Archive for the 'religion' Category

Islamic societies and the economics of ignorance, part 2

Published by davinci on March 12, 2011 in politics, reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

(Continued from part 1.)

If you are a believing Muslim with no intention of actually evaluating the veracity of your beliefs against the evidence, then there is probably nothing I can say to convince you that Islam is not true. But that is not the purpose of this series of posts.

There are plenty of places on the Internet where many people have written extensively about their reasons for rejecting the claims of Islam, which you can easily find for yourself. You may be aware that almost all educated non-Muslims who have studied your religion do not convert into it, and perhaps you think that this is only because they are prejudiced, ignorant, or obstinate… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Islamic societies and the economics of ignorance, part 1
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 13
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Islamic societies and the economics of ignorance, part 1

Published by davinci on February 22, 2011 in politics, reflections on religion and religion. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

In this previous post and in my “About me” page, I wrote about my interest in and ideas on the effects of information and communication technologies on Islamic societies. Since the current widespread anti-government protests in the Middle East are being described in some quarters with such terms as “Twitter Revolution” and “Facebook Revolution”, now is a good time to revisit this topic… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. Islamic societies and the economics of ignorance, part 2
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The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, conclusion and overview

Published by davinci on November 9, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 19 is here.)

As I wrote in the beginning, the fact that there is not a single shred of evidence in the entirety of recorded human history supporting a religion which came from outsiders to the religion, and especially not from anyone not in contact with its believers, is one of the strongest arguments that religion is a human creation. All of the evidence provided by religion for supernatural beings are compatible with the thesis that they do not exist outside of the human imagination.

The Maps of War web site has an animated map on the spread of five major world religions. I strongly recommend that you view it… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 6
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 19

Published by davinci on November 8, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 18 is here.)

Any religious argument based on expertise in a language is necessarily unconvincing to someone who doesn’t already consider that language to be special or holy. Numerous languages have been asserted by various religions to have special or divine properties: Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Tibetan, Persian, and even English. The question of linguistic competence is often brought up by religious apologists seeking to deflect issues raised by skeptics about problematic passages in their scriptures, but when good translations and linguistic resources are available, this is just a smokescreen. When there are errors in fact or reasoning in a translation, or instances of morally reprehensible behaviour, the problems are rarely made better by referring to the primary text in the original language… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 7
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 8
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18

Published by davinci on November 8, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 17 is here.)

In my experience, whenever I have raised these problems with religious believers, the explanations they have come up with have always missed the point. An expert in the history of the ancient Near East can indeed come up with an elaborate hypothesis as to why there is so little evidence for David and Solomon. A Muslim apologist can indeed assert that the Biblical account of Solomon is corrupted where it contradicts or lacks details given in the Qur’an. Yes, you can cook up theories that agree with your religious beliefs to fit the evidence (or, even better, which ignore the evidence). But then the theory is only meaningful for someone who already accepts that your religion is true, or special, to begin with. If you want your argument to be convincing to someone who is not already a believer, you have to explain why it cannot be applied just as well to another, and possibly conflicting, religion.

Here is a theory that fits the evidence: the Biblical accounts of David and Solomon’s splendour are simply made-up… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 17
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 7
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 17

Published by davinci on November 8, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 16 is here.)

The myths about David and Solomon, and in particular the latter, would continue to evolve after the Biblical accounts were set down in writing. Already in the Bible, Solomon was wealthier and wiser than all the other kings on Earth, and he was so wealthy that he made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:14–29, 2 Chron. 9:13–28). His wisdom was greater than that of everyone in the East (I’m sure the inhabitants of India and China would’ve begged to differ, had they even heard of him or the remote and insignificant minor stretch of land that he ruled)… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 12
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16

Published by davinci on November 8, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 15 is here.)

I have studied the world’s religions much more thoroughly than the average religious believer, and probably more than many devout ones. There are, of course, religious clergy and academic specialists who have much more in-depth knowledge of a specific religion, or some particular aspect of religion in general, than I do. But I think that I have as broad a knowledge of world religions as almost anyone. I’ve studied the scriptures and foundational texts of the major world religions (and many minor ones), and read authors ranging from popular apologists to the philosophically inclined from each of them, from every period since the foundation of the religion until now. In addition, I’ve also undertaken a pretty thorough study of history, so I have a sense of how religions have developed and interacted with one another that most believers do not have.

Religious believers will sometimes tell me that, if I only studied their scriptures more, or read certain books or talked to certain scholars, I would find that the evidence supports their religion… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 17
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 19
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15

Published by davinci on November 7, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 14 is here.)

When a person thoroughly studies the world’s religions, the picture clearly emerges that religion is a human creation, and that no supernatural entities are required to explain them. The spread and development of religions is actually remarkably similar to the spread and development of natural languages in many ways, and this latter field has been extensively studied without recourse to anything but naturalistic explanations… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 13
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 6
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 3
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 8
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 14

Published by davinci on November 6, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

(Part 13 is here.)

The most successful of the world’s religions were founded long ago in the past. We cannot go back in time to examine the circumstances surrounding the creation of these religions for ourselves. But what we can do (and what I think we should do) is to carefully make observations about new and recently formed religious groups, and to use these observations to draw inferences about how the first believers in earlier religions might have behaved. The only assumption this requires us to make is that people are, in general and on average, more or less the same as they have always been when it comes to matters of religion. There is no reason to believe that this is not the case for any particular group (unless evidence is presented otherwise)… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 10
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 13
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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 13

Published by davinci on November 5, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 12 is here.)

The God of the Abrahamic religions appears not only to be ignorant of science, but also of religion. Consider that even though Buddhism was likely the world’s most populous and arguably its most influential religion in the period between the founding of Christianity and Islam (i.e., between the 1st and 7th centuries), the Abrahamic religions did not get around to doctrinally recognising its existence until more than a millennium later… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 8
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 6
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