Since the opening of this blog, its subtitle had been a rather lame and boring “the blog.” I always planned to create a catchy subtitle, but kept on putting it off because of other priorities. However, due to the overwhelming increase in traffic to this blog (hits literally doubled from the last month) I put some thought into renaming. So, instead of “the blog” this blog is now called “The godless Liberal.”
The reasoning behind the new subtitle is rather simple, I don’t believe in god and I am quite the liberal fellow. According to Google, there aren’t any other blogs titled “The godless Liberal” and so, I guess I am the first to adopt the title as a blog.
On the question of morality, most Christians often cherry-pick which parts of the Bible they would like to follow. They pick the parts that are nice and disregard the nasty bits. They do this in spite of the fact that the Bible is supposedly inspired by god. So, why not do the reverse? Let us look at the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament and pick out some rather violent and sadistic parts.
Animal Sacrifice
Apparently, god really wants you to offer him some animals. god even goes through all of the trouble of telling you exactly how to do it.
1:5 And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
1:6 And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces.
1:8 And the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar:
1:9 But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of “a sweet savour unto the LORD”.
5:8 And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder:
5:9 And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering.
5:10 And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him.
11:10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
11:11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
11:12 Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
Gender Equality?
According to god, women are double as dirty as men, thus when a women has a girl she is dirty for twice as long as if she had a boy.
12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
12:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.
12:3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
12:4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
12:5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.
Homosexuality
God really doesn’t like homosexuals…its an abomination apparently.
18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Beastiality
Quite simple, don’t sleep with animals, it’s confusing.
18:23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
Wizards
Wizards are never up to any good…(hint: wizards don’t exist)
19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
Stoning and Burning
Stone people who gives seed to Molech, and stone wizards too. If a priests daughter becomes a whore, burn her alive. Also, kill those who curse at their parents.
20:2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.
21:9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.
20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
Handicap People
God really doesn’t like handicap people apparently…
21:16 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
21:17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
21:18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
21:19 Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
21:20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
21:21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.
21:22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy.
21:23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.
Sex
Don’t sleep with your mother, daughter in law, another man, mother in law, an animal, sister, sister in law, or aunt…because you both will be killed. Also, don’t catch your sister, sister in law, or aunts naked or you will be cut off from your people.
20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
20:11 And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
20:12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.
20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
20:14 And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
20:15 And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.
20:16 And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
20:17 And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.
20:18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
20:19 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.
20:20 And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
20:21 And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
It is extremely disturbing that a potential President of a modern nation can be a clear and obvious bigot. Now, of course this sort of thing wouldn’t be associated with bigotry by most major media companies, but its is, and here’s why…
Why are the traditional family values, (man & woman + children), better than a gay couple adopting a child (who otherwise would live a miserable life)? What reasoning does he give beyond the saying “I am for traditional families?” He essentially is saying that a homosexual couple is inferior to a heterosexual couple. Thus, homosexuals are not fit to be parents, or at least as fit as a heterosexual person. Continuing that kind of bigotry, it wouldn’t be much of stretch to say, John McCain thinks that a homosexual is inferior to a heterosexual person (he does at least in the case of being a parent). I am fully aware that he is doing this to win some favor within the religious right. But, John McCain is spewing a doctrine of hatred, bigotry, and seperation. This kind of stance should be unacceptable to any reasonable person alive. Again, this is nothing less than bigotry. Simply another reason why you shouldn’t vote for McCain this fall, as his values are in stark contradiction to modernity.
Don’t worry Catholics, its not you (well at least this time). Prior to becoming an Atheist, I use to attend my local mosque often. I used to enjoy the community aspect of being a Muslim. But even then as a Muslim, I found myself at odds with many of the religious officials. I distinctly remember the officials constantly asking for donations, ranting for hours on end about poor funding (while the funding was higher there than most local churches). Now, one of those ranting religious officials has been arrested on a count of sexual abuse of a 13 year old boy. Many know of the Catholic priest’s sexual abuse scandals throughout the world, but how many know of the same scandals within the Islamic faith? Most major media organizations don’t really report on the cases involving Muslims (probably out of fear), but you can usually find a local station to cover it when it happens within ones community.
Suffolk County police have arrested a 53-year-old man in connection with the sexual abuse of a teenage boy in Long Island.
Niamatullah Ibrahim, of Selden, was charged with sexual abuse in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse in the third-degree after a month-long police investigation led to his arrest on Tuesday.Ibrahim works in the Selden Mosque of the Islamic Association of Long Island as a religious official. The 13-year-old boy he is accused of assaulting was attending some type of religious instruction at the mosque over a period of time, police said.
This is of course just one recent case of such blatant child abuse, and it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to suspect that similar activity goes on at this mosque, and other Mosques, Churches, and Synagogues around the world.
Atheism and Islam have a rather odd relationship. According to the Quran, the punishment for atheists is quite clear and obvious:
4:18The forgiveness is not for those who do ill-deeds until, when death attendeth upon one of them, he saith: Lo! I repent now; nor yet for those who die while they are disbelievers. For such We have prepared a painful doom.”
But according to a Muslim “scholar” it is easier to convert an Atheist than it is to convert a theist of another god/religion. Dr. Zakir Naik apparently must not know that if you post things on the internet, everyone can see them, and thus anyone can refute them. At the Islam 101 website, Dr. Naik has submitted an article which he titles “Proving the Existence of Allah to an Atheist.” This is a very tall order, and something that his third-rate intellectual ability does not even come close to succeeding at. His article is at this link. Now let us begin to disect his article from the top, and expose such a fake intellectual.
Normally, when I meet an atheist, the first thing I like to do is to congratulate him and say, ” My special congratulations to you”, because most of the people who believe in God are doing blind belief - he is a Christian, because his father is a Christian; he is a Hindu, because his father is a Hindu; the majority of the people in the world are blindly following the religion of their fathers.
He begins with how arrogant he is in his belief…and how condescending he is. With regards to the blind belief, why does not the same apply to Islam? Why are only other religions blindly following their religion? Does he articlate that? (do I even need an answer that?)…
My Muslim brothers may question me, “Zakir, why are you congratulating an atheist?” The reason that I am congratulating an atheist is because he agrees with the first part of the Shahada i.e. the Islamic Creed, ‘La ilaaha’ - meaning ‘there is no God’. So half my job is already done; now the only part left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha Allah. With others (who are not atheists) I have to first remove from their minds the wrong concept of God they may have and then put the correct concept of one true God.
Oddly enough, I believe the the Islamic creed is exactly two words too long.
My first question to the atheist will be: “What is the definition of God?” For a person to say there is no God, he should know what is the meaning of God. If I hold a book and say that ‘this is a pen’, for the opposite person to say, ‘it is not a pen’, he should know what is the definition of a pen, even if he does not know nor is able to recognise or identify the object I am holding in my hand. For him to say this is not a pen, he should at least know what a pen means. Similarly for an atheist to say ‘there is no God’, he should at least know the concept of God. His concept of God would be derived from the surroundings in which he lives. The god that a large number of people worship has got human qualities - therefore he does not believe in such a god. Similarly a Muslim too does not and should not believe in such false gods.
What if one is a former Muslim and denies the concept and existence of allah?
Many atheists demand a scientific proof for the existence of God. I agree that today is the age of science and technology. Let us use scientific knowledge to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to prove the existence of God and simultaneously prove that the Qur’an is a revelation of God.
Is he saying that current scientific knowledge can prove the existence of god AND that this god authored a few books a few centuries back?
If a new object or a machine, which no one in the world has ever seen or heard of before, is shown to an atheist or any person and then a question is asked, ” Who is the first person who will be able to provide details of the mechanism of this unknown object? After little bit of thinking, he will reply, ‘the creator of that object.’ Some may say ‘the producer’ while others may say ‘the manufacturer.’ What ever answer the person gives, keep it in your mind, the answer will always be either the creator, the producer, the manufacturer or some what of the same meaning, i.e. the person who has made it or created it. Don’t grapple with words, whatever answer he gives, the meaning will be same, therefore accept it.
I suppose this is all white noise…but I assume he is talking about the world and a creator. If he is, surely he should be aware of Evolution by Natural Selection.
At the time when the Qur’an was revealed, people thought the world was flat, there are several other options for the shape of the earth. It could be triangular, it could be quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, spherical, etc. Lets assume there are about 30 different options for the shape of the earth. The Qur’an rightly says it is spherical, if it was a guess the chances of the guess being correct is 1/30.
This is probably a highlight of the entire article…he actually thinks he is using real probability to prove his points. He provides not a single source of where it says the Earth is spherical. Secondly, how is at all scientific to make up a random number at 30? And really, who thought that the world was “quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal…” Honestly was there ever a single person who thought of those choices? And, the theory of the spherical Earth is nearly a thousand years older than Islam. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_Earth
The light of the moon can be its own light or a reflected light. The Qur’an rightly says it is a reflected light. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/2 and the probability that both the guesses i.e the earth is spherical and the light of the moon is reflected light is 1/30 x 1/2 = 1/60.
Again with this nonsense, he provides no sources for his claim about the Quran. Secondly…we have already dismissed this 1/30 nonsense.
Further, the Qur’an also mentions every living thing is made of water. Every living thing can be made up of either wood, stone, copper, aluminum, steel, silver, gold, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, oil, water, cement, concrete, etc. The options are say about 10,000. The Qur’an rightly says that everything is made up of water. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/10,000 and the probability of all the three guesses i.e. the earth is spherical, light of moon is reflected light and everything is created from water being correct is 1/30 x 1/2 x 1/10,000 = 1/60,000 which is equal to about .0017%.
The Qur’an speaks about hundreds of things that were not known to men at the time of its revelation. Only in three options the result is .0017%. I leave it upto you, to work out the probability if all the hundreds of the unknown facts were guesses, the chances of all of them being correct guesses simultaneously and there being not a single wrong guess. It is beyond human capacity to make all correct guesses without a single mistake, which itself is sufficient to prove to a logical person that the origin of the Qur’an is Divine.
More with this probablilty nonsense, I can’t believe this guy is actually serious and even found a publisher to publish his book.
The only logical answer to the question as to who could have mentioned all these scientific facts 1400 years ago before they were discovered, is exactly the same answer initially given by the atheist or any person, to the question who will be the first person who will be able to tell the mechanism of the unknown object. It is the ‘CREATOR’, the producer, the Manufacturer of the whole universe and its contents. In the English language He is ‘God’, or more appropriate in the Arabic language, ‘ALLAH’.
His entire claim relies on the probability that is probably one of the absolute worst arguments I have ever read. Thus, the this statement he makes is null and void as it rests on data that is worthless.
Let me remind you that the Qur’an is not a book of Science, ‘S-C-I-E-N-C-E’ but a book of Signs ‘S-I-G-N-S’ i.e. a book of ayaats. The Qur’an contains more than 6,000 ayaats, i.e. ‘signs’, out of which more than a thousand speak about Science. I am not trying to prove that the Qur’an is the word of God using scientific knowledge as a yard stick because any yardstick is supposed to be more superior than what is being checked or verified. For us Muslims the Qur’an is the Furqan i.e. criteria to judge right from wrong and the ultimate yardstick which is more superior to scientific knowledge.
We know the first part, and he first said the he could prove that god exists and god authored the Quran, and now he is saying he can’t. And the same book that claims this god can’t be proof of the god itself.
But for an educated man who is an atheist, scientific knowledge is the ultimate test which he believes in. We do know that science many a times takes ‘U’ turns, therefore I have restricted the examples only to scientific facts which have sufficient proof and evidence and not scientific theories based on assumptions. Using the ultimate yardstick of the atheist, I am trying to prove to him that the Qur’an is the word of God and it contains the scientific knowledge which is his yardstick which was discovered recently, while the Qur’an was revealed 1400 year ago. At the end of the discussion, we both come to the same conclusion that God though superior to science, is not incompatible with it.
He is essentially arguing that because the Quran is old, that is therefore more likely to be true. Does this mean that Greek mythology is even more true than the Quran…(and likewise for older religions)
We have thus disected and anihilated his entire article. This man is a supposed scholar and respect by millions of people yet he can’t even put togeather a coherant article about god and atheism.
On the question of morality, most Christians often cherry-pick which parts of the Bible they would like to follow. They pick the parts that are nice and disregard the nasty bits. They do this in spite of the fact that the Bible is supposedly inspired by god. So, why not do the reverse? Let us look at the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament and pick out some rather violent and sadistic parts.
Subscribe in a reader