Iqbal Latif

Marx was right about religion

I'd only add: the prophets themselves must've used some powerful cocktails, lol.

Incoherence of the Incoherent!!

Incoherence of the Holy Scriptures in events and personalities is at sharp contrast to rejection of ideas with reason and logic. Sciences progress with the death of an idea and a funeral takes off a new.

I will enigmatically point out to a strange dichotomy that I have written about a lot, i.e. the Prophets. The next prophet never discarded the principles of the old rather rehashed them and redefined the geography and incidences with his own juxtaposition.

What consumes my mind is the void and slow pace of human history and phase of discovery from 500 BC to 1600/1800 AD and the huge exponential growth from 1600 to 2011. I am obsessed with discoveries that led to the causes and origins of that massive exponential increase in rate of growth of our knowledge spectrum. If you want to discover those nations who failed, and those who progressed, just see the names from where the prophets of knowledge appeared in between ‘1600-2000.’ In between 1000-2000 AD, "Medieval theologians" have been singlehandedly responsible for the arrest of growth of knowledge in some geographical regions of the world.

Ideas should be rewarded, not persecuted. The idea-man should be loved, not condemned. When Galileo was condemned and arrested, the emphasis of science moved from Italy to Northern Europe. When in 1200 AD Ghazali arrested free will over philosophical dialogue of Averroes and introduced the concept of predestination as the favourite strain of Allah’s ideology, Middle East descended into a chaos which it has not recovered so far. History takes time but grinds very fine and destroys those who deny the flow of knowledge. 

The holy scriptures in succession tend to wean authority from the previous and tend to support the incoherence of the myths, though supportive of fables, but defining them for their own geography. The stories of Torah, Bible and Quran are not supportive of each other rather contradict each other, Newton negation of Aristotle made Aristotle even the greatest of beings.

//iranian.com/main/blog/iqbal-latif/power-knowledge-buck-stops-here 

There is no final word in our world!!

 Newton proved Aristotle wrong but the greatness of Aristotle stays in the mind of man and is part of cultural folklore.

Wrong Science in Barbaric Arab Islam

 Just few examples (there are many)

In the Qur'an, the entire universe is very small and contains
simply the earth and its surrounding heavens. There are no galaxies,
other solar systems, or such a thing as “outer space.” The earth is the
top-most of seven, flat discs, surrounded by the seven solid concentric
domes of the heavens. The celestial objects that do exist (sun, moon,
stars and planets) are quite small, very close, and they follow
semi-circular paths within the innermost of the seven heavenly domes.
When they are not in the sky above the earth, they are resting somewhere
underneath it, except while petitioning Allah’s permission to return
the following day (or night). Paradise exists between the seven heavens,
and hell exists between the seven earths. All of this is submerged in a
cosmic sea, above which is the throne of Allah.

As should be apparent by now, the Islamic faith stifles scientific
progress and nothing demonstrates this as well as the modern-day belief
that the Earth is flat. As recently as 1993 the supreme religious
authority of Saudi Arabia Sheik Abdul-Aziz Ibn Baaz declared "The earth is flat. Whoever claims it is round is an atheist deserving of punishment."and in a televised debate aired on Iraqi Al-Fayhaa TV (October 31, 2007), Muslim Researcher on Astronomy Fadhel Al-Sa'd
also declared that the Earth is flat as evidenced by Qur'anic verses
and that the sun is much smaller than the Earth and revolves around it. 
As devout Muslims, they have good reason to conclude the Earth is flat;
the Qur'anic verses 15:19, 20:53, 43:10, 50:7, 51:48, 71:19, 78:6,
79:30, 88:20 and 91:6 all clearly state this. While many apologists have
attempted to explain away this 'oddity' to fellow Muslims and
Westerners, they prey on their listeners ignorance of the Arabic
language. As such, their apologetic claims have been easily refuted by
native Arabic speakers. There is no escaping the fact that, according to
the Qur'an, the earth is flat as a pancake.

This article examines the evidence for Qur'anic geocentric cosmology.
Some may confuse geocentricism with the the idea that the Earth is
flat. This is not the case. These are two different ideas. Geocentrism
simply is the notion that the earth is the (immovable) center of our
universe, thus all celestial bodies mover around it. According to the
Qur'an, the Sun (and the moon and the five known planets) follow a
curved (rounded) course (a Falak). This falak starts in the east (where
the sun goes up), goes high above the earth and ends after sunset with
the Sun resting at night at a hidden place. All this took place around
an earth that was spread out and had a firmament built on invisible
pillars above it. This was a common belief at the time. Sahih
(authentic) hadiths affirm this geocentric cosmology (so Muhammad or at
least the people around him agree with it), and great ancient, and even
modern-day, Muslim astronomists agree that the Qur'an is geocentric. In
ancient times, many people - but certainly not all - did not know any
better than what they seemed to observe everyday: the sun appeared to be
going around the earth through our skies. We cannot blame a 7th
century Bedouin for not knowing this, but should not the omnipresent,
omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe know better?

The precise meaning of the opening phrases in verses 86 and 90 in the 18th
chapter of the Qur’an, Surah al-Kahf, or “The Cave”, is a matter of
considerable controversy. These verses occur within an account
concerning a powerful figure called Dhu’l Qarnayn, “the two-horned one”,
who Allah guides on a series of three fantastic journeys in Qur’an
18:83-101. They are controversial due to Muslim sensitivity to claims
that they have Allah saying that the sun sets and rises in physical
locations on or at the edges of Earth.

Our analysis shows that the various interpretations that have
been proposed for verses 18:86 and 18:90 in the Qur’an to reconcile them
with scientific facts do not stand up to detailed scrutiny. The
evidence overwhelmingly supports the clear and obvious interpretation
that this is intended to be understood as a historical account in which
Dhu’l Qarnayn traveled until he reached the place where the sun sets and
actually found that it went down into a muddy spring near to where a
people were, and that he then traveled until he reached the place where
the sun rises and actually found that it rose up above a people who
lived close to the place where the sun rises.

 According to Islamic
rules, the length of a fast is governed by the rising and the setting of
the sun. This can cause a huge problem for those who live close to
these poles. The closer we get to the poles, the longer our days or
nights become. They can eventually extend for up to several months each,
making the fourth Pillar of Islam impossible to practice without
starving yourself to death. Obviously Muhammad was unaware of the poles.

Islamic scriptures and scholars have much to say in regards to the cosmology of the universe.

Science backs god with numbers?

@Science backs god with numbers.

In ''Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe.'' Rees 

Our whole Universe is governed by just six numbers, set at the time of the Big Bang. Alter any one of them at your peril, for stars, planets and humans would then not exist. These six numbers constitute a 'recipe' for a universe. Moreover, the outcome is sensitive to their values: if any one of them were to be 'untuned', there would be no stars and no life. Is this tuning just a brute fact, a coincidence? Or is it the providence of a benign Creator? I take the view that it is neither. An infinity of other universes may well exist where the numbers are different. Most would be stillborn or sterile.

In ''Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe,'' Rees states that he does not interpret the fine tuning of universal constants to an intelligent designer but rather supports the notion of a "multiuniverse". Just Six Numbers is a well-written introduction into the forces that shape our existence. The book focuses on 6 fundamental constants in the universe and how key the values of these numbers are towards the universe and life ever coming into being.

Our religious convictions are the product of our birth. Born to a Hindu family we would probably be a Hindu or in a Muslim family mostly a Muslim. In science, one is not born in a region to adhere to a certain definite belief set. There is no region of the world where you can see mindless predominant following of Aristotle, Newton, or Einstein. Yet, those regions where science helped to develop tools of progress are regions where theories of sciences and philosophy are well treasured. Where Newton is respected, logic and rationalism has survived and progressed by leaps and bounds, toleration in those regions is admirably better. Regions, where pre-dominant thinking and learning of scriptures is considered as divine progress, stand still, and with poverty of mind that dominates the landscape material hazards make the life of inhabitants miserable.

''I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.

I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.

I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.

With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.

Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.

Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.

I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.

Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else."

Rumi

 Renaissance can only be possible if minds are free; renaissance is about freedom of expression in literature, architecture, arts, deconstruction of myths and chiselling of the marble to exquisite forms. Michelangelo was icon of such freedom.

Sistine Chapel 'Creation' or 'David ' could only be created through the 'freedom of mind' ; an enslaved mind cannot be an artist or a creator. Enslaved man can be a revolutionary and many a enslave people have helped changed the world but their minds were free they accepted death instead of compromise with totalitarian or dogmatic despotism of clergy.

Michelangelo was icon of such freedom. Sistine Chapel 'Creation' or 'David ' could only be created through the 'freedom of mind' ; an enslaved mind cannot be an artist or a creator. Enslaved man can be a revolutionary and many a enslave people have helped changed the world but their minds were free they accepted death instead of compromise with totalitarian or dogmatic despotism of clergy.

Paraphrased statement of Karl Marx

{"Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of Karl Marx.  It was translated from the German original, "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" and is often referred to as "religion is the opiate of the masses."}

Source: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people