This is one of the most common questions I get with regards to my blog and community work. This question comes from both sides as well and actually probably more frequently from non-believers. It also comes in a few different forms, such as:
It’s an easy target, its almost like stealing candy from a child.
It’s a pointless activity, you should concentrate on something else.
Religion is here to stay, just get used to it
Why are you so militant/hostile?
Let people believe their delusions, what difference does it make to you
Without religion, there is no right or wrong, so let it be
These six forms are really not too different from each other, but they come up quite often and I think they should be addressed.
Easy Target?
Intellectually yes, but what about politically? Pretty much anyone with a functional brain can crush a theist in a debate about theology (considering the theist has no new arguments). That is not the issue, I think both sides have realized religion is an intellectual midget while the naturalistic/atheistic world view is an intellectual giant in comparison. However politically their arguments are very strong and carry a lot of weight in America. That is the troubling aspect. They have achieved a non-taxable status even though most don’t do much charity work. Even when they do charity work, they end up spending more money on travel expenses and wages than on actually helping the people (who they are also trying to convert). Don’t also forget the preacher driving away in his new car. Lastly, they have somehow achieved a “don’t criticize” status in public discourse which is absurd (since we criticize everything else freely) and that is what makes it difficult.
Pointless?
Hardly. My main reason to believe this is based on history. Just take a look at Europe, when the governments were essentially theocracies, intolerance and ignorance ran supreme. Once the governments began to become more and more secular, (it was a slow process) the countries began to rise to heights the world has never seen before. Beginning with the Renaissance (not a fully secular movement) then the Enlightenment (the most successful secular movement ever), we see the advances in intellectual thought, science, reason and rationalism progress much faster than ever before. So, everything we do to limit religion’s power is a small step to creating a more perfect nation. When we get closer to making religion a minority, (which is going to happen) the entire society benefits from it. Take a look at medieval Europe or the modern day Middle East to see the opposite of my example.
Get Used to it?
One could have used the same argument against the Founding Fathers of America (Britain is going to rule us, get used to it!)…in fact I am sure that some foolish cynic said something along those lines. Whats the point of life if we accept the status quo and just get used to it? If we wish to see real progress, we must minimize religion to its rightful spot, the private delusion of fools.
Why so Hostile?
This usually comes from non-believers, though I had heard it from a few believers lately. The reason is very simple, I am hostile to non-thinking. Religion promotes non-thinking, and thus, I am hostile to religion. I simply cannot stand by and watch people actually talk about the virtues of faith. It is not who I am, perhaps that will change over the years. But, I don’t really see it changing anytime soon. Also, my hostility is much different from a religious persons hostility. The end result of a their hostility is something like the 9/11 attacks or bombing abortion clinics, the end of result of my hostility is carefully crafted and witty articles.
Let People Believe Their Delusions
This is another common one from fellow atheists and agnostics. They agree with me that religion and god are absurd, and that theism is negative aspect of society, but they end by saying, let people believe their delusions, what difference does it make to you? Well, beliefs result in actions. Sometimes they don’t, but usually they do. Unfortunately, believers don’t live in a vacuum, their beliefs effect others whether they like or not. They teach children nonsense in their churches and brainwash them, they usually support radical right wing politicians who attempt to remove the separation of church and state and because these people don’t leave us alone. People should be able to believe whatever they want, but they aren’t satisfied with just that, they always want someone else to share their delusion.
Morality without god
This video is Richard Dawkins reading out part of his book “The god Delusion” and he explores this question. I agree with this entire video, and I usually repeat something similar whenever people bring this point up.
My normal routine online consists of me vigorously checking various news sources for interesting material. Today, I came across this interview with a former-Muslim, now Atheist Mohammad Asghar. The full interview is located here.
Arabic and Muslims
“…there are over 1.565 billion Muslims in the world today. Out of these Muslims, only about 300 million understand and speak Arabic. Since a good part of the Quran is written in colloquial Arabic, spoken by the tribe of Quraish of the 7th century Mecca, understanding it even by many modern-day Arabic speaking Muslims is not an easy task.”
Lets think about that for a second. The majority of Muslims actually follow word for word a book that they themselves don’t understand whatsoever. They rely on others to tell them what exactly it says in there, and most of them never read the translations. If only these people could actually read what is inside there, maybe they would be more likely to leave their faith.
Education in the Muslim World
“There are 57 member-countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities, and intriguingly, not one university from the Muslim-majority states was in the top-500.”
Now consider this, not a single one of these universities is in the top 500. Bad education and religion closely related? Coincidence? I think not.
The Daily Prayers
Before the advent of Islam, the Pagans of the Arabian Peninsula prayed three times each day; about sunrise, at noon and about sunset, turning their faces towards the Ka’aba (Washington Irving, Mahomet & his Associates, p. 31). Muhammad retained this pagan ritual in Islam and, in some unguarded moments, he told his followers to pray twice, thrice or four times in a day. Since the norms to be followed while saying these prayers were well known to his followers, he did not mention them in the Qur’an. For want of clarity on the number of prayers that Muslims must offer everyday to Allah, Sunnis believe it to be five; Shias, by and large, consider it to be three (Dr. Rafiq Zakaria; Muhammad and the Quran, p. 74).
The Prophet of Islam, retained daily prayers in Islam for a specific reason: being militarily and economically weak, he needed to tell the Pagans of Mecca that the religion he was preaching was not drastically different from the one they themselves were practicing and, as such, they should accept it without resistance. He continued to follow his policy of appeasement even after his arrival in Medina, where the Jews vehemently opposed most of the precepts of his religion. In order to win them over, he changed the direction of the Muslim prayer from Ka’aba in Mecca to Jerusalem. When the Jews refused to budge, he expressed his mild displeasure by asking his followers to face Ka’aba at the time of saying their prayer.
All of these Abrahamic religions are just plagiarisms of former myths and gods. This provides the historical background of the daily prayers by Muslims. If everything inside Islam has already been uttered or practiced by someone else before it, then how much of a stretch is it to believe that all of it is man-made.
I recently came across this article. This is just another example of the kind of violence and brutality that religion fuels throughout the world, and the specific case of sexist/islamic based crimes.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Balochistan Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri stunned the upper house on Friday when he defended the recent incident of burying alive three teenage girls and two women in his province, saying it was part of “our tribal custom.”
Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah of the PML-Q raised the issue citing a newspaper report that the girls, three of them aged between 16 and 18 years, had been buried alive a month ago for wishing to marry of their own will.
The barbaric incident took place in a remote village of Jafarabad district and a PPP minister and some other influential people were reported to have been involved. The report accused the provincial government of trying to hush up the issue.
Ms Shah said that the hapless girls and the women were first shot in the name of honour and then buried while they were alive. She also said that no criminal had been arrested so far.
I will not attempt to say that these kinds of things wouldn’t happen at all without Islam. However, this extreme sort of barbarism and brutality is usually fueled by religion and tradition. Without Islam being a driving force, it is likely that the man wouldn’t have resorted to something that extreme. The man stated his defense as, “its a custom.” That is exactly what non-thinking (faith) leads to. It allows people to commit such disgusting and filthy actions without losing much sleep over it. They believe they are doing the right thing, and in their twisted Stone Age morality its actually is a good act. Their sense of morality is entirely rooted in their religion which encourages people to not think for themselves and that is what I want to attack.
This also shows the extreme sexist nature of Islam. A man can get away with such things because it is their right to control women. Why can’t we just rid ourselves of this stone age philosophy and begin to look for more progressive and modern standards of morality and gender roles.
For the majority of my life I was a Muslim, a child of Muslim parents, a nephew of Muslim aunts and uncles, and so on. Most of the people I spent my childhood were Muslims, and every single one of them repeated a phrase almost verbatim. “Islam is the only religion that gives respect and honor to women.” I personally never really gave the statement much thought, just accepted it on surface value. So whenever someone from the outside brought up the treatment of women in Islamic cultures, they repeated this mantra like a statement of unquestionable fact. It was not until I looked upon Islam from the outside that I truly grasped just how false that statement was. Islam does not give respect to women, it does the exact opposite. It suppresses and subjugates them. It keeps them down purposely, as Islam is a man-made religion. It deprives women of their beauty with veils, their minds with religion, and their freedom with the law.
One of the most common replies to the oppressive treatment of women is, “it’s the culture, not religion.” The people who say that either know nothing of the religion or are purposely lying to create a better public image of Muslims. The Quran clearly outlines what rights women have, and which rights they don’t. In fact, there is an entire chapter of the Quran dedicated to it. So, let us explore the claim that Islam gives respect to women, and that the oppression is cultural based instead of having its roots in Islam.
4:3 And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans, marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess. Thus it is more likely that ye will not do injustice.
This allows Muslims males to allow multiple women depending on their financial situation. Why can’t women marry multiple men depending on their financial situation?
4:11 Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females, and if there be women more than two, then theirs is two-thirds of the inheritance, and if there be one (only) then the half.
Why should males receive double that which females receive? Is the Quran indicating that Males are twice as worthy and important than females?
4:15 As for those of your women who are guilty of lewdness, call to witness four of you against them. And if they testify (to the truth of the allegation) then confine them to the houses until death take them or (until) Allah appoint for them a way (through new legislation).
Why do males get the right to confine women? Why do males get any right over women?
4:34Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.
Here is a cluster of sexist nonsense. Now, it clearly says, “men are in charge of women.” Why is this so? Why can’t women be in charge of men? How has god made males better than females? According to modern anatomy, there are negligible differences between the two, so how is a male better than a female? Why is a good woman obedient? Is a good man obedient? Why should women be obedient and put under the control of men? Then it says, the women who aren’t obedient, beat them and don’t allow them outside the house. This single passage gives men the right to control women, orders women to be obedient, and allows men to beat their wives.
24:31 And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women’s nakedness.
What is modesty? Who defines modesty? Why should women lower their gaze, and not men? Why do women have to cover themselves while males don’t?
This may have gotten a bit repetitive with the questions, but I feel that such things should be stressed so as to not allow any Muslim to weasel their way out of this. If you are a Muslim, you must follow the Quran. Thus if you are a Muslim, you must be a sexist. It is not the culture which oppresses women, but the religion itself. The culture gets its sick and sadistic ideas from the religion. I stand baffled whenever a woman actually allows herself to be suppressed, and even more so, agrees with the logic behind it. For a woman following these filthy Abrahamic religions is similar to a freed slave staying with his owner. I now challenge my Muslim readers to defend any one of those passages. I shall end with possibly by favorite 8 lines ever wrote.
The Koran! well, come put me to the test–
Lovely old book in hideous error drest–
Believe me, I can quote the Koran too,
The unbeliever knows his Koran best.
And do you think that unto such as you,
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew,
God gave the Secret, and denied it me?–
Well, well, what matters it! believe that too.
I am a Secular Leftist and Anti-Theist with a goal to explore and discuss any topic or person which is interesting and relates to politics or religion in a modern world. For a longer about me, click on the about me.
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