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Reza Aslan Made the Worst Case For Religion On The Daily Show [View all]
http://thedailybanter.com/2015/05/reza-aslan-made-the-worst-case-for-religion-on-the-daily-show/On Wednesdays edition of The Daily Show, religions scholar Reza Aslan continued his audacious attempt to fundamentally change how religion has been understood from time immemorial. For Aslan, religion isnt so much a system of belief in the supernatural, but instead a sort of cultural identity thats extremely pliant depending on the personal and cultural whims of believers. To wit,
This assertion is not even wrong. Its gibberish masquerading as profundity. Are not the things that you believe very much part of ones identity, be they religious, political, or cultural in nature? When one speaks of Muslim identity, for example, does that not entail an identity that involves believing in Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet?
...
By shifting focus away from belief to some vague identity as a measure of religion, Aslan is engaged in a supreme act of obfuscation, and in the process has made himself a walking contradiction.
The thing about religion that people have to understand is that its far more a matter of identity than it is just a matter of beliefs and practices. I mean, those things are important, but when you say, Im a Jew, Im a Muslim, Im a Christian, youre making an identity statement far more so than a statement of the things that you believe.
This assertion is not even wrong. Its gibberish masquerading as profundity. Are not the things that you believe very much part of ones identity, be they religious, political, or cultural in nature? When one speaks of Muslim identity, for example, does that not entail an identity that involves believing in Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet?
...
By shifting focus away from belief to some vague identity as a measure of religion, Aslan is engaged in a supreme act of obfuscation, and in the process has made himself a walking contradiction.
Reza Aslan: the Deepak Chopra of Islam?
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Equating criticism of religion with bigotry is common on both the left and right.
beam me up scottie
May 2015
#7
religion is learned cultural behavior. believers go along with their culture even tho they may
msongs
May 2015
#5
Isn't he they guy who claimed to be a religious scholar, but it turns out he lied about it?
Lordquinton
May 2015
#8
Lol, no I compared your lame caricature to one that is significantly more accurate.
rug
May 2015
#35
which is of course meaningless if you had been using QED correctly to begin with,
Warren Stupidity
May 2015
#70
Warren, do you really think you're in a position to lecture anyone on the proper use of words?
rug
May 2015
#72
Wait. You are demanding "credentials" for responses on an internet message board?
Warren Stupidity
May 2015
#76
Agreed. I like what he said about giving credit to religion when it does good.
hrmjustin
May 2015
#21
Reducing religions to mere labels with no necessary beliefs behind them renders...
Humanist_Activist
May 2015
#50
Probably because there is no "objection" - it's funny that in his desperation to absolve religion...
trotsky
May 2015
#58
I'm familiar with Aslan. I think he's generally rather superficial in his analyses.
LTX
May 2015
#73
Its not an objection, but an observation, if belief is no longer necessary for...
Humanist_Activist
May 2015
#78