Fun thread. I'll add my 2 cents: The root of the problem goes beyond the idiocy of any religion and can be found quite simply in the tit-for-tat basis of human-human interaction. We've got a perfect example right here--several in fact. Were I not into culture jamming memes, I'd hazard a metaphysical hypothesis in ruff agreement with Heraclitus' (remember the out stretched bow?) Anyway, .... from my rather unread perspective (read BA/MA in Philosophy) Islam is in a sort of funk--it's stymied itself from the natural progression of religions to become irrelevent. Look at Europe, there's a very real sense there that Christianity is defunct. Islam on the other hand not so and that's because it's strangled-off its own intellectual component whereby scholars--many of which tend to be liberal in their faith and understanding of tradition--foster an atmosphere of challenging and evolving the status quo. As a document, I really don't see it as being much different from the Code of Hamurabi vis a vis if you do this then that. If you do harm in this way this is what the code prescribes et cetera, et cetera. A healthy, thriving intellectual tradition would naturally challenge the outlandish religious claims of the document and seek to find more current interpretations of key moral teachings, for instance, in light of human societies natural progression away from the ethereal and preposterous to the rather bleak and realist landscape of modern society. Ahh hah! But not so in a culture where there is no such tradition. I sort of like to think of Islamic philosophy in the sense of having no center or left, just right and far right. Imagine for yourself if in this country (Read the Good Ole US of A) if all the people who professed to be Chrisiian were only right or FAR right. It wouldn't really matter where in middle they were. Do you get it? That's Islam, today.
For the record, per this debate, I gotta side with Ernest.
