In Reply to: Re: It's not a question of glossing over though posted by Thinker on November 20, 2009 at 16:02:14:
but there are class systems intact, and descendents of Mohammed are especially revered.
Plus there is this very destructive warfare for who is in better lineage & tradition of Mohammed...meaning at the minimum the quarrel between Shihites and Sunnites
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...
Well, there is enough similarity here with the Catholics...the old Catholics still perform prayers and rites in Latin...prayer/altar fascing the east was/is longstanding tradition...visiting Rome is not mandatory but on the radar of most Catholics or some other pilgrimage-center.
In the old days woman at least covered their hair...letting it grow long & natural...while in church...they totally abandoned that now...except for a few faithful...the Muslims picked up a lot of stuff from either Jews or Christians...and my assumption is, that they are actually some split off of the many Arians in that region.
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.
Well, sir, the problem is though, do we all personally agree to the notion the Bible to (some read: containing)...be the very inspired Word of God...for obviously, if not...they are merely the words of men and can be respected but not necessarily so...all relative...favourite slogan of my generation.
I give you an example where I found out, that I was reading the Bible not with good enough reading "glasses" before...glossing the over...having a twisted view of the scripture & it's meaning...pivotal point is, whether the reading jives with the rest & doesn't become a
"singularity"
I never had a civil wedding and in German you'd call that "wild marriage"...about five years ago
I pondered very heavily about the "formal"/biblical possibility to marry someone divorced, who was really "abused" in marriage.
I looked back and forth at the epistles the gospel...the "exception-clause"...visited literally hundreds of websites and then it dawned on me...Jesus said: in the beginning it was not so...because of the hardness of the heart people seperate/divorce...remarry.
I had to pause to understand...to reread & reread...getting the fineprint...I thought I knew so well, but I didn't...Now I am glad for having paused.It's a battle between assumed/expected/treasured good feelings and very good understanding...amounting to /resulting in obedience...at least in my case and I see there more and more the battleline between my old man and the real spiritual...flesh and spirit...TF has followed the flesh without realising it...that's quite a clever deception they fell prey to.