The "True" Faith

It never fails that when a group, or in this case, an army, such as ISIS starts carrying on in ways that the majority of people would never dream, that apologists will come out and say "remember that this isn't a reflection of the true faith".

It is important to learn, if we wish to fight against this profane intrusion, that there is no true faith.  Regardless of the religion, there is no central authority that can claim to know the absolute tenants of any religion. 

500+ years ago the catholic church notoriously tortured, killed or ex-communicated numerous people that were seen as enemies of the faith.  We may look at that now as barbarism but at the time it was completely believed, by the "central authority" of the church to be acceptable, and they had the power and authority to carry it out.

We can't say that a group within a religion is acting outside the true faith just because we don't like what their beliefs are or that the majority of people in that particular faith don't believe in the same things.  We can't pick and choose what central tenants we believe constitute the true faith.  In 20 years we could easily say that speaking out against homosexuality is wrong and not of the true faith, but how can we know this?  20 years ago it WAS acceptable to speak out against it by all monotheistic religions. 

Religion will get away with what they can.  It only drops the more brutal or socially unacceptable beliefs when humanity calls on them to be more humane.  Let's not kid ourselves, the leaders and fighters in ISIS are strong believers of the islamic faith. 

If we believe that an angel revealed God's word to an illiterate desert merchant, then it's impossible to claim what the true belief is.  We can only claim to know based on what sounds reasonable to us.  Unfortunately for those of us who believe in the rights of man, ISIS believes that cutting the heads off of unbelievers is reasonable and directed by their texts.