by elkiton » Tue May 31, 2005 1:17 am
Kifeas, Interesting post.
Being raised a Christian in UK it was not until I hit my 50's that I questioned my religion, just sort of acepted it till then. What made me look at it, was that I seemed to have moved from the majority to the minority, even if I only attend church a couple of times a year that was more than 99% of my workmates.
Recently I have come to think of the bible and the Koran as "useful handbooks for living", crafted perhaps by a mixture of wsie men and scholars of the day to incorporate what they saw as history and handed down folklore. - some structure in a world of chaos, and when everything falls apart around you, and there is nothing left, then a belief in a higher being is all you have. Bit like hoping to win the lottery when you are down? As for the punishments, well in those days things were a bit more lethal than today, however a return to them might return our so called civilisation to a more sane path.
I gained a lot of respect for Islam when I discovered that J Christ was mentioned their Book as a prophet, along with M. I think the problem with Christanity is that along the way somebody made it an absolute, the Son of God bit. and when you get it turned into big business as by the vatican, then it certainly does seem man made.
I thought the film was great, and had always suspected that the crusaders were really bloodthirsty hooligans who enjoyed chopping people up (or down!) rather than the heroes we purported them to be. I used to admire the Knights Templairs, not so sure now, assuming that that film was accurate.
BEst Regards
TonyE.
