Interesting links

[Bahman]

[Man of Faith]

Salaam Bahman,

I thought I would reply to that post I talked about. It has taken too long already.

The clergy of Iran took advantage of a relatively incompetent shah (king) and an already mostly superstitious population. It was easily indoctrinated since education was lackluster and people could buy the ideas easily and the educational system be structured in such a way that it was safeguarded for the future and kept indoctrinating people. An Iranian can probably wake up at 4am in the morning and recite glorification hymns for the prophet and imams. This is brainwashed at school where the young children learn to parrot the hymns.

Translation of Quran according to your own opinion is the most common accusation people come up with. Of course it is easy to become biased by your own desire for what the text says, but if you are honest to yourself and the text then this is only a good decision to try the traditional interpretation. People are so stubbornly certain that the current interpretation necessarily has to be right. Putting the interpretation to the test while being honest then it is only good, especially when there is something in it which contradicts what GOD stands for. Then people should be suspicious and not only swallow it and think it is because you do not understand the (wicked) wisdom of GOD.

For a text that allegedly is supposed to follow up on the teachings of Jesus there is an awful lot of violence in it. I have seen indications that Q - T - L, the root word traditionally used to infer this in the text, does not even connote on killing or fighting but it probably means 'to argue'. Moses tried to argue with the 'Children of Israel' and Pharaoh's people, but fail and plotted against and was forced on the run. There is a source from a Jew named Josepheus who wrote a Greek historical reference of religion and he does not mention a word that Moses killed someone in Egypt/Mesr. On the other hand, he was plotted against and had to flee Egypt. He tried to convince the 'Children of Israel' about the knowledge of GOD but failed and thus why he returned with an on-demand leprous hand and "magical" staff and Aaron made a prophet too because of his eloquent speech to assist coordinating the Children of Israel.

If the writers of the main part of the 'Old Testament' in the Biblical scriptures used the qatal root for this you can easily see that they were compiled either by people ignorant of what the word means or the whole text is misinterpreted. There are signs that the Old Testament is not that old but rather written between year 0-700, although the source of the material such as the decre (Ten Commandments) may be transcribed from it. Part of the Old Testament is probably older though. I am just saying that the current sets of texts are not necessarily compiled before year 0.

The Greek Gospels were never part of some book called the Bible but something else.

Regarding the narrative of Jonah and the fish; well, it sounds a bit illogical to be honest if we apply reason based on scientific facts. One is that due to the fish being an undersea creature then Jonah would have suffocated to death very soon. It would require a deviation from the natural law if Jonah stayed alive for long inside of that fish. The digestive system of the fish would also begin breaking down his body and he would probably not have the consciousness to think of repentance except for a brief period and then the fish could hardly have spat him up on the shore since they were at sea.

Unless of course the real story is that he was regarded as a bad omen, thrown into the sea and while he drowned he somehow repented in such a way that GOD forgave and then the Holy Spirit put him back up on land (instant X miles transportation is easy for GOD).

Jesus was killed because he came with something controversial. He suggested that people should be in GOD and GOD in them. The clergy could not accept that because they had their Pagan perception of a distinctly separate GOD.

Salaam