Reply to a Muslim (3)

A reply of mine to another Muslim:

Salim,

Philosophical enquiry is about getting rid of all your preconceptions,
opening your mind, and coming to your own *independent* conclusions about
the world around you. In many ways is it therefore totally incompatible with
religious dogma, which teaches you that you must believe what a book says,
full stop.

Humanists try to make their moral judgements according to reason and
compassion, irrespective of what the Bible says (the Bible has nothing to
offer on many complex modern ethical dilemmas anyway).

Luckily many people (including self-proclaimed Christians) do not in fact
take their morals from the Bible, which advocates killing people for being
homosexual(1) or for working on Sundays(2), among other horrors, or from the
Koran, which explicitly calls for the faithful to murder all non-believers
in many passages(3) and has a questionable notion of woman’s rights too(4).
Indeed, as you say yourself, “non-believers can be very very moral. Some
atheists are more moral than believers”.

My sources:
(1) “If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to
death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.”
(Leviticus 20:13 NAB)
(2) “Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the
Sabbath must be put to death.” (Exodus 31:12-15 NLT)
(3) “Slay them wherever ye find them”. (Surah 2:191)
(4) “Forbidden to you are…married women, except those you own as slaves.”
(Surah 4:20-, 24-)

It can sometimes be difficult to make moral decisions, granted, but please
don’t take these texts as your moral guide, or in a civilised society you
are likely to be locked up for other people’s safety.

Regards,

Gavin Orland