Belief

In the wake of the recent shooting at Fort Hood, I heard a Muslim Army Officer on the radio explaining that the Koran does not condone violence against innocent people. Fine, I've heard that before. But like the Bible, the Koran is so full of contractions that it seems to me that whatever one wants to do can be justified somewhere in the Koran.

But one thing he said sticks with me: "The Koran," he said without a hint of irony, "tells us what to believe."

Tells us what to believe! I can't imagine a more ridiculous statement. The idea that you, or anyone, can or should be told what to believe, strikes me as illogical and nonsensical. If the only reason you believe something is because you're were told to believe it, do you really really believe it? Or are you just stupid, or incurious, or gullible, or something else? I don't know.

We can entangle ourselves with semantics on this one, but it to me it just underscores the utter foolishness of religion at least, and, at worst, the danger of religion.