students seen dressed as Arabs mocking them by carrying toy machine guns

The Bible isn’t all that long either, but some people get stuck on the “X begat Y” part and give up. :idunno:

It’s one thing to criticize a religion because you dislike it scripturally, you dislike certain statements by certain adherents, and/or you dislike certain practices related to the religion.

But it’s another thing to say “this is the only religion that has X” and ignore all evidence to the contrary.

If you’ve never met a Christian who believes the Bible is written by God, everything in the Bible is literally true, and Christianity is “final”, you haven’t tried very hard! Such people have declined in numbers, but they are still around.

Now if you want to count the number of adherents of each religion and each denomination who do and don’t take their scriptures 100% literally with zero deviation from what their priests/imams/etc. say, fine. But from a sociological perspective, you can’t just exclude everyone who doesn’t adhere to the interpretation you love (or love to hate).

It’s like…

A: Christians don’t use contraception. They believe it’s worse than murder.
B: I’m Christian, and I don’t believe that.
A: But Catholics believe it, and Catholics are the biggest denomination.
B: I’m Catholic, and I don’t believe that.
A: But the Pope said it.
B: Okay, then I’m worse than a murderer. :idunno:
C: Actually, “Christianity” is diverse and has many interpretations.
A: No way man, you must have grabbed that from a Wikipedia article you didn’t even read! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Is it now?

Wikiland is not the scripture of the God-Emperor (Discobot), but it is a useful tool for people who care to investigate things for themselves and do their own critical thinking.

Every major religion has denominations. Every major scripture has interpretations. Every adherent deviates from orthodoxy in one way or another but won’t necessarily admit it in front of family members for the sake of a survey. Catholics are not even allowed to masturbate, for example. We could go at this all day.

Speaking of days, I wish you a pleassant one. :bowing: