FLAT EARTHERS!

Right wing fundamentalist Christians believe the world was created 7000 years ago and that there is no such thing as evolution. I lot of the really "die hard" (sorry Bruce!) adherents even still believe that the world is FLAT!!!

Are they idiots? To put it very bluntly and crudely......... Yes they are!

BUT! They aren't the only ones kids, NOOOOOOO SIR!

The Koran can fuck-you-up just as bad as the Bible any day of the week!

Here is a Muslim religious guy and a Muslim scientist with an opinion on how the world works............ and there ain't no difference between them and what we get here in the the Christian world. Nope!



Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

Islamic Reformation!

It's always darkest before the dawn is true in more ways than one. We have Islamist terrorists on one hand and guys like this on the other.

A very inspirational piece that bears repeating here!

GUEST POST: Losing My Jihadism, Opinion - Mansour al-Nogaidan
The Washington Post:

Islam needs a Reformation. It needs someone with the courage of Martin Luther.

This is the belief I’ve arrived at after a long and painful spiritual journey. It’s
not a popular conviction — it has attracted angry criticism, including death threats, from many sides. But it was reinforced by Sept. 11, 2001, and in the years since, I’ve only become more convinced that it is critical to Islam’s future.

Muslims are too rigid in our adherence to old, literal interpretations of the Koran.

It’s time for many verses — especially those having to do with relations between Islam and other religions — to be reinterpreted in favor of a more modern Islam.

Daniel Shayesteh talks about his former life as a member of the Islamic Fundamentalist Revolutionary Movement, Teacher of Islam and his new life now as a Christian.

Research resources on Islam. It’s time to accept that God loves the faithful of all religions.

It’s time for Muslims to question our leaders and their strict teachings, to reach our own understanding of the prophet’s words and to call for a bold renewal of our faith as a faith of goodwill, of peace and of light.

I didn’t always think this way. Once, I was one of the extremists who clung to literal interpretations of Islam and tried to force them on others. I was a jihadist.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia. When I was 16, I found myself assailed by doubts about the existence of God. I prayed to God to give me the strength to overcome them.

I made a deal with Him: I would give up everything, devote myself to Him and live the way the prophet Muhammad and his companions had lived 1,400 years ago if He would rid me of my doubts.

I joined a hard-line Salafi group. I abandoned modern life and lived in a mud hut, apart from my family. Viewing modern education as corrupt and immoral, I joined a circle of scholars who taught the Islamic sciences in the classical way, just as they had been taught 1,200 years ago.

My involvement with this group led me to violence, and landed me in prison. In 1991, I took part in firebombing video stores in Riyadh and a women’s center in my home town of Buraidah, seeing them as symbols of sin in a society that was marching rapidly toward modernization.

Yet all the while, my doubts remained. Was the Koran really the word of God? Had it really been revealed to Muhammad, or did he create it himself? But I never shared these doubts with anyone, because doubting Islam or the prophet is not tolerated in the Muslim society of my country.

By the time I turned 26, much of the turmoil in me had abated, and I made my peace with God. At the same time, my eyes were opened to the hypocrisy of so many who held themselves out as Muslim role models.

I saw Islamic judges ignoring the marks of torture borne by my prison comrades. I learned of Islamic teachers who molested their students. I heard devout Muslims who never missed the five daily prayers lying with ease to people who did not share their extremist beliefs.

In 1999, when I was working as an imam at a Riyadh mosque, I happened upon two books that had a profound influence on me.

One, written by a Palestinian scholar, was about the struggle between those who deal pragmatically with the Koran and those who take it and the hadith literally.

The other was a book by a Moroccan philosopher about the formation of the Arab Muslim way of thinking.

The books inspired me to write an article for a Saudi newspaper arguing that Muslims have the right to question and criticize our religious leaders and not to take everything they tell us for granted. We owe it to ourselves, I wrote, to think pragmatically if our religion is to survive and thrive.

That article landed me in the center of a storm. Some men in my mosque refused to greet me. Others would no longer pray behind me. Under this pressure, I left the mosque.

I moved to the southern city of Abha, where I took a job as a writer and editor with a newly established newspaper.

I went back to leading prayers at the paper’s small mosque and to writing about my evolving philosophy. After I wrote articles stressing our right as Muslims to question our Saudi clerics and their interpretations and to come up with our own, officials from the kingdom’s powerful religious establishment complained, and I was banned from writing.

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gave new life to what I had been saying.

I went back to criticizing the rote manner in which we Muslims are fed our religion.

I criticized al-Qaeda’s school of thought, which considers everyone who isn’t a Salafi Muslim the enemy.

I pointed to examples from Islamic history that stressed the need to get along with other religions. I tried to give a new interpretation to the verses that call for enmity between Muslims and Christians and Jews.

I wrote that they do not apply to us today and that Islam calls for friendship among all religions.

I lost a lot of friends after that. My old companions from the jihad felt obliged to declare themselves either with me or against me.

Some preferred to cut their links to me silently, but others fought me publicly, issuing statements filled with curses and lies. Once again, the paper came under great pressure to ban my writing.

I became a favorite target on the Internet, where my writings were lambasted and labeled blasphemous.

Eventually I was fired. But by then, I had started to develop a different relationship with God. I felt that He was moving me toward another kind of belief, where all that matters is that we pray to God from the heart.

I continued to pray, but I started to avoid the verses that contain violence or enmity and only used the ones that speak of God’s mercy and grace and greatness.

I remembered an incident when the prophet told a Bedouin who didn’t know how to pray to let go of the verses and simply to think of God and get closer to Him by repeating, “God is good, God is great.” Don’t sweat the details, the prophet said.

I felt at peace, and no longer doubted the existence of God.

In December 2002, in a Web site interview, I criticized al-Qaeda and declared that some of the Friday sermons were loathsome because of their attacks against non-Muslims.

Within days, a fatwa was posted online, calling me an infidel and saying that I should be killed. Once again, I felt despair at the ways of the Muslim world.

Two years later, I told al-Arabiya television that I thought God loves all faithful people of different religions. That earned me a fatwa from the mufti of Saudi Arabia declaring my infidelity.

But one evening not long after that, I heard a radio broadcast of the verse of light.

Even though I had memorized the Koran at 15, I felt as though I was hearing this verse for the first time. God is light, it says, the universe is illuminated by His light. I felt the verse was speaking directly to me, sending me a message.

This God of light, I thought, how could He be against any human? The God of light would not be happy to see people suffer, even if they had sinned and made mistakes along the way.

I had found my Islam. And I believe that others can find it, too. But first we need a Reformation similar to the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luther led against the Roman Catholic Church.

In the late 14th century, Islam had its own sort of Martin Luther. Ibn Taymiyya was an Islamic scholar from a hard-line Salafi sect who went through a spiritual crisis and came to believe that in time, God would close the gates of hell and grant all humans, regardless of their religion, entry to his everlasting paradise.

Unlike Luther, however, Ibn Taymiyya never openly declared this revolutionary belief; he shared it only with a small, trusted circle of students.

Nevertheless, I find myself inspired by Luther’s courageous uprising. I see what Islam needs — a strong, charismatic personality who will lead us toward reform, and scholars who can convince Islamic communities of the need for a bold new interpretation of Islamic texts, to reconcile us with the wider world.

Mansour al-Nogaidan writes for the Bahraini newspaper Al-Waqt.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 at www.God-101.com

German judge denounced for citing Quran.

Politicians and Muslim leaders condemned a German judge Thursday for citing the Qur'an in her rejection of a Muslim woman's request for a quick divorce on grounds she was abused by her husband.

Judge Christa Datz-Winter said in a recommendation earlier this year both partners came from a "Moroccan cultural environment in which it is not uncommon for a man to exert a right of corporal punishment over his wife."

The judge argued her case was not one of exceptional hardship in which fast-track divorce proceedings would be justified. When the woman protested, Datz-Winter cited a passage from the Qur'an to back up her argument that reads in part: "Men are in charge of women."

The judge was removed from the case and the Frankfurt administrative court said it is considering disciplinary measures against her.

Court vice-president Bernhard Olp said Thursday the judge "regrets that the impression arose that she approves of violence in marriage."

Olp said the judge was convinced she was doing everything she could to protect the woman, who had been granted a restraining order against her husband.

Olp said her reasoning was unacceptable but insisted it was a "one-time event" that would not have an effect on other cases, or on the final ruling in the divorce proceedings.

Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries condemned the judge's decision. "Every so often, there are individual rulings that seem completely incomprehensible," she said.

Legislators from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said traditional Islamic law, or Shariah, has no place in Germany."The legal and moral concepts of Shariah have nothing to do with German jurisprudence," Wolfgang Bosbach, a legislator with the Christian Democrats, told N24 television.

"One thing must be clear: in Germany, only German law applies. Period."

Ronald Pofalla, the party's general secretary, told Bild newspaper: "When the Qur'an is put above the German constitution, I can only say, 'Goodnight, Germany.'"

Representatives of Germany's Muslim population were also critical of the ruling.
"Violence and abuse of people — whether against men or women — are, of course, naturally reasons to warrant a divorce in Islam, as well," the country's Central Council of Muslims said in a statement.

Your "give him 20 lashes" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Peek-a-boo

We are still seeing the constroversy over British M.P.'s Jack Straw's comment that women who come into his office should not wear a "face veil." (Niqab, Burqa)

There were three Muslim women on C.B.C. Television this morning who argued the different points of modesty amongst the faithfull.


One was dressed in normal Western style, one had a head scarf and the third wore a "face veil," or Niqab.

The woman who was covered up completely argued that this allowed her to maintain dignity and respect from other men and let her be judged by her intellect and personality rather than on any physical attributes.



She went on to say that it was written in the Koran that she should be covered and that she was in accordance with God's teachings.

The sad fact of the matter is that this poor woman has been sold a bill of goods by the males in her culture and bought into it completely.

First of all, nowhere in the Koran does it say that women should cover themselves with the Niqab, (veil) or Burqa (veil and mesh).

All it says in the Koran is that both men and women should dress modestly and that women should wear the veil over their "bossoms!"

Anything else is a complete fabrication by the males in her culture.

The Middle Eastern "man" is generally a mysogynistic, pridefull, self centered person who is full of himself and his "machismo."

They have a culture that thrives on the exploitation and subjugation of women and will do anything in their power to maintain the "status quo!"

Many years ago someone got the bright idea that not only should women cover themselves modestly, but should also hide behind veils and clothing so that no other man could look upon "his" women (plural too!) in a lustfull way.

They were there for him and no one else!

To perpetrate this myth that females should be covered, men started to tell women that it was "God's will" that they completely cover up to remain pious and faithfull adherents of Islam.

The women, being physically weaker and not in a position to object, were made to comply!

Over the years this has once again proved that old axiom; "Tell people something enough times, with enough conviction, they will believe just about anything!

Your Scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html

It IS what it IS! Isn't it?

Reading on the subject of Holy Scripture, whether in the Bible or Koran, I ran across dozens of essays and articles giving different opinions on what exactly is written in the Holy Books.

To make a long story short and "get things into perspective here,"
I noticed that time and again, without fail, passages from both books were explained and brought in line with doctrine by apologists who stated that they were mis-interpreted!

This is the common denominator I found in everything I read:

"No, it doesn't say that, it was mis-interpreted."
"It should be looked at in it's proper context!"
"MY interpretation!"

Then, "voila," a spin was put on it and the offending piece was brought into line with the proper dogma and doctorine.

Everything was subject to the correct "Interpretation,"

It wasn't the "Word of God" or anything irrefutable.
It was dependent on what people "interpreted" it to mean.

Nothing Divine there, just human wants, needs and hidden agenda's!

** God inspired the bible, he didn't write it.
People base their lives around the manic scribbling
of a bunch of desert baked primitives who ate bugs and honey! Of course they saw God!

In other words-you can make it mean whatever you want-
then just go nuts from there!

Your Scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Boy, did we get it wrong!

We have a major problem on our hands as North Americans and non-Muslims.
Simply stated – they- (Extreme Muslim Fundamentalists) want us (and everyone else) converted to Islam or dead.

This problem will not go away in our lifetimes.

I can see some young people in the Middle East who are poor, impoverished, stupid and ignorant, being indoctrinated by these religious extremists.

What REALLY gets me though is the fact that there are some well educated people living in North America and Europe who also believe this crap the fundamentalist put out. The most recent example are the 17 "youths" in Toronto who were arrested under terrorists charges. Toronto, of all places!!!!!

This is twelfth century thinking, and anyone who lives in the twenty first century and still buys into it is seriously bent!

And I mean SERIOUSLY! A.W.J.

I think people should understand what is in the Koran to understand what is happening in the world.

The Koran calls for all Muslims to fight and kill infidels, i.e. non-Muslims. This guarantees you into heaven. In fact, in Islam that is one of the best guarantees into heaven. According to the Koran you can live a good life, help people, and be exemplary in every respect, and still you have to be judged by Allah. Kill some infidels and you are in - guaranteed.

The language and words in the Koran are clear unlike some of the stories in the Bible. The argument some people have is that these terrorists are somehow “twisting Islam”, but that is not the case at all - they are following Islam and what is written in the Koran. Fully 60% of the writings in the Koran deal with killing, fighting, and jihad.

While it is true that the vast majority of all Muslims do not kill innocents or believe that it is right, these Muslims are not “Good Muslims!” This is according to the Fundamentalist Extremists, who say that the majority do not follow the Koran to the letter. (Their letter!)

Most people say that there are passages that promote peace and love and harmony with other religions in the Koran - this is true, however, these are Muhammad’s early writings and the top Islamic Fundamentalist Scholars have declared that Muhammad’s later, more aggressive statements supersede these earlier peaceful tolerant writings.

Remember that many of the 9/11 hijackers were well educated and came from reasonably affluent families. I suspect that the folks who planted explosives on the subway cars in London and the train in Spain fit a similar profile.

An article by Lee Harris provides an interesting and somewhat chilling insight into the terrorist attack of 911 and those that followed. Harris maintains that these attacks have the characteristics of a blood feud rather than those of a war.
(SEE THE BLOG ON BLOOD FUEDS "THE LOGIC BEHIND ARAB THINKING")

We already knew that the so-called war on fundamentalist terror would be a long term affair and "Yes it’s twelfth (or eighth) century thinking, and yes, it’s tribal, but do they hate us because of our freedom and Western Values?" NO! They probably hate us because we are, to the fundamentalists, simply infidel crusaders.

Remember, they carry their grudges a long, long time!

Your humble scribe
Allan W Janssen

Let's get things back into perspective here!

The fact that we can examine ourselves thinking, (Like mentally looking in a mirror) is one of the great mysteries. This, along with the existence of God, the process of evolution, and much more in the metaphysical sphere are questions that do not easily lend themselves to interpretation.

Not to take anything away from the Eastern Philosophies, (Since they probably have a better handle on things than most Western Religions) but these are answers we mistakenly try and understand from a here and now point of view. As long as we look at these questions from a materialistic, egocentric point of view I dont't think we will find an answer.

Perhaps the question "Is there a God" or better yet, "What is God?" are areas that we are not meant to address in this life. They could, by their very nature, be unanswerable.

(Here we go, now everyone is going to tell me THEY have the answer. Save your breath, unless you have a REALLY bad Messianic Complex!)

The point is, perhaps we should be more concerned with attaining a "State of Grace" in this life, and then sitting back to see where it leads us in the next! Remember..(from my book God-101) When all else fails, the simple solution is usually the correct one! OR If you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras!

Why can't some of you people LISTEN instead of grabbing anything at all as an excuse to once again spout your bullshit nonsense. Listen to me please, I don't need doubletalking, assinine, convoluted, self absorbed, deluded rants to make me see the light!

The truth is not in the Bible or the Koran. (Or the Bhagavad-Gita for that matter!) They should all be thrown in the garbage because they were written by sun-baked, wandering nomads who mostly ate bugs and honey..... of course they saw God!!!!

God is not in a book because that is other people trying to tell you what is right and what is wrong. You are not going to find paradise by listening to 2000 year old, hallucinating, camel jockeys.

KEEP IT SIMPLE! Don't jump through hoops trying to explain the infinite. Don't manufacture all these grand theories on the nature of God. Centainly don't sit there and try and second guess what God wants, and CERTAINLY don't tell me that you know what God wants ME to do!

I don't think it's our job to probe these questions yet. When we are ready they will be revealed. But they will be revealed to EVERYONE.

I think God is big enough that he doesn't need translaters. Remember-the simple solution is usually the correct one! God is love!!!!

In other words, God is within you and no one should ever come between. If we must refer to religious texts I would like to quote from the Book "God-101" once more.

One of the core sayings of Jesus was "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say 'Lo, here it is!' or 'There!' For behold, that kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Jesus tells us quite clearly that the "Kingdom of God" is not a coming kingdom, or a future kingdom, but rather something already in amongst his disciples.

It is not a place, but rather a state of mind! Or, to quote James Breech once more: "Your concept of the kingdom of God, whether it belongs to the future mythological conceived, in either eschatological or apocalyptic terms, misses the reality of the kingdom. The symbolism really refers to a power that is a basic factor in human experience!"

** The foundation of Christian ideology revolves around "Love" for one and another. To understand this we need to define exactly how the term or meaning of "Love" is used!

In the first instance, there is the true Christian "Love" which means it is rooted in the power of the kingdom of God. This is the "Love" that the historical Jesus preached to his followers.

The second type of Christian "love" (small L) is defined solely as an ethical idea that was propagated by the spreading Christian faith in trying to define the words of Christ.

Nietzsche probably best defined this form of Christian 'love' as a masked feeling of pity or charity. In other words, we feel sorry for others and from this superior moral ground to lend a helping hand.

Nietzsche claims that Christian 'pity' (love) is a device used by those who are not themselves truly vital and alive to obtain a perverse elevation of their own position by undermining others. In other words, "I can make myself feel better by thinking you or someone else is worse-off and deserving of "love.” We often confuse the feeling of Christian "love" for someone with:

1. Pity for them.
2. Humanitarianism-or a love of Mankind.
3. Altruism, or self denial, and
4. Sentimentalism, or wanting to be with others.

These concepts of “love" have been re-enforced over and over again in the Bible through one story or another.

What Jesus actually said was something much more basic and infinitely harder to achieve. The historical Jesus did not urge us to love Mankind or to feel pity for someone else.

He did not tell us to deny ourselves for someone else's sake, or flagellate ourselves, or even to enjoy another’s company!

What He did say was pure and simple and straight to the point, "Love one another.” This sort of Love is not the altruistic love of Mankind, nor the possessive love for our mate, but rather, something that requires hard work, tenacity, and sacrifice.

It is easy to love your wife or husband, child or parent, but to Love your neighbor (or stranger) is a task that is never ending and always requires effort.

It is a Love that seems to have no immediate benefit and is therefore not practiced by many people. However, in the long run, this is what will make Humanity rise up to it is potential and approach what Jesus referred to as the "Kingdom of God (Father).”

This is not something that is to be expected in the near, or far, future. Rather, it was a state of being that is present at this time, and only has to be observed and followed in order to achieve a state of Grace.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book "The Plain Truth About God-101' (what the church doesn't want you to know!)