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Frequently Asked Questions part 2
13- Who are we to really know who or what God is? You start from the assumption that there is a god who is so great that we are not supposed to question him. I think differently. I say let us doubt. Let us doubt in everything that we are told and accepted as true. Let us doubt even the existence of God. No one has seen God. What we know of God is what we were told. What if those who told us about God were wrong? Our ancestors were wrong about many other things, what if they were wrong about this one too? So let us question the notion of God. Then, free from all preconceptions and prejudices let us investigate the truth. And let us use the ONLY parameter that we have to find the truth, i.e. “logics”. These so called holy books, especially Quran are full of errors. Quran is replete with scientific heresies, historic blunders, mathematical mistakes, logical absurdities and grammatical errors. How can we trust it for its notion of God?
14-
Human
logic is fallible. It is not a reliable mean to know
God. Yes
human logic is not perfect, but that is the only thing
we have. What is perfect in human beings? Are our eyes
perfect? No. There are animals that have a better
vision than us? Is our hearing perfect? Is our sense
of smell perfect? There is nothing perfect in us
humans. But that is all we have. We have to see the
world with our own eyes, even if they are inferior to
the vision of an eagle or an owl. Human logic is also
imperfect, but that is all we have and we have to use
it. When I use logic I see that god dose not stand a chance. I don’t say, “who am I to question God”. I say that I am a human being endowed with a brain and responsible to use it. If God is true, it must stand the test of reason. If it doesn’t, it is fanaticism. I am not suggesting that human logic is the only means to know God but the real God cannot be contrary to human logic either.
15- What do you know that billions of human beings have missed out for thousands of years until this very moment?” I
know what Galileo knew when he challenged the faith of
billions of people who believed for thousands of years
that the Earth was flat. I know what Darwin knew when
he defied the common belief of billions of people that
thought all living beings were created in six days.
And I know what Lamark knew when he confronted the
universal belief that the Earth was 6000 years old.
16- Are you telling me that thousands of sages, saints and prophets during the history of mankind who believed in God were wrong, and now you want to "refute" that God is a being? Even in those days thousands of sages,
saints and prophets agreed that the Earth was flat and
the creation was 6000 years old and God created
everything in 6 days. No one challenged their
misconceptions, because everyone thought like you. The
world owes its advance to people who DOUBTED, not to
those who believed. Doubt
everything, and find your own light. (Buddha)
17- Why do you only talk about Islam? What about Christianity and Judaism that are as illogical as Islam? The reason I focus mostly on Islam is because Christianity and Judaism are exposed and demystified already by many scholars born within Judaic and Christendoms. Also these two religions are in decline. They will die on their own without my help. More important of all, I have no business to criticize the religions of others, unless they become a danger to me. No one would pay attention anyway, because it is natural that the followers of different religions attack each other’s faiths. This kind of religious feuding has been going on since the beginning of the history of mankind. We have to see our own errors not the errors of others. We are responsible for ourselves not for others. If we find our own mistakes and bring them to the light, it is because we love our people. But if we point out the faults of the others, they dismiss it and they become hostiles and intensify their fanaticism. Apart from that, unlike Islam, Christianity and Judaism represent no threat to the peace and security of the world. Islam on the other hand, is a constant menace to the world peace and to the Muslims themselves who are capable to sacrifice their own lives in order to kill the "enemies" of Islam. “Ze har tataf koshte shavad be naf’e Islam ast”. The level of fanaticism is far greater amongst the average Muslims, than the average Christians or Jews.
18- But there are other versions of Islam. Not all Muslims are fanatics. There are many Muslims who are liberals, who believe in human rights and equality of gender. You cannot condemn all the Muslims. The Islam I am opposing is the Islam of the Prophet Muhammad and what he taught in Quran. I am not concerned about other versions of Islam. Islam cannot be changed. You only can change Islam when you change Quran. Trying to humanize Islam is like trying to humanize Nazism. Representing Islam as a tolerant and humanistic religion is lying. Can you put the foundation of human happiness on lies? Quran and Hadith say that women are less than men; they are deficient in intelligence and beat your wives. How can you preach equality without changing what is in Quran? Quran demands killing the disbelievers, waging war on them until everyone converts to Islam or is "subdued, feels humiliated and pay Jazyah", how can you build an Islam that talks about tolerance and neglect what is in Quran? It is like saying, let us discover the “liberal” Nazism in which everybody is loving and gentle, and there is no racial hostility. If you want to fool yourself go ahead but people must you won’t be able to fool others. If you are so much attached to Islam, live by it. Don’t try to change it and pick and choose what pleases you most. If you are unsatisfied with what you see, may be it is time to move on. The true Muslim was Khomeini.
19-
You
are wrong, it was intolerant people like you that cause
hatred and stir sedition among people. I express my opinion. I show no intolerance towards anyone. In fact I love all humanity irrespective of their false beliefs. Hardly you can call a man like me intolerant. On the other hand you are being intolerant towards me. You cannot even tolerate my right to think independently and express myself. I am against Nazism because it is a doctrine of hate. I am against Islam because it too is a doctrine of hate. The former advocated the supremacy of a race the latter promotes the superiority of a religion. They both used violence to advance their objectives and they both had no respect for human lives and their rights. They both believed that since their ideology is right it is okay to kill people and the end justifies the means. Islam is a religion of hate. I fight it because of that. I am not fighting against Muslims. Most of my loved ones and relatives are Muslims. I fight against the doctrine of hate that has made them, you and all of us victims and victimizers for the last 1400 years.
20- You are forgetting the historical context and the prevailing social, cultural, and geo-political conditions of those times. In those days, and in that culture, people did not think or behave in such a "civilized" manner as people do today. Killing in those days was not a big deal. There
are many faiths and philosophies that belong to the past
and some much older than Islam but they all started and
advanced without bloodshed. Confucianism, Taoism,
Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Manism, Christianity
and many Greek philosophies grew without the need of
killing people. This is absurd to say that I cannot
convince you of my truth by logic so let me convince you
by my sword. Forcing
people to accept to submit to one’s belief is only a
practice of Islam. NO other religion advocated violence
as a legitimate means of propagating itself. This
is wrong. We don’t need another proof to demonstrate
that Islam is a demonic cult. It has no logical basis
and is founded only on ignorance. It was forced on
people by violating their freedom to believe. No real
God would demand obedience and love through violence. If
Allah has any existence, he must be Satan himself.
Muhammad must have been possessed by Demons. Islam is
very demonic. It expanded by killing. It maintained
itself by protecting the ignorance and silencing all
voices of opposition. The
very Muslims who defend Islam’s violent ways to expand
itself by sword, looting and killing, call upon each
other to shun those who want to study it by reason and
avoid rational conversations. A Muslim is afraid of
reason like a Dracula of light. How can it be that a
religion made by God cannot stand the test of reason
that is also made by God? How is it that the human
intelligence that is a gift of God defies his own
religion? Think about it. Islam is not a religion from God to mankind. It is a cult. Look at the fruits of it. Is there one Islamic country that is happy, prosperous and civilized? If you see traces of these qualities in some of the Islamic countries, is because those countries have become secularized. The more a nation is Islamic, the more is its barbarism and backwardness. You know a bad tree by its fruit.
21-
Quran
can be interpreted in different ways and each person can
grasp something from it based on his own understanding and
capacity. This is the beauty of Quran. Is it good to be able to interpret a book of guidance that claims to be from God in different ways? What is the purpose of a book of guidance? Isn’t it to guide us definitely and without equivocations? Divine books are supposed to be roadmaps for humanity. They have to show you the way and be consistent. What if a map shows that your destination is to the right, and to the left, to the north and to the south and to all directions? Such a map is of no use at all. It is misguiding and pointless. The reason we consult a map is to get the clear idea which rout to take. If we had to interpret it according to our own understanding, the map has failed to do what it purports. It
is true that Quran is written in a way that each person
can interpret it according to his own understanding,
whims, inclinations and caprices. A tolerant Muslim may be
attracted to the earlier verses of Quran when Muhammad had
no power and spoke good words like: "Speak good to
men..." (2:
83) "To you be your religion, and to me my
religion" (109:
6) and "There is no compulsion in religion"(2:256).
But a bigot who has a sadistic predisposition will give
emphasis to the violent verses of Quran that were revealed
when the Prophet became powerful and need no more “speak
good to men” or ask them to be tolerant to him letting
him practice his religion. So his tone changed and he
revealed violent verses like these: “Fight them on
until there is no more tumult and religion becomes that of
Allah” (2:
193), "Whoso desires another religion than
Islam, it shall not be accepted of him; in the next world
he shall be among the losers."(3:
85) and "kill them wherever you find them, and
drive them out from wherever they drove you out" (2:191). Quran is full of these contradictions and discrepancies. Each person can pick and choose what he wishes. A pious person will lead a pious life and will see the good things in Quran, while a terrorist can also find justification of his killings in that holy book. During
the 23 years of his prophetic life, the Prophet was
catapulted from rags to riches. This dramatic change
affected his mood and teachings. Once a forbearing
preacher and a lonesome warner, turned into an intolerant
despot. He was no more sermonizing or "speaking good to men"
or being “patient with what they say, and part from them
courteously" (73:
10), but was howling for killing and screaming for
blood. He called his followers to “Murder those of the
disbelievers and let them find harshness in” them (9:
123). Therefore it is true that each person can find in Quran something that would validate his own proclivity. This is not a “miracle” of Quran but its biggest flaw.
22-
How is it possible that this world has come to be without
any intervention while one knows there has been a person
walking on the snow when one sees his footprints?”
It is true that footprints on the snow do not happen by themselves. There must have been someone who made them. But who made the snow? Primitive men and the less educated people used to think that gods make the snow. But now we know that the snow is the product of natural phenomena. It is formed by the effect of Sun on the oceans, the winds, the temperature etc. No one makes the snow. It is formed by natural laws. So are the mountains! Who made the mountains? Mountains are formed by earthquakes, winds, rains, eruptions, erosions and other natural factors. Who made the rivers? Did god design the course of the rivers? Or are they shaped by the topography of the land they pass through? The same happens in other planets. Also the planets themselves, the Sun and the stars, the galaxies and the entire universe are the product of natural laws. The same can be said about the living beings. Creatures evolve, in harmony with their environment. As Darwin found out, a single species would evolve into two distinct sub species that would eventually become completely different species when separated from each other for a long period of time by some geographic barrier. In evolution we can witness the law or the Principle underlying the creation but we cannot see any hand of god at work. So we can conclude that there is a law or a principle underlying the creation, but the assumption of a personal god as the creator is untenable.
23- If Muhammad was not the messenger of God, why would he pretend to be? If it was because of wealth and women, then was he that stupid to risk his life over and over just to have sex and get rich. Wasn't he already rich after marrying khadijeh? One does not decide to become a Prophet overnight; it is usually a process. Only in the USA there are about 2500 new prophets every decade. What motivates these people to make such claims varies from person to person. Mental disease is often a factor. Many of these self proclaimed prophets are fanatical religious people themselves or are suddenly drawn to extreme religious vocations. The original motives are not necessarily wealth and sex. The desire to dominate the minds of others is far more exhilarating than the trivial pleasures of sex and money, although this too may not be a conscious decision that they make. However, often if these prophets are successful they celebrate their success with exclusive sexual privileges that they deny to their followers. Also the desire to amass wealth is something that comes later, when they have a fair number of devotees who are ready to do anything for them and would willingly hand them a good percentage of their wealth in exchange of heavenly rewards and being convinced of the virtues of giving and sacrificing in the cause of God.
24-
Don't you think that he (the Prophet) was pretty smart for his time? If he was
insane like you said in your report, then how did he fool so many people so
easily? You cannot say that the barbarians back then were stupid because not
everybody was stupid? The Prophet used to see Jinns, hear voices and used to battle with Satan. He even attempted suicide several times. This man was certainly not a mentally sane person. At first he might himself have believed that his psychological experiences were real, but when the voices that he used to hear ceased, as usually is the case with those who suffer from schizophrenia when they age, he kept lying about it and kept fooling his followers. He had already started something and there were those who believed in him. The dreams of conquering the Arabia and subduing the Ajam (Persia) may not have been in his mind when he started but when he saw that people are accepting him as a messenger of Allah, his ambition also soared. It is not true that Muhammad was in any danger for his life. For 13 years he taunted the deities of the Quraish, mocked them and insulted them and neither him nor any one of his followers were ever persecuted. It was him who started the hostilities after he immigrated to Medina by raiding the merchant caravans of the Quraish and killing their men. For a more detailed study of this subject please read my response to Ayatollah Montazeri, Muhammad’s raids at merchant caravans. Yes Muhammad became rich after marrying Khadijah and he might have been also smart but he was far from being mentally sane. Muhammad was a bigot and extremely narrow minded. However he had a very charismatic personality and an unwavering conviction that influenced the simple-minded people around him. His bizarre behavior for some was the sign of his madness and for others the proof of his prophethood. All the cult leaders we know today are mentally insane; look at the case of Shoko Asahara, Jim Jones, the founder of Heaven’s Gate, David Koresh, etc. These people were not healthy yet they had their followers spellbound to the stage that death and life meant noting to them. The practitioners of the Heaven’s Gate were all university grads with PhDs and very intelligent people, yet they committed mass suicide along with their leader to join the extraterrestrials that were, as they believed, traveling in the tail of the comet Haley. These people along with their leader abstained from sex and were living very frugally –proof that sex and money are not the incentives for starting a religion. Today we know that the human brain is compartmentized. A person’s brain can work perfectly in some areas and fail in others. Intelligence is not the only parameter for mental sanity. Hitler was by all means a maniac, yet millions of intelligent Germans did not see that because he was a brilliant man.
25-
Keeping people to believe in a false doctrine for 23 years is a hard thing to
do. Look at the Islamic republic of Iran. After just a year or two people
stopped believing that it is a good government. So how did people continue to
believe in Muhammad for 23 years? Actually Muhammad did not just fool people for 23 years but for 1400 years. The difference between a government and a religion is in the claim of divinity. The Islamic Republic of Iran did not claim to be divinely ordained but that it pretended to implement the principles of a divinely ordained religion. People do allow themselves the liberty to question other people's interpretation of the “holy scriptures” but they are unable to question the religion itself. This would mean defying God and his wisdom. Communism, Nazism or fascism are pseudo religions yet because their origin is not believed to be ordained by God and there is no infallibility associated to them, once proven faulty they are easily discarded. This awakening process however does not occur among the religious people who do not allow themselves to question the validity of their religion and the critical thinking never starts. On the contrary religious people try to philosophize, rationalize and justify the absurdities of their religion to prove it right. In this case people are gladly WILLING to be fooled.
26- I don't understand why
would Muhammad lie about being a prophet? After all he was known to be
very honest, Who said Muhammad was honest? Those who did not believe in him called him lunatic and insane. This is even reported in Quran. How is it possible that people knew that he was honest and did not believe in him? Muhammad was not an honest man and he was never known by that name. This is what he and his followers said about him. But that is no proof of his honesty. He massacred and eliminated all his opponents. There is no piece of history left by his opponents for us to see what they thought of him. But if Quran says that they called him lunatic, that is what they must have thought of him. Can you rely on what the devotees of someone say about him? The admirers of Khomeni used to think he was a Gandhi. They used to see his face in the moon and called him Imam. That is no proof that this mass murdered was a good man.
27- Muhammad overcame
many obstacles. At first there wasn’t much chance of him to succeed, but he
didn't lose hope, I just think that he must really believed in what he was
doing. Yes the Prophet was a very obstinate man. But wasn’t Khomeini an obstinate man too? Isn’t Saddam an obstinate man? How about Hitler? These people were sick. They are obsessed and often that obsession brings them victory. But that is no indication of their truthfulness. Megalomania is a mental disease. These individuals are often charismatic people and they are so much convinced about their cause that they influence others and overcast their enthusiasm and euphoria.
28- There are some
cases that seem extraordinary, like the Battle of Badr, the Muslims were only
one third of the other group or the Battle of Ohod. Doesn’t that prove that
there was a divine force with the Prophet? There is noting extraordinary in looting and
being a highway robber. Muhammad was defeated six times before he leaned how to
be a good thief. There is not much glory to attack an unarmed merchant caravan,
kill innocent people and loot their belonging. What kind of god is this Allah
that would order his followers to commit these crimes? Muhammad’s men
surrendered the Banu Quraiza; they cut the water supply to the entire quarter
for 14 days. The whole population with children, infants, elderly, sick and all
kind of people suffered for 14 days and when they surrendered without any fight
the holy Prophet (s) killed all their men and sold as slaves their women and
children. He kept Rayhana who was the most beautiful girl of that tribe as his
own sex-slave. He never married her. Is there any glory in that? The Banu
Quraiza never did anything against Muhammad. Their only fault was that they
were artisans, goldsmiths and wealthy Jews. Muhammad needed their wealth. A person wrote that he has been a Muslim for sixty years and after reading that episode could not sleep for two nights. I have not made up anything. Everything that I write is backed by Sahih hadithes and by Quran. The fact that a few armed men can kill unarmed and untrained civilians many times their size is not the indication that God is with them. What kind of bloodthirsty god are we talking about? Primitive people used to think that might is right. The greatness of a person is in his or her compassion, wisdom, love and mercy not in his or her military prowess. During the war of 1971 between Pakistan and Bangladesh, 90,000 of Pakistani soldiers managed to massacre 3,000,000 unarmed Bengali civilians and raped 250,000 Bengali women. Does that mean that these people had the hand of God behind them?
To what you attribute the rise of religious fundamentalism in the Islamic countries? This is a complex matter. There are several factors that contribute to religious fundamentalism. I can mention few of them. 1- Lack of education: I think this is perhaps the main factor. Religious fundamentalism is the product of ignorance and knowledge is the best antidote for ignorance. The level of education in Islamic countries is generally low and the kind of education is deficient and biased. It is not rare to find people who have university degrees, and are educated as engineers, economists or architects speak of creation as a fact, or jinns are real beings. When you have university graduates whose education has been based on nonscientific religious absurdities, what can you expect from the unlettered masses? 2- The second factor is the opportunism of unscrupulous external and internal political powers. Religions often encourage the distrust of the people of other faiths. Political forces use this weakness to their advantage. They foment hatred of a group to procure the support of another group. In Iran the Jews and then the Baha’is became the scapegoats of the Muslim clerics, Ali Allahi’s and Sunnnis were also the target of attack for centuries. This has been the case in almost all countries were people take religion seriously. The British used this sentiment to split the India, the Americans uses the Talibans to fight against the Soviets. They supported the Hamas to weaken the OLP. The list goes on. The support of the extremist groups by Western and colonial powers in Islamic countries is one of the greatest factors of the rise of fundamentalism. 3- Another factor is the feeling of alienation that people in the Islamic countries have towards the rapidly changing and infiltrating Western culture. The West has got rid of religion a century ago and is marching towards a secular civilization reaping the fruits of science and freedom. Islamic countries were not ready yet for this change. They were left behind and therefore have developed inferiority complex vis-à-vis the Westerners. This inferiority complex is further accentuated due to the physical and economical domination of the colonial countries in most of the Islamic world during the 19th century. Today that domination does no more exist, or at least it is subtle and behind the curtains. However the Western culture keeps invading the Islamic countries through Hollywood movies and TV serials. Muslims see their identity threatened and therefore react by going back to their roots. They seek in Islam their identity and their self worth. The general sentiment is that even if the West has scientific and materialistic advantage over us, we have the best religion and God is with us. Conversion of few westerners to Islam validates that religion and feeds the fundamentalism. In my opinion Islam is a religion that cannot separate itself from fundamentalism without denying almost all the teachings of Quran. The only way to hamper the surge of fanaticism is to weaken the Islam itself. All we have to do is to explain the Quran and the hadith to the Muslims. Back to the Questions
30 Islam is a religion filled with positives and negatives, and thanks to my rational ability, I am well able to dissect the positive from negative without discrediting the whole religion and the good it has to offer Islam has lots of truth, and lies as well. Please tell me what would be the use of a map that has some
correct information and some misleading? That sometimes it shows you the right
direction to where you want to go and other times it sends you to totally
opposite direction? What is the use of a medical book that has some good
remedies for some ailments but some of its prescriptions are completely wrong
and kills the patient? A book of guidance must be a book of guidance all the
times. If you have to use your own rational ability to dissect the positive from
the negative then you must have more knowledge than the author of the book. In
that case consulting such a book is redundant. If you know what is good and what
is bad instinctively or through your rational thinking, why you need to consult
any book? According to your explanation, one can conclude that Islam is superfluous for those who have rational ability and is misleading for those who do not have rational ability. Since a great number of people do not have rational ability and take that book as the infallible word of God, doing terrible things believing this is what God wants them to do, isn’t it advisable to scrap it altogether and rely only on human’s rational thinking?
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