koran = crazy

[miriam_e]

In the course of looking up some things today to balance my arguments about how nutty is the bible I ended up reading some of the koran.

I am amazed.

It is a truly insane document. It rabidly goes on and on and on about how unbelievers will be burned. It uses patently absurd statements to suspend people's disbelief, and harps on hate and sex over and over again. If you wanted a document to appeal to the obsessional aspect of humans then the koran is it. It is not just conceited, cruel, self-contradictory, and intolerant, it is flat-out mad. Admittedly much of the old testament is all those things too, but the koran takes it to a whole extra level of mania.

Ever wonder why some muslims spend every spare hour reading and re-reading the koran and going to their local mosque a couple or a few times a day, every single day? Just take a look at the koran and you'll see why. It is a spiral into insanity.

I had always thought it was weird that moderate muslims can claim that islam is about mercy and being good, yet muderous intentions are so widespread among their faithful. Consider, for instance, the fatwah issued against Salman Rushdie, and the murder of the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh after documenting the life of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and indeed her need for lifelong security now because muslims threaten her life, and the unremarkable killing and stunting of women and girls in islamic society. (I must admit it crossed my mind that posting this exposes me to danger from their loving and merciful religion.) Well, after looking at the koran I'm no longer puzzled. I don't know how the moderates manage to stay sane while believing a book seething with hate and sex and revenge, but I can see why large parts of humanity's population become fruitcakes under its influence.

How can people believe screwy stuff like this in the 21st century? It is mystifying.

-----
Listen to a very uplifting and enlightening interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/stories/2007/1942687.htm

Read this http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25217,filter.all/pub_detail.asp by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. You certainly have to admire her.

Comments

[sbarret.livejournal.com]

meh. like you said, the old testament and some of the new testament has its fair share of hate and vitriol. But they all come from the same root, yes? What would be interesting (tho I'm far to lazy to investigate) is if the holy books of other non Judeo-Christian religions also have hate as a main tenant.

[flemco.livejournal.com]

Yep, the koran's crazy.

But here in America, the Bible is A-OK.

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the Koran/Islam. Sounds like good bedtime reading ;)

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

As you say, it would be interesting to see what other (eastern, islander, North American native, Australian native, Aztec, Inca, and so on) religions have as their basis.

I've always intended to see what hindu writings actually say. There is a lot of conflict that comes out of that religion, so I expect it will be based on similar insanity to the western religions.

In time I'll get around to looking at confucianism, but I suspect it will be crazy too. I have a Korean friend who tells me confucian doctrines are heavily sexist and all about maintaining power in authority (sounds like catholicism).

One of these days I'll have a look at the torah... but it will probably be some time off in the future. I get the impression that it is basically the old testament.

The books of mormon are utter deluded nonsense. I couldn't read much of them.

I've looked at a bit of buddhism. Out of all I've seen so far it seems the least harmful... while not being positively beneficial, insisting as it does, that just being is preferable to learning. But at least it doesn't seem to have hate as its basis.

All in all, though, there are so many religions it is difficult to wade through much of this crap, and after reading a fair part of the koran I don't see a lot of advantage in it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions shows the major religions. It will surprise you how many there are. In the end there are thousands of different ones when you consider all the variants.

And that is the weirdest thing of all. Every one of them insists that you believe, with no evidence, in their religion while saying all the others are wrong! Nuts!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheh :) If you want nightmares.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I got my brother to pick up a second hand bible at the shop he helps out at. I'm going to slice it up and separate out the stuff that actually was written by Jesus' friends.

I'm not sure what fraction of the bible is the old testament, but it will be interesting to hold the two halves and see. The old testament is a total embarrassment to most moderate christians, with good reason.

Next will be to cut out the books written by that lunatic Paul of Tarsus. If anybody fits the description of anti-christ, Paul is the one.

I think I'll omit the book of revelation because it is pretty obvious the author (John?) was having a nervous breakdown at the time.

In the end there is just a tiny fraction of the bible that you could think of as coming from "Christ", who the christians supposedly follow. The rest is basically hate-filled crap. It'll be interesting to see what fraction that really is.

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

If you're being really generous, that's about 10%.