>stef, lemme see if I get this particular point of yours. You seem to be saying Hey, so what if the guy was mentally ill, it doesn't mean that people shouldn't do what he told them God wants them to do.
NO sir (oops, mam), that is not what I said. Please read my post more carefully. I've said what I've said and it's quite clear: It is that I am not willing to concede that Islam is evil just because some fellow on this site says the founder is a 'psychopath/schizophrenic/diabetic and that makes Islam evil'. Even if it was true, which I doubt-and I will make my own evaluation based on my own research-that STILL would not make Islam worthless any more than Van Gogh's illness makes his art worthless. If the artist who was clearly mentally ill in some way can produce brilliant art, it is possible Islam is valid regardless of its founder's alleged mental state.
>You compared Mohammed to Vincent Van Gogh, asking whether mental illness made Van Gogh less human or less gifted as an artist. Now, I consider myself pretty open-minded, but I don't think your analogy holds water. It's one thing to admire the aesthetic work of an individual who is mentally ill. It's quite another thing to take his advice on how to live your life and which people around you should live by your grace or die by your hands.
My point is that scriptures of all faiths are edited by those who come later for their own purposes. To assume the haditha is Islam as taught by its founder rather than the self-interested screed of later followers is just wrong, disingenuous, or naive. And no amount of bleating in long winded posts (not yours) is going to make it right. The original teachings of Christ for example have been bastardized ad nauseum by His followers- does that make Him an idiot?
>I don't have enough firsthand knowledge of Islam to have a credible personal opinion of Mohammed's mental state or of the religion's tenets. But to say that *if* he was mentally ill, it doesn't make the religion that he created any less valid... strikes me as odd, to say the least.
Yes, but following the Van Gogh example you must admit that it is as least possible that mental illness does not automatically preclude artistic genius or divine inspiration. It is highly unlikely the demonized Mohammed his followers and his enemies (plenty here, eh) portray is a clear picture of the man.
>I would never ask my neighborhood 'wacko' (to use your word) to tell me how to run my life.
Neither do I and I'm not recommending it either.