Is Islam a religion of peace?

Blackflag: I think knowledge acquired, even if based on faulty premises, is more convincing than faith without basis. Evidence is the standard for the confirmation of theory, not belief.

To me it's a basic human instinct. Once a person discovers that fire is hot, they'll remember that for next time. It's more valid than somebody blindly walking into an erupting volcano saying "I have faith this will be quite cold".

There's only one Word of God/Bible
The Apocrypha never belonged in the Bible.

Oh Krazy, prophet of the Messiah!

Please preach to us some more on what belongs in the bible, and what is considered the word of god!

Anyone remember when this thread was about Islam?

To me it's a basic human instinct. Once a person discovers that fire is hot, they'll remember that for next time. It's more valid than somebody blindly walking into an erupting volcano saying "I have faith this will be quite cold"
Yes, but how do you discover fire is hot? Someone could easily tell you that Volcano's emit a cold substance.

admin: Threads evolve. Don't fight it!

Krazy: Now you're just being sexist, looks like fundamentalist Christians don't have an idea of modern morality. Instead, they decide to believe in stone-age beliefs and philosophy. Slaves back then were born into being slaves, they couldn't work their way out as easily.

Krazy, tell me this.

Why is Paul an unquestionable authority on Christianity? Because the pope put his writings in the bible? You used him to argue several moralist cases.

State Moralists: I know what is right, so I will shove my morals down the throats of all my unwilling victims! They will learn to be as perfect as I am!

genesis01: How am I sexist? That seemed like it came out of nowhere.

Morality doesn't change through time. Can you please explain how it does?

Blackflag: You collect evidence. The more evidence has been collected and validated, the more you believe in it. For example, you may walk near a fire, and feel warm. You can repeat the experiment, do correlations between fire size and warmth felt. This is how science works.

Somebody discovers something, then they can put it up on their blog or whatever. But in order to get a published paper, you need a more rigorous standard, and to get into a journal, you basically need a bunch of other experts to confirm it too. The more reputable the journal, the more that journal tries to weed out false findings, so they apply very extreme publication standards.

That's not to say they won't ever be wrong, but the chances of them outright lying are basically extremely low, because of the amount of evidence that needs to be collected by many different people. So to publish a paper saying "fire is hot" in a major journal would be a HUGE task.

Blackflag: I think I can answer this: he was primarily responsible for the invention of Christianity as its own religion.

People spew a load of moral teachings that they do not even adhere too. They then take these moral teachings and force them on others, while they gag on their own insolence.

99% of people are incapable of properly governing themselves. What right do they have to govern me?

I think I can answer this: he was primarily responsible for the invention of Christianity as its own religion.
There were 70 church fathers. Paul didn't know Christ, so what gives him the right? He took his ultra-orthodox conservative Jewish viewpoints and brought them over to Christianity when he converted.

Blackflag: By saying you're one of the 1% who can govern themselves, you're moralizing too, just less forcefully.

Blackflag: And still he was the single person responsible for framing the first core philosophy of a new religion, distinct from Judaism.

admin: By saying you're one of the 1% who can govern themselves, you're moralizing too, just less forcefully
Is that what I implied? Well that's wrong. Half of the time I screw up, so I am not in that 1%.

Even if I was though, I would not be making decisions for others. Just because someone knows how to govern themselves, doesn't me they know how to govern others. What happens when the correct moralist is gone too? A bunch of incorrect moralists step up to take his place.

And still he was the single person responsible for framing the first core philosophy of a new religion, distinct from Judaism.
Paul found Christianity. Christianity found Paul.

He is influential because he preached in the West a lot more than the other church fathers, shaping the doctrines and traditions that would eventually comprise the Western church

And still he was the single person responsible for framing the first core philosophy of a new religion, distinct from Judaism.
And again, no. There were 70 original church fathers, and hundreds more that came after the disciples (Paul was not a disciple btw). Rome was not built in a day. Christianity was not formed through the efforts of one person.

Blackflag: I have to disagree there. The great schism between eastern and western traditions happened some hundreds of years later - the Orthodox church etc have no problem with Paul. It's not just a western thing.

admin: I have to disagree there. The great schism between eastern and western traditions happened some hundreds of years later - the Orthodox church etc have no problem with Paul. It's not just a western thing.
Why do you think the schism happened? The Western and Eastern churches were radically different.

These differences were in effect even before the schism you know. It started when three fourths of the church fathers went East, and a fourth remained to head West.

Blackflag: Sure, but Paul was not the reason for the schism. The eastern church and the western church both take his writings as just as important as, say, Luke or John.