The Catholic Church has real problems with other religions

Submitted by Kenneth S. Besig (Israel), Jan 17, 2006 at 14:32

The Catholic Church, especially and particularly the Vatican, has always had real problems with other religions, routinely denying their legitimacy and validity. The Catholic Church has even placed all the Protestant Christian religions beyond their Pale.

Thus when this Pope remarks on the manner in which other religions reinterpret their religious principles and teachings, he is doing this from the vantage point of deep scepticism and hostility towards those religions.

The way that Judaism has modernized the Torah has been suggested as a model for the modernization of the Koran, but I believe that this would be very difficult. The Torah is and was a history book, a book of religious teachings, and the ancient constitution of the nation of Israel at that time. Most if not all of the constitutional laws contained in the Torah ceased to exist with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and with the disappearance of the ancient Israeli state, whereas the legal teachings of the Koran have been in constant use since the establishment of Islam.

Islam as it exists now is a living entity which will demand practical and difficult adjustments to change it. But since practically all of the Torah has been sleeping quietly for centuries, only a small part of it actually affects the lives of it's followers today.

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