format_quote Originally Posted by
Muhammad
I find the article hasn't presented anything to show that Islam has changed.
format_quote Originally Posted by
Insaanah
Despite the "examples" quoted, as brother Muhammad has already pointed out, it hasn't shown that Islam has changed.
I didn't think the article to set out to claim that religions change per se. The fundamental beliefs and values remain the same.
Instead, what I think the article is trying to do is to explore how certain practices may change, and why.
As followers of certain religions in the 21st Century we can assume (or perhaps be led to believe) that our religious practices have always been the same since the beginning of time. This article is making us think again.
Here are a few examples (not all mentioned in the article):
* I did not know that there had even been a time when Catholic priests married and had families. I had assumed that they were always celibate.
* Creationism in Christianity is another issue which people think has been around since the beginning of the faith. Perhaps it has, but the early Christians on the whole did not consider Genesis a direct account of how God made the world and life on it. They understood it to be prose, a story which tried to describe God's relationship with mankind.
Christian creationism as we know it today stems from the US and is a fairly recent phenomenon.
* I have also often wondered about animal sacrifices in Judaism. The Old Testament is full of accounts of having to slaughter animals to God. To my knowledge that practice is not kept any longer. At some point, somewhere, somebody must have decided that the practice was to change.
* As for depicting the prophet Muhammad (pbuh), I don't know if it was ever permitted - but certainly it seems that at one time it was at least condoned or tolerated. Whereas today people receive death threads for depicting him.
I find the article very interesting.
I don't think it accuses religions of changing their core beliefs or their inner nature - but it highlights that for some reason we sometimes change certain practices. I don't think there is anything wrong with that or we have anything to fear or be defensive about.
Who knows, things may have changed for the better? (Certainly a whole bunch of sheep and goats must think so! ;D)