Quote:
Originally Posted by GurnBlanston
I think these things can be used to do good or evil but, you can't build something out of nothing. I guess my point is that regardless of Religion's abstractness, you must accredit the deeds to the people. There is no way to police religion, but we can definately police the religious the way we police any other citizen. We have standards that stand apart from dogma that in a consensus we agree are bad (murder, rape, etc) and we should maintain those according to the harm it creates and not because some book says so. Ultimately, religion can only be a guide. Even in a Theocracy, it's still guide for the men that create and enforce the Law.
|
I would agree that it is individuals we must hold accountable, not the books they read. Though none would doubt that books have serious influence. Certainly we have the notion of the "bad idea", or "good idea"; we do accredit values to ideas. But ultimately it is a synergy between belief and believer that creates the values.
Standards we hold as universal become confused when looked at through the lens of particular belief systems as exemplified by Sharia Law demanding the stoning of rape victims and other such practices.
It is easy to say that such practices are simply a misinterpretation of the book. But we never say it is a misinterpretation when the outcome seems "good".