Since modern atheism frequently employs the arguments of logical positivists, as it is the case in Mr. Raunic’s amusing kangaroo argument, I will argue that metaphysical prepositions can be as meaningful as empirical ones.
Our eyes are dazzled with the light of modern scientific blaze. Any argument spiced with a bunch of latest scientific jargon gets a good chance of being treated with high respect. Did science become a goddess with scientists as her gullible worshipers? Or, are we still underestimating the power of science and technology?
Discontent and frustration with the Ptolemaic system, loosing faith in ancient philosophers, practical need for a better calendar, a new scientific attitude preferring qualitative neatness and simplicity, rebellion against the oppression of church, yes, all of these psychological and social factors created a militant intelligentsia and a scientific elite that was ready to put the sun in the center. Putting the sun in the center was similar to raise the flag of revolution. It was the first concrete monument that could express all of the feelings and information accumulated throughout the centuries.
As a member of University, now I am participating in a ritual which empowers the academic hierarchy and justifies the existence of the institution. In order to get some share from its symbolic power stock market, I am obligated to write a paper that should demonstrate the habitus of social scientists: impose on myself to evaluate the evaluation of a respected member of other respected members of the club. I am expected not to use slang. I am expected to cite a long list of accepted intellectual works. I am expected to create a theory of my own, and occasionally manufacture new jargons as trade mark of my production. I know that I am not expected to divert from formal guidelines. I know that it is only tolerated to a certain extend when your name has gained certain authority in the hierarchy. Well, I tried my best to fit the mold. But, I continuously struggled in a dilemma created by my rebellious and mischievous thoughts. Here is my intellectual “cookie” prepared in a sleepless night that was occasionally interrupted by my newborn son’s ritualistic cry.
Thus, the ancient conception of happiness is “a socially justified state of contentment” while the modern conception of happiness is “personally justified state of contentment.” According to Webster, a burglar celebrating his success in a bar with his friends is happy; but according to Aristotle that burglar cannot be happy, since happiness is relevant for rational beings, and a rational being cannot be happy with burglary. A celebrating burglar is a grazing animal.
From the Appendix of the Quran: a Reformist Translation, by Edip Yuksel, Layth al-Shaiban and Martha Nafeh-Schulte. Here are some characteristics of those who acknowledge the truth. They:
And it is POLITICALLY NEO-CONNING, since it serves the policy of Neocon-led coalition of warmongers. I do not know whether Massoud is a hired petty officer for this agenda or just a naive person, but, it is clear that his project will only irritate and provoke Muslims who are frustrated and traumatized under cruel military invasions and occupations (such as Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Chechnya), or suffering under USA-supported oppressive regimes (such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan). When a few angry and pathetic Muslims engage in some stupid and violent action, the Western media will salivate and rush to focus their cameras on the ugly faces of “barbarians”, while the American capitalists will continue their racket by transferring billions and billions of our tax money to the accounts of war industry and its sub contractors.
IN SUMMARY, I am astounded that FP is taking this ridiculous idea seriously. If we are going to take any idea published on the web seriously, then we will be volunteering for an alien abduction adventure. I feel like I am talking in a symposium organized by the flat-earth society. Sir, do you also discuss cubic meteorites with avocados in their center?
So, if these gentlemen have the right to depict Muhammad to be an evil guy and his supporters being as evil or duped, then I should also have the right to expose their so-called scholarly work, which is merely based on hearsay books and distortion and contortion of the Quranic verses by the followers of those hearsay stories. For instance, brother Spencer generously uses the hearsay stories fabricated centuries after Muhammad’s life to assassinate Muhammad’s character, while he knows well that according to the same sources which he trusts, Muhammad reportedly split the Moon causing half of it to fall in Ali’s backyard, or Muhammad reportedly made trees walk, Muhammad ascended to the seventh heaven with his body, and many other stories. Scholarly integrity requires consistency and honesty in using sources in evaluating a historic personality. But, your gentlemen pick and choose from those books as they wish. They take advantage of the crazy noises created by Jingoists, Crusaders and Jihadists, and hideously try to justify a bloody imperial Crusade with its resurrected Spanish Inquisition mentality against Muslims. I consider the work of these gentlemen a dishonest or ignorant attack against one of the most progressive and peaceful leaders in human history.
The benefit of the wine comes from the grape juice, not the alcohol. A recent Yale study demonstrated a correlation flaw in the so-called studies showing the benefit of wine against heart diseases. Besides, the beer and wine industry spends billions of dollars annually to promote their products, and part of the promotion is sponsoring “scientists” to come up with good news about their products. I have heard the same story of benefits of wine, for years after years cooked and presented by the media as “fresh” news.
“How can we observe the Sala prayers by following the Quran alone?” is a favorite question among Sunni and Shiite Muslims who follow derivative texts, religious instruction, teachings and laws, all of which are written by men. With this question, both sects try to justify the necessity and proliferation of contradictory sectarian teachings, medieval Arab culture, oppressive laws filled with prohibitions and regulations–all falsely attributed to God and His prophet.
These enemies of Islam who have been promoting wars, torture and genocide against Muslims around the world for more than a decade, are all in love with hadith. When I debated with them, they all insisted on hadiths, which were fabricated centuries after Muhammed. Over and over, they repeated the need for hadith to understand the Quran. They hoped to lure me to the piles of trash and mud of Hadithistan so that they could drown me there together with the Muhammed of their imagination created by those lies. They all accused me of not following hadith, ironically employing exactly the same silly and false arguments used by Sunnis and Shiis. They even used the distorted translations of the Quran to force-feed me hadith, which were developed by those who traded the liberating and progressive message of the Quran with the enslaving and backward teachings of hadiths and sunna.
Rashad’s impact on modern Quranic movement is underestimated. Many of those who viciously attack him are unaware of the fact that many of the ideas and arguments used to defend the Quran alone and refutations of hadiths, originated from Rashad’s dedicated study of the Quran as a sincere seeker of truth. I am surprised that some Turkish people do not even know Rashad’s name, but they have received the message from a friend of mine who received it from me. We should not focus on Rashad or exaggerate him like some among Submitters do, but we should also beware of tendency of unfairly and unknowingly attacking and insulting a courageous monotheist.
Muslims started developing theories regarding the number of the letters of Bismillah after the revelation of “one of the greatest” (74:35) miracles in 1974. Interestingly, after realizing the radical theological ramification of Code 19, contemporary Sunni and Shiite scholars started disagreeing on the number of letters contained in Bismillah. To deny the existence of the Code, every possible argument, regardless how ridiculous, is tried. Some clergymen increased the number of its letters to 20, 21 and even upto 22. Some preferred to reduce the letter count to 18. We will discuss this preposterous but common reaction to the mathematical structure of the Quran later.
Will Durant, an American historian, reminds his readers that medical books authored by Ali Ibni Sina (980-1037) and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (844-926) were both used as textbooks in European universities for centuries, and that in 1395 Razi’s book Kitab al-Hawi was among the nine textbooks used by the University of Paris. The same book informs the reader that Avicenna’s Qanun fil Tibb, a science encyclopedia, was a main textbook at Montpelier and Louvain universities until the mid-17th century. We should mention two important Muslim scientists who had immense impact on scientific enterprise in Europe: Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl, known in the West as Abubacer (1107-1185) and philosopher Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Rushd who became famous in the West by the name Averroes (1126-1298).
Despite clear and numerous evidence to the contrary, some so-called Submitters who left the ranks of Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Hindu polytheism continue their idolization of Rashad by claiming the third revision of his translation to be infallible. In fact, some of them have devolved further and now they claim mathematical miracles for the English translation. Of course the re-re-revised version! I have discussed this issue in length with those who replaced Muhammed’s, Ali’s or Jesus’ idol with of Rashad.
In summary, according to the teaching of the Quran, the name of the last prophet could not have been Muhammad; it was MUHAMMID, similar to the linguistic form of Muallim (teacher) or Musawir (designer). It is not the prophet who deserves the praise, but it is Allah (the god), our Lord, the One, the Initiator, the Designer, the Compassionate, the Living, the Eternal, the Almighty, and the Omniscient God. Praise is to the Lord of the Universe.
The Pentagon is not just incompetent. It is corrupt. In November 2009 the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), the federal watchdog responsible for auditing oversight of military contractors, raised the question of criminal wrongdoing when it found that the audits that did occur were riddled with serious breaches of auditor independence. One Pentagon auditor admitted he did not perform detailed tests because, “The contractor would not appreciate it.”
Now the internet added more burden beyond critical thinking; we must also do the critical research or authentication of what we read and see. It is disheartening that the great majority of people are neither critical researchers nor critical thinkers. With so much false information floating around and so many brains infected with logical fallacies are surfing the net, we will end up with more charlatans and crooks as politicians and business leaders.
The leading American skeptic, Michael Shermer, after getting disoriented in an interview which he calls an “ambush”, engages in a pre-emptive strike. He responds with a criticism infected with logical fallacies such as poisoning the well, straw-man, red-herring, hasty generalization and a false innuendo about my prison term in Turkey. After analyzing his article, I suggest to options.
