@icehorse
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I have to say though that an educated Muslim will look at the message holistically and rationally. They will never come to the conclusion to hate people simply for disbelieving. I consider myself a student of Islam and everyone is innocent until proven otherwise.
We are taught to protect ourselves in certain situations and there is nothing wrong with that. Today, people can still threaten my life, my possessions, my family, and my honor. This doesn’t happen only in the past but has probably happened to countless people as I type this message.
Concerning God hating disbelievers, interestingly, you will never see the words 'God hates disbelievers' in the Quran. Nor does it say God hates anything. Rather dislikes, or does not like.
Could you please provide me with your exegesis of surah 2 ayat 6-29? If you could go ayah by ayah that would be great, please.
This is an interesting example for us to discuss! Before I tell you what I see when I read Surah 2, I need to reiterate a couple of key points:
1 - We should recognize that our conscious, linguistic MINDS operate somewhat independently from our subconscious, pattern-seeking BRAINS.
2 - Very few people keep this distinction in mind. Almost all of the religious discussions that have ever or will ever happened on this forum, or in any place where ideas like religion are discussed, are discussions between MINDS, and our BRAINS are largely ignored.
== ok, on to my responses
You explain what an "educated Muslim" will do. From my perspective you could have said "educated religious person" and my answers would be the same. So I want to reiterate that what I'm saying about Muslims is true for all people who make scripture important in their lives. We happen to be talking about Islam, but what I'm saying applies to almost all religions.
So an "educated Muslim" will use their MIND to interpret what they read. The educated MIND comes to the situation with ego, and bias, and prior knowledge, and so on. That's okay as far as it goes. And to be clear our MINDS are wonderful things, I'm a fan
But the "educated Muslim" will almost certainly NOT be thinking about how the scripture is impacting their subconscious BRAINS. This perspective of the MIND / BRAIN conflict is fairly new.
As for the idea that the word "hate" doesn't appear. The Quran tells us that for some people, when they die, Allah will burn their skin off. And once it's burned off, he'll give them new skin so that he can burn the new skin off, and continue this torture for eternity. So if that doesn't describe "hate", then what word should we use for Allah's feelings about those he chooses to torture for eternity?
== ok, Surah 2
6 - no matter what you do, some people will be disbelievers.
7-20 - Allah has made these disbelievers there is no hope for them. Allah will punish them severely. These disbelievers are liars, they are diseased, they are fools, they conspire, they are deaf, dumb, and blind to Allah. They will live in fear.
So, as an "educated Muslim" I'm sure you can explain why I'm wrong here. And I'm almost certain that what I just said, no educated Muslim would agree with. You have all studied the Quran and you have all learned how the scholars interpret the book, and how you should interpret the book. (I will note however, that the various sects within Islam often disagree with each other.)
But that's all about how are MINDS are viewing Surah 2.
Now I want to explain to you how our BRAINS interpret Surah 2. Our brains learn through repetition and pattern matching. These are two of the BRAIN'S most powerful tools for learning. Children learn to recognize and categorize the world. They learn what a dog is, what a fork is, what a bicycle is, and so on. For each of these categories there is variation from instance to instance. This dog is a poodle, yesterday's dog was a collie, and so on. But the amazing BRAIN learns to find patterns and use them. So when the child sees a new breed of dog one day, the child can still determine that it's a dog. (BTW, this idea of learning through pattern matching was initially studied by Eleanor and James Gibson 80 years ago, and more recently, it's been used by computer scientists to create the world's best artificial intelligence.)
So what the BRAIN will conclude from this Surah is the beginning of a pattern. The brain will start to learn that there is a category of people that might go by different names: disbeliever, non-believer, those who have strayed, and so on. Allah is angry with these people. He will punish them. He criticizes them every which way. These people are "other", and they are not to be trusted or befriended.
The scholarly MIND will disagree. The MIND will say "you're forgetting the context" or "this is true only for situation X" or "you have to remember what was happening in Muhammad's life when this Surah was revealed", and so on. These explanations and defenses are all MIND based. They do not consider what's happening to the more primitive, category-making, pattern-seeking BRAIN.
== Propaganda, Brain-washing, Advertising, Marketing
For the sake of discussion, I will lump the four ideas above into a single category. Which seems the least disturbing? Advertising? They all work on very similar principles. But I think that from a cognitive science perspective, it's fair to call the Quran a brilliant bit of rudimentary propaganda. Leaders, and politicians, and generals have understood rudimentary propaganda techniques for thousands of years. The folks who wrote the Quran had this understanding, and they constructed the book to be used as a tool of propaganda. To convert people to Islam.
As I said in my earlier post, this stuff is POWERFUL. Even if you understand it, you put yourself at great risk when you expose yourself to it. At our house we avoid all social media and we do not listen to advertisements. Even though we've studied cognitive science extensively, we know that our brains can be coerced. It's outside the MIND's control to protect the brain from propaganda.
Zooming out for a minute, lest you think I'm unfairly picking on Islam. Let me critique Christianity for a minute. For centuries now, Christian evangelists have understood that they need to brainwash people to convert them. Notice that they're VERY intent on getting small children exposed to their ideas as early and frequently as possible. They know that repetition of propaganda is powerful.
== Theology
Religion is fascinating (and terrifying). It has a huge impact on society. So I understand that the vast majority of religious discussions are theological. A lot of people on RF are armchair theologists. Many are quite learned. It's a completely valid field of study.
But it is NOT cognitive science
