The king shows his inherent weakness and fallibility everytime he extinguishes someone who opposes him. As much as he likes to make you think otherwise, the King is not God's chosen representative on earth, but a terrified and self-obsessed little tyrant.
Aren't you just sick of people who take their role as vicegerents on earth to its literal maximum and feel like they have to defend God's honour eveytime it's insulted? What? Can't God do it Himself? A bigger question is why the hell would He want to? Surely He's above our petty insults, and would probably find it cute that His little creations are so futilely trying to rebel. In fact, He'd probably pity them.
Even as I tried to get my head (although that seemed an inappropiate word at the time) around the pantheistic deity of the Sufis, I would still squirm when God was insulted on the Simpsons. Why? Why did I squirm so?
It took me a while to figure out something was wrong with blasphemy. It seems now that only the powerless need taboo to protect them, just like the dictator needs a totalitarian state. Then it wasn't long before I realised that the concept of the sacred was no different from the untouchability of the Soviet government.
The very title of this post is enough to generate a small lynch mob on my doorstep tomorrow. And we all know, where there are lynch mobs, there is justified moral rage. Oh hell. We need to grow up.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
God and Stalin
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10 comments:
I don't believe that we should have taboos in the sense of placing some issues beyond discussion or questioning. However, it is very natural to not want to see what you value insulted or mocked.
If you value liberalism, I think you would be upset if somebody was to tell you: "Don't pretend you're an intellectual. You just want to rationalize committing sins."
The statement itself is ignorant, and misrepresents what liberalism is. If you value liberalism, and wish to promote fruitful discussion, you wouldn't like to see liberalism talked about this way.
Technically, the Holy Koran states that if your beliefs are insulted in a gathering, then you should leave that gathering. It doesn't tell you to silence the speaker or form a lynch mob :P
Actually most liberals wouldn't care what you said about anything, unless your speech was inciting crime. I value many things, but I couldn't care less what people say about them.
And it depends how you define insult. I would want to walk away if someone was being rude and foaming at the mouth about anything, even if that thing was something I didn't value. However, I've listened many times to people calmly debunk my beliefs without feeling the need to walk away.
It's good that the qur'an was ahead of its time in preaching restraint in these matters and unfortunate that some modern Muslims preach lynching. But would you walk away from a lecture/gathering where your beliefs were (not rudely) being mocked, like a Richard Dawkins lecture for instance?
Great post Ala. How would we ever grow or change without having our beliefs challenged? One person's joke is another person's insult, and neither should ever be banned unless they fall clearly into the category of 'hate speech'.
Taboos and the idea of blasphemy are merely protection for indefensible doctrines. The Bible deems blasphemy the worst sin of all. But if God gave us enquiring minds, why would he not want us to use them and decide the truth for ourselves?
God gave us an enquiring mind so that, perchance, we might discover God(?) :-)
But would you walk away from a lecture/gathering where your beliefs were (not rudely) being mocked, like a Richard Dawkins lecture for instance?
Yes I would
Shaykh Raziuddin Ahmad Fakhri (may Allah have mercy on him) said,
“Similar to the good and bad effects of the company of an individual and the items of his/her personal use, books, magazines and newspapers also have these effects.
One has to be very cautious in deciding which book or newspaper to read. ”
This is also relevant for internet. Visiting unhealthy sites can be very detrimental for a seeker.
Because it is Shaitan's work to sow doubt and confusion in a believer (waswasa) recite the last surah for this
How did you become a believer in the first place? Through doubt and enquiry, right? So the very thing that brought you to belief in the first place, becomes something evil after belief? I suppose God's got his back covered well, if even reconsidering Him is a sin. No omnipotent God should require that level of suppression of thought if He gave you the organ with which to think in the first place.
I was a born muslim brought up in a muslim family alhamdullilah.
"No omnipotent God should require that level of suppression of thought if He gave you the organ with which to think in the first place"
If you start to disbelieve, Allah SWT is not affected by it , it is ultimately you who will find out after you die on the Day of qiyamah
Personally I find athiesm childish
"I dont proof of God therefore He does not exist" or see bad things have done in the name of religion so I dont believe" silly
"I was a born muslim brought up in a muslim family alhamdullilah."
That doesn't excuse you from the prerequisite of enquiry before belief; or at least ephiphany before belief. Believing simply because you've been raised to believe is not good enough.
"That doesn't excuse you from the prerequisite of enquiry before belief; or at least ephiphany before belief. Believing simply because you've been raised to believe is not good enough."
Why is that ? It is good enough for me or that ignorant old woman in pakistan who does not even know how to read but has complete faith in Allah (SWT) .
Having said that it is better to reflect as in the Qur'an. But it is not a pre-requisite
http://amonhen.blogspot.com/2007/04/reading-scripture.html
http://www.yursil.com/blog/2007/04/translations-and-the-holy-understanding-of-the-quran-al-karim/
Faith is from the qalb - the heart
The brain is equally unreliable.
As Nuh Keller stated in one of his suhba lectures :
The West creates the following to bad traits in Muslims — so unlearn them before you get married: financial irresponsibility (due to advertising), and arrogance (from the university).
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