Cliftonbridge ... and others interested

to answer your question on "flexibility", I have copy-pasted my own posts from over a year ago on this subject (sorry, simply in the interest of time, and I don't think I'd have said anything different now):


[[Here are just some of the reasons the evil of "faith" has to be tackled head on:

In my part of the world (Pakistan), faith leads to inertia. The process of scientific thinking and progress has come to a complete standstill. There is no new independent thinking, something taken for granted in the west, and the same old "circular reasoning" continues since time immemorial.

There are real people that suffer, especially women. They live restricted and pathetic lives for the most part, and that is not all. The religious brainwashing is so complete that being submissive in that role is actually regarded a virtue by many and a passive acceptance of "fate" is universal.

I love my country! I feel that some serious attempts at liberating a few minds may go a long way in the future of the progression of rational thought in the "muslim" world.

The more people are exposed to genuine critique of Islam, the less they feel themselves to get involved in this discussion. When they see that all hell hasn't broken loose if I criticised Mohammed or his divine pal, it generates a kind of self-confidence in others.]]

and in response to an interactor's patronising remarks:

[[Thanks for the insight! I know who I am; I have been a non-believer since I was 14/15 and never had time for the religious claptrap. This aversion, however, extends to most things super-natural and Islam is by no means singled out in my mind as I tried to explain in my earlier comment. I feel this pretentious Religion of Sufism is just as dangerous as it allows for a continuum of the super-natural theme and is in sharp contrast with rationalism.

This "M" crap (was posted on "Bulleh Shah and the veil of the 'Meem'" board) is even more annoying; just what the hell does it mean? Just because one can put forward some reasonably coherent and grammatically correct sentence, it doesn't make it a valid argument for anything for crying out loud!

I feel the dogma of "faith" should be completely demolished for good, but with reasoning not rhetoric. I live an intellectually fulfilled life which is morally sound, but that morality comes from within; its part of being human. It has nothing whatsoever to do with trying to suck up to some higher being, but comes from simply treating others like one wishes to be treated oneself.

Sufis were essentially atheists hiding behind the veil of pantheism! All this non-sense of god living in all of us or living in the human heart, or god being the universe and vice versa (wahdat-ul-wujud etc) were just ploys to try to explain it all. With advances in scientific knowledge, it is now possible to be intellectually fulfilled without this rubbish. And for those who say that science doesn't have answers for everything, well if science can't explain something then what makes you think that you can! The substitute for rational thinking CANNOT BE fairytales and ancient mythology!

For those who confuse all this and start harping on about "the golden age of islam"; what the hell has that golden age to do with Islam? Its like trying to give the credit for current science to Judeo-Christian mythology! The two could not be at more opposite ends of the spectrum!]]

hope it clarifies ... besides, this 'flexibilty' in itself is the problem (in my opinion)