The Ideological Dream

How many so-called 'good people' were hoodwinked by National Socialism, Leninism and Stalinism, and many other cases of sociopolitical change and reform that from a selective view seemed to be a progression towards a better society?

Politics is in part about truth, however, it is as often about personal and ideological desperation as well. The Early signs from Nazism wasn't that of camps and murder, 'the Soviet project' was praised even after the bloody civil war, purges and show trials. It seems that many would rather believe in the perfect future than treat reality with the kind of harsh scepticism it deserves.

We see much the same of Islam, with many Muslims who at least don't ignore the actions of ISIS but they may quietly desire a new Muslim super-power and religious authority to usher in a new golden age of the faith. In that way, the examples of religious fundamentalism across the world are a kind of inspiration, much like many-an-old-Marxist was hopeful that the Soviet project, despite a shaky start, would offer up fruit.

You can find western communists who seem to be unable to accept the insanity of North Korea, any bad news is called capitalist propaganda, and so easily dismissed by all true communists. They, as with many Muslims, Neo-nazis and other ideological views, think we in free societies are living on borrowed time and out of the chaos, they'll bring about a better world. I can only assume that something about the idea of knowing the ultimate truth breeds arrogance and even greater credulity as they swallow lie after lie from their comrades in arms. As if their conspiratorial tones are more than musings of those who dream of their ideological victory.

It's actually odd that rather than respecting facts first, many millions of people would rather believe in the coming of their hopes by some kind of inevitable process. Instead of noting their errors and noticing the irrationality they hold dear they would rather ignore those things that may move them out of their comfort zone. I suppose I've been too narrow, and as I ponder this I can imagine this frame of mind with any number of beliefs.

In general, when reason leads you will discover, and when faith leads you will make excuses.

Allah is Ba'al?

[Some of this may be slightly off, you may have better translations than a google translated web article or a wiki article, but even so the claim that Allah is Baal is easy to doubt.]  

 

I have come across many people who dismiss the idea that Allah is just a term for god, the most recent example was from a Christian youtube commenter, he claims that Allah was 'Baal-lah', or Baal, an ancient god noted in the bible. The problem is that you don't confirm this as factually the case with an argument stating what you reckon, and besides the origin of the term Allah seems to come directly from the Aramaic term for god, 'Alaha', meaning that it was the probable term used at the time of Jesus, for god. It takes almost no research to find this information, and almost none to discover that Maltese Catholics still used the Arabic term for god in their worship, not that the root of the Arabic gods is so simple as getting the concept only from the Abrahamic traditions, although there is not direct link to Baal and other gods noted in the Torah(Old Testament). Interestingly, the term 'Al-ilah' is the direct ancestral term for 'Allah', and acts as the middle phase from the Aramaic term 'Alaha', and it simply means 'the god', as opposed to merrily one of many gods, whereas, 'Baal' is a title that refers to a deity within the Levant, the term 'Ba'al' simple means 'Lord', representing fertility and storms, and as a Phoenician deity, it is understandable that Israeli cultural supremacists, the ancient Hebrews, would write a biased history founded on their religious dogmas.

Before anyone presumes that Islam came from another religious of legend, you really should study the pre-Islamic history of the region, not least that of Christians of Arabia, not least king Abraha, who controlled large areas of Arabia in the sixth century, such Characters cemented Judeo-Christian myths in the region, often alongside the practices of other cultures, such as Persian traditions. Most of this is a click away on any number of educational sites, the average person has a vast and powerful resource at their fingertips, yet fail to search beyond what they reckon the case to be, and typically from a position of ignorance. With the history of the Arabic faiths, we find many similarities to their neighbouring cultures, and some of those seeped through into Islamic culture, mostly the Judeo-Christian myths, with cultural inflexions of the Arabian People. The later followers of Muhammad seem to have collated the Qur'an and Hadiths with the bias of Judeo-Christian ideals, and possibly during the time after Muhammad's death, they may have engineered a belief that fitted their understanding of the restored one true religion, as they may have seen it. In the time shortly after the time of Muhammad, it was seen that the teachings of the prophet we largely being ignored or forgotten, what was written was in some cases contradictory, new translations, often into languages that could offer ever greater interpretations, the religious authorities, as a result, standardised the Qur'an, taking care to destroy rival Qur'ans. If this is historically correct, then how do we know we have the true Qur'an before us, the best you can do is lie, as most Muslims do, and claim that it was written perfectly, and the Caliphate of the time, only restored the true Qur'an to its rightful place, and destroyed translated works, since translation changes god's word it must be forbidden, or at least not truly the Qur'an, and not truly God's word.

Muslim authorities have disagreed over the details ever since the first page was written, or so it seems, so although Muhammad died in 632CE, most Muslims agree that Uthman compiled the manuscript of the Qur'an, during the third caliphate, over a decade later, meaning the word of god was not perfectly preserved in it's perfect written form with no room for error, after the death of Muhammad. For continued confusion, look at the Hadiths, a selection of actions and sayings of Muhammad, collected in an even more sketchy fashion, and out of many tens of thousands of sayings and stories attributed to Muhammad a very few were incorporated into the Hadiths, over two centuries later, and experts agree that many sayings are rewrites of pre-existing idea within the middle-east, including some the lord's prayer. We cannot be sure that the Qur'an is truly what Muhammad believed, and the Hadiths is plagued by things that you cannot know are historically correct, and the radical claims make the books of Islam seem like poorly thought out fiction.

Islam is false, you do not prove this by assertions, you confirm it by refuting the unrealistic views, regardless of which older beliefs it borrows from because those older faiths are false too. Feel free to disagree.

Meccan Meteorite Worship

Meccan Meteorite Worship

If you think a meteorite is a gift from god, then please consider how we are showered in them, mostly dust burning up in our atmosphere, many small, less large ones, and rarely very large fragments, seemingly planned as if we are gifted with meteorites by pure chance. No gods nor destiny need apply.

Gila left a comment on YouTube, under a video that noted the probable meteorite that is held as from Allah by Muslims, the rest of us seem to note the obvious fact that these impacts are common, although for about one and a half billion Muslims this stone is believed to be most holy. Gila made some interesting points that will be quoted below, I should initially note the details of the stone itself, the Black Stone is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, was worshipped by pre-Islamic civilisation of the Mecca, and pilgrims from around the region, and claims are made that it dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. It is said by Muslim traditions that Muhammad placed the stone in the wall of the Kaaba, although since that time has been broken and is now cemented into a silver frame, it appears as fragments of black rock, smoothed by the touch by billions of pilgrims for over centuries. However, these accounts are based on myths, which were based on pre-existing myths, and we are not let sure if the Black Stone is indeed a meteorite, even though it's dark colouration is unlike stones of the region, not that this makes it conclusive.

Gila: “I think that the meteorite was worshipped, not just because it fell from the sky.”

As previously stated, we do not know that it did indeed fall from the sky, it is a probable meteorite, meaning it is a strong probability that has not been confirmed.

Gila: “But that the earliest iron implements were made from meteorites, enabling a quantum leap in the technology of the time.”

This is partly true, many early humans used meteorites, however, much of this usage was due to the requirement to use whatever was available for later use, a shard of tektite can be as good as flint, an iron and nickel meteorite may be easy enough to craft, yet this doesn't equal much at all. The result of having more resource options simply means that more was used in trial and error, and even a metaphorical quantum leap is an exaggeration, although it may have been a factor in locations where resources of this kind were less of a rarity, the effect seems negligible.

Gila: “The worship of that particular stone was an expression of thanks and acknowledgement to the universe for this possibility of advance in everything from farm implements to weapons.”

There seems to be no evidence for this claim, and since in the region of Mecca such rocks are so rare, indeed this is one of the reasons many Muslim insist that the Kaaba is divine in its origin, even though with a few tests we could see just how rare such a probable meteorite may be. The pre-Islamic Meccans were not actually animists nor pantheists, there seems to be no evidence of meteorite tools, I should state that the claims made about meteorites and quantum leaps in technology are a kind of new age meme, and are exaggerated claims at best.

Gila: “Later the legend of Abraham visiting the area (supposedly to visit his later mistress Ketura and her children) was wishful thinking. A desire to tie the Koran to the earlier supposed revelations and make a continuity of myths”.

Here I cannot fault Gila's opinion, the Muslim claims are as unsupported as many such wishful and historical claims that are not backed by evidence, ironically Gila cannot seem to understand that her poorly supported claims are no better. Gila and a great many new agers seek to make ancient myths fit with modern new age gibberish, the trouble is they spin history, just like most religions, making their nonsense fit, refuting Islamic claims with reason, only to assert new age without any evidence at all.

Such comments are easily debunked with very little brain power, we need only question what we think we know, noting our bad reasoning, and cutting down our biases. New Age is wrong, demonstrably false, you can make things fit, but your last refuge once your errors are exposed are the gaps in our knowledge, and every other religion is claiming that same god of the gaps because they have nowhere left to go.

Muslim Moronic Statements + the drink

This kind of pathetic comment is all too common, ignorance and rhetoric from a person who should know better.  

See the video about Muhammad and Islam, in which the great drinker and think, the Hitch, refutes the cult of Islam.  

Islamophobia or just a honest way of expressing doubts in regards to Islam?

Doubters, Critics, Sceptics, it's fine, as long as your not just an ignorant clown who expresses hatred then so what?!  sound criticism of any belief, any person alive or dead, any so-called holy figure or book, or anything is OK, but as reasoned people it should be a rational response, as with much of the work of Christopher Hitchens.  Yet, what we find with some people on the left of politics is this idea of labelling anyone who critiques Islam a bigot, closet racist, etc.  Surely these people need to learn the difference between the informed intellectuals and the irrational fear-mongers, or else face ridicles on a vast stale!  Whether your atheistic or not is not the issue, the concern is that as a critic you are lightly to fall into this camps, one that is able to learn, able to progress, and the other which is dogmatic, the dogmatists include religious fanatics and the fuellers of race hatred.  I don't know about you, but I believe that dogma is the great foe of progress, I consider Christopher Hitchens(1949-2011) to be one who was not the enemy of civilisation.  I don't think Islam is our wholesale foe, if anything we have many foes within the Muslim world, and most of them hate each others guts about as much as they take offence to liberal western culture.  Moderate Muslims do exist, but most are traditionalist, which means they are fundamentalists, of a kind, and yet, are not probable to raise a sword to fight for the extremists, so rather than judging all Muslims as the same, like some people do, we should be educated upon the matter, and clear, as we question the values of this religion.  Islam doesn't deserve privileged more than any other belief, ad if possible the separation of Church and State should be promoted, the fairness of governance by impartial, honourable people.  And, we should not prevent Muslims from expressing themselves within our society, as long as this expression fits within the laws and guidelines of our society. 

Good Deed Spam

A man does a good deed, he is a muslim, and this deed helps many, and some would say it confirms the good nature of his religion, and indeed the truth that is natural to it.  As it transpires he is not a devout muslim, in fact does not go to mosque, but those who want to hijack good deeds to prop up a failure to provide evidence for faith love to use anything they can.



a fictional story that happens in reality in some form all too often, as the good deeds are done by people and someone wants to use it to prove their belief, as if a good deed prove anything of a belief, religious or not, as being totally true.

Extremism being criticised by UK Muslims is good?

so many UK Muslims have been radicalised beyond usual levels within Islam, some by extremist preachers who may be in the UK for one reason, dominion, and others, probably most, by internet radicalization.  How many in all, no one can be 100% sure, many are fooled by half truths, selected arguments, arguments from authority, which guides them to do crazy things, like go to war in a war they know little about and may become stuck in, unless they die first.  Sadly it's easy for some Muslim preachers to radicalise young men to stand against the foe, the enemy at the gates, these internet extremists and those who radicalise young men in some UK mosques are cult leaders, but the traditions of Islam make calling them out a very dangerous move and not part of the faith in most cases. 

Thankfully some UK Muslims do speak out, and Imams are speaking out too, letting the Muslim community hear a sane voice, and letting us all know that we are not dealing with silence that may as well be silent agreement with extremists.

Sadly, I large percentage of Muslims are conspiracy theorists, they watch the videos I criticise, the crazy ones that say Satan rules the earth, and unlike me they don't laugh at them, no wonder when Imams often remind Muslims of god's laws, Satanic deceptions all around us, and many other aspects that the extremists have used to turn Muslims away from integration and liberalisation of their communities.  I don't like to be the one who rain on this parade, but you have to admit this issue is much larger than two sides, many poor Muslims may feel an axe to grind against the man, much as many black people have in the past, but if someone tells you the man to hate then it's gone from frustration to irrational hatred.

So it is good to agree that Muslim Criticism of Muslim extremism is helpful, but this issue goes deep into Muslim communities and the religion of Islam. 















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