed the teachings of chrsit they would be mixed up and crazy people. Hang on...Christian extremists who deliberately kill? If these people actually followed the teaching of Christ there is no way while they’ve got a hole where the sun don’t shine they would, or for that matter COULD do the things that they do.
Unless you are a witch.If they followed the teaching of their religion they simply could not,
Mohammad was a good example of power corrupts. Read the early suras and he made a lot of social reforms. After his "spat" with Mecca did he become a little more bloody and paranoid. You know I can't think of anywhere in the bible where the hebrews kill, rape and slaughter all non-jews? /sarcasm off.and yet if the teaching of the Koran is followed, especially when the Hadith are used as examples of what Mohammed did and said, there can be every justification to kill the infidel. Especially if we draw a picture of Mohammed satirising him because of what his followers get up to
Once again I ask why do you use the old forum of Mohammadan for Muslim, a term that dropped out of general usage by 1960?