Read a profound sentence in the book Fury by Salman Rushdie

[burythehatchet]

Paraphrasing - In Christianity, life exists on the axis of sin and redemption. In Islam, life exists on the axis of honor and shame.

I found that to be a most thought provoking comment.

What do you think?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Except for fundy Christians that have a lot of shame in the

mix too.

[bryant69]

2. That is an interesting story

What frusterates me about Fundementalist Christianity from a religious perspective is how little they seem to believe in redemption. Rather they are hungering for sinners to go to hell; which strkes me as assbackwords.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[ladjf]

3. Either road will lead to needless misery.

[burythehatchet]

4. Only in the mind of a fundamentalist

The basic belief system, when stripped of the dogma designed to control, is quite sound in any religion. Religion should light one's path not create the path.

[hadrons]

5. FYI, Rushdie has an interesting 7 minute interview at B&N

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?userid=qF51snWBo2&cid=644456

Talks about the fatwa Ayatollah Khomeini issued against him (he thought that Khomeini wanted to pull out one last power play before dying) and a few other things

[Cleita]

6. That's very insightful.

I always rebelled at the idea of Original Sin. That is that you are born into the world with sin and had to be redeemed by a saviour. It made it a religion based on a false premise. Now as for honor and shame, it would seem to be that it could lead to irrational actions because it's based on pride, another false premise.

Of course these religions were founded by men. Women really don't think like that. We know from the time we are little girls that we are going to be the ones who put our lives on the line to give birth to the future generation. It is us who will nurture them to maturity. So sin and redemption, honor and shame, have very little importance to us.

I think one of the reasons that women do adopt religion, is that this burden increases the need to have someone to pray to. But women don't pray for redemption or honor. They pray that their children will have what they need to grow up and that they will be safe from harm.

[burythehatchet]

7. Its very helpful for us (dudes) to understand

some of the thought processes that motivate you (dudettes). Not that I have any hope to ever understand the opposite sex;), but just a little morsel of insight makes me very happy. Thanks.

on edit: oh yeah, the topic under discussion...Yes. I believe one of the primary roles of every religion born in Jerusalem is to subjugate women and keep them under the control of their misogynistic fantasies.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Axis of "honor and shame" sounds pre-Islamic Arabic

and may well not be shared by, say, Indonesian Muslims.

[burythehatchet]

9. I confess ignorance regarding that specific issue

as an Asian Indian, my relevant experience relates to the Muslim experience in India and Pakistan/Bangladesh.