Musings on Religious Relevance

<><><> <><><> <><><>

This is a conversation between Alhassan and moi in which we grapple the relevance of Religions. Alhassan Kuyateh Wadi,you made some points to counteract the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible. Now make  this clear,how creation comes about ,you dont believe there is a suprem God, you dont believe those prophets do exist ,this holy books came through revelat...ions,do u believe that christ and Mohammed were prophets. The examples you made is conflicting,God did not say we should kill one another,neirher harm the harmless, It you and me that causeing all this problems on earth, God is merciful and peaceful. I strongly believe that, you miss understood those books,by that i mean you analise those books in your wone ways. Seat back and make further research and rethink and spread your though and mind.'i believe that will help you to a better judgement on this books and how they came about .  thank you Wadi'TheZima' I am far from convinced about this, having read the Bible cover to cover(thrice), Koran(twice) I find them riddled with contradictions, Sexism, Racism, Bigotry and fantastically grotesque in their taste for slaughter and genocide. ...I have a problem with the notion that to have your child deliberately slaughtered in the most gruesome manner is in some way an indication of love. Such a proposition  borders on the insane and then, to ask us to ritualistically drink his blood and eat his flesh(communion) is too close to cannibalism for my liking. I also take umbrage at the tale of Noah and the flood. Why would a loving and supposedly merciful God  see fit to wipe out ALL LIFE because SOME humans displeased him/her. What did the, butterfly, snail, rabbit, chimp, ants, lions etc etc do to warrant such merciless and indiscriminate slaughter. This Biblical and Koranic Mega-Genocide is in my view the ultimate violation of 'JUSTICE'. Collective punishment is by definition Unjust. Imagine if you will, that you upset me and as retribution I wipe out all your family, your City and your Nation is this 'JUST'? Is this a guideline for life? I think NOT! As If this were not enough we are invited to accept that a 600year old man was able to traverse the globe and collect over a Billion species of life forms and pack them into a boat. Just pause for a moment and think about this, do you have any idea how vast such a boat would have to be  and then you would have to treble or quadruple the size to carry the food required ... I don't wish to labour the point but clearly this story is a complete nonsense and is not capable of surviving close scrutiny. We would have to be insane or deluded to have our lives guided by such books. My advice to all is to  actually Read the Bible and Koran cover to cover, and then reflect on whether these religious tracts can be anything other than an invite to madness. Alhassan I am going to address the issues you raised in chronological order. Let me open this discussion by declaring my position, I am an 'Assertive and Unapologetic Evolutionist' I contend that the Universe in general and our species in particular are the product of Billions of years of evolution. Indeed we humans are relatively recent  arrivals on the existential and historical stage. Clearly such a position is at odds with the  notion that God created the world in six days six thousand years ago. There is absolutely no demonstrable evidence to support the view that the earth is only six thousand years old or that we humans were created in six days. in fact all the evidence runs counter to the 'creationist claim' It needs to be said that the judaeo-Christian Creation Myth is one of many many creation myths. Had you been born in Japan, China, India etc you would have had a completely different creation myth. It is no exaggeration to say that the 'Creation myth' you espouse is the direct result of Geo-political  conquest and cultural colonisation by judaeo-Christian imperial powers. Let me just give you two quotes that go to the heart of this question. Seneca(The Younger) a Roman Philosopher had this to say 'Religion is regarded by the common people as true,by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful', Napoleon  was even more direct he said 'Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet'.Given the foregoing it should come as no surprise to hear that I do NOT believe in a supreme God and No, i do not think that the so called 'Holly books' came through revelations(these books play host to too many contradictions inconsistency and are just plain wrong and factually inaccurate to be any thing other than Human constructs limited by the state of knowledge obtaining at the time), and the key point here is not whether JC, Mohammad, Buddha etc were prophets, the point I am en devouring to make is that religions are no longer fit for purpose and have outlived their relevance.Lest we forget, We humans existed before these religions, and we have lived through the period of religious dominance and are now rapidly evolving beyond the imposed fracture of religions. We are entering the Age of Humanity, shifting from a belief based existence to a knowledge based one. As a species we are discovering our 'Authentic Voice' as we decolonise our minds and assert our Human Dignity and integrity. Egypt, Tunisia etc are the most eloquent manifestations of this new Human Consciousness which transcends the social, political and religious fractures which to date has served to defined our reality. The Revolution in and of Humanity's Consciousness now enables us to speak of creating a 'Humane, Human Centred, and Human sensitive' civilisation. You suggest that I may be mistaken in pointing out the bloodthirsty nature of these religious tracts, may I in turn suggest you re-read the bible. You will come across many examples where God is supposed to have ordered the Jews to commit genocide, to kill men women, children and all Livestock etc if you read these books objectively , you can come to no other conclusion than that these books are simply tyranny codified, and serve to dumb us down.Merciful God you say, may I recommend you revisit your bible and read the following passages  Joshua 6:21, Deuteronomy 5, 20, Leviticus 20, Numbers 15,  31:18, Exodus 20, 34: 13-17 etc Finally if you wish I can send a more comprehensive list of contradictions inconsistencies, inaccuracies  in both the Bible and the Koran. As always Wadi'The Zima'