Literalism

Submitted by Phil (United States), Sep 23, 2003 at 16:59

Literalists are those who believe the scriptures of their faith are to be taken as they were written. It is wrong to believe that literalist Christians, Hindus and Buddhist are on the fringe. On the contrary, the literalists, through history, have grown the fastest and flourished the most. Non-literalists, or liberal Christians, are really only a 20th century phenomenon primarily found among the "educated" elite.

That is why literalist Moslems, or Islamists, will always be influential and dominating. They take Mohammed's words literally (why wouldn't they)? How can one fight what the scriptures say at their face value? Easy to understand unless one is an "intellectual" who supposes they can see deeper meanings.

That is why we must see this war for what it is-a war of competing world views. The Islamist view, along with Communism, Fascism and other totalitarian types of systems are intolerant of others and so cannot be tolerated themselves. Democracy is for everyone, not to exclude any view except, we must acknowledge, except intolerant ones. Hinduism is hopefully tolerant, Buddhism is tolerant, and Christianity, in its literal sense, has also accepted tolerance in a secular world.
I see an uphill battle when it comes to non-literalist Moslems exert significant influence over the general Moslem population. They, the general Moslem population, are more literalist than we know.

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