Musings, ruminations, thoughts and discussions on life & living, music, religion, politics, love, philosophy, and all other eccentricities of this sort.

Saturday 25 October 2008

Allah has said…

challengeyoursoul.com wrote:
allah has said
Let me stop you right there. Of course people say that the Qur’ân represents the true word of god but it clearly doesn’t. Plenty of passages obviously come from a human since they talk about allah in a reverential way. Even if they didn’t (which they do), you still can’t say ‘allah has said’ because allah has not said. The correct phraseology would go a little something like this:

“Allah told Gabriel told Muhammad to have his followers commit this passage to memory or write it down on the scapulæ of oxen or the shoulderblades of camels until a committee appointed by the third rightful khalif could collect it in order to stem the spread of alternative rescensions.”

Once you start to use that phrase every time you want to write ‘allah said’ (all of it factually accurate according to muslim sources) you will see how the Qur’ân sounds less like the word of allah and more like fourth generational hearsay.

Sunday 17 August 2008

Another Personality Revelation…

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)
Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive.

Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

Saturday 29 March 2008

Kamui on Kail

Kamui critiques SEXGOD KAIL’s DMC3 abilities…
clipped from devils-lair.org
Kamui
He's actually a terrible editor. I really don't think that just changing the tint on your videos counts as being the best editor out there. Honestly, make more than one or two vids and I can assure you that you'll not only have better editing skills, but DMC3 skills that blows him right out of the water.

His editing consists of three things:

1. Boosting the speed.
2. Adding in retarded tints to give Vergil a red coat and Dante a bluish one.
3. Looping Kamelot songs over and over.

Nothing really else. Even with his limited combo potential he never once bothers to mix up his clips in a good order to give it any semblance of variety, which is a fucking terrible thing when his videos are 30 fucking minutes long.

Don't sell yourself short. Just about anyone can match up to him pretty easily.
_________________
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Sunday 23 March 2008

Devil May Cry 3 — Juggling

The best weapons for juggling opponents noted:
clipped from www.youtube.com
alexxshadenk (1 year ago) Show Hide
Marked as spam
Moreover, Nevan has the highest rank in crowd control and juggles (not counting with Vergil). Pickup Nevan, Spiral, Artemis and Gunslinger, and you'll step into Juggle Township.

Monday 10 March 2008

This is what Religion does to People…

:-s
i just need help what to do with my evil thoughts.

every time i do good
thing i keep thinking about it, i know it is bad and it will lead me to jahannam


Even my family is muslim family my father start to pray 4-5 years ago
and he had changed a lot, my brother doesnt pray and my mom neither i start to
pray 2-3 weeks ago and i m doing quite fine with time and amount of pray my
father told me that i am very good son and good person. no no no and i start to
think that i am special. i really wanna do good things to people and then when i
have done it i feel so good and wanna do more and then my thoughts tell me "stop
that's it , that's enough" and then i think yeah that's enough i am doing enough
i am a good person ( i am afraid i am starting be arrogant and start to think
that i am special ) may Allah forgive me , astofurlo surely i am in trouble i
was crying and repending to Allah , i dunno i really dunno what to do i dont
wanna be in Hell please can anyone advise me what else i can do
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Saturday 1 March 2008

How Myth Endures

This refers to urban legends (more specifically the mistaken belief that humans only use 10% of their brains), but it seems to me that it applies much more widely, especially in matters of religious faith, religious conversion (muslims converting to Christianity, for example), etc.
clipped from www.snopes.com
Part of the reason for the long life of the myth is that if one variant can be
proven incorrect, the person who held the belief can simply shift the reason for
his belief to another basis, while the belief itself stays intact.

Thursday 28 February 2008

Tattoos Gone Wrong!

Oh dear… In line with various sites which display gross incompetencies in Hebrew tattoos, I found this picture of a woman with the Arabic word for family tattooed on her neck… But written left–to–right instead of right–to–left! Oopsie…

arabian "family"

This tattoo is set to Public

Dscf1395_large

Monday 18 February 2008

Islam Is…

 
clipped from www.ummah.com
اللّٰه = יַהְוֶה
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Guatemala
Posts: 483
Reputation:points: 1327 / Rep Power: 14
mastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud ofmastralvarado has much to be proud of
Send a message via MSN to mastralvarado
Re: do you know the essencial meaning of islam???
I think Islam is essentially Abraham (PBUH) about to smite his son.

Sunday 17 February 2008

Babylon

Written here as the technically correct ‘Babilum’ (Akkadian) or ‘Babilim’ (Babylonian), meaning Gate of the Gods.
clipped from aycu01.webshots.com
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Thursday 7 February 2008

Islam and Extremism

And here we go. Posting, as I do, on various forums online — this one populated by muslims who arrogantly proclaim me a liar, that I had never followed Islâm in the first place — I happed upon a thread detailing that the Danish royal library in Copenhagen plans on ‘preserving’ the caricatures of Muhammad in a gallery.

And the very first reply to it goes a little something like this…

Danish library plans to house cartoons of prophet Muhammad



 
kareemabdullah


Muslim



Gender: Gender:Male
Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 67

PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

if they dare do that they are asking for trouble, we will bomb the librairy

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Political Hell

I read an extremely interesting article on the duality of Religious vs Political Islâm, with emphasis on the Political. This section interested me a great deal, mainly due to discussions on other forums on the nature of Hell and reconciling the concept of eternal punishment for a finite lifetime of sin and that of an all–merciful and just god.
Even the concept of Hell is
political, not religious. There are 146 parts of the Koran that refer to Hell.
Only 4% of the people in Islamic Hell are there for moral reasons, such as
murder, theft or greed. In 96% of the cases the person is in Hell because they
did not agree with Mohammed. This is a political charge. In short, Islamic Hell
is primarily a political prison.

Monday 4 February 2008

Zodiac Mindwarp: ‘Prime Mover’

EVERY WORD OF THE COMMENT SPEAKS THE TRUTH!
clipped from www.youtube.com
Zodiac Mindwarp Prime Mover video
Hair8Metal8Karen (1 week ago) Show Hide Marked as spam
Aw man! This is quite literally the greatest video EVER MADE!!!!! I mean it has everything that qualifies a good video (spaceships, lasers, slutty Catholic schoolgirls, dancing on a tank, exploding nuns.... f**k me!) AND the song's excellent..... what a kick ass band! Doesn't get much better does it?

Sunday 3 February 2008

My Net Worth

So it transpires that a ransom on me would fetch $1,519,062 which sounds a heck of a lot! It transpires, though, that at the current exchange rate on xe.com I wouldn't even fetch a million quid. £772,564.55 in fact.

Still more than I expected… Hah!


You are worth exactly $1,519,062

Checkout CadaverForSale.com!
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Thursday 24 January 2008

A Treatise Against the Punishment and Execution of Apostates

1. A person forms a belief when (s)he reaches a conclusion after a specific observation of events, ideas in action, natural phenomena, and suchlike. This person does not form this belief purely out of spite, vindictiveness or immorality, but by sincere contention. I therefore consider it unreasonable, unrealistic and utterly fascistic and totalitarian to punish someone for a conclusion they cannot help but reach.

2. Deciding that Islâm carries as much truth as any other man–made religion, and thereby labelling it ‘false’ after believing it as true, represents nothing more than a change of belief.

3. Agreeing with the concept of execution for apostates means advocating (state–sanctioned) murder of people who reject what they now believe as nothing more than legends, fairytales and ancient fables.

4. Receiving punishment for changing your belief means that an ex–muslim ends up compelled by force to remain — at least for show — in that specific belief. This I would describe as nothing other than compulsion, and renders the famous ayat at 2:256 in the Qur’ân patently false.

5. Death for apostates merely extends the charade of Islâm — utter hypocrisy, and the Qur’ân itself denounces hypocrisy. Killing in the name of hypocrisy simply turns fundamentalism into another idol, and sacrificing apostates to this idol represents ‘shirk’ — worshipping others as God, and effectively dismantling the tawhîd of Allâh.

6. Punishing someone with execution for apostasy from Islâm (or any other cult) remains, in my opinion, a fundamentally despicable concept. It displays a complete and shocking lack of empathy and understanding as to what motivates someone’s convictions (in other words, something they cannot help but believe, and not necessarily a free choice).

7. This makes it a complete attack on freedom of thought, on freedom of speech and as such we, as rational and straight–thinking people, must speak out and act against it wherever we encounter it. It deserves nothing else but utter contempt and scorn.

8. Brutally murdering a murtad does not prevent harm in the slightest. The affected victim’s family and friends, his/her workplace, and so on, all lose someone dear or essential to them simply because that person had the audacity to believe something and change their mind.

9. Additionally, how does this affect a person’s position in the (I believe non–existent) Afterlife? Executing the apostate will not absolve him/her of supposed sinfulness, which means (s)he will not go to heaven. Threatening someone with death does not cause them suddenly to change their deep–seated philosophical views. Any claim to the contrary by the apostate in question amounts to blatant insincerity and, therefore, we can discard the sentiment as meaningless.

10. I submit that to label a change in a belief as commensurate with treason represents the height of illogicality. It indicates nothing other than a dismissal of a previously held philosophical position. When comparing apostasy to treason, the only proportionate analogy comes with a person renouncing his/her citizenship of any nation — hardly an act worthy of capital punishment.

11. A final point, in the form of two queries: in a secular and liberal democratic society (in which the general belief and value of democracy and libertarianism binds the state together), does a person disagreeing with democracy or libertarianism constitute having committed treason? Should such a person suffer threats of capital punishment?

Against Bigotry

People must, as a general rule, always speak out in the face of bigoted intolerance. In your personal life, never give a platform for someone to mouth off with hate–filled, racist, narrow–minded and contemptibly intolerant diatribes, whether or not you know the person or his intended victim.

People must band together to defeat such prejudiced and primitive mindsets through effecting an unwillingness to engage with the person any longer, and denying such a person the personal space to express such despicable shit in their presence. Although people may believe they have an inalienable right to freedom of speech this does not give them the right to violate an innocent bystander with erupting, geysering volcanoes of bullshit. Actively opposing racist bigotry by going cold on one presenting no rationale or reason for their abhorrent and spiteful belching marks the only way to defeat this malaise — as long as the one doing so expresses in no uncertain terms that they do not welcome such behaviour in their presence.

The source matters not: whether a hilariously wild–bearded, doddering, old, vicious, 60–year–old ex–military white man in a dirty suit and grimy trainers spewing forth invidious tirades; black ‘gangstaz’ gibbering about ‘white devilz’; or muslims casting aspersions on kaffirs, murtads and Jews.

To do so, actively and positively, would mean we achieve something positive in this life, for society as a whole and, by extension, for the good of Humanity.

Friday 18 January 2008

Zoroastrianism & Islam (again)

More on the influence of Zoroastrianism on Islam. I didn’t think that Muhammad had directly encountered Zoroastrianism during his lifetime. Indeed, later rulers had to add Zoroastrians to the accepted list of ‘People of the Book’. I had thought that Muhammad took a central view between 3 prayers of the Jews and 7 prayers he’d encountered from another religious sect (possibly Christians prevalent at that time).
clipped from 64.233.183.104
The Muslim institution of five daily prayers also has a Persian origin. Muhammad
himself, at first, instituted only two daily prayers. Then, as recounted in the
Koran, a third was added, giving the morning prayer, the evening prayer, and the
middle prayer, which corresponded to the Jewish shakarith, minkah, and arbith.
But on encountering the religious fervor of the Zoroastrians, Muslims, not
wishing to be outdone in devotion, simply adopted their custom; henceforth,
Muslims paid homage to their God five times a day, in imitation of the five gahs
(prayers) of the Persians.

Thursday 10 January 2008

The Necessity of Rational Thinking

Julian Baggini, in “A walk on the dark side?”, wrote:
We are not purely rational. It is not just that we are often in the grip of irrational or non–rational forces and desires, it is that our thinking is itself infused with emotion. These feelings shape our thought, often without us realizing it…

I am also aware that we do not approach such rational discussions with blank, open minds. We come to them with prejudices, fears and commitments. Some of these are not founded on reason and that confers on them a certain immunity to the power of rational argumentation…

This is important because such associations can interfere with clear thinking, leading us to prejudge issues and reject arguments without good grounds.
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Zoroastrianism & Islam

This made me sit up and take notice. One of the more hellish Islamic tales that did the rounds while I grew up featured the person having to cross a razor–sharp bridge. Of course, a true mu’min (believer) would cross it safely. The kafir would plunge to their doom into eternal Hell. Now I see it, like quite a few elements, could possibly come from Zoroastrianism.

I must look into this further…
The chinvat bridge is another Zoroastrian concept that after death the soul
crosses a razor sharp bridge that could mean one would fall from... YOu either
meet a beautiful maiden or a hag on the bridge depending on your life in this
world.
The word "Paradise" we use comes froman ancient Persian word meaing walled
garden and so even our concept of the after life owe much to Zoroastrianism.

Wednesday 9 January 2008

“Happy New Year!” (from a Muharram Murtad)

1st of Muharram 1429 AH — the start of the new year according to the Islamic calendar. Though, of course, due to bickering between parties and inability to resolve sightings of the moon it could take place tomorrow… At any rate, New Year, New Attitude, New Resolution, New Actions. I figured it would prove the perfect time to announce my apostasy from Islam. I went onto my favourite muslim forum (mainly due to some of the posters there), Ummah.com and announced I had turned murtad.

I simply don’t believe. Not only in Islam as a divinely–sanctioned religion, but in divinity altogether. I have read too much, seen too much the manmade origins of each religion, felt no divine presence throughout my life, seen the way nature doesn’t need a conscious guiding hand… I have seen and felt all this too much to give any credence to commonly–held notions of Divinity and Theism.

Some of the members there expressed sadness and shock, others incandescent rage and sneering hostility — and most of the latter came when I pointed out that the founder of Islam, Muhammad, sanctioned the death of apostates from Islam. At that point people acted as though I’d ‘done a Rushdie’ and one of the moderators closed my thread quicksmart. It interests me that the ultimate act of betrayal and evil (I had announced I do not believe in God) met with some shocked reactions, but only when I mentioned Muhammad did the moderator close my thread. Odd, that, don’t you think?

Only one of the members really touched me with her passion, her sincere regret, and her gentle and patient responses to my posts. A pity none of the others acted more like she did.

I don’t regret leaving Islam: I realise that I’d never lived particularly religiously though I’d tried damn hard over the past few years — but not hard enough. I didn’t pray the mandatory Salah prayers 5 times a day. In fact, I used to joke about myself as a ‘2 Salah Man’: ‘Eid–ul–Fitr and ‘Eid–ul–Adha! Needless to say, comments like that have never gone down well. Of course, I did used to preface any act of eating by reciting the basmala, and I catch myself occasionally doing so now, but those acts simply represent phrases and actions I’ve inculcated in myself but wish to abandon now.

A chap on another forum has tasked me with a list of actions I should complete in order to continue moving on in my life, eg. making a pot of chili and eating it, watching the sun rise, and suchlike. None of it far removed from the way I’ve lived my life normally — but I suppose working through the list will provide me with something specific to look forward to and even push me out of my comfort zone (one of the items involves telling an attractive stranger on the street that I think she looks beautiful).

I suppose I feel a loss of group identity in that I’ve grown up in a quite secular but nonetheless Muslim South Asian community, but I shall dig deep inside me and try to transcend that loss by relying on the force of my own beliefs and personal identity.

On with the programme…

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Against Religion:

AC Grayling contributes a simple and well–written but deep (as usual) article, this one at last speaking out against the claim that any particular religion merits special attention or privileges.

Highlights:
clipped from richarddawkins.net
It is time to reverse the prevailing notion that religious commitment is intrinsically deserving of respect.
to believe something in the face of evidence and against reason - to believe
something by faith - is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant, and merits the
opposite of respect. It is time to say so.
it is time to demand and apply a right for the rest of us to non-interference by
religious persons and organisations - a right to be free of proselytisation and
the efforts of self-selected minority groups to impose their own choice of
morality and practice on those who do not share their outlook.
But no organised religion, as an institution, has a greater claim to the
attention of others in society than does a trade union, political party,
voluntary organisation, or any other special interest group - for "special
interest groups" are exactly what churches and organised religious bodies are.
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Saturday 5 January 2008

Atheism vs Restrictive Cultures

most of the Atheists I know that came from religious backgrounds didn't give a
care about restrictive cultures that much, we just didn't buy into the tripe we
were being fed.
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Thursday 3 January 2008

The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism