re: #56 Thanos

Sarah actually might have gotten something right but quite by accident. I see no other possible long term outcomes for Islam but for either reform or long term dissolution and wasting. This century is one in which a long, slow motion fourth fitna is taking place as Muslims adopt modernity bit by bit, slowly country by country. So every moderate mosque like the one in the Burlington Coat factory is a step in the right direction.

Most of Christianity has long since discarded the notion that the Holy Scriptures are to be taken literally. The historical-critical approach has led us to see them as a product of their times and the work of human hands..

Which does not have to diminish their message, it just alters the way in which we approach them, and it has made it possible to apply them to our modern life in ways that can make sense.

This movement is only just taking root in Islam, in fact the fundamentalists are rather in ascendancy right now. But until they get the hang of it, they will not be able to reconcile a seventh-century prophet with the twenty-first century.