My question is about how we can value religion from a secular perspective. When it comes to thinking about the religion of Islam for example, there are a multitude of ways to rate the religion's value (or lack there of). It is evident that Islam gives meaning and hope to billions of people, but at what cost? The end result is that the believer is left with a worldview that is erroneous in relation to history, science and the very meaning and purpose of life. Should we base our valuation of Islam upon how closely its teachings cohere to reality, or base it on how much the religion positively effects those who follow it?

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If we base our view on a religion on how closely its views cohere with reality we shall have a tough time of it indeed. The point about religions is that they think they have a more acute view of reality than does the secular thinker. It does not seem to me that Islam is any worse, or better, than any other religion in the comparative stakes, although it gets a bad press in some cultures. I think you need to say why you think it is particuarly difficult to like, as compared with other religions, from an objective point of view. Islam has often seen itself as a religion in the middle, between the extreme asceticism of Christianity and the materialism of Judaism, and this is not an obviously ridiculous claim, even from a secular point of view.

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