April 29, 2009, 6:31 am by dc-agape.

Image via Wikipedia

Surāh 80 – ‘Abasa: He Frowned

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

This surāh begins with the story of how a blind man humbled the Prophet.  Since this is early in his career, we have to forgive him his arrogance.  We also have to assume that this surāh was his admonishment.  Then the Prophet returns to the concept that it is Allāh that provides life, water, and food to humans.  Allāh is doing such a great job!  The surāh ends on the Prophets preoccupation with the Day of Judgment. 

The story of the blind man and the Prophet is the exact opposite of the stories of Jesus and the blind men.  Here the Prophet shows his human attitudes by being displeased by interruptions by the weak while he is talking to the powerful chiefs of the Quraish.  Jesus on the other hand, ignored the powerful and always treated the downtrodden with great respect.  But this surāh is supposed to remind both the Prophet and all of us that only those willing to accept the spiritual gifts of the Qur’an will be honored.  This concept that only those willing to understand will obtain enlightenment is nothing new to religion or the mystic arts.  Every religion, even Kabbalah and modern-day Alchemy teach that one must first believe before one can learn the art.  Belief is the key to all these mystic religions, if you do not believe you cannot learn the “Truth”.  Islam is no different and this surāh attempts to explain that fact.

Further into the surāh, the Prophet reminds those who believe that only Allāh provides live (the correct “proportions”), water, food, and supplies to humans.  The meaning of this section has changed over the years, whether the Muslim wants to believe this or not.  Since the Prophet was aiming this towards the pagan leaders of Arabia, these men were not people who believed they were self-sufficient in today’s concept of that word.  These men, being pagans, believed in numerous gods instead of one.  So they believed in the requirement to ask for assistance from individual gods for each crisis.  Today Atheist are self-sufficient, and therefore arrogant, in the knowledge that life, water, food, and supplies come directly from a nature that does not require a supernatural being to create these things.  Our proof of this is how good Allāh is providing.  Allah is failing to create humans made in the correct proportions, examples are the rise in birth numbers of children with autism, and other genetic diseases like Parkinson’s Disease, microcephaly, even sickle cell anemia.  Atheists, in contrast, see that all these disease occur because of natural causes. A supreme supernatural being, who creates humans in his likeness or in the correct proportions, would not allow such diseases, because the people suffering from these diseases would not live healthy lives and some would not have the mental capacity to comprehend spiritual abstract concepts like “god”.  Atheists also see that water is a replenishing cycle that can only be broken by direct natural causes.  Food and other supplies are also natural in abundance.  Science has proven that soil chemistry is required to provide the growth of plants, and that seeds will sprout (germination) under selected controlled environments.  And we know how well Allāh is providing these things to certain areas of the world, such as in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and even general potato crops.  Science can explain these horrific conditions with rather unsophisticated methods but religion has to use complex analogies of human sin and “god’s” wrath to explain these events.

The surāh ends with the goal of using the concept of Judgment Day to inspire readers to come into the “fold”.  Promises of light, laughing, and joy are like the carrot on a stick before the horse.  The earthly reason for this passage is to get humans to follow the Traditions of Men with an unobtainable promise (the carrot).  And if the promise does not work then there is the threat.  The threat consists of doom and gloom.  In the end, we are provided with only two outcomes: paradise or hell.  Either a person follows the religious decrees without question and receives paradise or that person is punished.  The catch, of course, is that the afterlife cannot be proven.  It is true that some humans (maybe most) require this type of dichotomy to do the right thing, but the Atheist movement is directed towards the people who are capable of doing the right thing without external forces encouraging them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Invitation to a Week-long Retreat to Study the Reality of the Modern Age (imranhosein.org)

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Traditions of Men, Readings | Print | 9 Comments »

April 28, 2009, 7:18 am by dc-agape.

Surāh 82 – Al-Takwīr: The Folding Up

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

Oddly if you only read the commentaries by M Yusuf and M Esed you will find that the opening prophecy of this surāh is about the end of the world and Judgment Day.  The first thirteen verses start with variations of “And when…”.  When read literally, this would mean that all of these events must take place before the Day of Judgment.  Since I have posted before about how long this will take for the literal interpretation to come into existence, I will not post about that again.  I will only remind my readers that when all the suns are dying is even further in the future than the death of earth and our sun. 

M Ali has a completely different take on these same thirteen verses.  He likens them to events that have already occurred here on earth.  First, he believes that the resurrection of humans occurs here on earth when they accept the Truth of the Holy Qur’an.  Very similar to some Christians believing that being Born Again is a resurrection of the human soul before death.  Following his concept of the followers of Allāh being “stars”, then the verse about the stars darkening is about the oppression of the Truth.  Passing away of mountains is actually the removal of obstacles for Islam.  Gathering wild animals is fulfilled by humans creating zoos.  The seventh verse prophecies about a one world nation.  That one will take a hell of a long time.  Interestingly, M Ali considers leaving the daughters uneducated is similar to the ancient practice of kill girl babies.  Yet today, women are not allowed to have an education in many Islam nations.  So it is obvious, just as in Christianity, that the followers of Islam cherry pick which interpretations they like best. 

The verses 15 through 25 try to prove that this message is not from a madman or magic or a demon.  The two proofs are extremely weak.  First, he attempts to use the rotation of the earth as proof that his message is as natural as the day and night.  The sun rises for every human on the planet, “God” does not speak directly to every inhabitant of this planet.  So the similarities are useless.  Second, he attempts to use the fact that he has hidden nothing from his followers.  Unfortunately this does not prove that he was not a madman nor someone possessed by a demon.  Many madmen have existed that claim to spread new values to humanity.  And, of course, he was not possessed by a demon…demons do not exist!  So as with his other attempts to “prove” the message of the Qur’an is the “Truth”, this one also fails.

The last two verses are quite telling.  All the commentators attempt to blow this one off on human faults keeping us from “knowing” Allāh.  But the direct translation of all five of my copies says the exact same thing:

81:28-29 For him among you who will go straight.  And you will not, except Allāh please, the Lord of the worlds.

There is no doubt that when this is read literally, it proves that we puny humans do not have freewill if Allāh exists.  All five of my translations say the exact same thing.  It may be a mistranslation, it may be my lack of knowledge of the Traditions of Men, but in the end the literal reading of these two verses leaves no doubt that in Islam we do not have freewill.  And it does not matter how much the believer protests, Allāh only allows us to feel like we have freewill.  Similar to it feeling like the sun rotates around the earth.

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Print | 7 Comments »

April 26, 2009, 8:47 pm by dc-agape.

One of my Russian commenters reminded me that today is the 20^th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy.  There is not much to say about this event.  It was a horrific chain of events that should not be forgotten.  Dating my age, I was sixteen and even I remember how tragic it felt in the US.  Within a year something overshadowed the events in another country: the Challenger Disaster.  I bring up the second scientific disaster, with much smaller loss of life, because both influenced my scientific education.  Chernobyl warned me of becoming overconfident (similar to many older people’s experience with 3-mile Island).  Where the Challenger disaster made me realize that no matter how many safe-guards we create accidents occur. 

Science is not perfect.  At least we can learn from our mistakes.  Does religion do the same?

Posted in Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

April 26, 2009, 8:12 pm by dc-agape.

Surāh 82 – Al-Infiţār: The Cleaving

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

I am getting really bored of the same topic in each of these surāhs.  Obviously the Prophet was obsessed with the Day of Judgment.  M Ali believes that this surāh opens with the concept of the victory of Islam (the Truth) over all oppression and all deniers.  Whether this is accurate or not, by the fifth verse the concept has again returned to the Day of Judgment.  This concept of a metaphoric destruction of the earth, sun, and stars would at least make more sense than Allāh waiting until the end of the universe to judge one puny species on one of an infinite number of planets that have existed and will exist before the end of the entire universe. 

I particularly want to point out two verses:

82:7-8 Who created thee, then made thee complete, then made thee in a right good state – Into whatever form He pleases He cast thee.

What can I say?  Here the Prophet is suggesting that Allāh took 4.567 billion years (yes, four significant figures) just to bring humans to the pinnacle of evolution.  But is Homo Sapiens the pinnacle of “human” evolution?  Only the most arrogant fool would think that we are the top dog or the final form.  Life on earth is not stagnant!  Even the young earth creationists agree that micro-evolution occurs.  If you multiply out the “micro” to centuries, boom, you have macro-evolution.  Humans will continue to evolve.  Hopefully our brains will get larger, our cultures will become more peaceful, and historians will look back on this century as the changing point to a better society.  It is truly ironic that the religious teach humankind to be humble, yet the concept of a personal “god” and Judgment Day are the greatest form of human pride and arrogance.

The Prophet ends this surāh attempting to describe the indescribable.  Both the 17^th and 18^th verse ask the same question.  How will humankind know what the Day of Judgment is when it cannot be described with human language?  Unfortunately, the final verse does nothing for the question.  The Prophet uses the question to tell us that Allāh will be in control of that day.  Big help, that does not tell the reader anything about the Day of Judgment.

As an Atheist, the Prophet is not helping.  His preoccupation with the Judgment Day is getting boring.  And he has repeated himself in numerous surāhs without clarifying the reasons for believing that this event will occur.  I will be ending this part of the reading of Qur’an when I finish the 78^th surāh: Al-Naba’ – The Announcement.

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

April 25, 2009, 7:04 pm by dc-agape.

Surāh 83 – Al-Taţfīf: Default in Duty

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

This surāh is extremely long compared to the others I have read.  But surprisingly it does not cover many more topics.  The opening is about calling people to account, not just in business, but in social and spiritual responsibility.  The next section is about the records kept of every human that has ever (and will have) lived, both the good and the bad.  Even though two separate words are used to describe these books, the books themselves hold the exact same information.  The Prophet ends this section with proof that religion has not changed in six centuries.  The same argument is used today as was used in the Prophet’s time.

M Yusuf starts the commentaries on the opening verses by generalizing the meaning of the concept of “measure from men”.  Oddly, it is not the sinner that shortchanges others when the generalization is taken into account.  For is it not the religious that what their particular mythology to receive the highest respect?  And is it not the exact same religious people that want no other religion to be accepted as equal?  Who is doing the short-changing? 

When the opening is seen in this light the section about the two different “books” makes complete sense.  Both types of books will record every action, but which one will be the Sijjīn and which will be the ‘illyyūn?  This surāh assumes that it will be the faithful of Allāh.  But as with Pascal’s Wager, who can be certain that it will be any one particular form of Islam (at least a total of 72), Christianity (over 40,000), Judaism (at least 5), or Atheism (1 or ∞, depending on definition)?  Just because this religion believes they are the “Truth” does not guarantee that it is true.  And to use a phrase directly from the Qur’an:

83:13 When Our messages are recited to him, he says: Stories of those of yore!

Which yore shall we pick?  Why is your yore better than my yore?  Because of some Holy Text written centuries ago, that makes it more True?  The question that needs to be asked is simple: which religion fits the facts of existence?  Do the good followers of one religion have a better life?  Do the disbelievers of one particular religion get punished here on earth more often?  The fact is simple: no religion is treated differently here on earth.  No one gets special supernatural treatment.  We all suffer from bad weather, bad choices, and bad accidents.  We all enjoy the outcome of good weather, good choices, and good events (accidents?).  So, if a Day of Judgment occurs (and that’s a big IF), whose spirituality will be the sijjīn and which will be the ‘illyyūn?

The final topic of this surāh is about how the “tables will be reversed”.  But which tables will be reversed?  It is clear from verse 13 above that even in the Prophet’s day there were differences of religion, and those individual religions scoffed at each other.  This is the one thing in religion has not changed in all these years.  Each one still laughs and makes fun of the others.  Yet not a single one knows that on this mythical Day of Judgment that it will be their religion that is proved right.  Hence, that is why the Atheist finds all this brouhaha so intriguing.  Each religion is so certain they are right, but have no data to back up the argument, and still they kill one another over such a question.  It boggles the mind!

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

April 24, 2009, 8:43 am by dc-agape.

Image by Kounelli via Flickr

Surāh 84 – Al-Inshiqāq: The Bursting Asunder

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

This surāh is going to be difficult to describe because M Ali has a completely different interpretation than either M Esed or M Yusuf (who just happen to agree with each other).  The main difference between the two different translations is that M Ali does not see this surāh to be about the afterlife, yet the other two commentators see this verse as how events will take place on the Day of Truth. 

I will start with the commentaries of M Yusuf, first because no proof of this future event can be relied upon.  Second because it is more positive than the outcome that M Ali describes.  In M Yusuf and M Esed opinion the opening of this surāh is about the day when this universe stops.  In their opinion it is due to the will of Allāh.  As a scientific Atheist this is actually quite easy to recognize as pure bluster.  The age of the universe at present is between 10,200,000,000 and 13,900,000,000 years old.  Interestingly, in science, three different tests come to the same result.  The present age of this planet is 4,500,000,000 years old.  When the same concepts are used to date the end of earth and then the end of the universe, the worst case scenario is that the sun will continue to burn hotter and hotter and the habitable zone around the our sun will shift.  This may occur as soon as 500,000,000 years from now.  The universe itself will take another 1 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years to die.  For those of you waiting for the Day of Judgment, it’s going to be a very long wait.

Another part of the interpretations of M Esed and M Yusuf is that working (striving) for Allāh is painful while living in sin is pleasurable.  This is clearly not the case.  In psychology it is well known that the persistence of bad experiences remain much stronger in our memory than do happy ones.  So everyone feels exactly the same way that the Prophet felt when this revelation came to him.  There is nothing surprising that a dichotomy between “good Muslims” and “disbelievers” would arise.

M Yusuf has an interesting interpretation of verse 14.  In his perspective evil is due to human’s lack of taking responsibility.  Even with the “fear” of Allāh/YHWH/God evil is still present in those that actually fear this supernatural being.  And yet, it is the Ethical Humanist that teaches humans to take responsibility for each of our action.  Not due to fear of an ever watching super being but due to the harm our action cause to other humans and the earth.  So the same teaching with a much stronger motivation is given by the Ethical Humanist.  Fear is a powerful emotion, but it drains you of life.  Where, on the other hand, the desire to not hurt others is a powerful concept that most humans cannot overcome.  The easiest way to overcome this prerogative is to create the “us vs. them” attitude, and then harming other people is not about harming other people but about removing a threat.

Somehow M Esed claims that since the moon and the earth go through phases so does the human.  Yet the phases of humankind include phases that the earth and moon do not experience.  M Esed somehow jumps to the conclusion that man must have more phases than just this existence on earth.  It is true that humans go through at least four stages: birth, youth, maturity, and old age.  But to add an additional stage of afterlife has no earthly example.  Animals and plants rot away when they die, yet for some odd reason, human life does not end at the rotting stage.  Why?

M Ali has a completely different take on this surāh.  The opening verses are not about the Day of Judgment, but instead are about the daily and yearly cycles of the planet.  The “heavens bursting asunder” is an example of rain.  And when the earth “casts forth what is in it” is when plants stretch forth after the rain.  With this concept the rest of the surāh is not about a specific day, no, it is about the conquest of Islam over the rest of the world.  M Ali even goes so far as to use the writings of ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās and the commentary Al-Tafsir al-kabir by Imām Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī (I hope I got all the proper names and documents right) to prove that the cycles of the earth (seasons and days) are proof that the Muslim tradition will face surges and ebbs of power until the day of complete triumph over the unbelievers.  With a major Maulana writing in about triumph and conquest, no wonder that some Muslim sects are bent on world domination and that some non-believers see the Muslim religion in general as one of world conquest. 

Posted in Personal Responsibility, Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 14 Comments »

April 23, 2009, 11:14 am by dc-agape.

Surāh 85 – Al-Burūj: The Stars

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

I have put off posting the experience that I received from reading this surāh because it has left me quite shaken.  The “us vs. them” theme within this surāh was so overpowering to me that I could not focus on the other more subtle nuance within the surāh.

One overwhelming thought reaches me as I read this surāh.  Simply by changing the meaning of the word “believer” this entire surāh can be applied to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Agnostic Christian, scientist, or Atheist.  This becomes very easy when the commentary of M Ali describes the “Promised Day” not as the Day of Judgment but the day that Truth is victorious.  For each group has a different perspective on the “Truth”.  And when M Ali uses the fires of verses 5 as war the entire surāh becomes historically accurate for each group.   Unfortunately for the Atheist (and some scientist) there will be no punishment for the unbeliever.  We (the Atheist and scientists) must watch those that believe other “truths” die for unjust reasons.  These unjust reasons include religious warfare, denying scientific truths, and unrealistic dogma.  In that same concept the Gnostic Christians were persecuted to the point that only a hand full of their Holy Texts survive.  Worse is that it does not have to be supernatural vs. natural beliefs, nationalism also has the same attitude.  The attitude “We are better than you, because…our god is stronger, our nation is older, our nation is stronger, etc, etc” is identical to this Surāh.  What an Atheist like me finds the most ironic is that neither religion nor nation will survive time itself.  Even the governance of a single nation will change over time.  Science itself will be barely recognizable in 100 years.  How will the national boundaries look in 100 years?  What did they look like 100 years ago?  What will be the major religions in 100 years?  What were they 100 years ago?  Multiply the years in those questions by a factor of five and what are the answers?  Hopefully we humans are headed towards a unified Truth.  But without significant bloodshed will that unification ever occur?  As the 8^th verse says:

85:8 And they punish them for naught but that they believed in Allāh, the Mighty, the Praised.

All you have to do is change that last from Allāh to Jesus, YHWH, The Father of Light, science, or Atheism, and it fits any condition of the minority.  Until humankind has compassion for all, we will never find the Truth.  As long as there are “us and them” there will be no Truth.  This is because as we eliminate each individual group, that opposes the “Truth”, we just might be eliminating the Truth.  But a compromise cannot be reached either, for only one group can have the Truth, or at least that is what the Holy Texts and the religious leaders tell us. 

Christians will never be unified with any other group unless that group agrees that “Jesus is Lord”.  Muslims will never unify with a group that does not believe the Qur’an.  Some small groups from both religions might grudgingly accept others, but once one group has major dominance human corruption will replace religious tolerance.  One only need look at Marxism to see how that perfect utopia of equality can never be reached due the fact that power corrupts.

What scares the Atheist more than anything is the thought that one human, with the will of “God”, takes action to unify the rest of humanity.  It matters not which religion, or for what “human good” the action starts with…in the end a bloody war will ensue that will make life on earth a living hell.  Hopefully the cockroach, the rat, and a few plants survive.  The religious believes that “god will sort out the dead”, and with that thought every living being has something to fear.  That concept alone short changes the value of human life.  With that concept, the “us vs. them” theme brings the value of human life only to the group “us”.  As an Ethical Humanist I have learned that the value of human life is not scared, it is much more than that.  Each human has the right to pursue dreams, pleasures, and liberty.  Unfortunately, some of these “Rights” conflict with the “Rights” of other humans beings.  Religion does not solve this problem, when religion invokes the “us vs. them” concept the “Rights” of one group are compromised.  Only by recognizing that all humans deserve the same treatment can the “Rights” of individuals be protected.  Some individuals believe they have the “right” to subject other humans to hideous treatment.  What I have seen is that religion sits there and watches, either encouraging the evil-doer, waiting for “God” to intervene, or worse claiming that the martyr will have glory in the afterlife.  To an Ethical Humanist, this is horrific!  We must work together to rid this planet of any such acts of tyranny.  Some we may seem powerless to change, but that does not mean that we should not try (peacefully) to change the collective worldview that such actions are evil. 

Posted in Holy Qur'an, State of Mind, Readings | Print | 13 Comments »

April 20, 2009, 8:56 am by dc-agape.

Image via Wikipedia

I continue to get messages like this:

Lechiiq | 175.ru@175.ru | 175.ru |

IP: 92.113.186.131 

Я непойму почему так мои посты удаляют или непубликуют и неотвечают на вопросы
_______________

http://175.ru

Translation:

I nepoymu why so my posts are removed or nepublikuyut and unresponsive to questions (the best Google Translate can do).

I will put it as plain and simple as I can: spam will be deleted!  Links that are obviously only to spread a business’s website will be removed.  Questions like this one will be ignored:

stusadusdealk | aninuebit@gmail.com | IP: 209.239.112.48

Yooo..

I kno it has nothing to do with what you wrote, but have you ever heard of http://bluestickers.info/ringtones. They seems to promise free ringtones

PS. Dont be an ass, this is NOT spam

Posted in Comment Policies, State of Mind | Print | 39 Comments »

April 20, 2009, 8:35 am by dc-agape.

Image by Lulu Vision via Flickr

Surāh 86 – Al-Tāriq: The Comer By Night

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

Three things strike me as I read this surāh.  The Prophet uses the same euphemism as Jesus about the time not being known.  This surāh also points out that humans come from bodily fluids.  Some commentaries even go so far as to describe both the male and female fluids.  Others talk about the how the backbone and ribs give humans their personality, actions, and heart.  But the last part of the surāh is most interesting.  It is one of the first places I have read in the Qur’an where Allāh is described as having a plan.  Other places refer to this plan, but have not made it so clearly stated that one exists.

Whether the “piercing brightness” is a physical star or a spiritual light does not matter.  For both Jesus and the Prophet uses this euphemism to describe a specific event in each individual human’s life.  Whether it is the return of Jesus, death (Day of Judgment), or enlightenment also does not matter.  All three events cannot be predicted.  Of course, only one has any significance on earth: when an individual is enlightened.  We individuals have no control over the first two, but we can increase the possibility of enlightenment.  By providing proper education to the next generation, slowly attitudes change and societies become for civil towards individuals and to other societies.  The Qur’an uses the spread of Islam as an example of this, but there are two more that have occurred since then.  Within one lifetime, the concept that humans are different than animals has been crushed.  We have learned that animals uses tools, that they use complex communication (frogs, no less), that some of their brain size/ratio (sorry about the opening advert) are similar to humans, and that the DNA of humans and the great apes is surprisingly similar (by the way this is an Answers in Genesis article).  The other change in one generation is the US society change in perception of the gay community.  In 1988 when I ‘came out’ everything was hush-hush, you did not ‘advertise’ your sexual identity.  Less than two decades later…TV shows with main characters are gay, schools are protecting gay students, and we even have a few states that allow gay marriage.  All three of these examples show how quickly human perception changes.  Unfortunately, the opposite can occur as well…before 9/11 the US and most European countries were tolerant (if not ignorant) of Muslim culture and society.  In a single day with one single outcome, a new revolution in the human attitude occurred.  Suddenly, Islam went from being another religion in the world to a multimillion (if not trillion) dollar war industry.  Hopefully, one day the leaders of our world will understand that this was the act of radical religious people instead of lumping all Islam into the ‘enemy’ category.

This surāh also strikingly describes the creation of life (human) and compares it to the rain and plant life.  The purpose is to attempt to explain how a supreme being can also raise the human dead on this unknown night/day of Judgment.  But this is not a decisive word!  Spring time, rain, and plant life cycles are repeated cyclically.  We also know what causes each of them, whether it is the rotation of the earth around the sun, or the Water Cycle, or germination.  The once in a million years Day of Judgment is not a cycle, unless you believe the Matrix! 

In the closing three verses, the Prophet tells about the plans of humans and the Devine.  Humans rarely have grand schemes, but to create the ‘us vs. them’ concept one side will create the idea of the enemy having a grand scheme.  For example, the Christian right here in the US believes there is a “Gay Agenda”.  I use the link to a poe here for special effect.  Below is the true Christian Agenda against the made up ‘Gay Agenda’:

I have learned as a gay Atheist that it is usually not the disorganized populous that creates plans.  No, it is the organized, in many cases, religious groups that make plans and carry them out with devastation results.  Neither the gay nor the Atheist community have an Agenda, yet both are claimed to have one by those who oppose equal rights, freedom of expression, and tolerance.  So as my favorite quote from Susan B Anthony says:

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

Allāh does not have a plan either.  It is only his followers that have the plan.  So please, followers of the Prophet, listen to the last verse of this surāh:

86:17 So grant the disbeliever a respite – let them alone for a while.

How I wish that the Christians had such lessons.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Racism fault lines (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Lez Wrap It Up: Dr. Laura, Cambodia, Oprah, and GLAAD (lezgetreal.com)
• Johann Hari: Stand up for the right to criticise religion (huffingtonpost.com)
• Minor Problems Evolve Into Concerns About Ones Self (ocscrubs.blogspot.com)
• Human Rights Campaign Exposes National Organization for Marriage’s Fake Ad for Fake Problems (lezgetreal.com)
• Pres. Obama’s War Against Christianity (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 5 Comments »

April 19, 2009, 10:02 am by dc-agape.

Image by foreversouls via Flickr

In my last formal post on the Word of God I want to cover some of the verses in the Word of God about the salaries of those who preach the Gospel.  In our world today there is a great crime being committed by “Preachers”.  This crime is the difference between earning a living and peddling the “Word” for profit.  In one of the only fully disclosed document on the salary + bonuses/benefits for a Catholic priest, the salary for one in Baltimore was in excess of $104,000/ year for the 2007 “tax year”. One must remember that these “salaries” are tax free so when you apply the taxation rate to a citizen of Baltimore of 37.3% (28% federal, 6.25% MD, and 3.05% Baltimore tax) that salary would like an individual making over $143,000/year.  True not all preachers make this type of cash, but don’t forget historic figures like Jim Baker who bilked $1,650,000 from his followers in only one of his 24 crimes.  I hate to use Billy Graham, Sr. in such a way, but he made $174,000 in the year 2000.  Are these examples just anomalies or should Christians be concerned that some, if not many, ministers are pandering the Gospel for profit?  Paul was certainly concerned with this concept:

2^nd Cor 2:17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.  On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

If Paul did not pander his preaching for profit, why do so many of today’s ministers do exactly that?  Jesus certainly did not pander, nor did he advocate profit and riches in this life:

Luke 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Luke 12:33-34 Sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Provide purses for yourselves that will not war out, a treasure that will not wear out, at treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

It’s quite clear that Jesus had no desire for his followers to become rich here on earth.  In fact, he warned about the dangers of becoming materially rich.  So why do Christians pay their religious leaders so much money?  Aren’t the leaders supposed to be the role models?  Why do these leaders keep the money for themselves?  Should they not follow their own “perfect” role model – Jesus?

It is true that Paul tells the Corinthians:

1^st Cor 9:14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

But right before that verse Paul also says this about a preacher’s salary:

1^st Cor 9:12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?  But we did not use this right.  On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.

This is a crucial concept.  Corruption, especially financial, leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth and feelings.  Seeing the corruption within the Church hinders the Gospel.  People do not want to be part of such contradicts of teaching and actions.  Worse, this is exactly what proves to the Atheist that religion is not supernatural. Indeed, it would seem that religion is human-made for the profit of those who gain the most from fleecing the flock!

Related articles by Zemanta

• We Aspire to the City of God…: (brothersjuddblog.com)
• Prioritizing Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (joshharris.com)

Posted in Word of God, kingdom of God | Print | 7 Comments »