I posted this (uncorrected) over on Frank Schnittger's current Diary, but it seems relevant here, too....

I am more interested in the values that underpin religion than in religion itself. In particular, in religion as "code for living" and the extent to which the code that was relevant in first century Palestine or seventh century Arabia is still relevant today.

For instance, is it any surprise that most "fundamentalists" of Abrahamic traditions proscribe contraception because at the time the "code" was written life expectancy was so short, and large families a necessary response? Or that covering the body in a savagely hot and sunny climate is a good idea? Or that eating pig meat in a hot climate was not a good idea?

More generally, and more importantly, there is the shared tradition of mandatory sharing of risk and reward eg the proscription of "usury" and the concept of the "Jubilee" freeing borrowers from debt, the prescription of charity such as zakat.

Then there is the concept of "Commons". Were the Prophet alive today, would he not go beyond the "Commons" of Pasture, Fire and Water to include knowledge? The very idea that anyone could lay claim to "ownership" of knowledge had probably never been conceived of in the seventh century (correct me if I am wrong!).

The values underpinning religion as legal code survive in our body of secular law of course, and the secular and the religious mix in different countries in different ways.

I have been extremely interested to see how the risk and revenue sharing traditions of mutuality, equality and cooperation - also land as a "Commons" - live on in the Scandinavian countries, and Scotland in particular. This is, I think, as with seventh century desert Islam, a necessary response to a pretty unforgiving environment.

I think it is easy to lose sight of why religion is the way it is, and why it may become irrelevant if it does not evolve with the circumstances which gave rise to it.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson