Bo:> Yes, things are complicated but history has told us that > complexity is the lack of the right explanation.
DM: For me the complexity and plurality does not goaway, we can find useful explanations that enable us to make sense of things, but they are always just one way of looking at things and a rounded view requires many perspectives and descriptions. > In the intellect-steeped Europe a strong military influence is > considered a threat to democracy, but when one crosses the > Bosporus things turn upside down, the Military are the bulwark > against islam's notorious anti-democratic tendency. I am deeply > impressed by Kemal Ataturk's effort to modernize Turkey, but > one sees Islam's notorious pressure back to a religion-run > society. DM: I think attempts to homogenise a modern society are unlikely to last and the legitimising role of democracy is difficult to keep at bay in modern conditions. > > Christendom was just like that in its "semitic" period when kings > and Emperors of Europe had to have the Pope's blessing, but > after the Renaissance its true "Jesuitic" content came to the fore: > His rebellion (that the Mosaic Law was to serve the humans, not > humans serving the law, or how it sounds in English) is an about > turn. Think of it. The Law - be it Jewish Tora or Muslim Koran - is > supposed to be God's written order. If one claims that this is "for > humans to decide" it undermines the old social order (of humans' > only purpose is to serve God) and Jesus did just that. He had > picked up the intellectual signals from Greece - by way of the > Romans. DM: The same possibility exits for other religions and they will have to face this idea just the same, individualism and choice are now everywhere as ideas. > > Another watershed is Jesus' words about "giving unto Cesar ..etc" > this allowed the secular/religion split, a Christian could be a good > civil citizen while keeping his faith. The lack of this split is the > very thing that haunts the Muslim world... DM: There is some truth in this, from what I have read. But there is also a private, quietist and mystical strain of Islam that probably defines the religious life of the many who prefer not to mix politics and religion. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
