Quote:
Originally Posted by GermanStar
. Since when was religion held up to a litmus test of legal and scientific scrutiny? If enough practitioners participate and believe it is viable, then it's viable to them. The rest of the world be damned.
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Couple of responses. Religion was held to those standards in medieval Christian and Islamic societies. Religion and intellectual/scientific life were united. Perhaps the same thing could be said of Buddhism.
Sure religion is viable for specific individuals. Lots of things can be believed by specific individuals for any reason they want. What I meant by 'viable' was whether religion is appealing enough to sieze the hearts, minds, universities, corporations, banks, legal systems, and governments to the extent that it could drive a culture.
Capitalism seems to have outgunned religion in the west. Can it do the same thing with Islam? One advantage that capitalism had in Europe, was a separation of law and religion pushed by Protestants who believed in salvation by grace thru faith, outside of the law. Islam never really developed this idea.