How to sift reality/facts from superstition/myth?

Paarsurrey Notes on:

Al-An`am Chapter 6 : Verse 117 And if thou obey the majority of those on earth, they will lead thee astray from Allah’s way. They follow nothing but mere conjecture, and they do nothing but lie. Read More: Short English Commentary | Detailed English Commentary | Urdu Tafaseer اردو تفاسیر

Yunus Chapter 10 : Verse 67 Behold! whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth is Allah’s. Those who call on others than Allah do not really follow these ‘partners’; they follow only a conjecture, and they do nothing but guess. Read More: Short English Commentary | Detailed English Commentary | Urdu Tafaseer اردو تفاسیر

Al-Zukhruf Chapter 43 : Verse 21 And they say, ‘If the Gracious God had so willed, we should not have worshipped them.’ They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do nothing but conjecture.

How does one sift reality facts from superstition/myth, please?

Commonality in all religious scriptures, reasonableness, secure and pristine word of Revelation

Believe it or not, stress makes people “more superstitious”.

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds

Superstitions are irrational beliefs

Superstitions are myth not reality, actually, we have firm belief on superstitions and just because of this we consider them as real.

Our mind has great power and if we believe enough, we can create what our mind believes. The history and development of myths, superstitions and ceremonies are extremely interesting.

• Valeed 7 years agofrom Pakistan

You are very right John these false beliefs have become so much rooted in our minds and societies that it is hard to get rid of them. Fortune tellers had made a fool out of millions of people and are on their way to do so in future also. Your wife is facing the same scenario as millions have faced before and continued to… I hope so she understands the true reality of life. May Allah bless her and give her health…

DREAMS WICCA & WITCHCRAFT ASTROLOGY THE PARANORMAL MAGIC FORTUNE TEL

The Science of Superstition

Parallel Sessions: Scientific Superstitions and Scientific Temper Myths, Superstitions and Propaganda in Scientific Age

In fact, “pattern finding” and “order seeking” mechanisms form the basis for nearly all existing myths

The same mechanism also makes us extremely vulnerable to all kinds of deceptions and manipulative techniques that impair our critical faculties. We may imagine things that don’t exist, make false judgments, accept uncritical claims, misinterpret facts and arrive at conclusions that are completely at odds with reality.
https://www.researchgate.net/

“Myth of One Hindu Religion”

Paarsurrey quotes in the public interest.

Myth of One Hindu Religion PT 2

By
Hadwa Dom

Quote:

“Invention of Hinduism by English Census-Compilers

The English census-compilers were assigned the daunting task of conducting the Indian head-count by the British government. These people were not theologians, and coined the term `Hindu’ as a blanket term to encompass several religions. Thus a `Hindu’ was defined in the Census as anybody who was not Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or Jain. It was thus an exclusivist term: Hinduism was defined by what it was not, and not by what it was. It is hence entirely unsuitable as a definition. Later the term Sanatana Dharma was invented to deliberately submerge the English creation of Hinduism. In the words of the Babri Masjid archive [ Basic ] :

” Finding it difficult to get the names of the religions of these communities, the British writers gave them the word”Hinduism” to be used as a common name for all of their religions in about 1830.”
— [ Basic citing EB 20:581]

Indeed, the concept of Hinduism was invented by the English with the ulterior motive of making their loyal servents, the Aryan Brahmins, the rulers of India. ” Unquote

http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/NoDefinitionofHinduism2.htm

Do Christians know their own religion?

View, comment or join discussion at <www.religiousforums.com > <Thread : Do Christians know their own religion?.>. Please click the post # below.

Post #20

Deathbydefault said:

Do Christians know their own religion?

Paarsurrey wrote:

No; they only know the myth not the religion.

Regards

Deathbydefault likes this.

There are people who take science as a religion/faith and believe it as a fact

Please view my following posts on by clicking on <www.religiousforums.com > on the post # below; one may like to comment on my posts and or join interesting discussion on the forum link given above.

#167

ben d said: ↑

No confusion here….it is you who does not understand….I have referred to big bang theory as a theory consistently….and I do not believe it is credible. There are others who believe the theory is credible, and others again who are agnostic…

Are you denying that there aren’t people who believe in the big bang theory as a scientific fact?

Paarsurrey wrote:

Sure there are people who take science as a religion/faith and believe it as a fact. They are mythical about science as there are people who are mythical about religion. Both sides abound with such people.

Regards

ben d liked the above post.

Post #168

ben d said: ↑

Theory….A tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena..

Paarsurrey wrote:

I agree with you.
There is no big difference between a belief and theory, I think.

Regards

Reason has its own limitations; it cannot go beyond

http://findingtruth.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/the-omnimalevolent-creator-and-the-problem-of-good/#comment-8843

paarsurrey
March 22, 2014 at 7:28 am

@captaincatholic ; March 20, 2014 at 5:15 pm
“paarsurrey–
You’re helping me to understand Islam and I appreciate that. I suspect that, just as it is with Christianity, some adherents are stubborn and shallow in their thinking and say thoughtless things that sound completely outrageous to intelligent people who are honestly trying to get at the truth; whereas some (I would count you in this group) have done a little bit of thinking on their own and therefore look for a deeper meaning or a more profound truth behind the teachings of their own tradition.
I don’t think the religious split is between Muslims and Christians and Jews and Atheists and . I think the religious split is between the narrow minded and the open minded in any system of belief.” Unquote

I think I agree with you; except that the Atheists say that they don’t follow any belief system; if I have correctly understood them.

It is good that they prefer reason and that is good, not a bad thing; it is one bounty that the One-True-God has bestowed us the human beings and is common to everybody, some use it most while some don’t use it much. As one sees with eyes things that are physical and material; for inner reflection reason is sort of inner tool of seeing.

Like eyes cannot see clearly even things material and physical that are very close or that are far-off from the eyes; so the reason has its limitations also; it cannot go beyond that.

One should not believe in myths; myths could be reasoned out and that is very good.
I think you are a reasonable Catholic Christian.

Pleasure to meet you

Thanks and regards

P.S.I visited your blog.

Islam/Quran/Muhammad: “no article of faith”; or “pillar of Islam” has any myth in it

Please view paarsurrey comments on blog “triangulation” for your valuable opinion:

http://triangulations.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/defining-religion-ninian-smart/

“Defining Religion: Ninian Smart”

http://triangulations.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/defining-religion-ninian-smart/#comment-125352

paarsurrey
03/06/2014 at 5:59 pm

@Sabio Lantz : 03/06/2014 at 3:58 pm

I think you won’t mind if I point out that the illustration you made titled “Ninian Smart’s model” has the dropper/marker second from left as “myths”; making total six components of religion; please see in the beginning of your post. Since you supported him in your post so you have to tell as to what you understand from a myth.

The Truthful Religion has six Article of Faith, no doubt it:

• Unity of God
• His Angels
• His Books
• His Prophets
• The Last Day
• Divine Decree

And five Pillars of Islam:

• Kalima
• Prayer
• Fasting
• Zakaat
• Hajj

http://www.alislam.org/

“myths” are definitely not one of them.

I like your blog but I don’t have necessarily/always to agree with whatever you write.

Please be tolerant for a differing voice

Thanks and regards

Did Jews Borrow Greek Myths: 3 examples

paarsurrey wrote:

01/07/2014 at 11:31 am

I think Jesus did not need to borrow any myth from the Greeks. He neither believed any myth nor did he teach any?

It was Paul who preached myths; and might have borrowed as well.

Note from paarsurrey:

Please view rest of the discussion on my blog under the topic here at following link:

https://paarsurrey.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/religions-of-krishna-or-buddha-are-also-included-in-the-concept-of-the-truthful-religion/

Triangulations

How are Shared Myths Possible?

Did the Jews borrow from Greek Mythology — I’d bet they did, but literalist Christians vehemently disagree.

When one culture has very similar stories compared to another there are three things that could have happened – see my illustration to the right showing models of where Jews may have gotten their stories.

Either (b) they borrowed the story from the other culture, or (a) both cultures developed them completely independently.  The third option is (c) the Judeo-Christian option that Yahweh shared the stories between cultures to help others eventually understand Israel’s truths.

Three Possible Shared Myths

Neil Godfrey just publish a short post on three similar myths shared between Bible myths and Greek myths (taken from West’s book, see below). To aid in reading Neil’s fine post, I have explored some of the time elements below.  You can see that the answer is not easy.

View original post 336 more words

The research of Archaeologists Ze’ev Herzog and Finkelstein

I quote from Wikipedia.

“The Bible and archaeology

Main articles: The Bible and history and Biblical archaeology

According to one of the world’s leading biblical archaeologists, William G. Dever,

“Archaeology certainly doesn’t prove literal readings of the Bible…It calls them into question, and that’s what bothers some people. Most people really think that archaeology is out there to prove the Bible. No archaeologist thinks so.”^[34] From the beginnings of what we call biblical archeology, perhaps 150 years ago, scholars, mostly western scholars, have attempted to use archeological data to prove the Bible. And for a long time it was thought to work. William Albright, the great father of our discipline, often spoke of the “archeological revolution.” Well, the revolution has come but not in the way that Albright thought. The truth of the matter today is that archeology raises more questions about the historicity of the Hebrew Bible and even the New Testament than it provides answers, and that’s very disturbing to some people.^[35]

Dever also wrote:

Archaeology as it is practiced today must be able to challenge, as well as confirm, the Bible stories. Some things described there really did happen, but others did not. The biblical narratives about Abraham, Moses, Joshua and Solomon probably reflect some historical memories of people and places, but the ‘larger than life’ portraits of the Bible are unrealistic and contradicted by the archaeological evidence….^[36] I am not reading the Bible as Scripture… I am in fact not even a theist. My view all along—and especially in the recent books—is first that the biblical narratives are indeed ‘stories,’ often fictional and almost always propagandistic, but that here and there they contain some valid historical information…^[37]

Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ze’ev Herzog wrote in the Haaretz newspaper:

This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel. Perhaps even harder to swallow is that the united monarchy of David and Solomon, which is described by the Bible as a regional power, was at most a small tribal kingdom. And it will come as an unpleasant shock to many that the God of Israel, YHWH, had a female consort and that the early Israelite religion adopted monotheism only in the waning period of the monarchy and not at Mount Sinai.^[38][39]

Professor Finkelstein, who is known as “the father of biblical archaeology”, told the Jerusalem Post that Jewish archaeologists have found no historical or archaeological evidence to back the biblical narrative on the Exodus, the Jews’ wandering in Sinai or Joshua’s conquest of Canaan. On the alleged Temple of Solomon, Finkelstein said that there is no archaeological evidence to prove it really existed.^[40] Professor Yoni Mizrahi, an independent archaeologist who has worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed with Israel Finkelstein.^[40]

Regarding the Exodus of Israelites from Egypt, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said:

“Really, it’s a myth,”… “This is my career as an archaeologist. I should tell them the truth. If the people are upset, that is not my problem.”^[41]”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_Bible

Paarsurrey says:

I have gone through the above; these observations of the Archaeologists are about the narratives of the Bible. Quran never supported the Jews about the authorship of Bible. We always maintained that Bible is not authored by the one true God or by Moses; it is written by sinful scribes who at time exaggerated things and at other times they were fictional and added things or removed them.

Quran does not mention the cities and places which were under study of the Archaeologists. Quran categorically mentions that Jews tampered with the Bible to the extent that new Word of Revelation was essential, hence the advent of truthful Muhammad.

This study rather adds to the faith of Muslims that Quran is authored by the one true God; and its narratives don’t belong to Bible.

 

What evidences are there for the Quran?

Oneman89 wrote:

Sorry, my forum question was written late last night, and I was tired. But I guess my question is why do you follow the Quran? What evidences are there for its validity? I’m just curious. Please comment back soon. Thanks friend

http://hubpages.com/question/66762/what-evidences-are-there-for-the-quran

Paarsurrey says:

Hi friend Oneman89

Sorry, I never observed that somebody has asked me a question; today I first time observed it and answered it forth with.

Unlike other Revealed books of other religions that have been changed over time; Quran is ever fresh, it has following feature not found in other Revealed books:

1. It is authored by the Creator-God.
2. It has claims with reasons. It provides the reason part for its commandments.
3. It is a book of systems; its verses are elaborated by the verses in the context; so it repudiates itself if wrong meanings are ascribed to it.
4. It is for everybody; literate or illiterate, ordinary or the genius or the People of the West as also for the people of the East.
5. It is not a theoreticians’ book, it is a practical guidance for the humans in ethical, moral and spiritual matters; there is not a single teaching in this book which has not been acted upon by its founder and the followers of his time.
6. Its meaning has also been secured by great people found in every century.
7. It is not a mythical book; while it does not claim to be a text book of science, it supports sciences if understood correctly.
8. It is peaceful and peace promoting.
9. It confirms truth in the revealed books of other religions as also their founders to be truthful persons in the origin.
10. It has no contradictions in it.

These are some of the features summarized here.

These features are the evidences of Quran being useful, truthful and also that it has been authored by the Creator-God.

This also explains as to why I follow Quran.

Thanks for asking the question.

Paarsurrey defends all revealed religions on Truth

Paarsurrey defends all Revealed Religions on Truth; refusing to believe their mythical part and reinstating the reason part that they have missed under debris of time; Paarsurrey also appreciates the Atheists Agnostics Skeptics Apatheists if they adhere to reason and rational arguments and they don’t ridicule and deride the theists.

Is it not fair?