Islam is Not a Peaceful Religion

1.    The Muslims have never gotten over losing their shot at world domination during the crusades. They frequently refer to the Crusades as if it were an American idea - and we did not even exist during the crusades.

2.    It shouldn't surprise anyone that we look illogical to Arabs. After all, they don't believe in freedom, democracy, free speech, and human rights, so when we make foreign policy decisions based on our beliefs, they can't understand our reasoning. To an Arab, power is to be used in furthering a country's ambitions (i.e., for Arabs that is spreading Islam). When we make decisions that do not further any obvious or perceivable goals, the Arabs think we are up to something they don't understand - and we are, we are trying to promote freedom, democracy, free speech, and human rights.

3.    Intellectuals who believe that power and force are no longer necessary because all of our problems can be settled by democratic debate do not understand the basic concept of Arab foreign policy (i.e., while you are weak, compromise; after you become strong, conquer).

4.    If any Arab nation had the military power or the United States, non-Islamic countries around the world would start falling like snowflakes into the Islamic basket.

5.    Islam is not a peaceful religion. If fact, Islam is not a religion at all when compared with other religions around the world; other religions focus on developing a personal belief and relationship with God. Islam, on the other hand, has no room for a personal belief; Muslims must blindly follow the Quran and the hadith without question; and the Quran is first and foremost a plan for Islamic world domination.

6.    All the peaceful passages in the Quran that intellectuals love to quote were written when Mohammad was in Mecca and under attack by other religious leaders in the area who saw him as a threat; so in an effort to keep them off his back he wrote the peaceful coexistence passages; later in Medina after he became a strong warlord with an army he superseded the peaceful passages with "a new message from God" - attack and kill the infidels where ever you find them (see paragraph 3 above). Mohammad is credited with chopping off the heads of between 600 and 900 captured Jews.

7.    If Americans would pull their heads out of the TV, listen to something other than the liberal media, and read something other than the sports page they would discover the truth about the goal of Islam.

A Religious Tainted Conscience

I read in college several years ago that there were more people in insane asylums due to religion than any other cause. What drove these people insane seemed to have been the presents of two powerful and conflicting thoughts within their minds; two apposing thoughts that were so powerful and inescapable that they were incapable of either reconciling the differences or choosing one and discarding the other. The mental stress that resulted from fighting this mental battle, after a period of time, caused their minds to retreat to a safe place where they would not have to make a choice.

I have witnessed cases where fanatic religious training, that clashes with reality, has caused a person's conscience to run amuck. The best and most current example of this is Muslim men who have been raised in a strict eighteenth century Muslim culture and then exposed to a modern Western society. When I was in Iran I met Muslim men who liked to drink, dance, chase women, and go to American movies; some of these men were tormented by the fact that they really enjoyed these things. While, on one hand, they believed that they were good Muslims, they were convinced that if they were good Muslims they would not actually enjoy doing what they were doing; therefore, they were tormented by the thought that (because they enjoyed these activities) they obviously could not be good Muslims. I knew a young man who ran amuck to the point that he joined civil terrorist groups who burned down theaters) that were showing American films (and they did it with the people trapped inside.

To live and function successfully in a society one needs a conscience; however, to survive, you need to exercise control over your conscience. A conscience that is driven out of control by any form of fanatical training will only lead to a ruined life. I am sorry for the Muslims because there is no help available for them, their religious leaders refuse to make the necessary concessions to keep pace with discoveries and technology. One need not dress to live in the desert unless one actually lives in the desert. An Eskimo would not move to Ohio and insist on dressing like he did when he was hunting polar bares on the ice pack. The Christians do not walk around in the clothing that Jesus wore; the Jews do not walk around and emulate Moses. Muslim society is stuck in the mud of the past. No new discovery or invention has come out of the Middle East in decades and none are likely to be forthcoming if they continue to insist on spending all their time teaching their children to hate and to memorize the Qur'an.

For Jews and Christians there is hope because they teach their children that any mistake that does not kill them is only a mistake to be learned from and that God will forgive them. Jews and Christians believe that God is a loving and a forgiving god and that He will forgive them again and again. Muslims; however, seem to believe that God is a vengeful god who just waits to crush them at the first sign of weakness and that He enjoys seeing his Muslim children kill his Jewish and Christian children. What should bother all of us is the fact that Muslims don't seem to have any problem with the absurdity of that idea. I guess that follows right along with their willingness and ability to kill the female members of their own family if they somehow, even in a most minor way, shames the family name.

Religions Need to be Updated

I think religions need updating periodically just like a mother's survival instructions for her children. In Little House on the Prairie the mother's instructions to her children were simple and easy to follow "don't go too far from the house" and "keep away from any approaching strangers".

Fifty years later a mother living in the same place might tell her children "don't go too far from the village" and "keep away from strangers".

After another fifty years in Life with Father the mother's instructions might have been "don't go too far away" and "stay away from boys who use bad language" and "keep away from strangers".

Then, after another fifty years in The Cleavers the mother's instructions might be "don't go into that section of town" and "stay away from boys who smoke and use bad language" and "keep away from strangers".

Each mother understands the dangers her children will be exposed to and tailors her instructions to help them survive. Each set of instructions is only valid for the time period in which they were given.

There are a few instructions that mothers give that remain valid over the centuries (i.e., always ware clean under cloths, always wash your hands before you eat, always treat others the way you want to be treated and stay away from strangers.

The Ten Commandments that Moses gave us three thousand years ago are still valid; however, most of the laws that men made three thousand years ago to insure the survival of the tribe are no longer valid. If you follow today's instructions on refrigeration and good hygiene, you can eat pork, milk, cheese, eggs, beef and any other combination of food from the same plate without fear of getting sick and, at God's cosmic level of supervision, I don't think He really cares.

Everything we do and are exposed to has changed with technology and technology has changed the everyday dangers that we have to deal with. Our mother's instructions reflect today's dangers and, I think, our religion should also.

I think there are two things to be concerned with here, religion and tradition (or custom). I am all for tradition, as an ex-military man I am fully aware of the value of tradition in giving people a sense of continuity, history, and belonging. However, in a society, if someone decides not to follow a particular custom whether it is religious or social he or she should not be told that God will punish them. A custom is not a law from God. There were no mandatory customs set down in the Ten Commandments, the New Testament or, for as much of it as I have studied, the Quran.

Our clothing has changed with social requirements and technology. Five hundred years ago the majority of people had two types of clothing; they had warm-and-drab clothing for winter and they had cool-and-drab clothing for summer. As our technology advanced our clothing changed to make us more comfortable and attractive while at work or play. Oh, attractive, I can here the protest! If God had wanted everything to be black, white, and gray why did he invent color; and why did he create plant life and wild life of every color in the rainbow. Oh, yes, what about the rainbow?

Our technology has created new dangers and every mother on earth has updated her warnings to her children to reflect the new dangers. Should we not expect religion to do the same? We should not be expected to follow blindly those religious customs or even laws that were meant to keep us out of trouble in a society that existed a thousand years ago.  While most of the laws and some of the customs are still valid, some are not and we should not allow ourselves to be dragged down by them.

Religious leaders constantly fight with technology and every religion has their own line drawn on the technology time line chart where, they say, God has told them to stop and go no further. Where should we have stopped? Should we have stopped when we learned to make a weapon by tying a stone to a stick to protect ourselves from wild animals? Should we have stopped when we discovered how to make fire? Should we have stopped when we learned to make bows and arrows? Should we have stopped when we learned to make guns? Should we have stopped when we learned to use a horse for transportation? Should we have stopped when the automobile was invented?  Should we have stopped when we learned to make aspirin? Maybe we should have stopped when we discovered penicillin or the heart transplant? Where does God want us to stop?

The Amish in Ohio and Pennsylvania have stopped the technology time line at a house without electricity, a horse and buggy, and black-and-white cloths. However, the males and females are limited by the same rules.

Some Arabs have stopped the technology time line at wearing particular clothing; however, this interruption of the time line only applies to women, men can travel as far down the clothing time line as they wish.   

Dear God,

Please Save Us from Religion.

It always irritates me when I hear someone say they know exactly what God expects form us. Every "man of god" on TV claims to have a personal insight into the true meaning of the bible. Then you have the truly gifted men who cannot only tell you what God expects from us and the exact meaning of the bible but can also reveal hidden messages behind each and every verse in the scriptures; messages that those who are untouched by God cannot see.

                                          The Birth of God

Somewhere back in time when people were just developing into conscious beings a group of people was huddled in a cave terrified by a raging storm; during the storm a man or woman, who was not as terrified as the others, tried to calm the group by making up a story. The story was an explanation about what was causing all the water to fall from the sky, the loud noises, the flashing light that momentarily turned the night into day and the frightening fingers of light from the sky that poked the ground and started fires. The storyteller told the group of a great being who lived in the sky and ruled over all the earth. The storyteller continued to explain that the great being was angry about something that had taken place that day and was in a rage.

Since men were known to become angry over the smallest events and then destroy everything in a fit of rage, it was not long until the group decided that the great being had to be a man.

Soon, mothers found out that they could get their children to do what they wanted them to do by saying "the great being will be angry if you don't do what I say." Then, after the storyteller died and the story became accepted as true, a man or woman found out they could control the entire group by telling them "the great being will be angry if you don't do what I say."

Not long after this beginning every event (desirable or undesirable) was attributed to the great being's state of satisfaction.

Today, after one hundred thousand years of trying to appease the great being, man has developed an amazing array of ideas and methods of controlling people by telling them "the great being will be angry if you don't do what I say."

I am constantly amazed that this one story, told somewhere in a cave in Africa one hundred thousand years ago could have developed into the more than three thousand different religions existing today.