Oh..Pericles... on the 'run out of virgins'.... I recall I posted a portion of dialog with a muslim from youtube which you should remember.. (if you don't.. CJ will help you.. he has all my posts highlighted remember :)
That bloke said as follows:

"paradise will mean virgins.. recycled.. each time ur finished.. they will become virgins again.. no menses.. no toilet.. just there for your pleasure"

Well.. you can call it a metaphor if you like..but please see how Muslims interpet it....rather than comitting 'isogesis' yourself.

Here is another view.. this one from Malaysia.. fascinating stuff... really. He says 'a'...and then 'b' in the next sentence.. while a and b are not compatable.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503549252

Read the QUESTION though.. that is a deuzy.

Part of the Answer:

"It is meant for those who want it, not for every single mujahid. Yet every Muslim man and woman who is allowed to enter Heaven is given the opportunity to get whatever he or she wants as clearly stated in the Qur’an and many Hadiths of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This means that those women who don’t want their husbands to have more could be granted this wish and desire. At the same time if the husbands of those women want to have more than them Allah is great and can satisfy each of them in the way He, the Almighty, wants."

COMMENT This interpreter states a MANS desire.. for many women..and his WIVES desire..that he have only her.. will BOTH be satisfied. err.. 'how'?
They are in direct 100% conflict -He wants A.....she wants B
Cannot have it both ways.

This answer is 'ducking and weaving' and is tailored to make gullable women happy and obedient.

Hey Boazy, I think its time to clean your keyboard, your comma key doesn't work and your full stop key is sticking.

What stories do Christian fundies tell to "make gullable (sic) women happy and obedient"?

The point here, surely, is what is real, and what is fantasy?

My own position is, as you know, that the stories behind both Christianity and Islam are based upon fantasy. What I am trying to do here is point out to you that you cannot claim that there is a serious difference between these two fantasies.

You can point out for as long as you like that the fantasies are different, that they represent different views of the world, and that the scriptures that guide each fantasy were written when times and moralities were substantially different.

But what you cannot claim is that one is more "real" than the other. They both exist only in the imaginations and beliefs of the individual.

Try as you might, you cannot identify any vestige of reality in the quotation you provide about "recycled virgins". Apart from the fact that it is a literal impossibility, it is also a figurative unreality - surely one of the points of virginity is that the virgin in question hasn't "done it". It's hardly a selling point when you get to heaven and find your selected virgin has been recycled a few hundred times, now is it?

So it can only be a metaphor. You yourself are adept at determining the difference between reality and metaphor in the Bible - what is stopping you allowing the same leeway to someone else's religion?

Is that too much to ask?

Incidentally - and I know I have asked this before without getting any semblance of an answer - what is your view of the Christian version of Paradise, Boaz?

And is it literal, or figurative?

Pericles.. the more I read on Islamic paradise.. the more my mind is 'boggled'.... if you do some googling and read the results,

"Paradise for women in Islam"

you will discover that whether or not 'you' believe such claims to be fantasies.. they are very real to the adherants of that faith. VERY real... and this translates into real world behavior.. and the kind of 'endemic patriarchal inequality' that the topic is about.

I CONFESS.. (CJ) I'm not a brilliant speller. Goes back to being traumatized by a sadistic cruel smart alec English teacher in form 3... I still remember his name !
What would I do without your constant reminders of my inadequacies?
Thanx for your help.

APOLOGIES to Justice.. I don't mean to hijack this thread...
no more comments from me about this matter ....

Once again you avoid the key issue Boaz, and attempt a sidetrack.

Do you believe that "Paradise", in any religion or language, is literal or metaphorical?

Assuming you accept that it is dubious to expect to hang around on a little fluffy cloud playing a harp, do you see any differences in the metaphor of the Islamic Paradise and that of the Christian one?

It is too glib to say that you are shocked by an interpretation of a metaphor - "the more I read on Islamic paradise.. the more my mind is 'boggled'" - because you are confusing the means with the end.

It obviously is greatly troubling to you Boaz, so may I suggest the following treatment.

Try to imagine, if you can, the real, factual existence of the Islamic Paradise. Since you are not a Muslim, I suspect that you will find this impossible - after all, it can only be "real" to Muslims, right?

There - in one fell swoop you have relegated the Islamic Paradise to the realms of fantasy. Since it doesn't exist, you can stop fretting about it, and get on with something useful.

Now try the same exercise with the Christian Paradise. More success this time? Good. Now, tell me what you see. Any harps? Something like this, perhaps?

http://www.spiritualism.org.au/teaching/astralplanes.html

So tell me, now that you have had time to consider it carefully, what is your view on paradise?

Fact or fantasy? Myth or reality? Literal or metaphorical?