Being an agnostic, the conclusion that lurks in today’s brief and ephemeral post does not arise with the alacrity of an epiphany born of a certain subculture of evangelical Protestantism (or, prior to the mainstream dominance of politically correct multi-culturalism, a wider variety of Christians in general).
Nevertheless, over the years, that conclusion has nagged at me, and I confess that I am at a loss to explain the genesis of Islam—and its ongoing historical career of grotesquely ghoulish behaviors from the beginning in the 7th century A.D. right up to our present—without it. It seems to make the most sense, for all other explanations seem to beggar the phenomenon—the full, malevolent, horrific dimensions of it—which they are trying to explain.
Today, I only offer a comparison of two verses, one from the Koran, the other from the Bible—a comparison that might never have occurred to one who has not begun to think about the darker source of Islam. Perhaps in the near future, I will develop this overall comparison further.
Here is the Koran, offering to its slavish followers the ultimate enticement of what they shall receive for their fanatical submission:
And when you behold Paradise, you will see all around you delights and a vast kingdom.
(Koran 76:20)
And here is Satan trying to seduce Jesus into submitting to him instead of God:
. . . the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
(Gospel of Matthew 4:8-9)
Some six centuries separate these two quotations—though not a signficant geographical distance: one Middle Eastern desert for another. Perhaps, it could be mused, in the terms of the Christian mythologoumena, that Satan, after the devastating blow he received—not merely when Jesus rejected his tempting offer, but also when Jesus instead submitted himself, maieutically as the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), to the Father by fulfilling the first fruits of God’s plan of the ultimate defeat of Satan, and succeeded in generating a flourishing Church that in three centuries managed to convert the Roman Empire and showed no signs of retreating, but in very deed was flourishing in the revival of a New Christian Roman Empire and a nascent Christian civilization (at which certain modern Christians wrinkle their noses)—found another way to try to entice the sons of Adam: to a Hell disguised as Paradise: a Hellish mirage in the desert, beguiling the soul thirsty for water (cf. the Gospel of John, chapter 4) by tempting him seductively with carnal pleasures, but only in reality offering the fire of damnation—found another way to try to entice the sons of Adam.
And this other way has been, over ensuing centuries, spectacularly successful in degrading, corrupting and possessing the souls of countless hundreds of millions, whose ongoing slavish pursuit of obsessive-compulsive submission to their darker source not only leads them eventually to his abode—a mirage of paradisaic gardens camouflaging infernal damnation—but also manages to wreak the havoc, mayhem and misery of a Hell on Earth in the long and winding meantime between the Beginning and the End.
Further Reading:
Islam and the Psychology of Satan: The Tragicomedy of Hell on Earth
Satan and Islam: another reverbation
6 comments:
Hi, how've you been?
Well, I have to say that I like this "metaphisicalities" a lot. That is a great point, that of yours.
However, I can only be fully convinced of it if you can show us that the islamic "heaven" differs substantially from the Christian one.
In a sense, Christian heaven is like the islamic one - and the post Vatican the Secon (anti) Catholic Church is saying that it is - and both share the same Semitic origin / conception of paradise:
In the Christian heaven, only those who have lived in submission to "the True God" or those who have feared that "True God" will have access to an intemporal and infinite "Kingdom of Heaven" where many "delights" are available.
The bigger difference is the hurris (virgins) thing. I guess the islamic heaven is more promiscuous.
And once the God is the same, the Christian and Islamic priests tell us, I tend to conclude that that God who loves us so much just wants us to fight for his amusing.
We can't blame He, can we?
I don't know much about religion but you have already an opened door to assert your thesis: That the islamic heaven is more promiscuous.
Continue your nice blog.
One of the things about "mythology", which I will define here as "human-created religion," is that it has no ability to conceptualize what goes beyond human intellect and experience. The gods of the ancient peoples are enormous and selfish children with all of the foibles of humanity, magnified by great power. The "heaven" of Islam is a very sensual place, where men (who did the theologizing) get to live out the limits of their desires for power over women by perpetually deflowering virgins over whom they have absolute power and who, presumably, worship them with the devotion that even the repression of a 7th century culture dominated by warlords could not produce.
The biblical heaven/new heaven IS a "paradise" (Lk 23:43) but it is a decidedly non-sensual one (Mt 22:30). Not only is sex after the Resurrection apparently done away with, but there is a lack of great indulgence in other carnal pleasures too. It seems people continue to eat, for example, but there is no indication of wanton feasting.
The imagery used to describe heaven/new heaven is concrete, but decidedly non-literal. When the Bible speaks of a "city of gold", Christians have always read it as non-literal - a way to describe something that goes beyond human experience or imagining. Just about everything about heaven/new heaven is like that. It's greater than one can imagine. A very odd way to describe paradise if you are making up a religion. Islam has exactly the sort of heaven a 7th warlord would make up.
The specific promise of a Christian paradise is actually not sensual at all, but spiritual. I don't mean to deny the significance of the Christian resurrection or play "spiritual" off against "physical" here; I mean "spiritual" as opposed to "sensual." The promise of paradise is the promise of a relationship with God which is unhindered by sin or human limitation. The paradise of Christianity is knowing God fully even as we are fully known now. (1 Co 13:12; Rev 22:5) The greatest pleasures of Christianity are found in knowing God, the source of all true joy.
Afonso, the Christian paradise only shares terminology with the Islamic one. The content reveals the chasm between the two - and the character of the authors behind them. And perhaps the author of Hesperado is correct, it isn't actually the warlord at all, but a much more ancient adversary.
Erich,
Absolutely brilliant post. I re-posted it (with a link back to you) on my blog. Maybe with your nagging convictions about real evil will come some nagging thoughts about Good.
Peace
Thanks Cyril, I'll check out my post on your site. I appreciate it. Your comment above puts well the differences between Islamic Paradise and Christian Heaven.
The Catholic philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal (1588–1651) wrote a succinct observation about Islamic paradise:
"It is not by what is obscure in Mahomet, and might be claimed to have a mystical sense, that I want him to be judged, but by what is clear, by his paradise and all the rest. That is what is ridiculous about him, and that is why it is not right to take his obscurities for mysteries, seeing that what is clear in him is ridiculous. It is not the same with Scripture... We must not confuse and treat as equal things which are only alike in their obscurities, and not in the clarity which earns respect for the obscurities."
Afonso,
Islamic Paradise is extremely more materialistic and grossly sensual than the Christian idea of Heaven. In Islamic Paradise, men will enjoy giant-sized bodies, with giant penises to have sex with. There will be virtually non-stop sex all day long, not only with the 72 virgins but also with boys. Allah will "re-virginize" the virgins, so that after each time the men have sex with them, the girls will become virgins all over again. There will be stupendous palaces and gardens, and when the men are not having sex, they will be lounging around drinking wine and eating great foods and fruits. They will have slaves -- slaves in heaven! -- and the wine they drink will always give them just the initial "buzz" but never the hangover afterwards. There is nothing like this in Christian Heaven. There was, in fact, nothing like this in Christian Paradise of Adam and Eve. The whole point of Christian Heaven is a transformation of human being into a being who will find the satisfaction of his deepest longings, which Christian philosophers (as well as pre-Christian Greek philosophers) intuited would be for a joy that transcends our carnal existence with all its imperfections and frustrations which seem to be intimately bound up with the pleasures we seek and try to find. I of course (and I think the Christian and Greek philosophers agree) do not take that transcendent transfiguration literally: it is a symbolism that appeals to our souls, but which we cannot possess in this life either in full experience, nor in thought and imagination: only in mystical illumination at best, and patient faith, hope and love for the ordinary man and woman.
"In Islamic Paradise, men will enjoy giant-sized bodies, with giant penises to have sex with."
Really? And sex with boys too?
I am now start to think that there is indeed a paralel between the Christian hell and the Islamic heaven.
And me thinking I could fool you (in the good sense, of course)... you really kicked out my islamic=muscled christianity little vision I had (in theological terms).
I am also an agnostic of some 50 years scepticism.
I see no problems with the origins of Muhamamd's ideology: he was a successful warlord with a Hitler sized chip on his shoulder about initially Jews then the Christains and after that everyone else, too short a time to count on the indoctrination of chidren doing his dirty work for him, who realised that 80% of teh loot and slaves was not quite enough of sa lever to force his men throug walls of fire so along came a plagiaeised version of whole swathes of Aramiac verses stolen from both testaments plus the odd Arabian Nights style miracle from a God with absolutely NO sense of humour who conveninetly showers Muhammad's limp penis with oodles of sugary young virgisna dn the younger the beter as there then would eb ceetainly no comparison to his weka limp and failing "manhood". If he hadn't caused the death of more billions than Hitler and Stalin could even dream of killing (and alas unlike Hitler he had no Stalin to defeat him) I could pity old limp**** and his petty despotic acts and his deathbed animosity to all. I just wish that i believed in hell as if ANYONE shosuld be next to the Devil it should not be Judas Iscariot or Brutus both noble IMHO but the dog that is Muhammad may he roast there with pigs for constant company and female ones at that although I pity them more than him.
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