In Reply to: Re: ...ok...with old age you loose much of the ability to read posted by Farmer on November 20, 2009 at 15:25:58:
I can buy into the general ideas. It's when I look too closely that every rationale tends to fall apart. Every philosophy seems to be full of holes when examined too closely. I can appreciate the spirit of what is being taught, but not the finer details.
Take Islam for example. I can appreciate the idea of all humanity under one God, the finality and simplicity in submission to the will of Allah, the brotherhood of man where we are all equal under God, the stance against idolatry and the depiction of God and the prophets. I can even get something out of reading the Qu'ran.
But look closer at how Islam is practised, and it is really about Arab cultural imperialism: everyone must learn to read the Qu'ran in Arabic, pray in Arabic, visit Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage at least once a lifetime, pray facing a city in Saudi Arabia. They claim to be against idolatry but in reality pray facing a monolith, the Black Stone, and they circle it on the Haj. There may be a brotherhood, but there isn't much of a sisterhood because women have been traditionally disempowered in Arab culture, not even being allowed to have a driving license. () And they may all claim to be equal under God, but there are class systems intact, and descendents of Mohammed are especially revered.