On the terrible ambiguity of religion

Most of the Christians and Muslims I know maintain that their Gods are all about love. They say only extremists who misinterpret The New Testament and the Quran are intolerant and violent. Yet here we go:

"Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." (The New Testament, Matthew 12:32)

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (The New Testament, Mark 16:16)

"He may reward those who believe and do good works with equity; while, as for those who disbelieve, theirs will be a boiling drink and painful doom because they disbelieved." (The Quran, Yunus 3)

How can one interpret this as the pronouncements of a god of love? And if we are going to pick and choose what we like from these books, why not make our own principles, and leave the holy books aside once and for all???

A beginning

When the bubble formed I happened to end up too close to its outer edge, which sliced through both my legs and part of my right arm. I had a computer on my lap and was sitting on a sofa, typing away, and so I lost the outer half of the arm, including most of the shoulder and elbow joints, with my humerus being almost perfectly halved along its length. The curvature of the bubble wall meant that the upper part of my ulna was left behind, too, although my wrist was not compromised. As for my legs, I lost part of the right hip, most of the right leg except for a flap of flesh in my inner thigh, and my left leg, some five centimeters below my knee.






The cocoon I was in was one of six that contained human genetic material, albeit minus a few parts. That's because w

Al-Fatiha

Copied from wikipedia:

"The Al-Fatiha Foundation is an organization which advances the cause of gay, lesbian and transgender Muslims. It was founded in 1998 by Faisal Alam, a Pakistani American, and is registered as a nonprofit organization in the United States.

The name means "the Opening". The organization was an offshoot of an internet listserve that brought together many gay, lesbian, and questioning Muslims from various countries. Al-Fatiha has 14 chapters in the United States, as well as offices in England, Canada, Spain, Turkey and South Africa.

In 2001, Al-Muhajiroun, an international organization seeking the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate, issued a fatwa declaring that all members of Al-Fatiha were murtadd, or apostates, and condemning them to death. Because of the threat and coming from conservative societies, many members of the foundation's site still prefer to be anonymous so as to protect their identity while continuing a tradition of secrecy."

Anyways, after that introduction, what I wanted to write in here is a transcription of this beautiful and fitting fragment of a speech given by Al-Fatiha's leader, Faisal Alam:

" There was a companion of the prophet that came to the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, and said: 'Oh, prophet of Allah, what do you do when someone is being oppressed, when you see suffering in front of your own eyes? What should you do?'

The prophet replied: 'Stop it with your hands.'

So the companion replied: 'What if I can’t stop it with my hands? What if my hands are tied?'

The prophet replied: 'Speak out with your tongue.'

So the companion replied: 'What if our tongues are also tied? What if we cannot speak out?'

And the prophet replied: 'Then, at least, feel in your heart that the injustice that is being done is wrong.' "

I do feel it in my heart.