Religion and Reason cont...

Following the uproar over the Pope's quote, I decided to do a bit of reading

First the Economist: Foreign policy | In the world of good and evil

America's foreign policy seems strongly influenced by religion. But that influence is much more complex than its critics suppose.

Good discussion of the role(s) of religion and the European view of America

"Critics of America's “faith-based” foreign policy make two errors. They lump all religious Americans together into one mass, and then confound the lumping by quoting the wackiest people they can find. (Oddly, many of the worst lumpers are the first people to insist on the importance of distinguishing between radical and moderate Islam.)

Walter Russell Mead, of the Council on Foreign Relations, points out that America is so rich in religion that you can quote a religious person in support of every political position imaginable. He also makes a vital distinction between fundamentalists and evangelicals. Fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists such as Mr Falwell and Mr Robertson get all the press; but evangelicals, while also embracing biblical literalism, are both more temperate and much more inclined to think that sensible policy can improve the world.

The second error is to overestimate the influence of religion on Americans' views of foreign policy. A succession of polls by the Pew Research Centre has shown that religion has little direct influence on the average American's views of foreign policy. In 2003 only 10% of Americans said that their religious beliefs shaped their opinions on the Iraq war. Americans consistently say that the media have more influence on their views of foreign policy than religion does."

Further : a very good read from Freeman Dyson - Wikipedia in The New York Review of Books: Religion from the Outside where he discusses his own views of the role of religion in modern life.

"Dennett puts forward other hypotheses concerning the evolution of religion. He observes that belief, which means accepting certain doctrines as true, is different from belief in belief, which means believing belief in the same doctrines to be desirable. He finds evidence that large numbers of people who identify themselves as religious believers do not in fact believe the doctrines of their religions but only believe in belief as a desirable goal. The phenomenon of "belief in belief" makes religion attractive to many people who would otherwise be hard to convert. To belong to a religion, you do not have to believe. You only have to want to believe, or perhaps you only have to pretend to believe. Belief is difficult, but belief in belief is easy."

"... the famous remark of the physicist Stephen Weinberg: "Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things—that takes religion." Weinberg's statement is true as far as it goes, but it is not the whole truth. To make it the whole truth, we must add an additional clause: "And for bad people to do good things—that takes religion."

and on the study of religion

"The sacred writings, the Bhagavad Gita and the Koran and the Bible, tell us more about the essence of religion than any scientific study of religious organizations. The research that Dennett advocates, using only the scientific tool kit that was designed for a different purpose, will always miss the goal. We can all agree that religion is a natural phenomenon, but nature may include many more things than we can grasp with the methods of science."

He closes with comments on ""amikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers" and tries to understand the terrorists of 9/11 in this context.

Which led to some looking for a particular quote ...

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"I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian."

"Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion — human religion — but any number of faiths."

"Rama, Allah and God are to me convertible terms."

"If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty."

all from Mohandas Gandhi
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All fit the spirit of openess and willingness to learn.
Compare this to the idea that to question "The Prophet" is blasphmey.

Later found what could be interesting reading and links here: %u0927%u0930%u094D%u092E - Wikipedia

Never mind the odd characters, the link works
From which an excerpt:

"Inclusivism
People with inclusivist beliefs recognize some truth in all faith systems, highlighting agreements and minimizing differences, but see their own faith as in some way ultimate. Examples include:
From Islam:
The Qur'an states: "Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way - except in the case of those of them who do wrong - saying, 'We have faith in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and we submit to Him.'" (Holy Qur'an, Surat al-'Ankabut; 29:46)
"Among the people of the Book there are some who have faith in God and in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down to them, and who are humble before God. They do not sell God's Signs for a paltry price. Such people will have their reward with their Lord. And God is swift at reckoning." (Holy Qur'an, Surat Al 'Imran; 3:199)
"...You will find the people most affectionate to those who have faith are those who say, 'We are Christians.' That is because some of them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant." (Holy Qur'an, Surat al-Ma'idah; 5:82)"

and
Religion - Wikipedia