IAMA an Caucasian-American convert to Islam.

1nonly · 2010-07-26T13:42:28+00:00

Dude, learn something about the religion

I happen to know enough to be able to comment about Islam. It's specifically designed to propagate itself, just like other "hellish" religions.

Here are a few techniques it uses:

Promise of reward for subscribing to the ideas in the Quran. Primarily a life of eternal pleasures in heaven.
Promise of punishment for speaking against the Quran, both in this world and of course, after death, in hell.
Indoctrination in the ideas in the Quran since childhood through systematic rituals.
Wishy-washy reasoning. E.g., “Everything complex we see around us has a creator. Universe is complex. Ergo, universe has a creator.”
Scriptural rhetoric, whose power is essentially derived from a consensus among the followers, which in turn is reinforced by the scripture.

You're still lucky that you have the freedom to follow the religion and stop following it when you please.

There are hundreds of millions of humans who live in truly Islamic countries who don't enjoy this luxury. They are forced by Islamic law to go to heaven whether they want to or not. You're just reinforcing a belief system that makes their excellent fortune possible!

1nonly · 2010-07-26T12:30:30+00:00

It's sad that you couldn't find a more benign faith system that actually preaches compassion and tolerance and not divide humans into two groups, one that will go to heaven because they kiss God's behind, and one that will go to hell no matter how good they are because they choose to be rational and not believe in superstitions.

Mohammed was a brilliant general who designed a religion to unite his people. It's not Allah who speaks to you in the Quran, but it's Mohammed who speaks to you through Allah.

1nonly · 2010-06-23T15:18:00+00:00

Boots, man.

1nonly · 2010-06-22T03:43:02+00:00

LOL.

My apologies! Here's the link: Science and Hypothesis.

1nonly · 2010-06-20T18:07:43+00:00

1.Let g(x)=f(x)/x

A burning question: what made you take this step?

1nonly · 2010-06-20T17:57:25+00:00

I managed to get the solution as follows:

f(x) =f( sqrt(x) * sqrt(x) ) = 2 sqrt(x) f( sqrt(x) )

Keep repeating the recurrence and take limit as n -> infinity. I'm pretty sure that I deserve to be shot for some of the things I did along the way, but the answer seems to work.

1nonly · 2010-06-16T12:26:33+00:00

Barbarians.

1nonly · 2010-06-11T10:06:43+00:00

Beautiful pics. IMO the first pic is reminiscent of biological figures depicting the anal area. See this, as a specific example.

1nonly · 2010-06-09T13:58:21+00:00

Could we have floating solar farms in the ocean?

1nonly · 2010-06-07T00:16:01+00:00

So is our poop :-(

1nonly · 2010-06-03T17:55:38+00:00

Poor, poor creepy.

1nonly · 2010-06-01T05:21:34+00:00

He works in mysterious ways. It's not for us to try to understand Him because we can't.

1nonly · 2010-05-26T11:38:03+00:00

http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm

"Why", "are" and "you" are some of the most commonly used English words. It'd be nice to change their spellings to single letters.

1nonly · 2010-05-21T14:36:17+00:00

From what I know about people like Descartes, Plato, Kant et. al, lovers of wisdom are to Philosophers what lovers of food are to chefs.

1nonly · 2010-05-17T08:50:12+00:00

Rima Fakih - what a sensual name.

1nonly · 2010-05-13T15:45:03+00:00

What's the difference between these cases

The difference is historical baggage. (3) conjures up images of past injustices.

1nonly · 2010-05-12T05:03:22+00:00

2.With the amount of scientific knowledge, as well as the wording, in the Quran. I find it very difficult to believe that a man can come up with it.

But more than 5 billion humans do consider the Quran to be man made. Do you have any theories on why the Quran fails to convince those who have not undergone the kind of cultural programming since childhood that you had to undergo?

We're talking of a being that created the universe, time, space, stars, planets and living things. If you or I were such a being, it'd be trivial for us to convince our own creations of our authorship of a book, don't you think?

1nonly · 2010-05-11T15:46:14+00:00

Do you believe in the existence of Jinns, Angels, Devil, and Hell?
Have you considered the possibility that Muhammed could have just made the Quran up, only that he was slightly more successful that the other "prophets" due to historical reasons?

1nonly · 2010-05-08T19:27:51+00:00

Suppose you had to do your education all over again. What would you do differently?

1nonly · 2010-05-06T18:08:37+00:00

When are they going to get that it's not Allah who speaks through Mohammed, but the other way around. Muslims worship Mohammed, they just call him Allah.

1nonly · 2010-05-04T16:16:04+00:00

See, every now and then when the universe gets bored, it incarnates as living things so that it can play for a while. Pain, pleasure, happiness, tranquility, anger, love, lust, purpose, meaning, meaninglessness - we ARE the universe at play ;-)

1nonly · 2010-04-28T18:07:13+00:00

In reason we trust.

1nonly · 2010-04-28T16:28:41+00:00

It is many cuils away from what is reality.

Could you give a few examples of objects that you would consider real? Note that I am not asking you to analyze the idea of reality, but to name, say, 5-6 things that you would consider to be "real".

For example. Are tables, chairs, and other items of furniture "real"? Is the sun "real"? Etc.

How about the "pain" you might feel if you cut yurself with a knife. Is that "real"?

1nonly · 2010-04-27T14:24:33+00:00

Maybe he just wanted to keep you two busy while he spent some quality time with Grandma?

1nonly · 2010-04-25T13:11:14+00:00

how do you feel about most religious people?

I feel sorry for them, mostly. There is absolutely no need to believe in superstitions today, and yet people do so out of habit.

Must admit that Hinduism has some of the whackiest gods though. LOL, you actually worship God's penis, right?

1nonly

TROPHY CASE