From: "Usman Malik" <islami@consultant.com>
To: afreethinker@hotmail.com
Subject: Thanks for the link but.....
Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2001 11:47:28 +0500
Dear Usman.
Thank
you for reading that article. What Religion
to Chose? Now I can write
a letter answering your questions without
referring you to another article
because your questions are new. :-)
You
wrote, “First I took you as my solution, but
now I am so confused that I
don't know what to even say....”
The
whole purpose of my writing is to make people
think on their own and do
not follow another person as their solutions,
guru, imam, prophets or
marja’e taqleed. If someone after going through
all my writings decides that
I am intelligent and sharp to the extent that
he can trust whatever I write,
follow me or look unto me as his solution,
then I have failed.
The
whole idea behind this exercise is to stimulate
people to become
freethinkers. Freethinkers are independent
thinkers. Freethinkers listen to
the words said but not to the person who says
it. If a person according to
you is right in almost everything; that does
not mean that he is right in
ALL things. My message is: Do not follow another
person, become a skeptic
and accept only what makes sense to YOU. Re-analyze
everything that you were
taught as a child and believed to be true.
You believed those things because
you trusted the medium. That medium that could
have been your own loving
parent could have been honestly wrong. People
do not teach their kids,
falsehood deliberately. They educate them
to the best of their ability, yet
since they themselves are misinformed, they
pass that misinformation to
their children and perpetuate the cycle of
ignorance. Thus we have the
children of the Jews becoming Jews, the children
of the Christians becoming
Christians and the children of the Muslims
turning Muslims, and so on so
forth.
My
hope is that after reading my writings people
start to doubt everything
and find their own lights. Please read the
words of Krishnaurti 'Truth is a
pathless land' once more.
Now as for your question about God:
Actually I did not say I do not believe in
any God. In the same article that
you read (What Religion to Follow) I wrote:
“I
do not discard the Divine reality. Just like
Galileo who did not reject
the Earth but people’s understanding of it,
I do not reject God but people’s
understanding of it”.
In
other words, I do believe in the spiritual
reality underlying this
universe. I call that the Single Principle.
But I cannot believe in the
absurd notion of the deity invented by the
primitive man and now passed to
us by their primitive religions. Those religions
do not answer the
intellectual quest of the modern wo/man and
their god is outdated and
rationally untenable. So when I talk about
feeling God, I am not talking
about Allah or Yahweh. These are figments
of human imagination in the early
stages of its maturity. They have no place
in our modern world. They are
stupid gods that cannot stand the test of
reason. The Single Principle
underlying the creation, that eternal spiritual
reality permeating every
atom of this universe is not what our prehistoric
ancestors invented and a
bunch of charlatans calling themselves prophets
have echoed and perpetuated.
It
is not true that religions were the first
to introduce the concept of God
to humankind. The notion of God is evolved
with the intellectual capacity of
human brain. People believed in spirits and
assumed that behind every
natural phenomenon there is a deity that makes
it happen. There was a god
for thunders, a god for winds, a god for fertility
and a god for creation, a
god for death and a god for birth. Gods were
abounding and they were all the
products of human’s imagination.
People
prayed to these gods and offered sacrifices
in their altars. They
sought their protection and invoked them in
their wars. Shamans and medicine
men came along and took advantage of the credulity
of people. They posed as
the mediums between men and gods and robbed
them with their lies.
To
enforce their hegemony over the people they
claimed to be the prophets
and messengers of these gods and demanded
absolute obedience and payment of
money in exchange for salvation. No one could
see these gods but them and
they were the vicegerents of these deities.
Of course rivalry arouse between
the prophets, each claiming that their gods
is superior and more powerful. A
contest of power is reported between Elijah
the self acclaimed prophet of
Yahweh and the followers of Baal in a very
naïf tale in the Bible. In this
story Elijah challenges the power of Baal
by asking his followers to bring a
bull, place it on the altar and ask the Baal
to set it to fire. The
followers of Baal pray all day and nothing
happens. But when Elijah prays to
Yahweh (Lord), the bull is immediately consumed
in fire. Then Elijah having
proved the superiority of Yahweh over Baal,
orders the execution of Baal’s
followers. (Which makes one wonder why Yahweh
himself who was so powerful
did not kill them?) This story is narrated
in 1Kings 18: 21-40.
Naturally,
no rational person can believe in the accuracy
of such an absurd
tale. If it was so easy to prove the existence
of God, then I challenge, the
Jews, the Christians and the Muslims to invoke
their god and ask him to
perform the same miracle in front of TV cameras,
(without any tricks) to
settle this controversy about his existence
once and for all. With the
promise that if they end up making fools of
themselves at the end of the
day, like the followers of the Baal in the
above narrative and their god
does not respond, their lives will be spared,
thanks to our Universal
Declaration of Human Rights that allows people
the freedom to believe even
in false and impotent gods like Yahweh and
Allah.
In
the old days there were many gods. All these
gods had prophets,
intermediaries and messengers. This was then,
as is now, a very lucrative
and enticing business. It gave the prophets
immense prestige and a lot of
power. In the above story it is said that
Baal had 450 prophets.
Then
Elijah said to them, "I am the only prophet
of the LORD [Yahweh] who is
left, but Baal has 450 prophets. 1Ki 18:22
In
those days people prayed to several gods.
At first there was little
religious hostility between them. They simply
prayed to each other’s gods,
just in case, and if their prayers were answered,
they attributed it to the
power of that god and promoted him amongst
their own people. However, the
prophets and the priests of these gods were
not happy of such an
arrangement. They wanted control over people.
If they believed in other gods
then they would also take their offerings
and sacrifices to those gods. This
would have damaged their [the prophet’s and
priests] business and meant lost
of income. So it was imperative to dissuade
people of praying to other gods.
Thus we hear such harsh condemnations like
the following.
Again
the Israelites did evil in the LORD's sight.
They worshiped images of
Baal and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Aram,
Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia.
Not only this, but they abandoned the LORD
[Yahweh] and no longer served him
at all. Jud 10:6
Actually
even the famous biblical figure Solomon, (whom
Muhammad called his
“brother” in the episode when he said that
he had caught the Satan wanting
to tie him down to a post and Solomon prevented
him), “worshiped Ashtoreth,
the goddess of the Sidonians; Chemosh, the
god of Moab; and Molech, the god
of the Ammonites” 1Ki 11:33 and 1Ki 11:5 Solomon
even built shrines for
these gods. 2Ki 23:13
In
fact it was not just Solomon, but most of
the Israeli’s believed in a
pantheon of Gods as is clear from this King
Samuel rebuking of the Jews. .
Then
Samuel said to all the people of Israel, "If
you are really serious
about wanting to return to the LORD [Yahweh]
, get rid of your foreign gods
and your images of Ashtoreth. Determine to
obey only the LORD; then he will
rescue you from the Philistines." 1Sa 7:3
More
confirmation that the Israelites were worshipping
other gods can be
found in the following verses.
They
abandoned the LORD to serve Baal and the images
of Ashtoreth. Jud 2:13
Before
long Israel was joining in the worship of
Baal of Peor, causing the
LORD's anger to blaze against his people.
Nu 25:3 -
See
also. Nu 25:5 , 1Sa 7:4 and ' 1Sa 12:10
One
wonders if these gods really did not exist,
what is the big fuss. Why
should Yahweh and his priests and functionaries
be so jealous of gods that
really do not have any existence? The answer
is that the authors of the
Bible really believed that other gods do exists,
but they did not want the
Israelis to worship them for several reasons.
If
Israelis believed in other gods than Yahweh,
(the gods of other nations)
they would feel friendly with their neighboring
nations, associate with them
in amity, marry amongst each other and the
rulers will not be able to secure
the integrity of the Israeli nation. To have
a sense of nationality, you
have to have something that binds you with
other members of your nation,
something unique that is not shared by other
neighboring tribes. Israelites
were a small nation among many other nations
clustered in a small area.
Intermixing and intermingling was inevitable.
A common religion, unique to
the Israelis would have given them a common
cause and a sense of belonging.
The kings needed an excuse to secure the allegiance
of the nation and
instill in them the hatred of the enemy. The
religion with a different god
would have provided such an excuse. A god
that was superior to the gods of
their neighbors; a god that was mightier than
all other gods and above all a
god that was jealous and vengeful that would
not tolerate betrayal.
The
priests also liked the idea of a single god.
So when the nation of
Israel was released from the bondage of Nabuchadnezar
and by the leave of
Cyrus returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their
temple and worship their own
god, (Ezra 1) the priests of that time; Jeremiah,
Ezra and two unknown
priests named by biblical scholars as J and
E, (not necessarily contemporary
to each other) regrouped the Israelis that
were split in two separate
nations, Judah and Israel, each having a different
country, a different king
and a different deity, into one nation. They
blended their bibles (religious
lore) and amalgamated their gods, El and Yahweh
[Lord], into one single god.
They instigated in the people the hatred of
other gods and claimed their
sufferings; exiles and captivities were caused
because Jews had forsaken the
Jewish god El/Yahweh, (now posing as a single
god). And as Samuel promised
them, if they returned to Yahweh they would
be victorious over the
Philistienes. 1Sa 7:3
This
story obviously makes little sense. Why should
god be the god of the
Jews and not of the Philisteienes? But it
made perfect sense to those living
in 700 BC. For them, there were many gods
and each nation had its own
patron. Yahweh was the god of the Jews and
other nations had their own gods.
This is clear from the Psalms 82 where Yahweh
has a conversation with other
gods rebuking them for their ineptitude and
lack of concern for their
subjects. In this assembly of gods Yahweh
admonished his colleagues and
reprimands them for not being good gods. In
fact he reminds them to he the
sons of the Almighty, which makes us believe
that Yahweh himself is not the
supergod but still there is one superior to
him and other gods.
Naturally
Jews wanted to think that their god is the
best. He had to be the
most powerful of all gods. But not that they
denied the existence of other
gods! That is the whole reason for which Yahweh
is so jealous. You cannot be
jealous of something that does not exist.
Amazingly
even Jesus believed that other nations have
their own separate
gods. The concept of monotheism was evolved
gradually and perhaps the over
zealot Christian missioner Paul the apostle
is to be credited for it, though
he must have done it unwittingly. It was he
who compromised his faith to
sell his religion to the West. I have explained
this subject in my article
The Evolution of Monotheism.
Interestingly
Even Muhammad had the slip of the tongue when
one day next to
Ka’ba while discussing religious matters with
some prominent men of Quraish
reveled this verse:
And
see ye not LAT and OZZA,
And MANAT the third besides?
These are the exalted Females,
And verily their Intercession is to be hoped
for.
This
story is reported by both Katib al Waqidi
p. 89; and Tabari, p. 140.
This
open concession and the acceptance of Lat
Ozza and Mnat, surprised and
pleased the Quraish who unanimously bowed
in prostration when Muhammad ended
his speech with these words: “Wherefore bow
down before God, and serve Him.”
Quraish
were happy for this concession and wowed to
end hostility.
Some
narrators say that on the very night of that
day, Gabriel had appeared
to Muhammad and said: “What is this that thou
hast done? thou hast repeated
before the people words that I never gave
unto thee.” (Muir p. 151) And
Muhammad realizing that these verses were
put into his mouth by Satan, he
retracted from what he said, disowned the
whole proceeding, and called those
verses “Satanic Verses”.
However,
the fact that the tidings of the reconciliation
between the Muslims
and the Quraish reached Abyssinia and many
of the immigrants returned to
Mecca makes us deduce that Gabriel did not
appear to Muhammad on the same
night and this state of peace between the
Quraish and the followers of
Muhammad went on for a while. Until Muhammad
realized that by accepting the
three goddesses, the daughters of Allah, he
is shooting in his own foot and
making superfluous his own raison de etre.
So he claimed that Satan put
those words into his mouth and the real verse
as revealed by Allah should
have been:
“And
see ye not LAT and OZZA,
And MANAT the third beside?
What! Shall there be male progeny unto you,
and female unto him?
That were indeed an unjust partition!
They are naught but names, which ye and your,
Fathers have invented, &c.”
(Q.53: 20-22)
These
verses were not only more in line with the
misogynist nature of the
prophet, but also reaffirmed himself as the
sole intermediary between Allah
and man.
In
conclusion the concept of God did not descend
from religions. Both
religion and god are the inventions of man.
They both evolved as human
intellect kept growing. But today we have
advanced to a stage that we no
more can accept those antiquated and unverifiable
dogmas of our forefathers.
We can easily and logically disprove the existence
of the god given to us by
our ancestors and then enforced by the religions
but there is not a shred of
evidence that can prove the existence of such
deity. (For further
explanation on this subject please refer to
several articles in the chapter
dedicated to God. This is a subject that I
have talked about extensively and
I am not going to repeat. I invite you to
read them and then express your
disagreements if any. Thank you).
http://free.freespeech.org/rationalthinking/on%20god.htm
As for your question why do I say “feeling
God” when I already said that I
don't believe on one? You may find my answer
also in the articles clustered
under the heading God, especially in “The
Life Beyond and the Single
Principle” http://free.freespeech.org/rationalthinking/life_beyond.htm
Thank
you for the question I am going to post this
as a separate article and
when someone else ask me the same question
I will just refer him or her to
it.
Have
a great day.
Ali
Hi,
Mr Ali, after reading the article, I have
got more confused then ever
before. First I took you as my solution, but
now I am so confused that I
don't know what to even say.... Ali, at the
end of the article you said,
that their is nothing in religion and you
will feel "God" when you work for
humanity. Right??Now first of all why do you
say about feeling God when you
previously said you don't believe on one?
Also everything we know today
about "God" has all transfered through some
religion, without them (I
consider a religion as Philosophy, and which
can be sometime just built on
illusions) we don't even have a clue about
the God, God's presence, creation
etc....
I hope you understand what I mean, this is
just too much confusing to
even write...
Malik Usman
--
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