The 'Perfect' Book

Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims, are the first to proclaim the miracle that is the Quran. How do we know that it is a miracle? Because, supposedly, it is written in the purest Arabic; the style, form, grammar, and eloquence of which has never been matched. We are told that this point in particular is not up for debate.

Fine, let us take it to be true that the grammar of the Quran is without error - but what of its content? Why, when verses or entire chapters are highlighted as being obviously barbaric and misogynistic are we given the run-around? "You're misinterpreting, you don't understand the context, the language is too pure for our simple brains to decipher."

Really? And yet it is this very same language which is used to establish the truth and perfectness of the Quran in the first place, is it not? Why is it that a verse which says to give alms to the poor is decipherable, while a verse which stipulates beheading, slavery, and stoning are acceptable practices needs to be looked at 'in context.' What context? Did early Muslims spread Islam by killing and enslaving people or didn't they? History tells us this is undoubtedly true.

I don't care, and neither should you, that the Quran stipulates slave girls can be freed or even married to their masters, which apparently proves God's goodness. "Take slaves, sure, but after a while it's okay to free them or even marry them (against their will)." The point is that the book clearly condones slavery and numerous other actions which today are universally considered human rights abuses.

It's time to stop making excuses. Nothing will change until Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds admit, openly, that the Quran is NOT the perfect word of the creator of the universe.

Don't hold your breath.

Islamaphobia 2.0

How many groups like ISIS do you want to see pop up around the world before you start taking the issue of religion seriously?

Spare me your half-assed attempts to rationalize. "This is not religion." Sure it is, it just isn't your interpretation of religion. This is a direct result of the 'tolerance' you speak of. It is a direct result of the fallacy known as 'Islamophobia.' There is no such thing. Every time we allow these religious types to cow us into submission (be it Danish cartoons or forcing young girls to wear Hijab) we are giving up ground. Tolerance is not one group being allowed to walk all over another in the name of religion. Multiculturalism does not mean you are forced to tolerate an idea or a group for fear of violent backlash.

The idea of 'Islamophobia' is a new one, and it has been used by Muslims (whether you agree with their interpretation of Islam or not is immaterial, they see themselves as good, practicing Muslims) as a way to silence any perceived criticism or slight as 'racist' or 'intolerant.' There is nothing racist or intolerant with not wanting little girls covered head to toe, and forced down our throats as 'dignity' or 'cultural/religious values'; there is nothing racist or intolerant with caricaturing an ancient Arab warlord; there is nothing racist or intolerant with wanting women to be literate and to have control over their reproductive cycle.

No, intolerance is imposing your cultural or religious values on others by force or the threat of violence, and this is exactly what is happening in almost every major secular, democratic society by Muslim groups whose worldview would be pleasing to the likes of ISIS.

'Tolerating' religious moderation is not the answer. As I've said before, if you grant it for one group you must allow it for all; or we will forever be hedging our bets and arguing about who is allowed to claim they are following their religion and who isn't. Never mind that some Saudi sheikh condemned the beheadings; it was Saudi-style fundamentalist Islam that midwifed the birth of this group and countless others like it. And how dare Saudi Arabia claim the moral high ground? Theirs is a nation where women are not even allowed to leave the house, let alone drive, without male supervision.

No, friends, I will not have it. Groups like this would not exist without religion, and it is past time we realize it and do something about it. I invite you to join me in doing so.

Cognitive dissonance, logic, and protecting our children

Cognitive dissonance presents a very salient problem with which many of our brother and sister humans are faced every single day. There is also the problem of not understanding why it is important to value logic, reason, and evidence.

As Sam Harris puts it: "If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what possible logical argument could you invoke to show the importance of logic?"

This is, to put it mildly, quite the conundrum. I am not willing to give up on someone who makes faith claims and engages in mental gymnastics in order to reconcile their beliefs with the nature of reality; I would be lacking in my obligation to fellow members of my species were I to do so.

The only way we are ever going to rid ourselves of baseless supernatural claims is by relentlessly pointing out how ridiculous these ideas are and how delusional are those who hold them to be true. We must shame people, if we have to, into letting go of these beliefs.

What's more, we need to protect the children of our species. Here is something the faithful do not seem to understand: Your children are not your property. You don't, in fact, have the right to teach them whatever you want; you are simply custodians of their fragile, growing minds. And while you have considerable leeway in choosing how to raise them, forcing them to believe as you do, about things which you cannot possibly know, is a most egregious infraction on their personal and psychological integrity.

You are hijacking the mind of a child to conform to a worldview which is patently false. Is it not obvious from their incessant questions that your answers and circular logic are grossly inadequate? If you teach a child arithmetic, the child will question until he or she receives a sufficient answer. You can see for yourself that two and two make four; it is a fact, based in reality.

Children need to know as much about reality and the way things work in this reality, the only reality we know of. It is detrimental to confuse them with supernatural claims based on no evidence. You don't need religion to teach your children morality. In fact, religion is probably the worst way ever thought up to teach morality.

Please, stop lying to your children; we need them. We need them for the next great discovery, to keep moving humanity forward, and to ensure that all we've accomplished isn't lost. I implore all of you to think on these things.

No more reformations, please.

Religion, particularly Islam, doesn't need a 'reformation'. We've already tried that with Christianity, and we still have to argue about contraception and abortion and stem cells and homosexuals with 'Christians.' In every single major societal debate, you will invariably find that one side is arguing based on religious grounds - and they are always the wrong side from an objectively moral viewpoint.

Saying religion needs a reformation is like saying slavery needed a reformation. "It's not ALL of slavery that's evil and based on immorality and ignorance, we should just reform it so that it's more palatable to our modern sensibilities." Get real.

It is not the singling out of Islam, as I have said time and again. Any idea, if it is harmful, should not be allowed to persist.

The argument that "Christianity used to be the same" is a tired one, and it gets us nowhere. "Christians did the same things then that Muslims are doing now." That's a ridiculous argument because it justifies barbaric behavior. We don't live 'in past centuries.' We live now. And now, we know enough about the world and science and morality to discard ancient ignorance. We have secular rather than religious laws (excepting, of course, Muslim countries), and we shouldn't give Islam a pass because they didn't get the memo.

The information of every conceivable human endeavor since the dawn of history (the written word) is at our fingertips. It's my position that, given enough time, the information access bestowed upon us by modern technology will do away with these ancient myths; but we shouldn't just wait around in the meantime.

I will say it again: I am equally critical of other faiths and ideologies. To me, the Christian doctrine of vicarious redemption through human sacrifice is a wholly disgusting and immoral one; not to mention their ideas on compulsory love under pain of eternal torture, and theophagy, to name but a few.

Religion: Let it go...

I don't say that ridding ourselves of religion will solve all of our problems. If religion and mysticism were to disappear entirely from the face of the earth, tomorrow, we would still have all of our other issues to deal with. 
However, it should be obvious to everyone that the needless suffering and death of millions which takes place every single day in the name of religion would decline dramatically.

Religion is a far more divisive force than it is a unifying one. If everyone who believed in the God of Abraham - never mind the Hindus and the Buddhists and everyone else - if only the people who believed in the God of Abraham were able to get along and coexist peacefully, I would never have had a reason to be an outspoken critic of religious faith.

The reality, however, is that the very nature of religious faith precludes it from allowing its adherents to leave well enough alone. Even non-denominational believers FEEL that atheists and other non-believers (no matter that they are good people) need to eventually 'open their hearts to god.' No matter how you slice it, it leads to proselytizing; aggressive or otherwise, it makes no difference.

In a nutshell: If there were no problem with religion, there would be no problem with religion. That "Let it go" song from Frozen should be repackaged and marketed to adults who still believe in stupid, harmful, ridiculous, immoral, and ultimately evil myths.

A simple explanation of the contradictions within the Quran

It is telling that the Meccan verses of the Quran which say things like "there is no compulsion in religion" were 'revealed' to Mohammed when Islam was still a fledgling religion and its prophet had no power and a paltry few followers. This is what you'd expect one to say in a hostile environment. "No one is forcing you (much stronger Meccan pagans) to believe me." There is another early verse which says "be kind to your opponents." A verse which was revealed years later contradicts this by saying, "kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out like they drove you out." It is patently obvious what what this is referring to; Mohammed's persecution and escape from Mecca.

The reason there are so many contradictions is that the later Medinan verses were spoken by a man who had gained much power and influence over the course of 13 years or more by marrying a wealthy widow and moving to a different city. Once Mohammed's power base was firmly established, the earlier, kinder verses were superseded by much more violent ones. "Be kind to your opponents" became "Kill them all." There is no great mystery here, folks. A man with no power will say and do what he has to to survive. That same man then goes on to seek revenge and contradict all of his earlier teachings. This is not the behavior of a benevolent spiritual leader; but it is easily ascribed to a megalomaniac who was orphaned as a child and bullied/mocked as an adult.

Mohammed gives no justification for this discrepancy in the Quran and the change in Allah's mood from peaceful to militant and conciliatory to confrontational. Muslim apologists in the West present the kinder verses of the Quran or what is known as the Early Revelation. While Islamic scholars, with only Muslims as their audience, say that those softer verses of the Quran were abrogated and supplanted by harsher ones. The reason is obvious - Mohammad became strong enough to move from the stage of weakness to the stage of Jihad.

On Pope Francis "Excommunicating" Members of the Mafia

Yeah, like the Catholic Church has any moral authority. Any person with a shred of dignity or the merest semblance of a conscience long ago severed all ties to that despicable organization when we discovered they were sheltering an army of child rapists. The Church of Rome makes the Mafia look like the Girl Scouts.

"Excommunicated." Fuck you. "Because ours is the only true religion, you are now eternally damned unless you repent," that's what excommunicated means. What gives any man the right to say that or assume his authority is derived from the creator of the universe if there is one?

This is where that hypocrisy I was talking about comes in. Everyone is hailing Pope Francis as this wonderful person. He may have done some good things for the poor in South America, but so did dozens of charitable organizations, and they didn't have to proselytize in order to help the poor the way the church does.

I don't care how much love you have, how many charitable deeds you've done, how fatherly you look and behave, or any number of other things. If you belong to an organization that preaches the sinfulness of condom use, that kept people like Cardinal Bernard Law from facing Justice by hiding him in the Vatican, and that offers assistance with the caveat that you accept their faith; I'm sorry, you have no moral authority whatsoever. In fact, you symbolize the epitome of immorality, hypocrisy, and the propagation of hatred. If Francis had a conscience, he would have left the church decades ago and helped people any other way he could. But he didn't; he stayed, and still believes in all of the magic and fairy tales and that lying to children is okay.

The hypocrisy is this: The Catholic church says that it wants to reconcile with other faiths, while simultaneously holding as true the ideas that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on Earth, and that he has the power to send people to eternal damnation and hell fire. You can't have it both ways; you can't say, "sure, be a Muslim or a Hindu or Jew, by all means, but know that you're wrong and the only way to salvation is through Holy Mother Church."

Again, and I can't state this emphatically enough, Fuck - You.