Lam : I don't think any of us has the time to write a book to answer your questions, and that is really what it would take, but at least a few observations might be useful. ---------------------------------------------------------------- There are, best estimates, between one billion and 1.3 billion Muslims in the world out of a total population of about 6.7 billion. The Muslim percentage is around 20% give or take, about 1/5th. But it is not one third. Hindu population is between 800 million and 900 million. Roughly 15 %. Christian population, a minimum of 2.1 billion, actually is approximately one third. It is difficult to estimate the numbers for Buddhists since no-one can be certain about the situation in China, but 10 % would be the world maximum and maybe more like 7 % or 8 %. Very difficult to give an estimate for Taoism. Many people of Chinese descent follow the Tao to some extent but don't belong to any Taoist organization, others are Taoist AND Confucian, etc, but a number anywhere from 3 % globally to 4 or even 5 % would seem to be as close as we can get. The higher tally would include Taoist / Confucians. There are, after all, about 1.4 billion Chinese. No other religions have even 1 % of the world total. Probably Atheism has at least 1 % or 2 %, maybe more, but how do you track Atheist numbers ? Most --overwhelmingly-- have no organizational affiliation. ------------------------------------------------------ Excellent point about parts of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, and the era of the Roman Empire / Byzantine Empire. Muhammad did, after all, have "models" for his system, namely preachments about events in the book of Joshua and the imperial actions of the Byzantine Empire. Still, what you also find are Arab tribal values as part of the "package" and some of those values weren't exactly all for the good. ------------------------------------------------------ Anyway, most people of all religions or political systems don't know very much about the systems they are part of. So it is entirely possible for multitudes to go along with almost anything , at least as long as they can more-or-less flourish and take good care of their children. -------------------------------------------------- Not sure what point you are making about identity. But, for sure, many people derive the main source of their identity from religion. No-one is going to get rid of this. Religion , in most cases, not only is a belief system, it also is a social service network of people who help each other in all kinds of ways. Hope this provides a few useful ideas for you Billy In a message dated 12/15/2009 12:13:06 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar <[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) > wrote: Instead, I want to stake out a position that everyone who care about truth would agree with, and use *that* as a starting point for discussion and debate about *means*. To wit, here is what I think is the strongest statement easily justified by an objective study of the evidence: "Mainstream Islam appears inherently dysfunctional". >From a spiritual perspective, I think the blame for all the madness is on the inherent immaturity mind of the people. I believe when Bible talks about sin, it refers not to events or doings but the source of all evil, the human ego. The only time when Quran deserves fault is when it fails to spark a light out of the spiritual darkness. But Quran is just a record of recitation of Mohammad and why are we pointing finger at non-conscious scriptures when the real imperfection lies with us? On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 3:18 PM, <[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) > wrote: For me the question comes down to this : Why remain a Muslim when there are so many superior alternatives ? That is actually a very interesting question. I believe that is what paranoid Mr Billy the most. >From a surface view, we can say that majority of Muslim are unaware of this problem. How would anyone expect that a mainstream faith for one-third of the world's population, be so terribly wrong? Plus, they are naturally unmotivated to question their own faith, not because the book prohibit them from doing so, but because it is just so human to hold on to certain identity (a psychoanalysis view). Religious identity is so deep rooted, it is difficult to get rid, unless one is 'really lucky enough' to have something terribly wrong happening to him/her. One example is when someone witness an 'orthodox' massacre in the name of his/her religion. The person must also be, spiritually saying, waken beyond ordinary wakening, to see such a truth. This identity problem affects everybody, though more importantly, the more religious group of people. These people are bless with the opportunity to uncover the truth behind scriptures, and identity inhabits that natural process. Of cause, as much as I want to agree with Mr Billy, I have another set of concern. Consider me a 'skeptic of skepticism'. What if the mainstream Islam got it all wrong from the beginning? If that is so, it defends the Qu'ran blame. There have been many different ways of interpreting the Qu'ran. I particularly likes the Sufis way, which I believe is heading for the better. Nevertheless, this will still leave all the blame on "Mainstream Islam", and Dr Ernie's statement still stands. >From historical point of view, I think that, like any political ideology today, Islam was an attempt by politicians at that time to consolidate power. For this view, I have similar suspicion towards Judaism in ancient Israel as well as Christianity during Roman Empire. These are my take, wonder what do you guys thinks. _______________________________________________ Centroids mailing list: [email protected] http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com Archives at http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/
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