A recent article from Christian Today (the British Christian newspaper, not the American one) briefly talks about the Hindu nationalist revisionism of Indian history and compares it to the way some Fundamentalist Protestants interpret Genesis. The author concludes that these readings of scriptures reflect the inherent tribalism of people and the culture wars of today’s societies.
This article reminds me that Christians are not the only religious group that often struggles when historical and scientific facts contradict their religious views. I think the fact that other religious groups try to force history and science to fit their religious views should help put things in perspective for Christians and hopefully that encourages us to avoid making the same mistakes.
According the Book of Mormon, ancient Jews sailed to the Americas, and that was the beginning of the native Americans. And they had bows made out of steel!
“In this conversation, the Muslim men are arguing that the Qu’ran contains accurate scientific information that could only have been known via revelation. Note that at the beginning of the conversation, they do not know that PZ Myers is an embryologist.”
(Christians oftentimes argue that the Bible contains accurate scientific info. Perhaps we shouldn’t do that…)
I respect Islam, and I don’t want to bash Muslims. I think it is just Salafism (the fundamentalist, but by no means monolithic, form of Sunni Islam that arose in the 19th century) mainly causing trouble for some present-day Muslims. Salafism emphasizes literal interpretation of the Quran and entrenches itself on what it holds to be the fundamentals of Islam. I know the parallels with Fundamentalist Protestants are not perfect, but I see them and Salafists on kind of the same boat in regard to science.
The conflicts between science and the fundamentalist forms of Sunni Islam and Protestant Christianity alienate both religions from people who are looking for truth. Both religions have a rich history, but I feel like they lose something important when their believers delve into fundamentalism and try to force science to conform to their religious views.