I remember vividly, that a friend of mine described, about five years ago, that the Taliban had gathered the public in Gilan District of Ghazni province and informed them that the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) was a religious scholar not a doctor or an engineer. Therefore, the Taliban said, the country did not need doctors or engineers, but clergy to protect their religious values from erosion. They called upon the public to send their children to them for religious studies rather than sending them to the regular schools. The elder people were simply convinced about this decision of the Taliban. Don’t you think that Taliban adopt a maximal attitude towards religion?

A Maximal approach is one of the great calamities which has affected our religious mentality. This is the same attitude which was adopted by the Catholic Church in the medieval age in Europe. This mentality was common among the religious Christians. Their idea was that religion can respond to the entire problems of human societies. According to them, religion was the only full-fledged item which included all the human necessities. It was the age of religion’s selfishness and pride.

I believe that the conflict between Galileo and the Catholic Church ended in positive outcome for paving the way to freedom of expression and for changing the view of religious individuals. Since heliocentrism contradicted the literal meaning of the Scriptures, it was termed heretical by the Qualifiers. However, as a result of Galileo’s insistence, the Holy Office finally issued a decree in 1616 declaring “the Pythagorean doctrine of the motion of the earth” to be “false and altogether opposed to Holy Scripture.” Galileo’s name was not mentioned in the decree nor were his works prohibited. The incident ended on a decorous note with Pope Paul V gracefully receiving Galileo in a long audience in which the Pope assured Galileo that any rumors and calumny directed against him would be ignored by the Vatican.

Even though, the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and others advocating heliocentrism were banned following the Inquisitions’ 1616 judgment, in 1758 the Catholic Church dropped their general prohibition from the Index of Forbidden Books.

In 1992, it was reported in the news that the Catholic Church had turned around towards vindicating Galileo as Pope John Paul II stated:

Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed in a literal sense by the Sacred Scripture....

In a letter to Kepler of August 1610, Galileo complained that some of the philosophers who opposed his discoveries had refused even to look through a telescope:

“My dear Kepler, I wish that we might laugh at the remarkable stupidity of the common herd. What do you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of an asp and do not want to look at either the planets, the moon or the telescope, even though I have freely and deliberately offered them the opportunity a thousand times? Truly, just as the asp stops its ears, so do these philosophers shut their eyes to the light of truth.”

The Catholic Church showed great tolerance regarding the issue and avoided prosecuting Galileo seriously. This not only paved the way for freedom of speech but also restricted the realm of religion. In other words, the priests came to know that religion is not a boundless product. They swallowed their pride by accepting that religion can meet only a limited need of human societies.

Currently, the same frame of mind, regarding religion, is common among the religious extremists. In spite of using modern technologies, they deeply believe that religion can meet their mundane and heavenly needs.

Religious individuals are not supposed to look at all the social, economic and political issues through the glass of religion and one will fail to extract all requirements from religion. Through a deeper study about religion, one will find that religion deals with the aforementioned issues in a minimalistic way. The current experiences will prove that the countries which are mired in religious issues are stuck in great difficulties.

Suppose the Taliban are right and the Holy Prophet was no more than a religious-political leader, but how to treat our patients? Shall we travel by camels as our Prophet did? If so, why they do not fight with sword? The girls’ high schools are still closed in Gilan and Moqor Districts. Based on religious view, isn’t it far more honorable to take a female patient to female doctors for treatment? So, the solution for the problem is that the girls have to continue their studies. Or they order that, in primary schools, the girls should be taught by female teachers, then how is it possible to find female teachers where the girls are not allowed to continue their education?

In our modern world, religions seem to be limited in responding to the unlimited needs of human societies. For instance, if economic systems were not managed through modern technologies and mechanized strategies, then human societies would have run short of resources long ago. But do the Taliban care about it?

At the time of the Taliban regime, many folk died due to hunger. Women were not allowed to come out to get bread and butter for their children, perhaps through begging, no matter if their husbands were massacred. Taliban were arguing that Allah has created the people and He will satisfy their needs. How and when? Perhaps such questions were considered heresy in their mentality and should be followed by punishment.