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Consider this part one on my reflections on the whole Muhammad cartoon controversy and my most recent read, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris. A very tough and challenging book, his case against religious faith (versus spirituality) is equally damning to Christianity as well as Islam. Its his comments regarding Islam, written two years ago, which seem eerily prophetic to date. His challenge to use the postmodern lens to examine and critique the irrationality of many aspects of world religions is frightening but needs hearing. At this point, if cartoons can bring us to the brink of war and talk of first strikes and the thought of a new Temple built in Jerusalem as a means to get Jesus to phone home for a second coming now, then postmodern Christians and Muslims need to take a long hard look at both their religious traditions, come to grips with the reality that they can either bring hope or destruction, and realize that right now, destruction is winning.

Download the podcast here.

Links:

The Official The End of Faith/Sam Harris Web site

Michelle Malkin Blog

Kathleen Parker Op Ed

4 Responses to “Wired Jesus Podcast #25 – Christianity, Islam, and Postmodern Faith”

  1. Rev. Dan says:

    Destruction will reign supreme if christians in the US have their way. This dominion theology crap must go. When are christians in America going to realize that you cannot have freedom if you legislate other peoples’ choices away based on your lack of reason/beliefs?

    One would probably think Jesus was massively myopic, intolerant, ignorant, and self-centered if one were to look at christians as an example.

    Major points for starting to look at/consider this seriously, but points deducted for linking to unbalanced neocon tripe masquerading as “analysis.” 🙂

  2. Tom Lyberg says:

    Hmmm. Have to work on the raising the point total next podcast. I gave her credit for being the first place I could find the cartoons to actually see what the riots were all about.

    Though,she is kind of cute for an unbalanced neocon. 🙂 Actually, she looks a lot like a girl I dated in high school, back in the day.

    Okay, more points lost for sexist commentary. 😉

  3. I would like to encourage everyone to take a listen to the recent “Religion ans Ethics Newsweekly” podcast (or view the program online). The opening segment is about the Danish Mohammed cartoon riots in a concise but comprehensive manner.

    Here’s a link to the show’s website:
    http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/

    For me, this program is a must-watch/listen each week.

    Thanks!
    Mark

  4. Chris says:

    Well for what it’s worth I thought I’d my 2 cents into the mix.

    In my distant past I played soccer (as a Christian) with an all Muslim (except for me and a friend) Turkish soccer team. They were nice people some strong others not so strong in their faith, none of whom had a problem with me being a Christian and all who enjoyed their time in Australia.

    Just last weekend I spoke a man from Iraq who fled his home country as a refugee to come to Australia and when it’s safe keen to return. He was a history teacher who loved reading and a bit of an academic. He read English well but spoke it poorly. He earns a living in Australia pushing shopping trolleys around. Anyway, he is Muslim but doesn’t like to tell people as they think fundamentalist terrorist (which is kind of like me who doesn’t like to tell people I’m Christian because of the preconceptions people may have about me). He tells me that Islam is like Christianity – lots of different expressions of it or denominations only more so. Just when you thought Christianity was bad. He was great to chat to really friendly, accepting of who I was and what I beloved.

    But so what, that’s just one person. Well yes and no. Whilst one group of people calling themselves Muslim blew up and embassy over the cartoons. The Islamic party in Malaysia held a peaceful rally of about 5000 and gave the Danish ambassador a letter. Also, whilst in many countries people may have received death in an interview on Counterpoint Tim Blair pointed out that he had posted the cartoons, got over 250,000 hits and not received any threats. In fact he suggests that by the Australian media not printing the cartoons that the assumption that Australian Muslims would only react violently is further perpetuated.

    So, here’s my first point. People of one faith have different beliefs, they often have lots of stories or texts in common but as these are open to interpretation and so people have different beliefs. Now even if two people have the same beliefs they may have completely different actions. For example two Christians may not believe in abortion, one might blow up abortion clinics and send death threats to doctors the other might do nothing.

    So first and foremost we need to be critical about someone’s actions. It is certainly be the case that their beliefs informed their actions but we need to be mindful that it may be possible that another person may have those beliefs with out acting the way this person did. That doesn’t mean that we should not be critical of those beliefs but it is important not to assume that the two are necessarily connected. Similarly when we are critical of someone’s beliefs we need to understand that their beliefs are informed by their faith but we need to be mindful that it may be possible that another person may share that faith but not have those same beliefs. Someone’s beliefs are influenced by there culture, so in the affluent materialistic west it is not uncommon to find a Christian with a prosperity gospel theology. Similarly in the oppressive war torn middle east it would not be uncommon to find some who incorporates acts of violence into their faith.

    So are all Christians just as nice as me? No, there are plenty of examples of Christian terrorist type people to refute that. Are all Muslims terrorists or have an agenda to bring down the west? No, I know this because I have met some who aren’t.

    From here we get into a dangerous and dodgy game of “well what percentage of X faith are Y or believe Z and what percent don’t and what percent”. I think it is rude to say that all people of one faith act in one voice about a certain issue. What we need to do is critique the actions of people foremost and the beliefs of people secondly, not the faith. Not because it is not politically correct or some such crap but because it is to vague to ethereal and only gets peoples backs up when we attack their faith. When we critique action and belief that’s when we can talk about how our own faith informs that and that will be the most powerful testament of what we believe.

    I also but this on my blog with some embedded links. 🙂 http://achurchlessfaith.blogspot.com/

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