I do not. At most I accept one invitation from my parents to have a meal with them in that period of the year, rpefereably in a non-religious day (so they spare me their crazy rituals and prayers).

In fact I do not even step in churches at all. For me temples are evil: religion, spirituality should be something natural not doctrinal and ritual. What’s the point of celebrating (?) “God’s creation” (i.e. Nature) in a closed space? The logical thing would be to build parks, not temples; to plant trees, not minarets or whatever; to go out to the wild, not to get in some funnily decorated room to do rigid rituals.

Don’t you think it is weird that 2 out of the 3 main religions in the world don’t eat it?

Judaism is not any major religion anywhere (except tiny Israel). Why are you ignoring most important world religions like Hinduism or Buddhism? That is what is wrong about all western religious thought: that it’s so ethnically Jewish! And therefore so narrow-minded.

Obviously those Buddhists and Hindus who are not strictly vegetarian do eat pork. And actually elements as pork taboo and circumcission are barriers that make Judaism/Islam religions that can’t really expand beyond the already born as such (yeah there is the occasional convert but they are not many, right?). Early Christians (a Jewish proselitistic sect, just like Rabbinic Judaism and Islam) realized that and, in order to succeed out of the Semitic/Afroasiatic reality, they just scrapped them off their book.

As European (a very irreligious society for the most part, at least nowadays) what amazes me is religion itself: things like ritual, prayer, dogma, doctrine… The rejection of Islam is a rejection of religion and an extension of the same radical demolishing criticisms that have been launched against Christianism since at least c. 1800. Islam in this sense is not, for us, “from the 19th century” but something from the pre-Illustration era, from the wars of religion like the bloody 30 Years’ War.

While Christianism is the historical dominant religion of most of Europe, nowadays it is hardly dominant anymore. Most Europeans are more or less agnostic. So it’s not Islam: it is religion, at least the traditional approaches, what really belongs to the past. Jews, Christians and Muslims are roughly the same nutheads.

# Why do you think Muslims are extremist and dress oddly with huge long beards? Some religious Jews have long beards too. Yah.. go check.

Sure. They are all freaks.

Not that I have anything against beards, just that they are not dressing normal. They look intently from a distinct exotic culture. They call my attention exactly the same that a little green man with antlers would do (or rather like an unusually high frecuency of these green men sightings were happening every day). And that’s the same for hijabis: they look “Martian” as well, strangers well out of the social norm.

It was a time which resembled ours.

Millions across what is now Greece, Egypt and points east all the way to Iran and Afghanistan were tired of war . . . social unrest . . . unenlightened despotic rulers. . . But the ruling elites were ethnic Macedonians. (You know, Alexander the Great!)

There was no Islam; no xianity. Those religions hadn’t even been invented yet. (Turn that over in your mind. Not one xian; not one moslem.) There were Jews, but they were of no consequence. Religion was left to the locals, who were mostly polytheists.

The time was about 300 B.C.E. — all of mainland Greece had lost its freedom; in Athens democracy was dead. The old gods had failed. Thoughtful people began to turn inward with help from philosophical guides.

These Athenian philosophers sought “artaxia” — a state of mind, balanced and free from pain or suffering, physical or psychological.

Central to this quest was to create a harmonious life within a harmonious culture. A major player was the philosopher Epicurus. Maligned by theists in his own age (340-270 BCE) and still condemned by xians as an atheistic immoralist, Epicurus indeed taught that pleasure was the good, but within the context of a rational hedonism augmented by friendship.

Epicurean groups recruited widely and succeeded well enough for 800 years until stamped out by xian know-nothings — just like those on TV today.

Women were admitted on a basis equal with men. Because Epicureans came from among different social classes and levels of ability in philosophy, Epicurus’ basic doctrines appeared in short phrases easy to memorize.

Three of his original letters to his many friends survive. Good translations are in the Epicurus Reader (1994). His philosophy figures prominently in Atheist Manifesto by Michel Onfray (2006).

Here are two of the Epicureans’ most famous sayings. They’re still useful:

“The four part cure,” four conclusions from Epicurus’ atomic and hedonistic views written by Philodemus in the Herculaneum papyri c.100 BCE.

Don’t fear god,
Don’t worry about death,
What is good, is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure.

An epicurean argument on the “problem” of evil:

Is god willing to help but unable? Then he is not all powerful.
Is he able to help but unwilling? Then he is not good.
Is he able and willing? Then why is there evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him ‘god’?

Xians have spent 2,000 years trying to find a workaround — they’ve failed. Ditto for Judaism and Islam. Supreme power and supreme goodness, nonsensical in themselves, taken together establish that the so-called one ‘god’ of the big-3 near eastern monotheisms cannot logically exist. (Which shows that you can indeed prove that “God” does not exist — as long as your theist wants “him” omni-sized.)

Indifference to religion Epicurus would say is the first step to a healthy personal life and a good sign for a healthy cultural existence as well.

Epicureanism is a very worldly, genial, rational path to exactly what Thomas Jefferson meant by “happiness.”

bipolar2 ©2009

@Lee Doyle
Hi!! Long time no talk! I haven’t seen you in a while! Thanks for liking the post.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity all came from one root so I guess we can all call one another brothers and sisters.

@ Desperate: I’m glad to hear you have such faith. I’m happier to hear that you take,serious what is presented to you in the Bible, and you don’t, for the sake of tradition, change it.

@ Malikat Al Arab: Everything I stated was my opinion and my belief. To me and many others, what I said was nowhere near wrong.

And you stated that “we do not “follow” Mohamed sal Allah alaihi wa salam, we follow his Teachings as he worshipped Allah Suhanahu wa ta’ala.”

Okay, that is like me saying I don’t follow Paul (aka Saul of Tarsus) I only follow his teachings as he worshiped God. If I’m doing the same things as my teacher, I’m “following his lead” Therefore I am a follower. Also, some clarification, just because I follow Paul, does NOT mean I worship him.

You also stated, “second thing is that it is true that not everyone worships the way they are supposed to anymore… however, that doesn’t mean that they are no longe of that faith”

That’s exactly what it means. Just because you follow a few facets of a faith, does not mean you are of that faith. A faithful person is one that dedicates themselves to their beliefs. If your beliefs come from the Bible, or the Koran, then follow them, wholeheartedly.

I don’t believe there is a such thing as a good Christian and a bad Christian, or likewise Good/Bad Muslim’s, Jews, Hindu’s etc. You are either Christian/Muslim/Jew/etc. or you are simply Not.

You can’t just pick what you like and pass on what you don’t The person that does is a hypocrite. Faith requires absolute obedience, not partial. This isn’t a cafeteria line!

So I’m sorry, but you haven’t “enlightened me a bit” You’ve only confirmed to me that I must ensure that my behavior, actions, and faith are not only appealing to God, but that my actions and strength of faith can help edify persons like desperateblogger to become stronger in their own faith, and not be allowed to believe that doing a little is good enough.

@Mona Very interesting blog. I’d love to have a study with you about this very topic. I have many questions I’d like to ask you about Islam. Thanks for the food for thought.

hahahah that’s true my bad…but any-how they are dirty animals…