Try living in the fucking middle east.
Well actually I'm in the near east and probably the most moderate country there (even our 'islamists' refused to apply sharia law, and we have a lot of islamophobes). But it still sucks to have to live among so many deeply indoctrinated people.
@Phanto: Okay gotcha.
I just don't buy into the whole coming up with new modified 'softer' versions of the actual religions. You either follow the religion's official texts exactly as they are (and be an idiot forever) or quit. Most indoctrinated people I know don't really completely follow their own religion as it clearly says it should be followed, and yet they won't hesitate to preach and judge you for not conforming to their beliefs. The original texts themselves contain some obvious contradictions which they somehow just pretend don't exist. And whenever there are new social/scientific/etc developments they'll just "curve fit" their religion to these new developments (even if they are in contradiction) instead of just admitting their faith is for the most part merely the mythology of an ancient society, one reflecting its fears, its hopes, its need to fill the void created by its ignorance, its complexes, its need to enslave and dominate, its need to conquer and expand, and so on.
Btw, I have nothing against figures like Jesus. I personally admire them and find them to be quite impressive people (and those who disagree probably would have never had the ability or balls to do what these people did in societies as stupid as the ones they lived in). It's their generations of fans and their tendency to twist, to misunderstand, and to never ask the right questions and seek to learn from their gifted master instead of projecting their own misconceptions on his teachings. That's what the problem mostly was (although for those of such figures who broke the rule of silence and deliberately
chose to create a religion, I can't help but feel they should have known better).
Take somebody like Jesus for example. One of his gifts was his extreme empathy (something the collective consciousness of humanity lacked and still lacks). He embodied a kind of love unknown to mankind, a universal kind of love. He tried to teach that through inspiration, but the fact was, in ALL of the time his disciples got to spend with him, not a single one of them ever asked him the question "How do I love as you love?". They just followed, admired and glorified the guy but never sought to become what he is themselves, which was what he intended. But you can never truly teach someone something they are not willing or ready to learn. The result is nothing really changing. For instance women are still seen the same way in society, the collective skills for diplomacy and ability to empathize with other human beings is still as severely lacking (despite what the church says, which btw I think considering its history should just shut up), and so on. Except of course a religion being created. A religion that was and is just an old mirror reflecting what those people thought, with mere
hints to what the man actually embodied and what he wanted people to seek to become.
Sorry for the long'ish post.
