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Are you saying that I could take the Koran, find some sentence that sounds ridiculous and you'd defend it without saying I haven't understood it right or the translation is wrong?

Here's something about Hell that's always been nagging me. While we humans have a whole spectrum of moral behavior, heaven and hell is a binary system. You get one or the other. There are two major problems with this. 1) All you have to do is.. Someone described human life as a test. If you...

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to see the good in humans (my side). :P

E, I think the vast majority of people who consider themselves "Christians" haven't read the bible. It's not a prerequisite and frankly noone cares if you did or didn't, I went to Catholic church until I was 14, did all the rituals and everything, and noone ever quizzed me on this. Christians...

Look, it's 700 AD, right? And you're a prophet, so that means you have a one piece sarong and sandals. God placed all the prophets are random places on the earth, which means you could end up on a deserted island. So in order to get to where you need to go to deliver your message, you have to...

Sounds like a logistical nightmare. And all 100,000 have been accounted for or are you still expecting some that have failed to show up? With such a high number the probability that all of them would successfully make it to their destination in that hostile ancient world is basically none, so...

Haven't read the Bible either for that matter. Anyway, it's not a particularly shocking or novel idea. Basically, religion evolves. Judaism is one form that took shape, Christianity is a later version, Islam is the latest of them. Now if you're some kind of purist you may say that none of them...

Take a look at Judaism, the origins of Christianity. It's even more bizzarre and dogmatic. Can't ride in an elevator on the sabbath unless you have a Christian friend to push the buttons for you. And they have an explicit list of 200 something list of things that are forbidden, corresponding to...

Well, Islam is later, so they took Christianity and tossed out some of the craziest things.

What kills me is how back in the dark ages people were fanatical about baptizing babies especially when they had no hope of survival, purely so that the baby wouldn't go to hell for being a heathen. I guess being 2 days old is no excuse for not having a belief in god huh. But pour some water on...

The question of being civilized is not a yes or no question. Obviously, the US is civilized in many other ways, but the death penalty is a huge stain on your international reputation. The fact that all the South American regimes that used to be under your thumb have gotten rid of if, and you...

Neither is Japan, by that standard. And yes, I am saying that. The fair way to judge a society is to see how it treats its own citizens. Civilized societies ban rape, torture, child abuse, murder and so on because they respect the dignity of human life. Banning the death penalty is one of those...

Depends on your religious doctrine. In Christianity there are three options, heaven, hell and purgatory. Purgatory is a "temporary hell" and after that you transfer to heaven. Hell itself is forever. Heaven would be pretty meaningless without hell, I agree.

We don't. Civilized countries don't have a death penalty. See for yourself: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Death_Penalty_World_Map.png The red ones allow the death penalty. The blue ones ban it absolutely. The others don't ban it explicitly but never use it in practice...

Nein. The purpose of prison (unless it's life time imprisonment which is rare) is to rehabilitate someone. You punish by removing their freedom to live in the world. You also help them learn a skill, develop themselves, maybe pass the high school program if they were high school dropouts etc...

Lebanon sounds like a friendly place ;) Fine, have it your way. I'm still pretty sure that most mothers don't do this, even in Lebanon. Certainly not in European culture. It does if you put it that way. But in our world we have decided that such treatment amounts to child abuse and we don't...

The short answer: Population control. We've had prisons as a way of removing people from society for 1000 years or so. Rulers used to toss people in jail at the slightest hint of opposition to the presiding rule. I grant you in today's world the answer is more complicated. Prisons are...

Oh, right. I wasn't sure whether you were talking about a historical fact.

When was this theory contemplated?

Cold logic is as dangerous as the biggest butcher's knife :wink: