Well, In Somalia we do read the Quran. In fact, virtually every child memorizes it from cover to cover before starting school. But if you mean understanding what it says, then you have a point.
> But if you mean understanding what it says, then you have a point.
This is exactly what I meant. Reading without understanding is awarded with sevab points. That is the reason I created a word by word translation so that no meaning is hidden behind clerical authority.
Please stop. Your comments in this thread stand out as particularly bad, and the commenter you've been abusing is to be commended for not reacting in kind.
I apologise as I can see how “you” could be misread as referring to the individual I was replying to, rather than a colloquial rejoinder to the use of “we”—but I would have thought that was self evident given that the Enlightenment was 250 years ago.
More broadly I don’t regret anything I have said in this thread. And honestly I find it difficult to take this form of criticism seriously; offering challenge to concepts voluntarily offered into this thread by others isn’t “abuse“ in any other context.
And I further reject the assertion that the other commenter did not react “in kind”. He even used “you” at me in the same colloquial sense.
You posted cheap religious slurs. That's insulting in the same way that slurring someone's country would be (a thing we've in fact had to warn you about in the past on HN). We ban accounts that do these things, so please don't do them any more.
From your response I get the feeling that you might have mistaken jacquesm's contributions as mine? Or perhaps that me continuing down his path constituted tacit appropriation of his/her choice of language—which I assure you I do not.
It's noteworthy that the Hacker News community never shows concern for slurring religious ideas when the context is Scientology or the Westboro Baptist Church—to give two clear but by no means exhaustive examples. These topics do occasionally come up and the community is given free reign to slur these groups in ways that would make any of my contributions here look decidedly tame.
While I do appreciate the perspective you are bringing, from my perspective I fail to see how criticism of ideas can ever be inappropriate. I consider societal deference to the most tenacious of ideas to be unhealthy and intellectually unbecoming.
Nonetheless I shall endeavour to restrain myself to the HN guidelines in future.
Yeah, it is really unfortunate. But remember that this world is like a pendulum. You might have it your way today but it will not last. Meanwhile, We will do our best to catchup ;)
You’re reading that particular book because you happen to be born into a particular culture in a particular moment in time. It’s not a truth of the universe, it’s an accident of your circumstances.
Obviously. That’s how belief works. If you were born at any time in any place, you might well have said the same with respect to any other set of beliefs.
You can have your book, just don’t delude yourself into believing it’s special because everyone around you says it is special. And that goes for everyone born everywhere at every time.
