Many thanks for the reblog, very much appreciated and great to know people are enjoying the read. Although, unfortunately, there are many examples throughout history where religious beliefs have directly opposed scientific endeavour; the case of Galileo and the Pope, for example.
But this post wasn’t written to evoke that discussion, but instead ensure that the facts of science are presented in the face of the supernatural belief that the celestial bodies can affect our behaviour; which they can’t!
Thanks again; looking forward to reading some of your writing in the future!
I thank you very much for visiting my blog; also for your comments.
I am of the view that there is no contradiction in Nature- Work of God- that corrects science; and a revealed Religion-Word of God- that depends on the Revelation from the one true creator God.
Coming to your other points:
1. Galileo’s persecution by the Pope was unjust. The pope or his associate clergy do not represent the truthful religion. Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Socrates and Muhammad did not oppose any scientific endeavour or persecute any scientist. The above persons were the direct recipients of Revelation.
The acts of the clergy are wrongs done by man against man and it is sinful and deplorable. It is just like the secular rulers who do wrongs sometimes or often.
2. If a human word spoken can effect changes in the world; then I think Word of God could do much.
If for example, words spoken by the Head of State of America can make changes in the world; Word of the creator God could do much more.
“Given all that, it is surprising how petty some of the “supernatural” miracles now seem. As with spiritualist seances, which cynically offer burblings from the beyond to relatives of the late deceased, nothing truly interesting is ever said or done.
To the story of Muhammad’s “night flight” to Jerusalem (the hoofprint of his horse Borak* is still allegedly to be seen on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque) it would be unkind to make the obvious riposte that horses cannot and do not fly.
It is more pertinent to notice that people, ever since the beginning of their long and exhausting journeys across the earth’s surface, gazing for days at the rear end of a mule, have fantasized about speeding up the tedious process. Folkloric seven-league boots can give the wearer a spring in his step, but this is only tinkering with the problem. The real dream, for thousands of years, involved envy of the birds (feathered descendants of the dinosaurs, as we now know) and the yearning to fly. Chariots in the sky, angels that could glide freely on the thermals … it is only too easy to see the root of the wish. Thus the Prophet speaks to the longing of every peasant who wishes that his beast could take wing and get on with it. But given infinite power, one might have thought that a more striking or less simpleminded miracle could have been confected.”
“God is not Great”: Chapter Ten: The Tawdriness of the Miraculous and the Decline of Hell
*or Al-Burāq
Paarsurrey says:
Now this is all nonsense from Hitchens. One may read Quran from the beginning to the end there is no mention of this Borak anywhere in Quran.
I provide here an online link for Quran with search engine in English and Arabic:
This confirms that Hitchens’ knowledge of religion is based on Bible; not on Quran, hence he hides behinds his own words “most notably the Christian” and then makes an unfounded and poor generalization in the second sentence given above.
Hitchens, as is evident, never read Quran intently, hence he did not quote from Quran, not even a single verse to substantiate his viewpoint.
Quran is the first and the foremost source of guidance of all Muslims, whatever their denomination. Had Hitchens been an honest research scholar with some scientific method of research he must have based his criticism of Islam primarily on Quran but that is not the case; he relied on the traditional source called Hadith which never existed in the time of Muhammad. Hadith was collected 200/250 years after Muhammad.
Hence, whatever is written in Hadith; Muhammad/Quran/Islam are not responsible for it. Criticism of Hitchens of Islam/Quran/Muhammad is therefore irrelevant and is of shallow significance.
The Americans who are in search of God; they should reject this shallow research of Christopher Hitchens, in my opinion.
1. In some cases—most notably the Christian—one revelation is apparently not sufficient, and needs to be reinforced by successive apparitions, with the promise of a further but ultimate one to come. In other cases, the opposite difficulty occurs and the divine instruction is delivered, only once, and for the final time, to an obscure personage whose lightest word then becomes law.—Page-97: Chapter-7: Hitchens Book “God is not great”
2. The syncretic tendencies of monotheism, and the common ancestry of the tales, mean in effect that a rebuttal to one is a rebuttal to all.
Page-98: Chapter-7: Hitchens Book “God is not great”
Paarsurrey comments:
Hitchens knowledge of religion is based on Bible; not on Quran, hence he hides behinds his own words “most notably the Christian” and then makes an unfounded and poor generalization in the second sentence given above.
Hitchens, as is evident, never read Quran intently, hence he did not quote from Quran, not even a single verse to substantiate his viewpoint.
Quran is the first and the foremost source of guidance of all Muslims, whatever their denomination. Had Hitchens been an honest research scholar with some scientific method of research he must have based his criticism of Islam primarily on Quran but that is not the case; he relied on the traditional source called Hadith which never existed in the time of Muhammad. Hadith was collected 200/250 years after Muhammad.
Hence, whatever is written in Hadith; Muhammad/Quran/Islam are not responsible for it. Criticism of Hitchens of Islam/Quran/Muhammad is therefore irrelevant and is of shallow significance.
Those who collected Hadith they had a clear principle in mind that Hadith should accepted if it is not against Quran or in other words, it is not validated by Quran. Due to the time lag after Muhammad, Hadith is engrossed in denominational feuds; hence if at all it quoted it should be done with caution; else it should be rejected. Quran absolutely rules the teachings of Muhammad/Islam and there is no other contestant to it.
If one wants to cut a tree; one should cut it from root or just uproot it from the earth that holds it firmly; if one tears some leaves from a tree and then claims; “lo! I have uprooted the tree” and in evidence he shows the torn leaves, the claim is not worthy of attention.
The skeptics who claim to follow reason should not follow a denominational line just because it suits their philosophy; this would be a biased approach on their part.
The Americans who are in search of God; they should reject this shallow research of Christopher Hitchens, in my opinion.
Americans in search of the Truth or in search of the one true creator God
I think Americans will reject Atheists or Atheism.
Atheists have failed to prove with any tangible evidences that “one true creator God does not exist”. It is their lame excuse that negatives cannot be proved; that is only admittance that their stance is incorrect; and they don’t have any solid stand to stand on; theirs is an extremist position.
Agnostics admit the wrong position of the Atheists and take the position that they don’t know if God exists or not; they tend to be neutral. If they hold this position truthfully then they would have never cared if somebody believed in God or not; morally they should have kept silent.
Skeptics are in doubt; they take a negative position. Doubt generates only doubts until one is overcome by cynicism; far from the truth. Truth is a positive position and it does exist.
The only rational position is to become theists- believers in one true creator God.
Mr. Tin Kay (sorry for the spellings; please correct me if I am wrong) asked from Mirza Tahir Ahmad a question;”There is a lot of suffering in the world of course. Will there ever be a time when people of different religions, different religious leaders will come together. And has this Messiah that you believe in, has he made any prophecies about the coming together of religions?”
The question was answered by Mirza Tahir Ahmad and I give here the same in my own words what I could gather from the video.
He told that that indeed there are prophecies found all over the world of unification of man under one flag but that does not mean amalgamation or combining of religions into one by force.
That is not unity; that will never happen. Religion does talk of a golden age when different religions or ideologies will be united under one flag; but that only means that there will be a divine movement in latter days whereby changing of thoughts and attitudes would gradually occur and the movement will gather mass until a new entity will arise.
It will not be a national or geographical happening but a universal unification of thoughts will be reborn that man will feel at one with each other sharing the same equality.
This will happen under the flag of Islam; this is coming together of religions as we understand it.
The video is presented here for the benefit of everybody:
Please start viewing the video, setting play-head position, for the relevant Q6 @ 01:09:00 .”There is a lot of suffering in the world of course. Will there ever be a time when people of different religions, different religious leaders will come together. And has this Messiah that you believe in, has he made any prophecies about the coming together of religions?”
Its answer ends @ 01:12:15: the answer is only: 03.15 in duration.
Paarsurrey says:
I am of the opinion that this will start off in America.
The Americans could come together on the concept of God. I could say they are in search of God. There is no need to deny God, Jesus did not believe in Trinity, and there is no need to become skeptical about God and to deny Him.
One should believe in God very naturally as one believes in one’s parents- fathers and mothers. One is never in doubt about one’s parents. So; why should one be in doubt about God? It is not rational to deny Him.
I pray the Americans come together on the one true Creator God; everyone with one’s independent search. Is there any doubt about the one true creator God who has created this life through evolution in millions of years?
I think your article shows that the Americans don’t come together on the concept of God. I could say they are in search of God. I pray they come together on the one true Creator God who has created this life through evolution in millions of years.
One should believe in God very naturally as one believes in one’s parents- fathers and mothers.
Americans seem to love the phrase “God of our fathers,” but how is that God defined? If you listen to today’s religious conservatives you will most definitely get a version which they will swear by. They will also quickly point out that the founders of our country were all God-fearing men. That is an impossible position to defend because it mostly lacks for definition.
The founders of our country were, in the first place, English merchants who saw an opportunity in the New World at the Virginia plantation. Their allegiance, such as it was, was to the Church of England. But the colony the founded at Jamestown was far more interested in it commercial value than allying itself to any particular religion. As was true in later settlements, these Englishmen did not first erect a church and then a community to surround it.
We are having a useful discussion on “American Christianity”.
paarsurrey said:
Hi friend Adam, Awfrick
Thank you for approving me to your blog.
I have never been to America; so I am not familiar with the “American Christianity” and as to how it differs from the denominations, Catholics or Protestants.
Would you kindly elaborate for me about “American Christianity”?
Thanks
awfrick said
American Christianity slowly intertwined with the American ideal of Capitalism; so instead of focusing on honest faith, it is greedy and exploitive. It has also become very fundamentalist, racist, sexist, and inappropriately political.
I can’t explain all of the problems in a few sentences, but keep reading my site and I’m sure you’ll begin to get the whole picture.
In short, the biggest problem is that we don’t have Christians that are as accepting and kind as you, friend!
Paarsurrey said:
Hi friend Adam, awfrick
As I could understand so far from your posts, please correct me if I am wrong; you believe in Jesus as a perfect human being, which has not been presented by the Church and Bible rationally.
The Bible is wrong to present Jesus as god; so the Bible has become to be a machine producing Atheists these days. America needs the real, research and reason oriented Jesus for solving the social, moral and spiritual problems faced by the American society now.
Instead of the mythical and ascetic Jesus of Bible, I think, revival of real teachings and acts of Jesus is needed to salvage those who have turned Atheists Agnostics.
Actually, I find the Bible to be right on, even for life today.
Paarsurrey says:
Hi friend peacewithinreach
God Allah YHWH is an authority being the Creator of the Universe; we have to obey whatever He says; but he is All-Wisdom also and he has bestowed us human beings with wisdom and reasoning also which He has not given so much to other of his creatures.
This is an age of information and reasoning; it is well suited to the present era that whatever is commanded is also proved with rational and logical.
A convinced person heart and soul with reasons and rationality find it easier to become an obedient servant and submitter to God.
Bible is not alright, it does not provide what was revealed on Jesus, it provides what Paul thought of that is why it lacks straightforward claims/assertion and also reason thereof .
Bible is therefore an outmoded book and does not meet the temporal, moral and spiritual needs of the era. It only builds a blind faith; as Paul lost/impaired his eyesight when he made up the vision that he had seen Jesus.
One does not find the teachings of this book rationally and logically true; neither one could ever find them in this book. The nature and psyche of the Americans; peoples in the West and the East therefore reject this book and have resorted to accepting Atheism in large numbers.
The Catholics and Protestants are good and intelligent persons; they should realize the tricks, bluffs and cunningness of Paul and accept the Jesus and Mary of Quran.
Quran presents claims and reasons in the text and the context and fulfils the needs of the era. Quran presents the bright and shining teachings of Jesus and Mary and establishes their respect, honor and love in the hearts of the people most affectively.
If America is to be saved; it has to accept the truthful Jesus of Quran.
I respect your religion; but this is what I believe sincerely and frankly.
I read a question at Busted Halo – an online magazine of the Christians:
The Question : Someone told me that if a baby dies before being baptized, the baby goes to hell. Is this true?
Paarsurrey says:
The answer given by the magazine is not correct, in my opinion.
Babies are innocent: won’t go to hell; good news from Quran for all Americans fathers, mothers and babies and also in the West.
This concept of the Catholics Protestants sending babies to the hell is inhuman and is simply not correct, in my opinion. Every human child born enjoys a respect from God and is innocent and definitely not sinful.
Sins start when one could distinguish between right and wrong; or when one is mature enough. Nobody inherits any sin. It is for this that AllahYHWH only is the master of Judgment; as only He knows as to how much a person can know right from the wrong. No human could judge any person for moral or spiritual sins on behalf of God; not even the church, nor one is entitled to forgive sins on behalf of God AllahYHWH, in my opinion.
Sins are not hereditary, in my opinion.
Jesus never said anything like that. This is the weird philosophy of Paul and of the mislead Church which is neither rational nor logical.
It is for scuh concepts of the clergy that the Churches have become machines or factories producing Atheists in America, in my opinion.The Church is driving away the intelligent person from God.
For God’s sake revise such wrong tenets to make following of Jesus relevant to America and the Americans. The lost souls can only be salvaged with real Jesus, his real Acts and his real Teachings.
I love Jesus s/o Adam as I love Adam and Eve, mentioned in Quran.
Thanks
I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim
P.S. I have added a page titled “Ask Paarsurrey” on my blog for the questions. Please view it on the side bar of my blog for peaceful questions and discussions. Everybody is welcome; even those who differ with me. https://paarsurrey.wordpress.com/
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