This is most important — insist, as heatedly as any extreme fundamentalist, that the Bible must be read in the most naively literal sense in all passages, and therefore the tiniest mistake or scribal error invalidates the whole thing and any religion based on it.

My problems with religion are leveled squarely at the fundamentalist flavors of every major world religion out there today. You can feel free to believe the Dawkins argument that tolerance of moderate religion lends credibility to the more extreme elements of that religion, but I like to embrace a more live and let believe philosophy as long as that belief doesn’t involve suicide bombing, shooting up abortion clinics, kneecapping Catholics or Protestants for wandering into the wrong neighborhood in Dublin, or any other number of religious practices that wouldn’t be considered acceptable in polite company. Religious fundamentalists, unfortunately, are usually the source of most of those nasty glorifications of God that I just mentioned.

And where does this absolute certainty in the goodness of suicide bombings and religiously motivated murder come from? A literal interpretation of the Bible or whatever holy book you prefer, of course! So here is my proposition to religious groups out there who are tired of hearing from atheists who insist on a literal interpretation of everything in the Bible: We’ll stop taking everything in the Bible literally the instant that you afford us the same courtesy, and not a moment sooner.

(Of course even admitting that the Bible isn’t meant to be taken literally and attempting to “interpret” the good book can lead to some pretty wacky and wildly divergent belief systems, but it’s still a step above believing that the murder of homosexuals is justified because God said so in Leviticus.)

Biblical literalism is the root cause of a lot of the religious cancers that are currently poisoning an otherwise rational and secular Western society, so don’t think for an instant that I’m not going to give up the easy pot-shots that come from a literal interpretation of the Bible for as long as people insist on living their lives by that same literal interpretation.

Biblical literalism has led to dubious religious interpretations that glorify intolerance and murder. Biblical literalism has led entire segments of the population to reject scientific teaching because their pastor told them that God snapped the universe into existence 6000 years ago in a happy-go-lucky time when man and dinosaur coexisted in harmony. There’s a compelling argument to be made that our adventures in the middle east for the past half a century have as much to do with the belief that Jesus will be coming back there at any moment to throw everyone who doesn’t believe in him into a lake of fire as they do with oil supplies, as well as a whole host of other ideas that have no business in modern society.

So you can bet your crucifix that lampooning the practice of Biblical literalism wherever it rears its ugly head is going to continue to be a vital and justifiable part of the debate against religions that condone the practice. As long as religious sects that promote Biblical literalism continue to try and shove their beliefs down the collective throats of everyone around them, as long as religious groups try to legislate based on their own narrow interpretation of the divine, that narrow literal interpretation will continue to be justifiably dissected and refuted by individuals with a more rational mindset.

Technorati Tags: Bible, Christianity, Islam, Biblical literalism, atheism

And as we all know by now, Islamic extremists tend to react to things they find offensive by blowing them up or otherwise sending whoever is responsible for the offense on a one way trip to meet Allah personally.

So because an illiterate merchant from Mecca who lived and died fourteen centuries ago was evidently a little camera shy and banned any images depicting him these five men have taken it upon themselves to try and kill a perfectly innocent cartoonist who was exercising the freedom of speech that he enjoys under the secular democratic government of Denmark.

The ban against depicting Mohammed has only been sporadically enforced throughout history anyways.  The ban, when it is enforced, is in place largely so that Muslims don’t run afoul of the second commandment and start worshipping “graven images” rather than Allah.  I’m probably arguing a subtle point here that will be lost on a violent radical fundamentalist offshoot of a religion that believes all other religions should be converted or subjugated, but I seriously doubt that any Muslim is going to be bowing down and worshipping a caricature of a vaguely middle-eastern man with a bomb strapped to his head.

Then again, if Islam keeps getting publicity like this then it could well be that the vaguely middle-eastern man with a bomb strapped to his body will become the universal symbol for their religion no matter how loudly moderate elements protest the peaceful intentions of their religion.

Technorati Tags: Islam, Danish cartoonist, Mohammed, Danish cartoon riots, Muslim extremists, Mohammed cartoons

The fear amongst secular Turks is that allowing head scarves is just the first step down a slippery slope that will end with Turkish society looking a lot more like their theocratic Islamic neighbors in the Middle East and a lot less like the liberal Western democracies to the in Europe. 

I have to say, however, that I’m on the side of the Islamic Party this time around.  This quote by Cemil Cicek, a member of the conservative party, from the article above sums up the situation quite nicely:

We are not trying to bring a ban; we are trying to lift a ban.

Imposed secularism isn’t much better than imposed religion, especially when your country is trying to model itself off of Western democracies where freedom of religious practice is tolerated or accepted.  If Islamic women want to express their religious values by wearing a head scarf then they should be allowed to.

In the end this issue boils down to wealthy elites trying to impose their will on an Islamic middle class that would just like freedom of expression.  Secular elements of Turkish society are acting no better than the religious regimes that they are trying to combat.  The instant the Islamic party in Turkey starts behaving like a theocracy is the instant that secular Turks should take to the streets in protest, but marching against freedom of expression just hurts their cause in the end and paints the secular movement in a bad light internationally. 

Technorati Tags: islam, head scarves, religion, turkey, AKP, secularism