Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the last couple of weeks you know that portions of the Islamic world seem to have taken leave of their senses.
To explain (just in case you in fact haven’t been following things), some loon here in the US created a piece of trash (calling it film) that portrays the prophet Mohammed in less than favorable light. I don’t think it’s even been released yet, but in anticipation of same, fundamental (fanatical?) Muslims around the world have been rioting in protest of their beloved prophet being portrayed in less than favorable light.
This post isn’t about freedom of speech, nor whether or not this goofball who created the film should have thought better of it, should have seen this coming, or any number of other possible topics. I may get to them at some future point, but right now, and in light of my last few posts, this brings to my mind at least a remarkable lack of critical thinking skills being demonstrated by these fundamental Muslims, and what we can observe about religion and religiosity in general.
The main thing that strikes me is that evidently, lots of people who profess tremendous faith in God appear to believe that the most powerful being in the universe needs to be protected from insult, which can apparently be carried out by a bunch of Neanderthals burning down neighborhoods, trashing cars and breaking windows. It seems to me that God should be able to put a stop to anything that offends him in a heartbeat (literally). If God is the most powerful being in the universe (as most fundamental religions would proclaim), then why on earth would He need these thugs to protect His reputation? Now I get that they’re rioting not over an insult to Allah, but instead a perceived insult to the prophet. I think it’s safe to say however, that they think the connection between their prophet and their god was so close that an insult to one was the same as an insult to the other, so in my mind the cause of the rioting is the same.
Fortunately, here in the US we don’t see people rioting over insults to a Biblical figure, or even directly to God, so one might be forgiven a bit of a superior attitude on the part of staunch Christians here, until you recall that we’ve had people who somehow thought that God required them to murder an abortion doctor. I understand they believed they were avenging innocent lives, but again, if the purpose here was to “do God’s will,” then why couldn’t God take care of matters Himself by zapping the abortion doctor? The more I think about it, the more this whole notion of “doing God’s will” seems to not make much sense. If God really cared, why wouldn’t He do whatever it is He wants done? The Bible is full of stories where He did, if we’re to believe what we read, so why all of a sudden does He need our help?
One of three things appears to have to be true: either these folks are presuming to do God’s work for Him (which sounds pretty arrogant to me), or deep down, they don’t believe Him to be capable of doing it for Himself (which wouldn’t fit with the notion of an all-powerful God). Or He doesn’t care.
Whatever else might be going on, it looks to me like a little application of some critical thinking skills might be in order.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
Bad craziness in the name of God
Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the last couple of weeks you know that portions of the Islamic world seem to have taken leave of their senses.
To explain (just in case you in fact haven’t been following things), some loon here in the US created a piece of trash (calling it film) that portrays the prophet Mohammed in less than favorable light. I don’t think it’s even been released yet, but in anticipation of same, fundamental (fanatical?) Muslims around the world have been rioting in protest of their beloved prophet being portrayed in less than favorable light.
This post isn’t about freedom of speech, nor whether or not this goofball who created the film should have thought better of it, should have seen this coming, or any number of other possible topics. I may get to them at some future point, but right now, and in light of my last few posts, this brings to my mind at least a remarkable lack of critical thinking skills being demonstrated by these fundamental Muslims, and what we can observe about religion and religiosity in general.
The main thing that strikes me is that evidently, lots of people who profess tremendous faith in God appear to believe that the most powerful being in the universe needs to be protected from insult, which can apparently be carried out by a bunch of Neanderthals burning down neighborhoods, trashing cars and breaking windows. It seems to me that God should be able to put a stop to anything that offends him in a heartbeat (literally). If God is the most powerful being in the universe (as most fundamental religions would proclaim), then why on earth would He need these thugs to protect His reputation? Now I get that they’re rioting not over an insult to Allah, but instead a perceived insult to the prophet. I think it’s safe to say however, that they think the connection between their prophet and their god was so close that an insult to one was the same as an insult to the other, so in my mind the cause of the rioting is the same.
Fortunately, here in the US we don’t see people rioting over insults to a Biblical figure, or even directly to God, so one might be forgiven a bit of a superior attitude on the part of staunch Christians here, until you recall that we’ve had people who somehow thought that God required them to murder an abortion doctor. I understand they believed they were avenging innocent lives, but again, if the purpose here was to “do God’s will,” then why couldn’t God take care of matters Himself by zapping the abortion doctor? The more I think about it, the more this whole notion of “doing God’s will” seems to not make much sense. If God really cared, why wouldn’t He do whatever it is He wants done? The Bible is full of stories where He did, if we’re to believe what we read, so why all of a sudden does He need our help?
One of three things appears to have to be true: either these folks are presuming to do God’s work for Him (which sounds pretty arrogant to me), or deep down, they don’t believe Him to be capable of doing it for Himself (which wouldn’t fit with the notion of an all-powerful God). Or He doesn’t care.
Whatever else might be going on, it looks to me like a little application of some critical thinking skills might be in order.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.