As I have alluded to before I have a friend who is a Jehovah's witness and as such I thought I would address the issue of blood transfusions as I have actually said to my friend that I think it is mental that he (and the Watchtower Organization) believes that blood transfusions are a bad idea. As I mentioned in one of my recent Bible posts, the reason that Jehovah's witnesses are against blood transfusions is supported by the Bible. These verses are given here for full clarity and they are:
Genesis 9:4 "Only flesh with its life—its blood—you must not eat."
Deutoronomy 12:23 "Just be firmly resolved not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the flesh."
Acts 15:28-29 "For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you except these necessary things: to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!”"
So, as one can see if you take the Bible as Gods word it really is that simple to deny yourself blood transfusion as you are essentially taking part of the blood and God does not want you take part of the blood. However, if we are to take the Bible as Gods word then we need to have hard proof that the Bible is the word of God and that God in fact exists. Both of these pieces of evidence are lacking and as such the desire to not take a blood transfusion is completely irrational.
The Watchtower Organization does go into details that some doctors are starting to come around that a blood transfusion is not always the best idea and should be avoided if possible. Now I will not deny that a blood transfusion can be dangerous, as you could get infected by something that is undetectable. However, doctors in the modern age usually only give transfusions when there is only one option beside transfusion and that is death. In fact Jehovah's witnesses have helped improve medicine by getting doctors to focus on bloodless surgery as well, doctors like to keep their patients alive. Please note that it is not only Jehovah's witnesses that deny themselves blood transfusions, there are also other people worried about transmission of disease that would rather die than take the risk of a transfusion.
Now, I will be frank I think this whole idea of blood transfusion refusal is stupid. However, I also believe an adult has the choice to die if they want. This has in fact happened recently when Adeline Keh refused herself a blood transfusion and died leaving her new born baby boy in the care of a distraught father. Do I think she was an idiot, yes I do but she had the right to do this idiocy to herself. On the other hand, to stop a child receiving a blood transfusion is just shocking as happened recently in Australia. I should point out that some organizations are getting involved to stop the lunacy of willful murder of children that are not able to decide for themselves if they want a blood transfusion.
In closing, I have told my friend that if there is ever a need a blood transfusion and he cannot speak for himself I will try my darnedest to get one for him. Granted this will be against his will, but hey I am yet to be convinced that God exists and this view is based on God. Basically, I think an alive friend that does not speak to me is better than a dead friend that cannot speak at all.
Monday 5 October 2015
Friday 2 October 2015
Reading the Koran - Sura 2 verse 122 - 141
Verses 122 to 129 of the Koran are rather refreshing after all the hate leveled at the Jews over the last few readings. Granted, there is still the underlying tone that the Jews are not the best people as they are not Muslims, however it is pointed out that the are Allah's chosen people through the patriarch Imam Abraham.
The one verse from this book that I believe has some sustenance to it is 126.
"And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, make this a secure town, and provide its people with fruits —such of them as have faith in Allah and the Last Day,’ He said, ‘As for him who is faithless, I will provide for him [too] for a short time, then I will shove him toward the punishment of the Fire, and it is an evil destination.’ "
Granted the whole issue about hell fire seems a bit over the top. However, this makes sense and is something everyone needs to realize at some point in their life and that is that "bad" people will benefit from "good" people doing "good" things (I used the quotation marks as good and bad really are subjective). The one problem that this creates is that it can let people believe that bad people will get their comeuppance form Allah and as such we do not have to worry to much about them. This attitude is very defeatist, and one that irritates me a lot with the religious as I would much rather be getting out and sorting the problems out than sitting and praying that God cleanses the bad. Perhaps in some twisted worldview cleansing is what ISIS terrorists think they are doing?
Verse 128 in the Rodwell translation I have is a little different to the online version, as it implies that Abraham was a Muslim. In fact commentary that I reference refers to Abraham as a Muslim which is rather interesting as how could a Muslim exist before Islam actually started?
"‘Our Lord, make us Muslims (submissive to You), and [raise] from our progeny Muslims (a nation submissive to You), and show us our rites [of worship], and turn to us clemently. Indeed You are the All-clement, the All-merciful."
Perhaps the translation has been re-translated from the original Arabic to make it more logical. In the commentary it mentions that Abraham was a Muslim already though Islam was kept until a later stage from the normal people. This apologetics does get around the logical by relying on the same rational held by Christians that as time changes the laws changed. However, would it not be easier for almighty Allah just to get the original message across in the beginning after all if Abraham was a Muslim, then surely it is not that difficult to make a message known. However, I think there is a far more logical reason that Abraham is mentioned as a Muslim and that arise in the next verse where we see that the final messenger is yet to come.
"‘Our Lord, raise amongst them an apostle from among them, who should recite to them Your signs, and teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them. Indeed You are the All-mighty, the All-wise.’ "
Now, if I wanted people to think that I was the final messenger of the one and true God I would rely on old texts and try interweave them in such a way that it sounds like I am that special person. Perhaps Muhammad was smart enough to realize that to unify herders he needed a special reason and what a better way than to play on irrational beliefs of things that cannot be explained. We should also remember that at this point that the Jews and Christians had been and where influential and as such it is a belief system that was ready to be tapped and utilized to either obtain power or unite a group of people for their personal betterment.
After the reprieve for Jews in verses 122 to 129, we are back on track saying that the Jews are wrong and misleading true Muslims in verses 130 to 141. This section is slightly different as it still maintains that Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac were Muslims and as such Jews and Christians really should all be Muslims as they have the basis of the first Muslims. Yes, I realize its bizarre that the first Muslims existed before Islam but hey I didn't write this saga and if I did I would have used a proofreader to make sure that illogical things like this were erased.
Here the Koran also takes a good shot at Christianity in its help guide on how to convert unbeleievers.
Christain or Jew "‘Be either Jews or Christians, that you may be [rightly] guided.’"
Muslim "‘Rather [we will follow] the creed of Abraham, a ḥanīf, and he was not one of the polytheists.’"
As such it is simple to see that from an Islamic perspective the Christian belief (majority opinion of Christians) that Jesus is God is absolutely insane as God can only be one. The one thing I do not get is why this message is also directed t the Jews, after all the Jews believe in the one true God and not any polytheistic deity. This is even clarified in the following verse where it says that Abraham believed in Allah.
"Say, ‘We have faith in Allah, and that which has been sent down to us, and that which was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus were given, and that which the prophets were given from their Lord; we make no distinction between any of them, and to Him do we submit.’ "
Perhaps this is just a cheap shot at the Jews again. Keeping the hatred alive maybe?
Okay, that is enough for now. See you next week and perhaps in between I will find some apologetics that does away with Abraham being a Muslim before Islam existed.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
The one verse from this book that I believe has some sustenance to it is 126.
"And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, make this a secure town, and provide its people with fruits —such of them as have faith in Allah and the Last Day,’ He said, ‘As for him who is faithless, I will provide for him [too] for a short time, then I will shove him toward the punishment of the Fire, and it is an evil destination.’ "
Granted the whole issue about hell fire seems a bit over the top. However, this makes sense and is something everyone needs to realize at some point in their life and that is that "bad" people will benefit from "good" people doing "good" things (I used the quotation marks as good and bad really are subjective). The one problem that this creates is that it can let people believe that bad people will get their comeuppance form Allah and as such we do not have to worry to much about them. This attitude is very defeatist, and one that irritates me a lot with the religious as I would much rather be getting out and sorting the problems out than sitting and praying that God cleanses the bad. Perhaps in some twisted worldview cleansing is what ISIS terrorists think they are doing?
Verse 128 in the Rodwell translation I have is a little different to the online version, as it implies that Abraham was a Muslim. In fact commentary that I reference refers to Abraham as a Muslim which is rather interesting as how could a Muslim exist before Islam actually started?
"‘Our Lord, make us Muslims (submissive to You), and [raise] from our progeny Muslims (a nation submissive to You), and show us our rites [of worship], and turn to us clemently. Indeed You are the All-clement, the All-merciful."
Perhaps the translation has been re-translated from the original Arabic to make it more logical. In the commentary it mentions that Abraham was a Muslim already though Islam was kept until a later stage from the normal people. This apologetics does get around the logical by relying on the same rational held by Christians that as time changes the laws changed. However, would it not be easier for almighty Allah just to get the original message across in the beginning after all if Abraham was a Muslim, then surely it is not that difficult to make a message known. However, I think there is a far more logical reason that Abraham is mentioned as a Muslim and that arise in the next verse where we see that the final messenger is yet to come.
"‘Our Lord, raise amongst them an apostle from among them, who should recite to them Your signs, and teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them. Indeed You are the All-mighty, the All-wise.’ "
Now, if I wanted people to think that I was the final messenger of the one and true God I would rely on old texts and try interweave them in such a way that it sounds like I am that special person. Perhaps Muhammad was smart enough to realize that to unify herders he needed a special reason and what a better way than to play on irrational beliefs of things that cannot be explained. We should also remember that at this point that the Jews and Christians had been and where influential and as such it is a belief system that was ready to be tapped and utilized to either obtain power or unite a group of people for their personal betterment.
After the reprieve for Jews in verses 122 to 129, we are back on track saying that the Jews are wrong and misleading true Muslims in verses 130 to 141. This section is slightly different as it still maintains that Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac were Muslims and as such Jews and Christians really should all be Muslims as they have the basis of the first Muslims. Yes, I realize its bizarre that the first Muslims existed before Islam but hey I didn't write this saga and if I did I would have used a proofreader to make sure that illogical things like this were erased.
Here the Koran also takes a good shot at Christianity in its help guide on how to convert unbeleievers.
Christain or Jew "‘Be either Jews or Christians, that you may be [rightly] guided.’"
Muslim "‘Rather [we will follow] the creed of Abraham, a ḥanīf, and he was not one of the polytheists.’"
As such it is simple to see that from an Islamic perspective the Christian belief (majority opinion of Christians) that Jesus is God is absolutely insane as God can only be one. The one thing I do not get is why this message is also directed t the Jews, after all the Jews believe in the one true God and not any polytheistic deity. This is even clarified in the following verse where it says that Abraham believed in Allah.
"Say, ‘We have faith in Allah, and that which has been sent down to us, and that which was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus were given, and that which the prophets were given from their Lord; we make no distinction between any of them, and to Him do we submit.’ "
Perhaps this is just a cheap shot at the Jews again. Keeping the hatred alive maybe?
Okay, that is enough for now. See you next week and perhaps in between I will find some apologetics that does away with Abraham being a Muslim before Islam existed.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
Wednesday 30 September 2015
Reading the Bible - Genesis 12
In the last post we saw the introduction of Gods man Abram who was basically the big daddy of the Jews, this week we start getting glimpses into what kind of person God approves of. Genesis 12 starts of well like all great mythological tales in that Abram gets told to get off his ass and go on an adventure as God will look after him and afford him riches. These types of epic quests are well known in tales ranging from Odysseus to Jason to Percy Jackson, what makes the Biblical account fascinating is that it encompasses years and generations. However, the fact that this quest lasts generations should not be seen as leading credence to Biblical accuracy, i.e. the bible story is true as it is different to other mythological quests and yes this is apologetics I have heard. Rather it should be considered as adhering to what was laid out in the beginning of the quest where God says he will make Abram a great nation.
"And Jehovah said to A′bram: “Go out from your land and away from your relatives and from the house of your father to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will become a blessing."
Perhaps more interesting is that we also get shown that people that bless/curse Abram will also get blessed/cursed by God. This is rather weird as we know God does not like others to be praised above him, yet for some reason he makes an exception for Abram. Alternatively, this is meant to be considered just a myth and we are meant to learn something from Abram's journey and as such teach the story as a mythological tale similar to that of Icarus.
"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who calls down evil on you, and all the families of the ground will certainly be blessed by means of you.”"
I will be honest when you read Genesis 12, it does not come across that Abram is on a quest, rather he is moving around like a nomad with no place to go. This would make sense as it was just him and his family and it does not seem as if they were trying to fit in, after all they left their land and were on some type of quest. What I wonder is why the hell did he do to leave his land and relatives in the first place. This is also the first time we hear about the promised land that God wants to give to Abram. What I do not get is that God always has to give land but he never just does the humane thing which would rather be to just make the people that live there currently convert. If God is almighty enough to give huge swaths of Canaanite land to his chosen people, surely he has the power to convert a few feeble unbelieving minds.
"Jehovah then appeared to A′bram and said: “To your offspring I am going to give this land.”"
Anyway, a drought arises in and as such Abram and his family head down to Egypt to escape the famine. However, as you do when you are Gods chosen one Abram tells his wife Sarai that she should not admit to being his wife as she is beautiful and so he will get killed if she does as people will want her.
"As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sar′ai: “Please listen! I know what a beautiful woman you are. So when the Egyptians see you, they will surely say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but keep you alive. Please say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and my life will be spared.”"
There is so much wrong in these few lines, so let me break it down. Firstly, I mean the guy that has been promised by God that he will get blessed is worried that someone will kill him that is such a lack of trust and makes you wonder if this God guy is real. Secondly, we learn that Abram is of very dubious character that he is not prepared to take a stand for his wife that he loves. Granted this could just be misogyny in the Bible coming through, but I do not think so as we will see in later stories that Abram is a psychopath at the bare minimum. Lastly, we are told to accept that the Egyptians are an evil people after all why would they want to take someones wife and kill. I find this evil concept rather bizarre as the Egyptians are not evil enough to kill people that are escaping famine and using their resources, yet they are willing to kill someone to take their wife?
As is expected the beautiful and now pseudo-single lady Sarai attracts a lot of attention and eventually she ends up in Pharaoh's house. Naturally Pharaoh is super happy with this beautiful lady and showers gifts of cattle, slaves, camels, etc. onto Abram in the traditional dowry way. It is after giving all of these gifts that Pharaoh's family gets struck down with plague and that he finds out that Sarai is actually Abram's wife.
"So Phar′aoh called A′bram and said: “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister, so that I was about to take her as my wife?"
Amazingly the just God punishes the Pharaoh for doing a good thing and blesses Abram for using his wife basically as a prostitute. What a great lesson to be learned here for the kids. Amazingly the Pharaoh even after this the evil Pharaoh does not take away any gifts or try harm Abram in anyway rather he just sends them away with everything he gave them.
"Here is your wife. Take her and go!” So Phar′aoh gave his men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had."
Moral of the story? Be an ass hat and be blessed. That is all for this week, see you next time.
xxxxxxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official website
"And Jehovah said to A′bram: “Go out from your land and away from your relatives and from the house of your father to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will become a blessing."
Perhaps more interesting is that we also get shown that people that bless/curse Abram will also get blessed/cursed by God. This is rather weird as we know God does not like others to be praised above him, yet for some reason he makes an exception for Abram. Alternatively, this is meant to be considered just a myth and we are meant to learn something from Abram's journey and as such teach the story as a mythological tale similar to that of Icarus.
"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who calls down evil on you, and all the families of the ground will certainly be blessed by means of you.”"
I will be honest when you read Genesis 12, it does not come across that Abram is on a quest, rather he is moving around like a nomad with no place to go. This would make sense as it was just him and his family and it does not seem as if they were trying to fit in, after all they left their land and were on some type of quest. What I wonder is why the hell did he do to leave his land and relatives in the first place. This is also the first time we hear about the promised land that God wants to give to Abram. What I do not get is that God always has to give land but he never just does the humane thing which would rather be to just make the people that live there currently convert. If God is almighty enough to give huge swaths of Canaanite land to his chosen people, surely he has the power to convert a few feeble unbelieving minds.
"Jehovah then appeared to A′bram and said: “To your offspring I am going to give this land.”"
Anyway, a drought arises in and as such Abram and his family head down to Egypt to escape the famine. However, as you do when you are Gods chosen one Abram tells his wife Sarai that she should not admit to being his wife as she is beautiful and so he will get killed if she does as people will want her.
"As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sar′ai: “Please listen! I know what a beautiful woman you are. So when the Egyptians see you, they will surely say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but keep you alive. Please say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and my life will be spared.”"
There is so much wrong in these few lines, so let me break it down. Firstly, I mean the guy that has been promised by God that he will get blessed is worried that someone will kill him that is such a lack of trust and makes you wonder if this God guy is real. Secondly, we learn that Abram is of very dubious character that he is not prepared to take a stand for his wife that he loves. Granted this could just be misogyny in the Bible coming through, but I do not think so as we will see in later stories that Abram is a psychopath at the bare minimum. Lastly, we are told to accept that the Egyptians are an evil people after all why would they want to take someones wife and kill. I find this evil concept rather bizarre as the Egyptians are not evil enough to kill people that are escaping famine and using their resources, yet they are willing to kill someone to take their wife?
Just pretend to be single, its like swinging. (Source)
As is expected the beautiful and now pseudo-single lady Sarai attracts a lot of attention and eventually she ends up in Pharaoh's house. Naturally Pharaoh is super happy with this beautiful lady and showers gifts of cattle, slaves, camels, etc. onto Abram in the traditional dowry way. It is after giving all of these gifts that Pharaoh's family gets struck down with plague and that he finds out that Sarai is actually Abram's wife.
"So Phar′aoh called A′bram and said: “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister, so that I was about to take her as my wife?"
Amazingly the just God punishes the Pharaoh for doing a good thing and blesses Abram for using his wife basically as a prostitute. What a great lesson to be learned here for the kids. Amazingly the Pharaoh even after this the evil Pharaoh does not take away any gifts or try harm Abram in anyway rather he just sends them away with everything he gave them.
"Here is your wife. Take her and go!” So Phar′aoh gave his men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had."
Moral of the story? Be an ass hat and be blessed. That is all for this week, see you next time.
xxxxxxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official website
Tuesday 29 September 2015
Temporary Hiatus
I should have published this a while ago, but I thought it would all be handeled so here is the delayed announcement. There still may be posts as some are scheduled, but I will not be actively blogging so if it goes quite you have been notified.
xxxxxxxx
Due to some unavoidable personal issues, I have to go on a temporary hiatus. I will be back and hopefully it is not an extended break. Nothing too serious but I just need to sort some shit out.I would like to say "I am battling demons," but then theists would probably say, "see I told you that demons are real." So, instead, here is Thor battling a demon
xxxxxxxx
Due to some unavoidable personal issues, I have to go on a temporary hiatus. I will be back and hopefully it is not an extended break. Nothing too serious but I just need to sort some shit out.I would like to say "I am battling demons," but then theists would probably say, "see I told you that demons are real." So, instead, here is Thor battling a demon
(Source)
Or IronMan battling his demons
(Source)
No, I am not an alcoholic and no I am not going to hell to fight Satan. Well, I suppose according to most major religions I am going to hell, but realistically not so much.
Monday 28 September 2015
When religion causes hurt
I have said it before and I will say it again. Religion has horrific real life effects. Effects which I have witnessed personally growing up in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa.
I would say most of these experiences came during the Post-Apartheid years when I went to University and during this time I got to see what actually was going on. Growing up in my parents house was actually rather pleasant and liberal so I never really thought blacks were having a bad time as discrimination was not the a thing that was done in our house. Naturally the house and small town I lived in then was the world for me at that point, so as a young kid I really was not well exposed to the harsh realities.
The one things that did happen in Post-Apartheid South Africa was that the white supremacist group called the AWB and its military arm remained. Basically these people want to secede and form their own white state. And yes, they are still active, although they are far more apt at making spectacles of themselves that actually causing harm. After that diatribe of sorts, let me present a picture I found on the internet a few weeks back. This is the book cover to the AWB's Iron Gaurds (YsterGarde) who were basically the wannabe marines of the AWB. What you will note in the picture is the AWB symbol which draws remarkable resemblance to the Nazi Swastika. However, this symbol is three sevens, and we should know that seven is the number of completeness or perfection in the Bible, and as such this represents the victory over Satan and his symbolic number 666.
Needless to say these guys are fruit loops that can believe what they want and say what they want, but none the less they still have a few screws loose upstairs. This is what religion does to you, it makes those screws in your head a little less tighter. Oh and if you were wondering more about that emblem and its relation to National Socialism, I will just leave this here.
I would say most of these experiences came during the Post-Apartheid years when I went to University and during this time I got to see what actually was going on. Growing up in my parents house was actually rather pleasant and liberal so I never really thought blacks were having a bad time as discrimination was not the a thing that was done in our house. Naturally the house and small town I lived in then was the world for me at that point, so as a young kid I really was not well exposed to the harsh realities.
The one things that did happen in Post-Apartheid South Africa was that the white supremacist group called the AWB and its military arm remained. Basically these people want to secede and form their own white state. And yes, they are still active, although they are far more apt at making spectacles of themselves that actually causing harm. After that diatribe of sorts, let me present a picture I found on the internet a few weeks back. This is the book cover to the AWB's Iron Gaurds (YsterGarde) who were basically the wannabe marines of the AWB. What you will note in the picture is the AWB symbol which draws remarkable resemblance to the Nazi Swastika. However, this symbol is three sevens, and we should know that seven is the number of completeness or perfection in the Bible, and as such this represents the victory over Satan and his symbolic number 666.
Needless to say these guys are fruit loops that can believe what they want and say what they want, but none the less they still have a few screws loose upstairs. This is what religion does to you, it makes those screws in your head a little less tighter. Oh and if you were wondering more about that emblem and its relation to National Socialism, I will just leave this here.
(Source)
Sigh, I guess the apologetic answer is that they are not real Christians.
Friday 25 September 2015
Reading the Koran - Sura 2 Verses 113-122
Verse 113 of Sura two continues where we left off last week in its attack on the other Abrahamic religions showing why it is the one and only true way to Allah. Interestingly, it adopts all the well known apologetics tactics that are common knowledge to any non-believer who has ever had to encounter a rabid theist. The first thing that we see is the Koran telling us that Jews do not believe Christians as they believe their faith is based on nothing and vice versa.
"Moreover, the Jews say, "The Christians lean on nought:" "On nought lean the Jews," say the Christians"
However, I thought it would be good to improve this Sura and so here is my improved Koran version of verse 113.
"Moreover, the Jews say, "The Christians and Muslims lean on nought:" "On nought lean the Jews and Muslims," say the Christians, while the Muslims say "Them Jews and Christians lean on nothing too""
What is interesting is that Allah does state that Jews and Christians will get judged based on the Old Testament, as that is the book that they share. This is interesting as it sort of gives Christians and Jews a way out of judgement as they essentially are susceptible to only interpreting their book of multiple choice correctly while ignoring the Koranic book of multiple choice.
"But on the resurrection day, God shall judge between them as to that in which they differ."
So there is a chance that the Jews or the Christians sects that are interpreting the Old Testament correctly will be going to Paradise with Allah and all the other Muslims. This concept is very interesting as we have seen how peaceful and tolerant Muslims are with other believers in the Middle East.My guess is Paradise will be a pretty rough place to go if it is real.
Verse 114 is striking as it tells us that the most severe sin a person can commit is to stop someone else from worshiping Allah either through prohibition or destruction of a temple.
"And who committeth a greater wrong than he who hindereth God's name from being remembered in his temples, and who hasteth to ruin them?"
In fact the punishment for this is twofold as you will get shamed in this life for doing that, and you will get eternally tortured in the afterlife. I think this message is a good reason why many believers are so strict with their prayers as would you really want to get on the wrong side of Allah when you are going to get double punishment.
Verse 116 is our first encounter of Jesus in the Koran, where it explicitly states that you are not to worship Jesus as God. To Christians reading this you have been warned.
"And they say, "God hath a son:" No! Praise be to Him!"
The reason for this is given in the next line where it explains to us that God is the only creator and as such God cannot have a son who is himself God as that would imply that there is another creator and that is obviously just ridiculous.
Next up is the common theme that we find across many religions, and that is basically shut yourself off to knowledge and do not ask questions. All that you need to do is trust the Koran and Mohammad's words, because well why would he lie? I mean he is the messenger of Allah after all because he said he was the messenger of Allah and I mean no one would ever lie about something like that.......coughs Jim Jones, David Koresh....
"And they who have no knowledge say, "Unless God speak to us, or thou shew us a sign . . . !" So, with like words, said those who were before them: their hearts are alike: Clear signs have we already shewn for those who have firm faith: Verily, with the Truth have we sent thee, a bearer of good tidings and a warner: and of the people of Hell thou shalt not be questioned."
So as you can see all the miracles have been performed in the past and one person wrote down what they saw. As such without further verification we are meant to believe everything as the miracles have happened, and the person that saw the miracles and asking us to trust them is the person who saw the miracle and wrote it down. If this makes your brain hurt, that is a good thing as at this point all you should be doing is trusting the Koran and not actually trying to determine if it is true.
Verse 120 gives us advice how to witness to Christians and Jews, with the following wisdom.
"But until thou follow their religion, neither Jews nor Christians will be satisfied with thee. SAY: Verily, guidance of God, - that is the guidance! And if, after "the Knowledge" which hath reached thee, thou follow their desires, thou shalt find neither helper nor protector against God."
So basically, what the Koran is saying is do not adopt any new methods to convince people, rather stick with the same methods that the other Abrahamic religions use, i.e. its true because the Koran said it is true. I mean, surely if you realize this method has not worked for the other religions you would offer up better advice to convince people. This advice is so bad that I am getting the feeling that Allah fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on his way down.
In closing I want to point out a theme that I mentioned last week, and that is to do with actually understanding the Koran. Apparently, it is really simple to understand, as we get the following message
"They to whom we have given the Book, and who read it as it ought to be read, - these believe therein: but whoso believeth not therein, shall meet with perdition."
Straight up tripe, the Koran is a bigger book of multiple choice than the Bible as it is so difficult to understand, as such there is so much room to "read it as it ought to be read". This does create problems and will continue to create problems until we can educate people enough so that they do not believe in fairy tales anymore.
See you next week for a continuation of this voyage in the Koran.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
"Moreover, the Jews say, "The Christians lean on nought:" "On nought lean the Jews," say the Christians"
However, I thought it would be good to improve this Sura and so here is my improved Koran version of verse 113.
"Moreover, the Jews say, "The Christians and Muslims lean on nought:" "On nought lean the Jews and Muslims," say the Christians, while the Muslims say "Them Jews and Christians lean on nothing too""
What is interesting is that Allah does state that Jews and Christians will get judged based on the Old Testament, as that is the book that they share. This is interesting as it sort of gives Christians and Jews a way out of judgement as they essentially are susceptible to only interpreting their book of multiple choice correctly while ignoring the Koranic book of multiple choice.
"But on the resurrection day, God shall judge between them as to that in which they differ."
So there is a chance that the Jews or the Christians sects that are interpreting the Old Testament correctly will be going to Paradise with Allah and all the other Muslims. This concept is very interesting as we have seen how peaceful and tolerant Muslims are with other believers in the Middle East.My guess is Paradise will be a pretty rough place to go if it is real.
Verse 114 is striking as it tells us that the most severe sin a person can commit is to stop someone else from worshiping Allah either through prohibition or destruction of a temple.
"And who committeth a greater wrong than he who hindereth God's name from being remembered in his temples, and who hasteth to ruin them?"
In fact the punishment for this is twofold as you will get shamed in this life for doing that, and you will get eternally tortured in the afterlife. I think this message is a good reason why many believers are so strict with their prayers as would you really want to get on the wrong side of Allah when you are going to get double punishment.
Verse 116 is our first encounter of Jesus in the Koran, where it explicitly states that you are not to worship Jesus as God. To Christians reading this you have been warned.
"And they say, "God hath a son:" No! Praise be to Him!"
The reason for this is given in the next line where it explains to us that God is the only creator and as such God cannot have a son who is himself God as that would imply that there is another creator and that is obviously just ridiculous.
Next up is the common theme that we find across many religions, and that is basically shut yourself off to knowledge and do not ask questions. All that you need to do is trust the Koran and Mohammad's words, because well why would he lie? I mean he is the messenger of Allah after all because he said he was the messenger of Allah and I mean no one would ever lie about something like that.......coughs Jim Jones, David Koresh....
"And they who have no knowledge say, "Unless God speak to us, or thou shew us a sign . . . !" So, with like words, said those who were before them: their hearts are alike: Clear signs have we already shewn for those who have firm faith: Verily, with the Truth have we sent thee, a bearer of good tidings and a warner: and of the people of Hell thou shalt not be questioned."
So as you can see all the miracles have been performed in the past and one person wrote down what they saw. As such without further verification we are meant to believe everything as the miracles have happened, and the person that saw the miracles and asking us to trust them is the person who saw the miracle and wrote it down. If this makes your brain hurt, that is a good thing as at this point all you should be doing is trusting the Koran and not actually trying to determine if it is true.
Verse 120 gives us advice how to witness to Christians and Jews, with the following wisdom.
"But until thou follow their religion, neither Jews nor Christians will be satisfied with thee. SAY: Verily, guidance of God, - that is the guidance! And if, after "the Knowledge" which hath reached thee, thou follow their desires, thou shalt find neither helper nor protector against God."
So basically, what the Koran is saying is do not adopt any new methods to convince people, rather stick with the same methods that the other Abrahamic religions use, i.e. its true because the Koran said it is true. I mean, surely if you realize this method has not worked for the other religions you would offer up better advice to convince people. This advice is so bad that I am getting the feeling that Allah fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on his way down.
In closing I want to point out a theme that I mentioned last week, and that is to do with actually understanding the Koran. Apparently, it is really simple to understand, as we get the following message
"They to whom we have given the Book, and who read it as it ought to be read, - these believe therein: but whoso believeth not therein, shall meet with perdition."
Straight up tripe, the Koran is a bigger book of multiple choice than the Bible as it is so difficult to understand, as such there is so much room to "read it as it ought to be read". This does create problems and will continue to create problems until we can educate people enough so that they do not believe in fairy tales anymore.
See you next week for a continuation of this voyage in the Koran.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
Wednesday 23 September 2015
Reading the Bible - Genesis 11
Genesis 11 which contains the famous story of the tower of Babel does not start of well, in fact it starts of with a contradiction when it says
"Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words."
However, we know from Genesis 10 that many languages were spoken just by Japheth descendants within the second generation. As such we have to wonder about the tower of Babel story that is to follow, although the message of the story remains the same and trust me as we have seen so far with God it truly is a sinister story.
The Babel story starts with humans getting together and doing what comes naturally after years of evolution and that is form cities and co-operate with each other so that their quality of life can get better.
"They now said: “Come! Let us build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered over the entire face of the earth.”"
Again we see that God who is all knowing is so caught unaware by this fact of a city that he in fact comes down to Earth to check out the city. What he saw however did not impress him, and as such he decided to confuse all the peoples language in the city so that they could not communicate and co-operate. It is this action by God that then lead to the disbanding of the city and the subsequent spreading of humanity around the world. To understand why God did this you need to realize that he was pissed that they wanted to stay in cities and improve their life instead of spreading like a plague and going to all corners of the Earth. The reason for this is that God blessed humans in Genesis 9 after the flood and this blessing meant that he wanted them to spread around the world and be like rabbits. The problem is that this was a blessing and not a command, so by disbanding the city God is acting like a dick as he is showing that he has zero respect for human co-operation and free will so much so that he is already ignoring his blessing. Let me reiterate that a blessing is not a command.
I think this recurring theme of God being dead set against unity is rather strange, as why would a God not want his creations doing better which is what happens when humans unite and work together. Weird as this may be, I think it is important towards Christianity as it allows believers to discriminate against others and this is necessary when you want to enforce your will on others.
The rest of Genesis 11 is again another genealogy which is important as it introduces us to Abram who is to become Abraham and is the grandfather of Israel and hence the Israelite's. As such we start seeing the people that God has decided are the chosen people. I think this is very important as we really have to wonder about Gods choices, I mean he chose an alcoholic who banished a son (who noticed his fathers drunkenness) to sail an ark. As you will see from Abram's personality there is also doubt that this man was of a good character, and if you are a lady you will be horrified by his behavior.
I also want to highlight verse 18 where we see the very brief story if Peleg again (Genesis 10:25). Peleg is important, as it was during Peleg's time that the Earth divided. Now this means that the population divided which means that Peleg must have been alive when the Tower of Babel story took place, and language divided the world. Importantly, Peleg was a third generation descendant and the son of Shem who was the oldest son of Noah. However, This is weird as we know that the sons of Japeth and Shem lived together "Genesis 9:27 Let God grant ample space to Ja′pheth, And let him reside in the tents of Shem." However, Japheth's descendants already were spreading with different languages in the second generation i.e. these different languages occurred in the direct sons of Japheth. Remember that as Shem is the oldest son, his generations will certainly be older or the same than those of Japeth but not a whole generation older as is implied. Again, this short tale of Peleg casts more doubt on the story of Babel and we have to wonder about the consistency and authenticity of the Bible even on really simple points.
In closing this chapter I thought I would touch on one more subject that we have encountered so far in Genesis, and this is the insane ages that people of the Genesis era lived to. I raised this question with a friend who believes and said "how am I to accept these ages that people lived during Genesis i.e. Methuselah 969 and Noah having children at 500 etc. when we do not see that in our current day when medicine and life is just better" (It is better deal with it!). His response was insightful and so I am reproducing it here. Adam in the Garden was meant to live forever until he partook of the tree of good and bad, it is because he ate from the tree he had to die. Now as he had to die he did, however as he was made to be eternal he could live for a very long time and as such he did live for a long time 930 years. However, as time passed people started to live shorter lives as in essence number of years was effectively following an exponential decay curve. So when we look at the years the people lived in the Genesis era they should slowly be decreasing. But here let me show you graphically the difference between an exponential graph and a Genesis exponential graph.
Naturally this explanation avoids current understandings of science which have in fact improved our life expectancy. But it ties in with the exponential decay which is not very good when you consider how it stayed constant and decayed at will. It is almost as if it was made up by a bad statistician.
I need to rest my head now, so see you next time.
xxxxxxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official website
"Now all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words."
However, we know from Genesis 10 that many languages were spoken just by Japheth descendants within the second generation. As such we have to wonder about the tower of Babel story that is to follow, although the message of the story remains the same and trust me as we have seen so far with God it truly is a sinister story.
The Babel story starts with humans getting together and doing what comes naturally after years of evolution and that is form cities and co-operate with each other so that their quality of life can get better.
"They now said: “Come! Let us build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a celebrated name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered over the entire face of the earth.”"
Again we see that God who is all knowing is so caught unaware by this fact of a city that he in fact comes down to Earth to check out the city. What he saw however did not impress him, and as such he decided to confuse all the peoples language in the city so that they could not communicate and co-operate. It is this action by God that then lead to the disbanding of the city and the subsequent spreading of humanity around the world. To understand why God did this you need to realize that he was pissed that they wanted to stay in cities and improve their life instead of spreading like a plague and going to all corners of the Earth. The reason for this is that God blessed humans in Genesis 9 after the flood and this blessing meant that he wanted them to spread around the world and be like rabbits. The problem is that this was a blessing and not a command, so by disbanding the city God is acting like a dick as he is showing that he has zero respect for human co-operation and free will so much so that he is already ignoring his blessing. Let me reiterate that a blessing is not a command.
I think this recurring theme of God being dead set against unity is rather strange, as why would a God not want his creations doing better which is what happens when humans unite and work together. Weird as this may be, I think it is important towards Christianity as it allows believers to discriminate against others and this is necessary when you want to enforce your will on others.
The rest of Genesis 11 is again another genealogy which is important as it introduces us to Abram who is to become Abraham and is the grandfather of Israel and hence the Israelite's. As such we start seeing the people that God has decided are the chosen people. I think this is very important as we really have to wonder about Gods choices, I mean he chose an alcoholic who banished a son (who noticed his fathers drunkenness) to sail an ark. As you will see from Abram's personality there is also doubt that this man was of a good character, and if you are a lady you will be horrified by his behavior.
I also want to highlight verse 18 where we see the very brief story if Peleg again (Genesis 10:25). Peleg is important, as it was during Peleg's time that the Earth divided. Now this means that the population divided which means that Peleg must have been alive when the Tower of Babel story took place, and language divided the world. Importantly, Peleg was a third generation descendant and the son of Shem who was the oldest son of Noah. However, This is weird as we know that the sons of Japeth and Shem lived together "Genesis 9:27 Let God grant ample space to Ja′pheth, And let him reside in the tents of Shem." However, Japheth's descendants already were spreading with different languages in the second generation i.e. these different languages occurred in the direct sons of Japheth. Remember that as Shem is the oldest son, his generations will certainly be older or the same than those of Japeth but not a whole generation older as is implied. Again, this short tale of Peleg casts more doubt on the story of Babel and we have to wonder about the consistency and authenticity of the Bible even on really simple points.
In closing this chapter I thought I would touch on one more subject that we have encountered so far in Genesis, and this is the insane ages that people of the Genesis era lived to. I raised this question with a friend who believes and said "how am I to accept these ages that people lived during Genesis i.e. Methuselah 969 and Noah having children at 500 etc. when we do not see that in our current day when medicine and life is just better" (It is better deal with it!). His response was insightful and so I am reproducing it here. Adam in the Garden was meant to live forever until he partook of the tree of good and bad, it is because he ate from the tree he had to die. Now as he had to die he did, however as he was made to be eternal he could live for a very long time and as such he did live for a long time 930 years. However, as time passed people started to live shorter lives as in essence number of years was effectively following an exponential decay curve. So when we look at the years the people lived in the Genesis era they should slowly be decreasing. But here let me show you graphically the difference between an exponential graph and a Genesis exponential graph.
Genesis exponential
Exponential (Source)-the various colors indicate differing exponentials, with normal decay indicated by the yellow line.
Naturally this explanation avoids current understandings of science which have in fact improved our life expectancy. But it ties in with the exponential decay which is not very good when you consider how it stayed constant and decayed at will. It is almost as if it was made up by a bad statistician.
I need to rest my head now, so see you next time.
xxxxxxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official website
Monday 21 September 2015
Understanding governmental policies on contentious ideas
This has got nothing to do with atheism, then again a lot of content on my blog has got nothing to do with atheism. Sometimes, or often, there are things that need to be thought about and said and who knows maybe someone sees what I have to say and builds on it or discredits it. Either way we need to look at bigger pictures and I think what I will say here today will help some understand governmental policies and why they often go counter to what we see as logic and humane.
The recent immigration crisis in Europe as well as Australia really opened the door for this blogpost as it is such a massive problem that tugs at all the right heartstrings. I would go so far as to say that I think that everyone has humanity and is on board to save refugees from war torn countries. However, it is really not that easy just to say lets save the refugees without considering what that entails for the individual and general public. So let us explore the reality of this situation and see what would happen if we decided to just save everyone.
(Source)
Realistically, what would happen to a country if they decided to do the right thing and save all the refugees? There would be a major shift in employment opportunities as businesses adapt, this would probably result in a decreased income coming towards every house which in turn would lead to less luxuries and an increased cost of living as supply and demand take their toll. Surely this would have to happen as if you are letting the refugees in, you can't be a inhumane person and just expect them not to work. On the other hand you can adopt a policy of not letting them work. In this case the cost of housing, medical, and feeding etc etc etc has to be covered by someone and that someone is going to be the people that live in the country and earn money. In effect the result is the same, and its one that I believe on a very select few people are willing to take. However, for this plan to be effective everyone in the country (or a very very large majority) has to be in agreement that this is the right thing to do. In reality this is not what the current status of most people in countries are as they suffer with their own financial difficulties and problems.
I am sure some people will suggest well we can always just tax the rich more, but that is not realistic as why should one subgroup of people carry the burden of a whole country's decision? This kind of decisions builds animosity between people and divides countries and probably would lead to even more problems than those outlined above when and if the wealthy decide to move. Additionally, then that whole euphoria feeling of individuals in a country who accepted all refugees, but adopted a policy of taxing the rich would plainly be pathetic as they have nothing to be proud of.
Its a sad thing to recognize these problems and accept that we still have a long way to go as a human race. However, lets be clear in these understandings and then we can comprehend unpopular governmental decisions as well as make our voice heard towards progress in policies that will effectively deal with these situations when they arise.
Saturday 19 September 2015
Probability proving creationism?
The probability argument of DNA is a common argument that I find creationists use against abiogenesis being a viable theory for the start of life which then leads to cells, multi-cellular organisms and so on and so forth. In a nutshell the basic idea is that for DNA to form it requires too many chance encounters and as such the chance becomes so small that it is ridiculous to believe that DNA could exist without the existence of a God to make the DNA happen. To put it more simply what this statement implies is the following: God is probable, while DNA formation through abiogenesis is not probable.
As always when a claim like this is made we can do the simple and test it by following simple formulas. Wait, do not run away this is not going to go into math equations its far easier than that. With probability we look at the chance that something can happen and assign a value to it. In the sane way when we look at a series of probabilities we add these values of chance together and we obtain a final probability value which tells us the chance of something happening. So for example, if we consider the formation of DNA according to abiogenesis we need to consider (very simplistically) probability that 1) atoms can form molecules, 2) these molecules can self replicate and 3) that they can group together in cellular like structures. On the other hand if we consider that god created DNA then we need only consider the probability that god exists. So with this in mind lets start assigning some random values.
Abiogenesis to DNA (method 1)
Atoms can form molecules this is basic chemistry, molecules can self replicate again basic chemistry, formation of simple cells again basic chemistry.
Probability of DNA method 1= a positive value.
God creation of DNA (method 2)
There is no verifiable proof that God exists.
Probability of DNA method 2 = 0
Now tell me again that the formation of DNA from nothing is not probable while saying that God is.
(Source)
As always when a claim like this is made we can do the simple and test it by following simple formulas. Wait, do not run away this is not going to go into math equations its far easier than that. With probability we look at the chance that something can happen and assign a value to it. In the sane way when we look at a series of probabilities we add these values of chance together and we obtain a final probability value which tells us the chance of something happening. So for example, if we consider the formation of DNA according to abiogenesis we need to consider (very simplistically) probability that 1) atoms can form molecules, 2) these molecules can self replicate and 3) that they can group together in cellular like structures. On the other hand if we consider that god created DNA then we need only consider the probability that god exists. So with this in mind lets start assigning some random values.
Abiogenesis to DNA (method 1)
Atoms can form molecules this is basic chemistry, molecules can self replicate again basic chemistry, formation of simple cells again basic chemistry.
Probability of DNA method 1= a positive value.
God creation of DNA (method 2)
There is no verifiable proof that God exists.
Probability of DNA method 2 = 0
Now tell me again that the formation of DNA from nothing is not probable while saying that God is.
Friday 18 September 2015
Reading the Koran - Sura 2 Verse 104 - 112
I will be honest, reading the Koran is a lot harder than reading the Bible as it is just so whacked out. This is especially true when you get to sections where there are random words and you need to delve into some Arabic to try understand what is going on. Starting from verse 104-112 of Sura 2 had me going WTF how does anyone understand this crap? Really even after a few readings I was still going WTF, but I persevered and this is the basics of the verses 104-112. However, before I continue I want to say how worrying this difficulty of understanding is. If the Koran is so difficult to understand it means it has a large capability to be distorted like we see in many religions and as is done in many Islam itself with stupid rules like do not draw the prophet Muhammad, which is written no where in the Koran. The fact that we see terrorists using the Koran as a basis to recruit or enforce their motives likewise shows the capability of just making stuff up when reading the Koran. Some Muslims will say that the Koran has been studied deeply by scholars and as such it is simple to understand by looking at what these scholars say, but as with scholars in any myth/philosophy field there truly is no consensus when it comes to understanding.
Back on track, in my first readings, I probably was trying to understand to much, and my advice to anyone reading the Koran is read superficially as the message stays the same no matter what any Muslim or Koranic scholar will tell you. Needless to say, the fact that it should be understandable without reference to a scholar/thesaurus/university degree in theology/think tank would lead credence to it being a divine message.
The verses 104-112 deal mainly with the message that non-Muslims are going to receive their suffering, while Muslims will be shown mercy by Allah. Particularly this message is directed at the Jews which should come as no surprise when we see the hatred that has been directed at the Jews so far with Muhammad even going so far as to call them scouted apes. What I do find refreshing in the Koran is that it specifically calls the other Abrahamic religions out on their perceived flaws with express mention of both Jews and Christians.
"And they say, "None but Jews or Christians shall enter Paradise:""
So we see Islam doing what every other single religion on planet Earth does and that is telling us that if we do not follow their special book then we are not following the correct god. It is because we are not following this correct god then that we are destined to not make paradise or get elevated to the next cycle of rebirth or come back as an alien or whatever other tripe Scientologists and Raelians believe.
The special hatred for Jews is elaborated on with mention that they did to Moses what they are doing to Muhammad now, and that is ignoring the true message from Allah.
"Would ye ask of your apostle what of old was asked of Moses? But he who exchangeth faith for unbelief, hath already erred from the even way."
Needless to say Islam wants the Jews to just give up their faith and follow the new way without asking questions, i.e. have faith and not unbelief. This is rather an absurd notion to just think people are going to accept a new set of rules when there is no evidence to convince them that the new set of rules are true and come from God. I suppose as is expected of atheists, the Jews should just know Allah exists and the writings from the Koran are all real and perfect.
In fact Muhammad addresses that the laws of the Jews were right for their times, but thing have changed in the modern age and as such the laws have changed and the Jews should be willing to embrace new laws which Allah has given.
"Whatever verses we cancel, or cause thee to forget, we bring a better or its like. Knowest thou not that God hath power over all things?"
Unsurprisingly, this is also the same reasoning Christians use to chastise Jews. Remarkably all these religions claim the same thing, and that is that their book is the last divinely inspired book. What surprises me is that Allah has not updated this book in the last 1400 years, yet he was prepared to update the Christian scriptures after 600 years. This is remarkable, as the world has advanced so much in the last 1200 years to a level way beyond any advancement that happened in the time between the Bible and the Koran. Never mind that the New Testament was following hard and fast on the heels of the Old Testament.
That is all for today, hope you enjoyed the read you infidels ;)
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
Back on track, in my first readings, I probably was trying to understand to much, and my advice to anyone reading the Koran is read superficially as the message stays the same no matter what any Muslim or Koranic scholar will tell you. Needless to say, the fact that it should be understandable without reference to a scholar/thesaurus/university degree in theology/think tank would lead credence to it being a divine message.
The verses 104-112 deal mainly with the message that non-Muslims are going to receive their suffering, while Muslims will be shown mercy by Allah. Particularly this message is directed at the Jews which should come as no surprise when we see the hatred that has been directed at the Jews so far with Muhammad even going so far as to call them scouted apes. What I do find refreshing in the Koran is that it specifically calls the other Abrahamic religions out on their perceived flaws with express mention of both Jews and Christians.
"And they say, "None but Jews or Christians shall enter Paradise:""
So we see Islam doing what every other single religion on planet Earth does and that is telling us that if we do not follow their special book then we are not following the correct god. It is because we are not following this correct god then that we are destined to not make paradise or get elevated to the next cycle of rebirth or come back as an alien or whatever other tripe Scientologists and Raelians believe.
The special hatred for Jews is elaborated on with mention that they did to Moses what they are doing to Muhammad now, and that is ignoring the true message from Allah.
"Would ye ask of your apostle what of old was asked of Moses? But he who exchangeth faith for unbelief, hath already erred from the even way."
Needless to say Islam wants the Jews to just give up their faith and follow the new way without asking questions, i.e. have faith and not unbelief. This is rather an absurd notion to just think people are going to accept a new set of rules when there is no evidence to convince them that the new set of rules are true and come from God. I suppose as is expected of atheists, the Jews should just know Allah exists and the writings from the Koran are all real and perfect.
In fact Muhammad addresses that the laws of the Jews were right for their times, but thing have changed in the modern age and as such the laws have changed and the Jews should be willing to embrace new laws which Allah has given.
"Whatever verses we cancel, or cause thee to forget, we bring a better or its like. Knowest thou not that God hath power over all things?"
Unsurprisingly, this is also the same reasoning Christians use to chastise Jews. Remarkably all these religions claim the same thing, and that is that their book is the last divinely inspired book. What surprises me is that Allah has not updated this book in the last 1400 years, yet he was prepared to update the Christian scriptures after 600 years. This is remarkable, as the world has advanced so much in the last 1200 years to a level way beyond any advancement that happened in the time between the Bible and the Koran. Never mind that the New Testament was following hard and fast on the heels of the Old Testament.
That is all for today, hope you enjoyed the read you infidels ;)
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
Wednesday 16 September 2015
Reading the Bible - Genesis 9-10
Genesis 9 is an interesting chapter, as we get God reasserting his covenant from Genesis 8 that he will never flood the world again. This is done 3 times, just so that we have no doubt that Gods genocidal ways are a thing of the past. It is almost like the abusive spouse that pleads they will never do it again, and even though we want to believe it wont happen it will....SPOILER "it does".
So, how does God finally affirm that he is not lying about his covenant? He says that a rainbow will appear in the sky every time there is a cloud. Now for a ,moment lets forget that this is scientifically inaccurate as clouds can be in the sky with no rainbow. Why does God need a rainbow? Truthfully, the answer is simply horrible as it shows God is anything but trustworthy as he says he needs the rainbow to remind him that killing everyone is a bad idea!
"And God added: ...........And the rainbow will occur in the cloud, and I will certainly see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind on the earth."
What I do not get is that God tells Noah and his sons that every living thing is going to fear and be terrified of man. Seriously, why would you get rid of evil using a mass genocide and then the first thing you do after is make everything terrified of man? That seems like a really stupid thing to do.
"A fear of you and a terror of you will continue upon every living creature of the earth and upon every flying creature of the heavens, upon everything that moves on the ground and upon all the fish of the sea."
However, this makes sense with respect to the miracle diet that God now gives man, as he says that man is now allowed to eat every moving animal and all green vegetation. Although importantly with this new diet, you are not to allowed to take part of the blood of any animal. This is apparently because the soul is maintained in the blood and as such you will be partaking of the soul even though you cannot partake of the soul. Amazingly, this verse (and others) is used by the Jehovah's witnesses as evidence that they should not receive blood transfusions. Apparently, its better to die than to get a blood transfusion which seems very strange and very irresponsible when this idea is getting forced on children who have not yet reached an age to make a responsible decision for themselves on whether they want to die idiotically or not.
Regarding the eating of all green vegetation, this means that the trees of Good and Evil and Life got magically disappeared during the flood, but its not important that it stayed behind as the sin of Adam was still carried through to Noah. Now, the fact that original sin remains even after a mass genocide may seem weird (and it is totally screwed up) however it is the most integral part of the Christian faith, otherwise the Bible would be finished after the flood and then we would not be allowed to discriminate in the name of God.
In verse 5 we see a truly amazing thing, as it is where God tells us that we will have to give an account of ourselves on judgement day. But, have no fear not just man will have to give an account, every living thing (dog, cat, tree, giraffe, walrus etc.) will have to give an account of their life. Also, if that is not weird enough, you will also be required to give an account of your brother. To be fair, I think the term brother is meant to mean anyone you know, otherwise we have to just forget that women exist and get on with it. So, it is completely okay to judge your brother according to God after all how can you give an account if you are not able to determine what was good and bad?
"I will demand an accounting from every living creature; and from each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his brother."
The close of Genesis 9 is the story of Noah and his drinking problem, and really it is an eye opening story as we get to see what happens to people who want to expose the truth. Now Ham saw his father naked and passed out in his tent, so he goes out to tell his brothers Seth and Japheth. These brothers then go into the tent with their back turned and cover their father with a blanket. When Noah finally sobers up and hears what happened, he then curses Ham and his descendants to become a slave for his brothers and theirs. So basically, if you expose the truth and talk about it like Ham did, then you will get chastised and made a slave, also remember that Ham just walked into the tent there was no way he could have known that Noah was drunk and naked. In contrast his sons that ignored the truth (i.e. walked backwards and ignored the sight) got blessed. I should point out here that this verse about Ham getting cursed as a slave is also the verse that many churches used to show that enslavement of other races was Gods way.
Genesis 10 is another of the famous Biblical genealogy chapters, although of course there are weird and interesting nuances if you take a look. Like verse 5, where you have to apply some serious apologetics to get over the fact that islands are not islands.
"From these the inhabitants of the islands spread into their lands, according to their languages and their families and by their nations."
Apparently, this is easily done as all we need to realize is that as no one lived on island then they cannot be islands but instead coastal regions. Also I should point out that language deviation here is rather remarkable as when these families of Japheth spread out, this was only after three generations as such almost every family must have spoken a different language. Additionally, we see that the other sons Ham and Seth did not live on "Islands" like their brother Japheth. So yes, this verse is actually that screwed up and I am meant it take this book as truth.
In closing just remember that great saying
"Just like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah."
I am guessing you did not know this well known saying? However according to the Bible it is meant to be a really well known saying as Nimrod was the first hunter on Earth and that did not please God.
See you next time.
xxxxxxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official webs
So, how does God finally affirm that he is not lying about his covenant? He says that a rainbow will appear in the sky every time there is a cloud. Now for a ,moment lets forget that this is scientifically inaccurate as clouds can be in the sky with no rainbow. Why does God need a rainbow? Truthfully, the answer is simply horrible as it shows God is anything but trustworthy as he says he needs the rainbow to remind him that killing everyone is a bad idea!
"And God added: ...........And the rainbow will occur in the cloud, and I will certainly see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind on the earth."
(Source)
What I do not get is that God tells Noah and his sons that every living thing is going to fear and be terrified of man. Seriously, why would you get rid of evil using a mass genocide and then the first thing you do after is make everything terrified of man? That seems like a really stupid thing to do.
"A fear of you and a terror of you will continue upon every living creature of the earth and upon every flying creature of the heavens, upon everything that moves on the ground and upon all the fish of the sea."
However, this makes sense with respect to the miracle diet that God now gives man, as he says that man is now allowed to eat every moving animal and all green vegetation. Although importantly with this new diet, you are not to allowed to take part of the blood of any animal. This is apparently because the soul is maintained in the blood and as such you will be partaking of the soul even though you cannot partake of the soul. Amazingly, this verse (and others) is used by the Jehovah's witnesses as evidence that they should not receive blood transfusions. Apparently, its better to die than to get a blood transfusion which seems very strange and very irresponsible when this idea is getting forced on children who have not yet reached an age to make a responsible decision for themselves on whether they want to die idiotically or not.
Regarding the eating of all green vegetation, this means that the trees of Good and Evil and Life got magically disappeared during the flood, but its not important that it stayed behind as the sin of Adam was still carried through to Noah. Now, the fact that original sin remains even after a mass genocide may seem weird (and it is totally screwed up) however it is the most integral part of the Christian faith, otherwise the Bible would be finished after the flood and then we would not be allowed to discriminate in the name of God.
In verse 5 we see a truly amazing thing, as it is where God tells us that we will have to give an account of ourselves on judgement day. But, have no fear not just man will have to give an account, every living thing (dog, cat, tree, giraffe, walrus etc.) will have to give an account of their life. Also, if that is not weird enough, you will also be required to give an account of your brother. To be fair, I think the term brother is meant to mean anyone you know, otherwise we have to just forget that women exist and get on with it. So, it is completely okay to judge your brother according to God after all how can you give an account if you are not able to determine what was good and bad?
"I will demand an accounting from every living creature; and from each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his brother."
The close of Genesis 9 is the story of Noah and his drinking problem, and really it is an eye opening story as we get to see what happens to people who want to expose the truth. Now Ham saw his father naked and passed out in his tent, so he goes out to tell his brothers Seth and Japheth. These brothers then go into the tent with their back turned and cover their father with a blanket. When Noah finally sobers up and hears what happened, he then curses Ham and his descendants to become a slave for his brothers and theirs. So basically, if you expose the truth and talk about it like Ham did, then you will get chastised and made a slave, also remember that Ham just walked into the tent there was no way he could have known that Noah was drunk and naked. In contrast his sons that ignored the truth (i.e. walked backwards and ignored the sight) got blessed. I should point out here that this verse about Ham getting cursed as a slave is also the verse that many churches used to show that enslavement of other races was Gods way.
Genesis 10 is another of the famous Biblical genealogy chapters, although of course there are weird and interesting nuances if you take a look. Like verse 5, where you have to apply some serious apologetics to get over the fact that islands are not islands.
"From these the inhabitants of the islands spread into their lands, according to their languages and their families and by their nations."
Apparently, this is easily done as all we need to realize is that as no one lived on island then they cannot be islands but instead coastal regions. Also I should point out that language deviation here is rather remarkable as when these families of Japheth spread out, this was only after three generations as such almost every family must have spoken a different language. Additionally, we see that the other sons Ham and Seth did not live on "Islands" like their brother Japheth. So yes, this verse is actually that screwed up and I am meant it take this book as truth.
In closing just remember that great saying
"Just like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah."
I am guessing you did not know this well known saying? However according to the Bible it is meant to be a really well known saying as Nimrod was the first hunter on Earth and that did not please God.
See you next time.
xxxxxxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official webs
Tuesday 15 September 2015
Alan Kurdi's dead body was a message from God
Did you you know that Alan Kurdi's dead body was a message from God?
Well according to his aunt Tima it is.
"“I feel this little Alan was a message from God to wake up the world,” Kurdi said. “And I am the messenger here.”"
Now I know this lady is hurting, but this is unacceptable as the reason Alan is dead is due to false belief in God and there really is no need to blemish his death by adding another layer of false belief.
I actually did not want to put this picture here, as it does upset me. But the truth of the matter is that if we are saying anything about a God we should be saying that belief in a God that does this is disgusting.
Screw the goat shagging pork eating rapist murderers that are Isis, and screw false beliefs.
Well according to his aunt Tima it is.
"“I feel this little Alan was a message from God to wake up the world,” Kurdi said. “And I am the messenger here.”"
Now I know this lady is hurting, but this is unacceptable as the reason Alan is dead is due to false belief in God and there really is no need to blemish his death by adding another layer of false belief.
I actually did not want to put this picture here, as it does upset me. But the truth of the matter is that if we are saying anything about a God we should be saying that belief in a God that does this is disgusting.
(Source)
Lets cut the crap and put the blame where it belongs and that is on irrational belief in a God. The reason this child and many others are dead is due to irrational belief. The reason that civilians are dying is due to belief in a God for which there is no evidence. The reason people are getting tortured is due to that belief that magic exists.Screw the goat shagging pork eating rapist murderers that are Isis, and screw false beliefs.
Monday 14 September 2015
Who are these people?
In this post I am going to show either my ignorance, or the vast amounts of luck I encounter.
It annoys me so much when I see SJWs and Christians complaining about equality. It is as if they live in an alternate reality to mine where there is discrimination against them constantly and that the only way society can move forward is by listening to them and applying their irrationality to our lives. Yet, I look around myself and I just do not see this happening at every turn as is being claimed. If I try to fit their stereotypes it gets even worse, as I have never raped a women, I have never physically harmed or discriminated against someone based on their religion and I have never supported the discrimination against minorities.
To be clear, this does not mean discrimination does not take place. Hell, I grew up in Apartheid South Africa so I am well aware of what discrimination is. In fact the racism currently present against white people in South Africa in itself is something that I am aware of. This does not mean that in some countries women are discriminated against, all we need to do is look to Saudi Arabia and the Islamic laws to know what chauvinism is. But this is why I ask the question, who are these people that are so anti-equality? Most of these Christians and SJWs operate in the most civilized societies in the world yet claim inequality. So I want to know, who are these people that are making women wear clothes they do not want to wear? Who are these people that are not allowing Christians to celebrate Christmas? Who are these people that discriminate based on skin color? Because I know the answer to the question, who are these people that do not understand what the word discriminate means?
You know I do not care if someone is a women or a man, if that person can do the job then they deserve to get it.Naturally, that means if the man is more qualified then he deserves to get it above the woman and vice versa. This is not discrimination this is equality. Even when I was a Christian I did not try force my will on anyone, as I realized that it is wrong to want to do this. What astounds me still is that most theists cannot see this in the terms I could when I was a theist. Perhaps I was just to darn liberal? I also do not care about a character in a TV series, be they black, white, male, transgender, pink, purple etc. The only thing to me is that the actor/actress can act and make the character likable. For example, I used to watch Tia Carrere play Sydney Fox in Relic Hunter many many moons ago and I really enjoyed it as she was like Indiana Jones in a way. Now I am sure the criticism against this character will be to do with fitting a stereotype which just shows you cannot win as Fox was a great character.
If you are a SJW or Theistic bigot, just wake up and actually observe reality, or otherwise educate me as I do not see where this discrimination is taking place.
It annoys me so much when I see SJWs and Christians complaining about equality. It is as if they live in an alternate reality to mine where there is discrimination against them constantly and that the only way society can move forward is by listening to them and applying their irrationality to our lives. Yet, I look around myself and I just do not see this happening at every turn as is being claimed. If I try to fit their stereotypes it gets even worse, as I have never raped a women, I have never physically harmed or discriminated against someone based on their religion and I have never supported the discrimination against minorities.
To be clear, this does not mean discrimination does not take place. Hell, I grew up in Apartheid South Africa so I am well aware of what discrimination is. In fact the racism currently present against white people in South Africa in itself is something that I am aware of. This does not mean that in some countries women are discriminated against, all we need to do is look to Saudi Arabia and the Islamic laws to know what chauvinism is. But this is why I ask the question, who are these people that are so anti-equality? Most of these Christians and SJWs operate in the most civilized societies in the world yet claim inequality. So I want to know, who are these people that are making women wear clothes they do not want to wear? Who are these people that are not allowing Christians to celebrate Christmas? Who are these people that discriminate based on skin color? Because I know the answer to the question, who are these people that do not understand what the word discriminate means?
You know I do not care if someone is a women or a man, if that person can do the job then they deserve to get it.Naturally, that means if the man is more qualified then he deserves to get it above the woman and vice versa. This is not discrimination this is equality. Even when I was a Christian I did not try force my will on anyone, as I realized that it is wrong to want to do this. What astounds me still is that most theists cannot see this in the terms I could when I was a theist. Perhaps I was just to darn liberal? I also do not care about a character in a TV series, be they black, white, male, transgender, pink, purple etc. The only thing to me is that the actor/actress can act and make the character likable. For example, I used to watch Tia Carrere play Sydney Fox in Relic Hunter many many moons ago and I really enjoyed it as she was like Indiana Jones in a way. Now I am sure the criticism against this character will be to do with fitting a stereotype which just shows you cannot win as Fox was a great character.
If you are a SJW or Theistic bigot, just wake up and actually observe reality, or otherwise educate me as I do not see where this discrimination is taking place.
Sunday 13 September 2015
A highly unpopular post on feminism
I have written about feminism before, and why I think it is not about equality. In fact I have gotten into trouble for expressing opinions about feminism and that it is not about equality. So today I thought I would post some memes and graphs that I found on the web that made me think "that actually is a valid point". Thing is I am all for equality, but most importantly I am for a rational discussion about equality and I think feminism poisons that discussion by adopting illogical stances. So lets start and I will include a line below each meme as to what it made me think about.
The wage gap is a real thing apparently, although the info-graphic below would point out that it is not so. However, I think the meme above makes a very succinct point about the wage gap, i.e. can it really be real when we look at it rationally.
But lets move on from the wage gap and get into really absurd points that modern feminists bring up.
You can't ignore some answers that use the same line of reasoning when you are trying to create a point. This is something many theists run into as well.
Same point as above, but yet we do not see feminists complaining about He-Man which is what would be happening if Feminism was about equality.
Now this starts getting into uncomfortable territory not only for feminists but many people. Again, it is a very valid point when we consider it rationally.
The last picture is not a meme, but actually the reason why feminism is problematic and why many people will never identify as feminist. Although in the past, many of these same people who reject it now would have accepted it.
The last picture is not a meme, but actually the reason why feminism is problematic and why many people will never identify as feminist. Although in the past, many of these same people who reject it now would have accepted it.
Friday 11 September 2015
Reading the Koran - Sura 2 verse 83-103
The versus 83 to 86 of the Koran are fascinating as there is so much to learn from them. Firstly it continues with its hatred towards the Jews by telling us the Jews turned away from the message that was given to them in the Torah. It is for this reason that surely those Jews that do not turn to Islam they will be punished in the hell fire.
"Believe ye then part of the Book, and deny part? But what shall be the meed of him among you who doth this, but shame in this life? And on the day of the Resurrection they shall be sent to the most cruel of torments, for God is not regardless of what ye do."
Now this is truly fascinating as it is telling us that the laws in the Torah and the laws in the Koran should be the same. However, we know that there are in fact irregularities between the Torah and the Koran, as well as the Christian beliefs.
This however raises a problem for Muslims as what the Koran is essentially saying to us is that morality or laws change with time. Thus morality is subjective! Now we know that subjective morality immediately does away with the existence of a God, so by accepting that the laws have changed the Koran is essentially saying that God does not exist. The only other way around this is to accept that the Koran translation is incorrect. However, if we accept this then we are left with the fact that Islamic beliefs about the Bible are flawed as how can it be correct but not correct?
Versus 87 to 97 of the Koran are pretty entertaining really as it gives you wisdom like how to witness to a Jew. Apparently, these are the answers to the questions a Jew may have when being confronted by the wisdom of the Koran. Naturally, the Jews are not just receiving the wisdom of the Koran they are also rejecting the wisdom that was given to Moses in the Torah. So for your entertainment, I present to you how to witness to a Jew.
Muslim: "Believe in what God hath sent down"
Jew: In that which hath been sent down to us we believe:"
Muslim: "Why then have ye of old slain God's prophets, if ye are indeed believers?"
and
Muslim: "Take firm hold on what we have given you, and hearken."
Jew: "We have hearkened and have rebelled:"
Muslim: " A bad thing hath your faith commanded you, if ye be indeed believers. If the future dwelling place with God be specially for you, but not for the rest of mankind, then wish for death, if ye are sincere:"
If this sounds familiar to you, well you have probably have had a conversation with a theist and listened to answers that make absolutely no sense. Also, if you are (like me) wondering why you can never get a straight answer from a Muslim on anything. Well the answer is pretty simple they are learning their apologetics from the perfect book which is rubbish at giving advice.
Pretty amazingly in the last part of that conversation we also see the apologetics that gets used on Atheists a lot i.e. you know God is real you just hate him. The Muslim is saying to the Jew, if you are following the law you would not be afraid of death. However it continues in the following verses saying that the Jews do fear death, because they know they are doing the wrong thing. Now I would agree with the Muslims on one thing, I would say you should not fear death. But, that is not because I believe in an afterlife its because I know it is a reality that we all have to deal with and as such we should enjoy life to the fullest.
Verses 97 to 103 is where we get some information on where the Koran came from by hearing that the angel Gabriel acting on behalf of Allah was the one who gave the message to Muhammad. We also are told that anyone that disrespects the messengers of Allah (the angels) or Allah himself is indeed an enemy of Allah. However, we should not think Allah is being a bit overboard by saying he is our enemy after all he gave very clear signs that his message contained in the holy books was real.
"Moreover, clear signs have we sent down to thee, and none will disbelieve them but the perverse."
Clear signs? Really? When? Yes, that is all we can do but ask as I have never seen these clear signs claimed and amazingly no one ever has except when they are locked in a basement with no cameras to record anything or anyone around to witness what they saw. Of course I am just being perverse, so that is rather convenient if you take the Koran as truth.
The last part of our reading that I want to focus on today is a rather bizarre passage from verse 102-103. In this passage we hear that the scriptures (Torah) were warped by two angels Harut and Marut and they then were the first ones to falsely teach the Torah. However, they were not just falsely teaching the Torah, but acknowledging that they were falsely teaching the Torah.
"We are only a temptation. Be not then an unbeliever."
This means that those who listened to these bad angels were taking responsibility for their actions as they knew what was happening. However, it then finishes this passage by pointing out that the Jews who knowingly listened to the lies, did in fact not know they were being lied to.
"But had they believed and feared God, better surely would have been the reward from God, - if they had but known it!"
Confused?
That makes two of us, see you next week.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
"Believe ye then part of the Book, and deny part? But what shall be the meed of him among you who doth this, but shame in this life? And on the day of the Resurrection they shall be sent to the most cruel of torments, for God is not regardless of what ye do."
Now this is truly fascinating as it is telling us that the laws in the Torah and the laws in the Koran should be the same. However, we know that there are in fact irregularities between the Torah and the Koran, as well as the Christian beliefs.
This however raises a problem for Muslims as what the Koran is essentially saying to us is that morality or laws change with time. Thus morality is subjective! Now we know that subjective morality immediately does away with the existence of a God, so by accepting that the laws have changed the Koran is essentially saying that God does not exist. The only other way around this is to accept that the Koran translation is incorrect. However, if we accept this then we are left with the fact that Islamic beliefs about the Bible are flawed as how can it be correct but not correct?
Versus 87 to 97 of the Koran are pretty entertaining really as it gives you wisdom like how to witness to a Jew. Apparently, these are the answers to the questions a Jew may have when being confronted by the wisdom of the Koran. Naturally, the Jews are not just receiving the wisdom of the Koran they are also rejecting the wisdom that was given to Moses in the Torah. So for your entertainment, I present to you how to witness to a Jew.
Muslim: "Believe in what God hath sent down"
Jew: In that which hath been sent down to us we believe:"
Muslim: "Why then have ye of old slain God's prophets, if ye are indeed believers?"
and
Muslim: "Take firm hold on what we have given you, and hearken."
Jew: "We have hearkened and have rebelled:"
Muslim: " A bad thing hath your faith commanded you, if ye be indeed believers. If the future dwelling place with God be specially for you, but not for the rest of mankind, then wish for death, if ye are sincere:"
If this sounds familiar to you, well you have probably have had a conversation with a theist and listened to answers that make absolutely no sense. Also, if you are (like me) wondering why you can never get a straight answer from a Muslim on anything. Well the answer is pretty simple they are learning their apologetics from the perfect book which is rubbish at giving advice.
Pretty amazingly in the last part of that conversation we also see the apologetics that gets used on Atheists a lot i.e. you know God is real you just hate him. The Muslim is saying to the Jew, if you are following the law you would not be afraid of death. However it continues in the following verses saying that the Jews do fear death, because they know they are doing the wrong thing. Now I would agree with the Muslims on one thing, I would say you should not fear death. But, that is not because I believe in an afterlife its because I know it is a reality that we all have to deal with and as such we should enjoy life to the fullest.
Verses 97 to 103 is where we get some information on where the Koran came from by hearing that the angel Gabriel acting on behalf of Allah was the one who gave the message to Muhammad. We also are told that anyone that disrespects the messengers of Allah (the angels) or Allah himself is indeed an enemy of Allah. However, we should not think Allah is being a bit overboard by saying he is our enemy after all he gave very clear signs that his message contained in the holy books was real.
"Moreover, clear signs have we sent down to thee, and none will disbelieve them but the perverse."
Clear signs? Really? When? Yes, that is all we can do but ask as I have never seen these clear signs claimed and amazingly no one ever has except when they are locked in a basement with no cameras to record anything or anyone around to witness what they saw. Of course I am just being perverse, so that is rather convenient if you take the Koran as truth.
The last part of our reading that I want to focus on today is a rather bizarre passage from verse 102-103. In this passage we hear that the scriptures (Torah) were warped by two angels Harut and Marut and they then were the first ones to falsely teach the Torah. However, they were not just falsely teaching the Torah, but acknowledging that they were falsely teaching the Torah.
"We are only a temptation. Be not then an unbeliever."
This means that those who listened to these bad angels were taking responsibility for their actions as they knew what was happening. However, it then finishes this passage by pointing out that the Jews who knowingly listened to the lies, did in fact not know they were being lied to.
"But had they believed and feared God, better surely would have been the reward from God, - if they had but known it!"
Confused?
That makes two of us, see you next week.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
Wednesday 9 September 2015
Reading the Bible - Genesis 8
Genesis 8 is the conclusion of the flood genocide story, and its one of those Bible chapters that can only be understood if you accept that magic exists. Essentially, we hear that God used magic to look after Noah, the animals, food, drinking water and the ark while it was rolling around in the global flood. Although, I do like the way the Bible vaguely words it far better.
"But God gave attention to Noah and to all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark"
This is also the chapter where we get the chronology of the flood when we hear that it lasted for a little over a year, in fact according to the Gregorian calendar it was 375 days long or from "in the second month, on the 17th day of the month" to the "second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth had dried off." We also hear that after 5 months that ark finally came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, but that did not mean the mountains were visible as that took another 3 and a half months before the tops of the mountains could be seen. Problematically, this information is not validated as Noah only opened the Ark window once these mountain tops were visible, yet he could not have know they were visible without opening the window and on an on the perpetual circular reasoning goes.
The next part of the story is where Noah sends out a raven and a dove to find dry land. For some reason the raven takes a back seat in this tale, while the dove gets all the glory. My guess why the dove is so heavily focused on has to do with the mythology that surrounds a white dove that goes further back than the Bible. However, the other part about the dove finding an olive branch (lending from mythology again) is pretty crazy, as seriously that olive tree is the fastest growing olive tree ever. After finding this olive tree, for some reason the dove gets sent out again and this time it does not come back, so we can only assume that the reason the dove came back the first time is........you guessed it magic!
Now after the ark is opened on new years day (more mythology anyone?) it took another two months before all the people and animals were allowed out of the ark with Gods blessing. Of course what would Gods blessing be but the same as he gave before the flood story.
"Bring out with you all the living creatures of every sort of flesh, of the flying creatures and of the animals and of all the creeping animals of the earth, that they may multiply on the earth and be fruitful and become many on the earth."
That's right God wants the animals and humans to spread across the Earth again. Interestingly, this time we do not need a fall story as God while committing Genocide did not forgive humanity he just kept all that harbored hate inside so he can judge again at the end of time.
Finally the animals leave the ark, and we hear that they leave in families.
"Every living creature, every creeping animal and every flying creature, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families."
As such the animals were procreating while on the ark. This clearly is important as it again begs the question where did all the space for these animals come from. Anyway, at this point there are only a few animals left on the world so what does Noah do? That's right he goes and sacrifices a few to God, now while this is dumb on a purely numbers level it was good as God then finally saw the light and realized he was a psychopath.
"Never again will I curse the ground on man’s account, for the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up; and never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done."
On this realization, God decided to make a blessing on the Earth.
"From now on, the earth will never cease to have seed-sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night."
Naturally this promise is an uber fail by God as we see famine and hunger all the time.
There you have it the flood is over and God has had an attitude change from psychopath. I am guessing this is not going to last forever, but then again I have read the Bible.
XXXXX
Update:
A friend pointed out to me that Noah may have known that the Ark was not moving if it had come to rest without having to send a dove out. I admit this totally makes sense and as such this circular reasoning argument I proposed was not correct after all.
xxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official website
"But God gave attention to Noah and to all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark"
This is also the chapter where we get the chronology of the flood when we hear that it lasted for a little over a year, in fact according to the Gregorian calendar it was 375 days long or from "in the second month, on the 17th day of the month" to the "second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth had dried off." We also hear that after 5 months that ark finally came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, but that did not mean the mountains were visible as that took another 3 and a half months before the tops of the mountains could be seen. Problematically, this information is not validated as Noah only opened the Ark window once these mountain tops were visible, yet he could not have know they were visible without opening the window and on an on the perpetual circular reasoning goes.
The next part of the story is where Noah sends out a raven and a dove to find dry land. For some reason the raven takes a back seat in this tale, while the dove gets all the glory. My guess why the dove is so heavily focused on has to do with the mythology that surrounds a white dove that goes further back than the Bible. However, the other part about the dove finding an olive branch (lending from mythology again) is pretty crazy, as seriously that olive tree is the fastest growing olive tree ever. After finding this olive tree, for some reason the dove gets sent out again and this time it does not come back, so we can only assume that the reason the dove came back the first time is........you guessed it magic!
Now after the ark is opened on new years day (more mythology anyone?) it took another two months before all the people and animals were allowed out of the ark with Gods blessing. Of course what would Gods blessing be but the same as he gave before the flood story.
"Bring out with you all the living creatures of every sort of flesh, of the flying creatures and of the animals and of all the creeping animals of the earth, that they may multiply on the earth and be fruitful and become many on the earth."
That's right God wants the animals and humans to spread across the Earth again. Interestingly, this time we do not need a fall story as God while committing Genocide did not forgive humanity he just kept all that harbored hate inside so he can judge again at the end of time.
Finally the animals leave the ark, and we hear that they leave in families.
"Every living creature, every creeping animal and every flying creature, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families."
As such the animals were procreating while on the ark. This clearly is important as it again begs the question where did all the space for these animals come from. Anyway, at this point there are only a few animals left on the world so what does Noah do? That's right he goes and sacrifices a few to God, now while this is dumb on a purely numbers level it was good as God then finally saw the light and realized he was a psychopath.
"Never again will I curse the ground on man’s account, for the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up; and never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done."
On this realization, God decided to make a blessing on the Earth.
"From now on, the earth will never cease to have seed-sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night."
Naturally this promise is an uber fail by God as we see famine and hunger all the time.
There you have it the flood is over and God has had an attitude change from psychopath. I am guessing this is not going to last forever, but then again I have read the Bible.
XXXXX
Update:
A friend pointed out to me that Noah may have known that the Ark was not moving if it had come to rest without having to send a dove out. I admit this totally makes sense and as such this circular reasoning argument I proposed was not correct after all.
xxxxxxx
All verses come from the New World Translation Of The Holy Scriptures.
Online version available at the Jehovah's Witnesses official website
Monday 7 September 2015
There are no Islamic artists
No, this is not me being an Islamaphobe. This is me just telling it like it is after having a discussion with a Muslim, wherein I was trying to get a clear answer as to why it is unacceptable to draw Muhammad. In fact I phrased the question in a far more simpler way as I asked "Does anyone know why do some fundamentalist Muslims
condemn the drawing of pictures of Muhammad? I find this interesting as
it is clearly not in the Koran." The question in itself is interesting, as I was drawing a clear distinction between fundamentalist and progressive Muslims, however my opponent would not tolerate that and decided to group all Muslims together with his non-answer. Now while it could be argued that my opponent could be fundamentalist it is impossible to escape the answer that he avoided giving, as it encompasses all Muslims. This lends credibility to the view held by many (myself included) that there is no such thing as progressive Islam.
To be clear any prohibitions on drawing Muhammad are not contained in the Koran, but rather in the Hadith. In simple terms, the Hadith are basically the biography of Muhammad. They were written by many of his contemporaries of the day, and as such we should wonder about the accuracy of some of these. Needless to say you have to wonder about the accuracy of the Koran as well. However, if they are taken as gospel fact by Muslims then they are a valid source to criticize.
So the reason behind drawing the Prophet is a lot more complicated than showing disrespect. Actually I am lying, the reason is far more simpler. It is wrong to draw anything in Islam. Yes, with a completely anti-climatic twist the Hadiths explicitly state that art is bad and if you are an artists you will go to hell. Of course you don't have to take my word for it, so here are the Hadiths explaining a simple answer that I could not get from my opponent. The answer to this question was eventually found on Quora, so it was searching for the answer that lead me to the insane conclusion.
Sahih Muslim 2109 b
"Verily, the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures.
Sahih al-Bukhari 7557
Allah's Messenger said, "The painter of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, Make alive what you have created.' "
Sahih al-Bukhari 3224
"Don't you know that angels do not enter a house wherein there are pictures; and whoever makes a picture will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and will be asked to give life to (what he has created)?"
There you have it Islam is void of any great art and artists according to themselves. Even if some great artists said they were a Muslim, the simple truth is that they are not as they will go to hell. Sorry Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam you are going to hell, luckily its not true.
In closing, I disagree with this as there are beautiful depictions in Islam art as well as architecture. However, according to Islam they are ugly as art is forbidden.
Funny religion, go get the straight jackets.
To be clear any prohibitions on drawing Muhammad are not contained in the Koran, but rather in the Hadith. In simple terms, the Hadith are basically the biography of Muhammad. They were written by many of his contemporaries of the day, and as such we should wonder about the accuracy of some of these. Needless to say you have to wonder about the accuracy of the Koran as well. However, if they are taken as gospel fact by Muslims then they are a valid source to criticize.
So the reason behind drawing the Prophet is a lot more complicated than showing disrespect. Actually I am lying, the reason is far more simpler. It is wrong to draw anything in Islam. Yes, with a completely anti-climatic twist the Hadiths explicitly state that art is bad and if you are an artists you will go to hell. Of course you don't have to take my word for it, so here are the Hadiths explaining a simple answer that I could not get from my opponent. The answer to this question was eventually found on Quora, so it was searching for the answer that lead me to the insane conclusion.
Sahih Muslim 2109 b
"Verily, the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures.
Sahih al-Bukhari 7557
Allah's Messenger said, "The painter of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, Make alive what you have created.' "
Sahih al-Bukhari 3224
"Don't you know that angels do not enter a house wherein there are pictures; and whoever makes a picture will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and will be asked to give life to (what he has created)?"
There you have it Islam is void of any great art and artists according to themselves. Even if some great artists said they were a Muslim, the simple truth is that they are not as they will go to hell. Sorry Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam you are going to hell, luckily its not true.
In closing, I disagree with this as there are beautiful depictions in Islam art as well as architecture. However, according to Islam they are ugly as art is forbidden.
(Source)
Funny religion, go get the straight jackets.
Saturday 5 September 2015
Viagra versus Addiya - its not the same deal with it.
Post updated September 15 to clarify that Addiya does not work for men.
xxxxxxxxxxx
The news that Addiya the women's libido drug was approved by the FDA has been met with joy in some quarters and scepticism in some parts. So I thought I would give a run down of the biggest misconception that is being used by the press and basically uneducated people. Firstly, I am not saying Addiya should not be approved as it does seem to have genuinely positive benefits for some limited disorders. But let us continue and bold face the flawed argument.
Addiya is not Viagra!
This simple concept is being thrown a round by many people that are ignorant to what Addiya and Viagra actually are. Addiya is the first ever drug to treat sexual desire disorder inmen and women. The fact that the word first is highlighted here shows that this drug is not the same compared to Viagra which is a vasodilator i.e. it can give you an erection. That means that even if you have an erection it does not mean you have a desire to have sex, sorry ladies it really is that simple. On the other hand Addiya promotes sexual desire and as such it gets the women that has taken it wanting to have sex. This simple reason is why I am so annoyed with the shocking news reporting that has followed the FDA approval of this drug. This false equivocation has given the drug egalitarian and feminist groups a reason to push for the release of this drug by claiming equality, yet it is not an equal drug.
So you may ask, why do I care?
Simply put, there are still concerns about the safety of the drug. In fact, the FDA only decided to approve Addiya based on the fact that the manufacturer Valeant has to run three more drug tests on the interaction between alcohol and the drug. So all in all while this is a win for women's libido this is not necessarily the greatest news considering that the drug got approved yet still needs recommended drug tests.
Then of course there is the massive chance for abuse of the drug. We cannot just deny that this is probably not going to happen. Think about what happened with the abuse of Rohypnol. However, in this case it will be a far more serious issue as you cannot prove that something consensual (increased libido means increased sexual desire) was in fact not consensual. This just contributes to a problem we don't need, as in effect it could happen that the person is having sex because they want but in reality they would not. Please, try understand this point as I think it is important.
Lastly, if you do not want sex then why would you take a drug to have sex. Now I probably am viewing this way to simplistically, so don't rage on this point as there are far better ones to rage on above. If you as a women don't want to have sex, why would you take a drug that makes you want to have sex? Is it not easier to just not have sex? Or alternatively, let your partner go get his sex somewhere else and then everyone is happy. I know this is a way out concept, but is it really when someone is essentially forcing themselves to have unwanted sex.
So there you have it, the facts and my take on a drug that has genuine benefits, however lets be clear these benefits are limited.
xxxxxxxxxxx
The news that Addiya the women's libido drug was approved by the FDA has been met with joy in some quarters and scepticism in some parts. So I thought I would give a run down of the biggest misconception that is being used by the press and basically uneducated people. Firstly, I am not saying Addiya should not be approved as it does seem to have genuinely positive benefits for some limited disorders. But let us continue and bold face the flawed argument.
Addiya is not Viagra!
This simple concept is being thrown a round by many people that are ignorant to what Addiya and Viagra actually are. Addiya is the first ever drug to treat sexual desire disorder in
So you may ask, why do I care?
(Source)
Simply put, there are still concerns about the safety of the drug. In fact, the FDA only decided to approve Addiya based on the fact that the manufacturer Valeant has to run three more drug tests on the interaction between alcohol and the drug. So all in all while this is a win for women's libido this is not necessarily the greatest news considering that the drug got approved yet still needs recommended drug tests.
Then of course there is the massive chance for abuse of the drug. We cannot just deny that this is probably not going to happen. Think about what happened with the abuse of Rohypnol. However, in this case it will be a far more serious issue as you cannot prove that something consensual (increased libido means increased sexual desire) was in fact not consensual. This just contributes to a problem we don't need, as in effect it could happen that the person is having sex because they want but in reality they would not. Please, try understand this point as I think it is important.
Lastly, if you do not want sex then why would you take a drug to have sex. Now I probably am viewing this way to simplistically, so don't rage on this point as there are far better ones to rage on above. If you as a women don't want to have sex, why would you take a drug that makes you want to have sex? Is it not easier to just not have sex? Or alternatively, let your partner go get his sex somewhere else and then everyone is happy. I know this is a way out concept, but is it really when someone is essentially forcing themselves to have unwanted sex.
So there you have it, the facts and my take on a drug that has genuine benefits, however lets be clear these benefits are limited.
Friday 4 September 2015
Reading the Koran - Sura 2 verse 67-82
The next section of the Koran is the first weird part that we encounter, as it is where Moses is talking about the sacrifice of a clean cow to Allah. However, he is not only giving Allah's message to the Jews (that are arguing against killing this cow) he is channeling Allah in a style that would make John Edward the fraud psychic medium blush. I would really suggest that you go read this exchange in verse 67-71, as it is worth it. Now, I wanted to understand the point of this exchange so I digged a bit deeper and apparently the only reason it is included is to warn about the Israelite's and their obsession with cow worship. The Jews did not want to kill the cow, but through Moses they did and this pleased Allah immensely as effectively they were killing off a god that they used to worship.
Verse 72-82 of the Cow (Sura 2) is extremely important as it deals with Islam and religious tolerance, as well as reasons why we should be taking our knowledge from the Koran and not other holy books. Mostly, these versus are to be taken as a criticism of the other Abrahamic religions i.e. Christianity and Judaism, and this makes sense as they all derived from the same roots.
Happily for Christians, the Koran points out that the Jews are culpable for the death of Jesus. Although, it is not that Muslims consider Jesus as the Messiah but rather they consider him another prophet with knowledge from God. The issue is more the killing of the prophet Jesus and as such the loss of knowledge which Allah then had to enlighten us with anyways as we discovered this truth about Jesus.
"And when ye slew a man, and strove among yourselves about him, God brought to light what he had hidden:"
Importantly, Jesus did not die when he was on the cross. As such the Islamic narrative does not deny the "resurrection" in the Bible as Jesus actually never died and so he was just recuperating before going out again to his disciples.
"For we said, "Strike the corpse with part of her." So God giveth life to the dead, and sheweth you his signs, that haply ye may understand."
The phrase "strike the corpse with part of her" is meant to be translated as strike him to death partially which is the way we can get around acceptance of the Biblical narrative while at the same time staying with the acceptance of Jesus as a prophet and not the Messiah. Also, by accepting that Jesus did not die and get brought to life again we are not breaking any natural laws that this has never been observed.
I think the next part of this narrative can be best be summed up with the following Koranic verses.
"But there are illiterates among them who are unacquainted with the Book, but with lies only, and have but vague fancies. Woe to those who with their own hands transcribe the Book corruptly, and then say, "This is from God," that they may sell it for some mean price! Woe then to them for that which their hands have written! and, Woe to them for the gains which they have made!"
Basically, this illustrates to us the message that we get from all religions and that is that we are right and your are wrong. In fact it is very adamant that the Jews and Christians particularly have corrupted the Bible (the Book) and as such made profit from it. This is interesting as belief then according to the Koran should have nothing to do with making profit which then explains the concept adopted by many Muslims that their bank accounts do not make interest and that loans should not have interest attached to them. Ironically the Islamic states of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates among others are very wealthy states and we see their disgusting abuse of foreign workers never mind the fact that these countries have high poverty rates according to CIA statistics. I should note here that these countries conveniently have no statistics of their own poverty rates, but in Saudi Arabia it is accepted as 33% and U.A.E as 19.5 %. My guess is that these words from the Koran can be liberally be interpreted, just like the prosperity theology interpretation of the Bible.
One thing we see with clarity in the Koran is the explicit concepts of Hell and Heaven. We see that those that corrupt the scriptures, i.e. other religious, will burn in Hell for ever. We also get told that the idea of purgatory is an absurd concept as this is not mentioned anywhere in the Koran or the Bible, so those pesky Catholics should watch out as there is no such thing and its just straight to hell.
"But they whose only gains are evil works, and who are environed by their sins, - they shall be inmates of the fire, therein to abide for ever:"
However, those that obey the laws will be able to go to Heaven.
"But they who have believed and done the things that be right, they shall be the inmates of Paradise, - therein to abide for ever."
Perhaps some of the modern concepts of hell that Christians like to promote in fact come from a wayward preacher that decided to borrow some mythology from the Koran, after all it would not be the first time that a religion borrows from mythology.
So we come to the end of an interesting section in the Koran, one which gives perspective why Muslims do not reject Jesus as a prophet as well as showing us why they have such a distaste for the Jews that corrupted the word of God.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
Verse 72-82 of the Cow (Sura 2) is extremely important as it deals with Islam and religious tolerance, as well as reasons why we should be taking our knowledge from the Koran and not other holy books. Mostly, these versus are to be taken as a criticism of the other Abrahamic religions i.e. Christianity and Judaism, and this makes sense as they all derived from the same roots.
Happily for Christians, the Koran points out that the Jews are culpable for the death of Jesus. Although, it is not that Muslims consider Jesus as the Messiah but rather they consider him another prophet with knowledge from God. The issue is more the killing of the prophet Jesus and as such the loss of knowledge which Allah then had to enlighten us with anyways as we discovered this truth about Jesus.
"And when ye slew a man, and strove among yourselves about him, God brought to light what he had hidden:"
Importantly, Jesus did not die when he was on the cross. As such the Islamic narrative does not deny the "resurrection" in the Bible as Jesus actually never died and so he was just recuperating before going out again to his disciples.
"For we said, "Strike the corpse with part of her." So God giveth life to the dead, and sheweth you his signs, that haply ye may understand."
The phrase "strike the corpse with part of her" is meant to be translated as strike him to death partially which is the way we can get around acceptance of the Biblical narrative while at the same time staying with the acceptance of Jesus as a prophet and not the Messiah. Also, by accepting that Jesus did not die and get brought to life again we are not breaking any natural laws that this has never been observed.
I think the next part of this narrative can be best be summed up with the following Koranic verses.
"But there are illiterates among them who are unacquainted with the Book, but with lies only, and have but vague fancies. Woe to those who with their own hands transcribe the Book corruptly, and then say, "This is from God," that they may sell it for some mean price! Woe then to them for that which their hands have written! and, Woe to them for the gains which they have made!"
Basically, this illustrates to us the message that we get from all religions and that is that we are right and your are wrong. In fact it is very adamant that the Jews and Christians particularly have corrupted the Bible (the Book) and as such made profit from it. This is interesting as belief then according to the Koran should have nothing to do with making profit which then explains the concept adopted by many Muslims that their bank accounts do not make interest and that loans should not have interest attached to them. Ironically the Islamic states of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates among others are very wealthy states and we see their disgusting abuse of foreign workers never mind the fact that these countries have high poverty rates according to CIA statistics. I should note here that these countries conveniently have no statistics of their own poverty rates, but in Saudi Arabia it is accepted as 33% and U.A.E as 19.5 %. My guess is that these words from the Koran can be liberally be interpreted, just like the prosperity theology interpretation of the Bible.
One thing we see with clarity in the Koran is the explicit concepts of Hell and Heaven. We see that those that corrupt the scriptures, i.e. other religious, will burn in Hell for ever. We also get told that the idea of purgatory is an absurd concept as this is not mentioned anywhere in the Koran or the Bible, so those pesky Catholics should watch out as there is no such thing and its just straight to hell.
"But they whose only gains are evil works, and who are environed by their sins, - they shall be inmates of the fire, therein to abide for ever:"
However, those that obey the laws will be able to go to Heaven.
"But they who have believed and done the things that be right, they shall be the inmates of Paradise, - therein to abide for ever."
Perhaps some of the modern concepts of hell that Christians like to promote in fact come from a wayward preacher that decided to borrow some mythology from the Koran, after all it would not be the first time that a religion borrows from mythology.
So we come to the end of an interesting section in the Koran, one which gives perspective why Muslims do not reject Jesus as a prophet as well as showing us why they have such a distaste for the Jews that corrupted the word of God.
-------
The version of the Koran I am reading is the John Meadows Rodwell translation. An online version can be found at the al-quran.info website
Additionally, for commentary I am utilizing the commentary of Maulana Muhammad Ali which is available at muslim.org/english-quran/quran.htm
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