[Skunk]

Originally posted by Yorick: I reached a conclusion about your understanding given the nature of your arguing. I could quite obviously be wrong, by I described what my criterea for assessing and reaching a conclusion was. What the "substance" was if you like.

Yorick, you are in effect stating that because I reached a different conclusion to you, I could not have studied the material involved - despite the fact that I have already stated that I had done.

Originally posted by Yorick: Even now, you are yet to post an alternate interpretation of the passages.

A proper answer would require not only the quotation of verses, but also the context, mainstream interpretations and historical perspectives.
But this is a public forum - not a bible or Qu'ran class and a 5,000 word hermeneutical answer would be interminable for the majority of readers.

Originally posted by Yorick: I have read the dissertations of those who advocate a solely spiritual interpretation, and I don't buy it when I then read the qu'ran. Obviously, neither do the Osama Bin Ladens or Yasser Arafats of the world. Nor the mothers of Hamas suicide bombers.

And now you have moved from disparaging my charactor to vituperating Islam.

Do the beliefs of the KKK represent the mainstream views of Christians? Go to their websites (I will *not* link racist material) and you will find that they justify their actions with bible verses. This man also believed that he was upholding Christian doctrine - and isn't short of a bible verse or two either. No-one with the slightest knowledge of Christian doctrine believes that they are acting according to the mainstream interpretation of their faith - to claim otherwise would be offensive to most Christians.

Perhaps you should consider how offensive your statement was towards Islam.

In any event, until you apologise for your unfounded vilification of Islam and for disparaging me, I see no reason to continue any further dialogue with you in this or other threads.