who wrote the Bible, who wrote the Quran?

Submitted by Mark (United Arab Emirates), Mar 27, 2006 at 01:03

To Hind,
You make some interesting points about the Bible and I would not dispute them. The Bible has come under question..
So what about the Quran? In contrast it is purely the word of Allah as dictated to the messenger. Right?

ummm, sorry it doesn't wash..

Religion is the creation of man not the other way around. This is clear to any objective analysis of the origins and practice of religion today.. Christianity has evolved into something quite different today than say 1000 years ago. Acknowledged and accepted.
What actually happened was the European culture rediscovered the virtues of critical thought and analysis and open reevaluation of ideas. Hence the renaissance and the explosion of modern scientific and other discoveries. Christianity as practiced today has adapted in order to survive this new era of unfettered freedom of thought. There have been some exceptions of course, Fundamental Christians hold on to the nonsensical idea that the Bible is word for word true. Kind of like Islam does with the Quran.

Religion really is a smokescreen to the mind. It makes people like yourself who are obviously intelligent and capable of reason and logic 'surrender' their will and minds into the unquestioning abyss of dogma. Don't think that I condemn you for that. No on the contrary, I understand. Been there done that..

Islam stands out in this regard as having the most potent dogma, the most compelling truth. The concept of a Quran straight from the word of God, recorded faithfully and purely forever in the 7th Century.. One god, no partners, one pure truth. it is as if the author of that religion kicked the tires of the other relgions available at the time and decided to invent the most pure and true religion possible (to that particular school of logical thought). Of course that is exactly what happened as the founders of Islam in Syria contructed the myth that has now become a religion. Shame about the Shia-Sunni split but hey you know, these things happen..

Yeah well you are not fooling me. I am sure that you Hind are a wonderful person, one whom my wife would be proud to call a friend. I won't say that I would call you a friend because I wouldn't want to put your family honor at stake as we are not related and I am of the opposite sex. Don't want any meaningless violence here, I mean we are discussing ideas right?

As for Jack the ripper being a Christian or not it has nothing to do with the truth or otherwise of Islam or any other religion..

Now is religion as a concept totally bad or evil? No of course not. Religion gives people a sense of order and purpose in their lives and helps them to explain things that otherwise can be frightening and difficult to understand. On a day to day personal or even family basis religion is fine so long as it is managed with wisdom. But the problem comes when we start getting into larger groups, nations, the world. Then we start finding that religion is used by people with small minds to persecute others.

You may have deduced that I do not believe in God or Allah or Jesus or Buddha for that matter. You may even think of me as the worst kind of apostate because, like your presumption for Jack the Ripper and the hundreds of alleged serial murderers in America, I started out a Christian. Being encouraged in open mindedness I however reevaluated the logical principles of Christian dogma..

The concept of heaven and hell troubled me. If non-Christians will go to hell that is a lot of people.. Then of course there is Islam. This is a little more confusing, being followers of the book will they go to hell or not? I took a ride with a Palistinian freind several years ago who was having a nice time with my 9 year old son. He asked him his religion. Imagine this child informed my son that he would go to hell because he was a Christian. I don't know if this is what Islam teaches but the parents of this child had somehow allowed him to come to that conclusion. My case before Islam is however much more clear. According to Islam I would definitely go to hell. Lucky I don't beleive in hell, right?

You see, Hind I see no difference between you and me in terms of our eternal reward. We are both going to be wormfood. In the meantime it would be nice to behave as best we can as humans. The best that we can do is to sharpen those traits that make us human and contribute as best we can to the improvement of the human condition. If you focussed on the practices in your religion that were of a personal and family matter then it might help you in this regard. But as soon as you get into the realm of arguing of dogma, (my god is bigger than your god) I am afraid that religion takes you in the opposite direction..

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