Terrorist attack in France

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So what about all this stuff about apostasy and blasphemy?

To me, Islam is a human social construct and the Koran a book, written by humans. I hear the story about the prophet's first experienced of hearing voices in a cave and I wonder, "was this man schizophrenic?" It is a reasonable question, given what we know, but I hear that this natural intellectual inquiry should be off limits and asking it should be punishable by death. This seems insane and hypocritical.

I understand religious feeling, I have had bouts of it myself, but god never chose to reveal any definitive truth to me. The sum of my "spiritual" experiences suggests to me that they are a product of the emotional component of my mind and have some neurological basis.

The question I always want to ask religious people is: why does god need your book and socio-political organization? Why not communicate directly with the minds of all sentient beings and reveal the truth directly to them. The obvious answer is that the god described by the books does not exist and the socio-political organizations keep promoting their own fabrications about this being in order to further their political goals.

If a god of the kind discussed by muslims and christians exists, I would welcome any information about that being directly from that being. Weirdly, the "believers" seem to think their god is not capable of such communication, except some of the time, or maybe he needs to test people by seeing if they are faithful enough to believe the right book and join the right supporters club.

Another thing about religious people is that they seem to spend most of their time exhorting each other to be strong in their faith, suggesting that they really don't believe but are trying to talk themselves into it.

How can someone come to believe in or love this apparently imaginary being without being able to freely mentally explore the concepts around it? The whole business of faith makes no objective sense at all.

I want to live a good life but would not call myself a muslim unless I believed the tenets of the faith--and they seem like a second rate pastiche of Judaism and Christianity to me.

I feel free to ask questions about your or anyone else's accounts of their faith. Some people who claim to be the true representatives of your faith are saying this should be punished. That's a big problem. The Charlie Hebdo story seems to be about people who claim to believe and defend your faith killing people like me simply for thinking, talking and drawing freely.

In my view anyone who would kill another - for "apostasy" or otherwise - would be an apostate themselves, as they would not only be rejecting peace (which is at the core of an Islamic lifestyle) but attempting to raise themselves to the level of God, who is the only one qualified to judge another.

You are not a Muslim if you reject Islamic law. You should now be put to death for apostasy according to Sharia.

I disagree.

Yes, you've already made it clear that you disagree with Sharia. You're not a Muslim by definition, and you should not pretend to be speaking on behalf of Islam.

There are many things described in the Quran that science was not to discover until over a thousand years after the book was revealed, and which would have been impossible to know without technology such as microscopes. I don't feel like going into the details, but google "miracles of the quran" and you'll probably find a more eloquent explanation than I can provide (along with some hilarious and not so eloquent ones lol)

Where have I demanded you believe anything? In fact have even stated that I believe religion is between man and god, and so implied that I view your personal beliefs as none of my business...

And yes, I did mention many of those sites are also full of bull, hence the "hilarious and not so eloquent ones".

And on the topic of intellectual freedom, I am in full support of it, whether it's offensive or not. No idea is above scrutiny, and I personally believe that constantly questioning even my own beliefs is an important part of becoming a better person.

Ok, then I consider you my brother.

So, how do we deal with the problem of the Apostasy/Blasphemy requires death people?

I find interesting diversity in Muslim perspectives on this: http://www.islamicperspectives.com/apostasy1.htm
Though there are still problems there (e.g., "O you who believe! Do not take for friends and allies (even) your fathers and your brothers if they love disbelief more than faith: if any of you do so, they are the wrong doers")

But the Salafists disagree altogether. They think it makes sense to "defend the prophet" by killing people who question or mock. Can we make them tolerate what they feel is intolerable? it seems unlikely.

So, where are our Islamist members? Why aren't they here, telling us how much of a wonderfully peaceful religion Islam is?

Christians and especially pro Zionist Christians who bash Islam should read this

It's a good time to update my avatar.