Islam and Christianity- A Pagan view -I
Author: Unknown
(The purpose of this article is not to demean any faith, but to try to make people who have blind faith a little open minded. This admin feels that no religion is from God-neither Islam, nor Christianity, nor Judaism, nor Buddhism nor Hinduism, and man can reach God irrespective of his beliefs. God does not throw people in Hell for disbelief, and if he does, He will throw those who regard Him as Jealous and attribute insanity to Him to Hell. The belief that pagans and idolators are sinners and offenders, and that monotheism is superior to polytheism, and that God will throw polytheists and idolators to Hell needs to be changed.)
Conditioned to an attitude of “All religions teach the same thing-non-violence, love and respect”, it would not occur to many Pagans (e.g. and in particular Hindus) to even presume that some of these religions can be inherently violent and inspired by hatred and intolerance. Hence it is very encouraging that scholars of late have made efforts in this direction and published books on this subject which cover admirably the fundamental differences between the Semitic faiths and the non-Abrahamic, the so-called ‘pagan’ or ‘heathen’ faiths. The purpose of including Christianity in this discussion is that both Islam and Christianity are off-shoots of the same parent religion. It will be a very hard fact for many well-meaning Christians, but in fact, Islam is only a final destination of the process initiated by Christianity. But in case of Christianity it doesn’t matter now, since there is no violence, and rational thinking has mostly replaced blind faith with no harm caused to anyone (unlike in the Middle Ages, and in places where the religion was spread by force killing others, e.g. in South America or in Goa, India).
Ali Sina of faithfreedom.org believes in Jesus, but not in irrational beliefs. Jesus could be regarded as the Saviour, but that does not make Christianity as true or the Bible as the Word of God. It certainly does not make true the belief that unbelievers in Jesus or in Christianity go to Hell. Ali Sina says: “Over a year ago I announced that I have accepted Jesus, while at the same time I said that I don’t believe the Bible is the word of God. This prompted several friends, both Christians and atheists to question me about it. It appears to them that my position is contradictory. “If you don’t believe in the Bible, how you could possibly know Jesus,” ask my Christian friends. My atheist friends ask how I could believe in Jesus when the only book that talks about him is a book of fables and myths.”
Ali Sina believed in Jesus after listening and watching Near-Death experiences of people. Many of them (born non-Christians) saw Jesus. This writer will definitely agree that Near-Death experience is real. But then there are people with Near-Death Experiences who saw Hindu Gods and did not see Jesus. There was a born Christian woman who said that she felt a light, a spirit which she identified as Jesus as she was a Christian, but she also said that anyone of any other religion could have called it as Buddha, Krishna or anything else. Another born American said the light kept changing into different figures, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, mandalas, archetypal images and signs. Ali Sina believes that Jesus was Love, God can be reached through Love. This belief is perfectly sensible. Ali Sina also said that Heaven and Hell are temporary (not Eternal, as claimed by Islam and Christianity) which is also sensible. Why should there be infinite punishment or finite crime? There are incidents where re-birth seems true (a belief of some pagans e.g. Hindus). If re-birth is true, it automatically disproves both Islam and Christianity, who claim Heaven and Hell are eternal after one birth.
The God of both Islam and Christianity teaches them to prosecute religions other than their own; both are dogmatic, fundamentalist and theological; both lack yoga or a proper science and discipline of inner exploration; both are aggressively self-righteous; and both by nature do not know true theory of peaceful coexistence. Another reason for including Christianity is that more critical and scholarly literature is available on this religion as a result of Renaissance, Enlightenment and the process of modernization, whereas the intolerance of Islam has prevented such development which still resembles the Christianity of middle ages. Even in the comments section of websites like faithfreedom.org or alisina.org, one can see believing Christians simply assuming the Bible as the Word of God, Jesus as the only way to reach God, and trying very hard to make Hindus accept Jesus & Christianity, believing Hindus will go to Hell for being unbelievers in Christianity, and particularly for being idolators & polytheists. Some beliefs of these religions are given here.
Of course, there are many mistakes in the Bible, just like in the Quran, and the Vedas, and the other scriptures. All that is needed to reject a book as a Word of God is one error. People like Galileo and Copernicus were condemned by the Church for saying things which were contrary to Christian beliefs, but of course they were right. The sun does not revolve around the earth. The Bible believes in a flat earth. Mentions of the ends of the earth can be found in the following places.- Deuteronomy 13:7, 28:49, 28:64, 33:17. Job 2:8, 19:4, 22:27, 33:13, 48:10, 59:13, 61:2, 65:5, 72:8. Isaiah 13:10 also says that the moon is a source of light. If the Bible was the message of God written by humans, it wouldn’t have contained such blunders.
Categories of World Faiths
The religions of the world can be essentially classified in two categories. The present dominant category is that of the Semitic faiths (which may well be described to be ideologies or dogmas) – the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the latest offshoot, the atheist Marxism. A great pagan scholar had labelled Islam as ‘Communism plus Allah’. The other comprises of Eastern religions and philosophies like Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. It also includes various pre-Christian and pre-Islam faiths which pervaded all over the world before they were extinguished by the aggressive Islam and Christianity. The latter have distorted the meaning of the word ‘pagan’ and ‘heathen’ which essentially signify non-Semitic faiths. Due to constant propaganda these words are now synonymous with barbarism and irreligiosity. When this is clear, the word ‘pagan’ will not be as pejorative as it has been made to appear. It will he used frequently below since it enables us to consolidate various existing and extinct faiths and practices all over the world and hence unify various worldwide approaches leading to a common movement to establish a tolerant, humane and enlightened world order. Such a transformation is vital for co-existence.
The term ‘Hindu’ (or Hindus as used in subsequent passages) is used as encompassing all the religions and faiths originating in the Indian subcontinent, and apart from the Sanatanis who are usually called Hindus, includes the Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains too. Hindus are renowned for their acceptance and respect of others’ beliefs; they consider the land of their birth and this civilization as being wholly sacred ; they believe in the law of karma, and know that all beings in Creation are the manifestation of the same Divinity. To them God is a unify and not a unit.
Of course, the Hindus had many shortcomings in the past, like excess of superstition, practices like ‘Untouchability’, ‘Sati’ etc which are abolished long back. The present Hindus do not regard any Hindu book to be the ‘Word of God’ to be obeyed by all without question, and are most open to reform. They follow modern civil laws. Many Hindu religious scriptures also mention that no scripture has to be obeyed without reason, only that should be followed which appeals to one’s conscience. Such freedom of thought to practice anything is missing totally in Islam and Christianity, who force believers to believe & follow, and threaten Hell for non-obedience. To undo the past discrimination against the lower caste Hindus, the Hindus have been giving reservation to lower caste people in education, jobs and even in seats in State Assemblies and Parliament for the past almost 70 years. This often leads to dissatisfaction for non-reserved category people, for they are denied seats in education, jobs etc despite being more meritorious, but Hindus stick to reservation. The Indian laws today are very pro-women, and in fact draconian anti-men. Slavery was never legal among the Hindus, while in the past other societies practised slavery (e.g. America where it was legal until as late as the 1850s). Racism was institutionalized in many Western societies like America until the 2nd half of the 20th century.
Islam and Christianity- Similar in Content
The spiritual equipage of Islam and Christianity is similar to each other. Their spiritual contents, both in quality and quantum, are about the same. The central piece of the two creeds is “one true God” of masculine gender who makes himself known to his believers through a single, favoured individual. The theory of mediumistic communication has not only a psychology, but also a theology laid down long ago in the oldest part of the Bible, in the Deuteronomy [18.19.20]. The biblical God says that He will speak to his chosen people through His chosen prophets : “I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him”. Similar sentiments are echoed even more vigorously in Islam. The whole prophetic spirituality, whether found in the Bible or in the Quran, is mediumistic in essence. Here everything takes place through a proxy, that is, through an intermediary or the sole agent. Here man knows God only through the proxy. The proxy is a favoured individual, a privileged mediator. “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him”, says the Bible. The Quran makes the same claim. “Muhammad is God’s Apostle” says the Allah of the Quran through his last prophet (48.29). Moreover, both of them are intrinsically incapable of promoting universal peace and harmony. The seeds of conflict, not only amongst the “believers” but also with the rest of the world, lie at the very heart of the two ideologies. Each of the two is presided over by a bellicose God, each chief of his own hosts; each claims sole sovereignty. A larger charity and mutual respect of others’ faiths and even tolerance and co-existence cannot be the strong points of such theologies.
Hence it is not surprising that the faithful belonging to these two religions were at each other’s throats when they finally came face to face. For centuries, they fought with fire and sword. At one time it seemed that Islam had gotten the better of crusading Christianity when it was knocking at the door of Europe. But the tide turned in favour of the West and Christianity when Europe eventually colonised the Americas, Asia and Africa and established empires all over the world and could not he challenged. It also added another weapon to its arsenal – ideological warfare. Christian theologians tried to prove the historicity of Jesus with the help of Quran, while the Muslims tried to prove Muhammad’s mission with the help of the Bible. The controversy was sharp, as it often is between creeds which share common beliefs and aims and methods. Both believed in the same God, but each claimed sole heir-ship to His throne. Both were rational in their critique of each other’s faith, but were emotional and unwilling to listen to reason when it came to defending their own. Although this quarrel goes on, their real and ultimate target remains destroyed idolatry and polytheism, which in effect means all religions of the past and most religions of the present. (As a proof of how this quarrel this goes on, just see the websites www.answering-islam.org and www.answering-christianity.com ! It will be very amusing to see followers of both false religions trying to prove the other as wrong and themselves as right, when BOTH are wrong!!)The Church has always appreciated Islam’s role in “cleansing the world of the scourge of idolatry, and preparing the way for the reception of a purer faith.” Similarly, Islam acknowledges Christians to be “people of the Book”, no small honour this and yet it does not stop them from waging murderous wars against each other wherever one or the other is in the minority – the countries of the middle-east (Lebanon), and south- east (East Timor and Irian Jaya) Asia and the nations of Africa (Sudan, Nigeria) being some of the most recent examples of their bitter enmity.
Both Islam and Christianity have the following Common Beliefs:
i) God is jealous. Worship of God in the form of an Idol or any other Symbol like Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Ocean, Rivers, etc. is equivalent to worshiping somebody other than the One God. This arouses jealousy of the One God who inflicts severe punishment for this type of worship. Hindus who worship God in many forms including Nature, are the worst offenders according to Christianity and Islam. Hindus are called Heathens, Pagans, Condemned ones, infidels, idolaters, Kafirs, etc., deserving severe punishment, torture and extermination wherever possible. (Of course, this is not true!)
ii) Christians and Muslims have both entered into Covenants with God, by which each religious community has received an Exclusive, Irrevocable Power of Attorney from God that its way of worship alone is right, that after death they alone will go to Heaven, others will go to Hell. Of course, the way of worship by Christians is different from that of Muslims. However, both communities claim Exclusive Rights. Believers of Islam become Non-Believers for Christianity and vice-versa.
iii) This Heaven for Believers is eternal, and the Hell for Non-Believers is also eternal. Once in Heaven, their enjoyments are eternal; once in Hell, others’ sufferings are also eternal.
iv) There will come a Day of Judgement when all the dead ones will rise and stand before God to get the verdict of either Eternal Heaven or Eternal Hell.
In addition to their Common Beliefs, Christianity has some special beliefs. Some of those are outlined below:
Special Beliefs of Christianity
i) Birth by routine sex relationship between husband and wife is a sin. As such, we common people are all sinners. Jesus Christ was born to Virgin Mary, without routine sexual relationship; hence his birth is free from sin.
ii) Jesus Christ is SON of God. Jesus is the Only Son of God; God has no other Son, nor shall he have any other son or daughter. Hence, Christ is the only way of communication with God.
iii) Jesus rose to life a few days after his Death on the Cross. This Resurrection is a proof of His Divinity.
iv) Through crucification, Jesus has paid for the redemption of all sins of all his followers (Christians), at all places, for all time to come. Hence, Jesus is the right and sure way for human salvation.
v) Jesus has given all Authority to the Church. What Church commands is the LAW for the human race, both on Earth and in Heaven; no one should question it. Any deviation from the command of the Church is violation of God’s Law and hence punishable, as per by God’s Decree. Church is the only authority in respect of Spiritual and Secular matters of human beings. All other Rules of conduct are the violation of Divine God’s Command.
vi) Jesus is the Way, the only Way, to reach God.
vii) Those who Believe in Jesus as the only Way are assured of eternal paradise of pleasure after death; others are condemned persons on this Earth, who will go to eternal hell of fire after death. As such, the human race has been divided into two classes of “Holy Believers” and “Unholy Others”; Holy Christians, Unholy Non-Christians.
viii) It is the spiritual, religious duty of the Christian Church and of every individual Christian to convert others to Christianity. Through this conversion, they are doing good to every non-Christian in as much as they are taking him out of false religion and false ways of worship to the only true religion (Christianity); they are saving the condemned unholy person and bringing him into the holy group of Christians, under the protection of the Shepherd Christ and his Authorized Agency (Christian Church).
ix) Idol-worship or Symbol-worship including worship of Sun, Moon, Stars, etc. particularly of Non-Christian idols/Symbols, is un-acceptable to Jealous God; Such worship annoys Jealous God and he sends his severe punishment for such worship.
x) The Holy Bible is the Word of God, to be obeyed by all, without question.
After 9/11 and several other attacks, many in the Christian world have come to realize the threat of Islam and have softened towards pagans (Hindus and Buddhists), empathizing with what they have had to suffer. Wiston Churchill of Britain had a pathological hatred of Hindus during the 1940s and he said he could not understand this polyglot religion, as compared to which Islam was easy to understand. But now the times have changed, and sensible people who care for the future see that Islam of today is as fanatic as ever, as wedded to violence and conversion, while Hindus & Buddhists are peace-loving people who do not try to forcibly convert anyone. People like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes see Hindus as friends and allies. The difference between pagan and Muslim migrants in the West is clear.
Exclusive, Jealous God
It is well known that Christianity and Islam derived their much vaunted monotheism from Judaism, but the Jews themselves were not monotheists in the beginning. Like other neighbouring peoples, they had their tribal God towards whom they felt a special loyalty but it did not occur to them yet to deny the Gods of others. That other Gods do not exist or were false, and that their God alone was true and enjoyed some sort of universal sovereignty, was a later development which had to wait till the arrival of their prophets, beginning with Moses. It seems that the early Jews did not know Jehovah according to the Biblical testimony itself. ‘’By name Jehovah was I not known to them,” says the Bible (Exod.6.3). It is possible that the Jews may have borrowed Egyptian Gods, at least in some measure, while they were in Egypt and that they continued worshipping them even during the days of their wanderings in the desert. There are also indications that the new religion, whatever it was and whenever adopted, was imposed against great opposition and with great ferocity. While Jehovah revealed himself to Moses as the only God of the Jews, they were worshipping another God under the symbol of a Bull. “Slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour,” ordered Jehovah to those who truly followed him. Three thousand men were killed in a day and a new religion was inaugurated. The killers were consecrated and they became the priestly class, the Levites. The precedent for many similar such genocide in the name of religion in future was thus established as early as in Biblical times.
In course of time, this God, in all his exclusiveness and jealousy, was adopted by Christianity and Islam. In fact, in their hands, he became still more exclusive and jealous. He also became more ambitious and bellicose. While with the Jews, he remained their God alone; but, except spasmodically, he refused the be the God of others. Other people had to make do with their own Gods, howsoever “false”, and these Gods had to be content with their own followers, howsoever benighted and out of grace with Jehovah. But things changed with the advent of Christianity and Islam. Through them, Jehovah came into his own and He offered to be THE GOD of all. This God was not a universal principle but a singularity, not a force of unification (monism) but one of separation (monotheism). The Semitic God lacks interiority – these is nothing to show that his followers know of a “God or Gods in the heart” but they speak of a “God in heaven” or a sky –God. He also lacks universality and has suffered further contraction and denotation with the passage of time.
He asked His followers to go in all directions and preach His Name, to “go out in the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in.” He armed them and asked them to declare from housetops several times a day that He alone was true and that other Gods were false. Other could refuse this invitation or call only at their own peril, spiritual and physical. As His followers became more powerful, the threat became increasingly more physical!
The Prophets Of God
There is another major difference between Judaism and the two religions which were in fact off-shoots of Judaism. Though the Jewish God was single, yet he spoke through many prophets. Moses was probably the most important, but a plurality or prophethood was recognised. It is unfortunate that the Judaic religion could not take full advantage of this principle. As the Mosaic-Monotheistic tradition was too strong, in practice, the Prophetic message tended to be the same – more of the same Mosaic God. For the same reason, even some movements among Jews like those represented by the Essenes, influenced by Hinduism-Buddhism, could not break away sufficiently from that tradition.
Just as the Jews finally believed that they are the special people of the only God, their Prophets and Messiahs also transformed likewise. They had initially many and Jesus also began as a Messiah of his people. But as he was rejected by them, he began to declare that God was terminating his covenant with Jews and entering into a new one with those who believed in His Son. Christians replaced Jews as God’s chosen people and Jesus himself was converted from a Messiah into a Saviour, into God’s First Begotten Son, the Intermediary between God and Man. This transformation took some time in the happening, and in order to get the better of their critics and their opponents, the Christians invented the myth of a Saviour, the Dying God and His Resurrection. In fact, many scholars regard Jesus’ life closer to myth than to history, and whether there was any historical Jesus at all is a much discussed question in academic circles. There is no conclusive evidence to show that Jesus Christ ever existed. Apart from the figure of the Saviour, Christianity also borrowed most of its central rites from other creeds and mystery cults prevalent at that time. Its own contribution were the Cross, the concept of Hell, Satan, possession and exorcism. Though the belief in Heaven & Hell is an ancient one, and pagan religions too have this, unbelievers going to Hell was the contribution of Christianity.
Thus with time the idea of prophet took a new turn. It was not enough that God talked to you; what was equally important was that he did not talk to anyone else. And by the time Muhammad came it was not enough to be A prophet; he had to be THE prophet. He declared that he was the most authentic spokesman of God up to his time and also for all time to come as well, and that he was the seal of prophecy, and that through him religion was now finally made perfect, and that any old revelation was now redundant and a new one presumptuous. He was able to get it established through the display of superior brute force and now this dogma is the most important part of the Muslim creed and to question it is punishable by death.
The question is why were persons specifically chosen for the role of prophet? Why were certain things revealed to them which were kept hidden from others before’? Had they some special moral or spiritual qualities to qualify for these roles? All of them have made such claims without trying to justify them.
Summarizing this development, just as the Semitic God was evolving in theology into becoming the ‘only one’, he was also becoming exclusive in his communication. Even when he had a chosen people, these people had no direct approach to Him. He told them that he will send them a prophet and He “will tell him what to say and he (the prophet) will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name and I shall punish anyone who refuses to obey him.” In due course, the intermediary became more than a medium. In Christianity, he became the Saviour, in Islam, he became the Intercessor and also the last Prophet through whom God ever spoke. Claims began to be made on the prophet’s behalf, claims almost as tall as for the God he represented.
In fact, with passage of time, God tended to become redundant and the intermediary took his place, who in turn was represented by his own nominees. The New Testament says: “Salvation is to be found through him (Jesus) alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us”. At another place it says: “God put all things under Christ’s feet and gave him to the Church as the supreme Lord over all things.” The Koran makes even stronger claims for its Prophet. Such claims are offensive to man’s rational as well as spiritual sense (Buddha’s last message was, ‘Be your own light’), but they have proved highly profitable to those who speak in the name of these intermediaries. They represent a great vested interest.
Intolerance and its consequences
Intolerance must be the fruit of such bitter seeds. Other Gods must be dethroned, and so those who speak in the name of other Gods must die (Deut-18.18-19). A number of verses from the Koran preach this even more stridently.
The Semitic God is jealous, and so is his sole prophet. Just like his God, he too can brook no rivals. Jesus tells us that “all who came before me were thieves and robbers” (Jn.l0.8). He warns his flock again and again against his rival claimants. “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Mt.7.15; or 24.4). Muhammad admitted to the historicity and legitimacy of some prophets before him, in order to give his own prophethood an ancestry, but he abolished further prophethood. He was the latest and also the last prophet, the seal of Prophecy.
The fact is that intolerance is in-built into the basic Semitic approach and cursing comes naturally to it. The Bible is full of curses invoked on rivals – gods, prophets, apostles, doctrines. For example, Paul told his Galatian followers that “should anyone preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” This tradition has continued and has been the strongest element of all branches of Christianity and Islam.
Christians claim that unlike the Jewish prophets, Jesus is an incarnation, an idea which was an innovation to the Jewish tradition. It is not difficult to see that Christianity only incarnated a new religious intolerance! This tradition of intolerance Islam also faithfully continued with even greater zeal. Religious intolerance was there before, but it was spasmodic and it was not supported by a theology. It was only with the coming of Christianity and Islam that religious bigotry and arrogance descended on the earth on a pervasive scale and with a new destructive power. They know so little about themselves but they claim to know everything about God. And in imposing their definition upon others; they have killed millions of people. They have been even more fanatic about their founders. “If you won’t believe that you are redeemed by my redeemer’s blood, I’ll drown you in your own,” says the Christian, to put in the language of Aldous Huxley. The same is true of Muslims, in their practice, Muhammad has been more central to their religion than their One God. You could jest about his God but woe unto him who jests about the Prophet. His punishment is death.
If religious tolerance is a virtue, both Christianity and Islam do not possess it. Wherever they have gone, they have carried fire and sword and oppressed and destroyed so far as it lay in their power.
Christianity first spread all over Europe in this manner. They demolished and occupied the temples and shrines of others. Any tolerance shown was an exception. Hindus know the extent of the murderous campaigns that Muslims of various hues undertook against them and their land. Similar graphic descriptions are available about the genocide and extermination of the native peoples of the Americas and the Caribbean by Spanish and British Christians in the name of religion and Western civilisation. Their record has been matched only recently by Communism, considered a Christian heresy by thinkers like Bentrand Russel. In China, for example the Communist regime destroyed half million Buddhist shrines while in the Soviet Union, Stalin reportedly exterminated 20 million of his own people who either opposed him or the communist ideology.
The theology of a single god, a single prophet, a single revelation, a single church or ummah, and also of a single life and single judgement is very different from the one the world at large has known in the past and knows even today. Historically speaking, these religions which were local and small tribal faiths, may be considered an aberration, which consolidated themselves through conquest and propaganda, and which could impose themselves in no other way. These are different not only from polytheism, a religious expression at a more popular level, but also from religions which allow for mysticism and the internal quest for a spiritual life. They are certainly different from the spirituality known in the East by Hermits, Stoics, Pythagoreans. Taoists, Buddhists and Vedantins, particularly in their concept of deity, man and nature; different in their definitions, modes, theory and practice.
Worship and Spiritual Practices
Every religion has its own modes and forms of worship, both public and private, informed by its dominant ideas of God, Creation and man. Prophetic religions take great pride in “one” God who despises idolatory, but have steadily degenerated into worship of relics and graves as we shall see with the Sufis. Spiritual practices or what Hindus call sadhana, are shaped by the way a religion intuits God, man and Creation. Religions like Hinduism and Buddhism prescribe a regimen of discipline known as sila, samadhi and prajna, to open up higher consciousness. They believe that even with all the guidance and help, each individual has to discover the spiritual truths for himself, that unless they are so done they can be of no use for him. When one cannot cat or clothe by proxy; how can one live spiritual truths by proxy? But as prophetic religions believe that God has already chosen them for no rhyme or reason and already revealed to them truths hidden from others, they do not need any sadhana. They already know the truth and they have nothing to learn or discover for themselves to. Prophetic religions prescribe only certain beliefs and the religious duty to convert others to those beliefs through preaching and holy wars.
It is therefore not strange that we find very little by way of sadhana in the New Testament. There are, on the other hand several exhortations aimed at pleasing this ‘one God’ or his Prophet or messiah. One such is “speaking with tongues” i.e. the believers gather together in the church and wait on the Holy Ghost to descend upon them and speak through them (I Cor.Ch.14). As is to be expected, it led to pandemonium. From all that people spoke, it was not clear what came from the Holy Ghost and what came from the Devil – a problem which continues to dog the Church! Most of the time, these phenomena arise from self-suggestion and make believe, and in extreme cases, border on abnormality.
The other is “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, which may be termed as the cornerstone of biblical teaching. This should be taken in conjunction with other teachings about sin, its remission by sacrifice, and its once-for-all atonement by the blood of Jesus. Christians are as self-conscious about being sinners as communists are about being proletarian. To be sinful has become a cult with them. Paul was the “foremost of sinners” and “he received mercy for this reason”. Allah also favours the sinner as seen before, and mentioned by Dayananda Saraswati. The Christian and Muslim heaven has more joy over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance. All this could not be healthy either for the mind or the soul and has created a religion of what has been appropriately termed “spiritual terrorism.” It gave rise to much neurotic, masochistic-sadistic behaviour. Wisdom, enlightenment, opening up of higher consciousness were altogether unknown to them. How can people be permitted to do as much sin as they want (Jesus having re-deemed it) merely following or believing in Jesus?
Of course we cannot leave out iconoclasm, the most important religious sadhana these prophetic religions have preached and practised. They have believed that demolishing the images on an altar, particularly in the temples of their neighbours, is the best way of worshipping their God and it is the service most acceptable to him. This unrelenting hostility towards ‘other’ Gods is the defining characteristic of the faithful. They have never realised that a good deal of religious reflection must take place before images are used in worship. In India, the outer images were most often contributed by men who practised most advanced internal disciplines. These were “icons”, internal realities expressed in outer forms in so far as that is possible.
Why are prophetic religions so hostile to images? Why do they nourish this obsessive hatred towards them? The images seem to have more attraction for and more power over iconoclasts than over the worshippers – some kind of idolatry or fetish worship in reverse. Through spiritual awakening some have turned idols into Gods; others of the unawakened soul have turned Gods into idols! Semitic iconoclasm is a child of crass materialism; it comes from the incapacity to see that the physical is also the standing ground of the metaphysical. Prophetic religions have given their God all human weaknesses and passions; on the other hand, Hinduism & Buddhism have thought of man with all divine virtues. The former have reified God, the latter have deified man.
Theology, Mission and Jihad
Every religion has its own ethos or distinctive characteristics which reflect in its theology or investigation of the Divine. It is shaped by the kind of questions raised and the answers given by the leaders of that religion. In Hindu religions, the seeker raised the question: what is real? What is the highest Good? What is man? What are his roots? Is he only his body or even his mind and intellect? His mind, his proud possession, is a prisoner of its passions; its knowledge is so little and so uncertain. Is there in him some other principle of greater and surer knowledge? Is there something by knowing which all this is known or at least makes sense? Hindu spirituality sought answers to these questions.
There is nothing to show that any spokesman of prophetic religions ever raised these questions. His questions were different. They were : Who is the true God? What is His will? How can it be fulfilled? We cannot explain how, but he arrived at the conclusion, often even before he raised the question, that he knew the true God, that the Gods his neighbours knew were false, that he was the mouthpiece of his God, and that unless others believed in him and followed him, they were damned. He felt strongly that it was his duly and God-given responsibility to propagate this view about his God and about himself. Men must be told the truth about this God and his authentic spokesman and be made to embrace this truth even by force if necessary. Their dominant ethos has been shaped by this theology.
Therefore the characteristic figure of these religions is a preacher, a crusader or a mujahid. He has nothing to learn; he has been sent to teach and correct and wherever possible even to punish. A Missionary is not taught to reflect but to act, and so he does not doubt that he knows the truth or whether his truths are worth knowing, or if what he knows are truths at all. His work is also accompanied by liberal use of force but the religious end justifies it as is seen from the record of several ‘saints’ like a Christian Xavier or a Sufi Ahmad Sirhindi.
With this kind of understanding of man and God and their own mission, Christianity and Islam started as soon as they gathered enough strength, along a career of persecution. They persecuted pagans, Jews, their own critics and mystics whom they branded and condemned as heretics. They were intolerant of cultures and people, and modes of worship which had a different conception of God. People in India know something of Islam in action, but the record of Christianity has been as black and as thorough in other continents. Similarly Islam has not only been a great imperialist, but it has also been a great suppressor of thought and opinion. It simply could not allow itself to be freely investigated and discussed by its followers. Conformity is secured by exercising ‘holy terror’ on “impostors”.
Various Christian Churches and sects in the past have not been very conscious of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, leave alone implementing it. In fact it is people like Gandhi who have made the Christian theologians more aware of it.
There is something false about the very idea of ‘founding’ a religion. To say the least, it is a thoroughly materialistic idea, and it must lead to its own excesses. Again the falsehood that accompanies the business of religious conversion is even worse than its intolerance. M K Gandhi called proselytising “the deadliest poison that ever sapped the foundation of truth”, and he regarded a Missionary “like any vendor of goods” though he pretends to be something else.
But it does not mean there are no believing Christians and Muslims now or in the past who did not overcome the fault of their theology. Many have loved their fellow believers without learning to hate their pagan neighbours. All this shows that man is greater than his creeds and ideologies and that humanity can survive its hate-ideologies.
(To be continued in Part 2)
Thanks to the Passive Observer. This post of yours has exposed the falsehood of the Bible and consequently strengthens the argument of author that christianity is falsehood.
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1. In contrast to Quran, we find angle Gabriel appears to Mary with greetings. “Do not afraid Mary, you have found favour with God (Luke 1:30)
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Just like Quran makes up fairy tales, so does babble here. Only 2 of the 4 gospels even mentions so called “virgin birth” of jeebus. Even in these goose-pells this “god of babble” forgets to mention this “miracle” of impending pregnancy to Joseph ahead of time. Joseph decides to divorce Mary and then magically in his dream (NOT in reality) an angel appears to Joseph and informs him of his wife’s magical “virgin birth”.
NOTE: Joseph gets only a dream of angel after he decides to divorce Mary, while ONLY Mary sees the angel in reality. Ain’t this a fishy story weaved by adulterous Mary.
Thanks Passive observer for making this very clear about the adulterous birth of Jeebus..
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2. Jesus’ Good News was written not by one but by four people. Three were Jews and one was a non-Jew Luke, a physician.
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So we have got four different liars..err…writers of goose-pells to be exact….
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3. About forty ordinary people were inspired to write the Bible from different places and in three languages. Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
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No wonder babble is truly babble of 40 different primitive people with no idea of what constitutes spirituality.
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4. Abraham was called from the Sumerian city state Ur around 4000 years ago. Sumerian civilization was considered one of the earliest civilizations.
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and so what…..this is an ancient fairy tale
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5. Important parts of the Bible is translated into 2,200 languages and sold more than a billion copies.
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so what…..Lies and fairy tales can be translated in many languages.
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6. Koran was revealed to Mohamad for 23 years. After 12 years of preaching less than hundred people accepted him as a prophet. Thereafter he has to take the sword. Whereas Jesus preached only for three years. Thousands of people attended to his sermons. It was reported that many were marvelled at his speech.
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Truth is not known from the number of people following. If the number of people is high, the possibility it is wrong is very high. It is only a handful of people in reality know the truth. This is why well accomplished scientists are few in number. This does not mean Muhammad is right either. Truth or falsehood is known only through examination, logic, experimentation and direct evidence. Christianity and Islam entirely is pure falsehood as it fails simple logical arguments.
Thanks to the unknown author. This article has increased the credibility of the Bible and consequently increased my faith.
1. In contrast to Quran, we find angle Gabriel appears to Mary with greetings. “Do not afraid Mary, you have found favour with God (Luke 1:30)
2. Jesus’ Good News was written not by one but by four people. Three were Jews and one was a non-Jew Luke, a physician.
3. About forty ordinary people were inspired to write the Bible from different places and in three languages. Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
4. Abraham was called from the Sumerian city state Ur around 4000 years ago. Sumerian civilization was considered one of the earliest civilizations.
5. Important parts of the Bible is translated into 2,200 languages and sold more than a billion copies.
6. Koran was revealed to Mohamad for 23 years. After 12 years of preaching less than hundred people accepted him as a prophet. Thereafter he has to take the sword. Whereas Jesus preached only for three years. Thousands of people attended to his sermons. It was reported that many were marvelled at his speech.
I have read the Koran cover to cover. It is easy to understand why the book was not arranged in chronological order. The Prophet, from time to time, consulted a Christian/Jewish scripture or Christian/Jewish people and formed his own opinion. For instance, he sensed that Jesus should be a great prophet and therefore Allah would not have allowed Jesus to die on a cross. Why the Meccan versus were comparatively good? Because he wanted to attract the Christians and the Jews. When they rejected him as a prophet Mohammad became furious and his Medina versus were very harsh towards Christians and Jews. These things indicate that Mohammad was a fraud.
Deuteronomy [18.19.20].: He will speak to his chosen people through His chosen prophets : “I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him”.
The above constitutes the summary of the three Abrahamic religions. There is nothing religious here, only self-serving declaration of mafiosi leader. Abrahamic Monotheism is devoid of any spirituality. It’s only a strategy to utilize the name of God to loot and rule over people. All people should be ashamed and change their mindsets.
Typographical Correction In My Previous Post-Reply:
Christians love Muslims because Christianity and Islam are similar RELIGIONS of falsehoods, blood and gore.
Ron says: “Christianity which is founded upon the teachings of Jesus was NEVER violent when preached and practised by Jesus and the apostles and even now.”
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This is absolute lies….whatever be the teachings of this adultery born mamzer jeebus, christianity has been extremely violent on non-believers right from the time of christianity achieved ascendancy in terms of political power. Ron, being a christian is a patent liar.
http://markhumphrys.com/christianity.killings.html
The history shows that christianity and jeebus’ teachings are everything about violence only. Jeebus himself differentiates between an unbeliever (as enemy and filthy dog) and a believer (as a friend). Not one place jeebus condemns the numerous genocidal wars against unbelievers in old testament, or slavery. ALl these shows that whore born mamzer jeebus supports slavery, genocide, looting, sexual slavery etc. found in old testament.
“Christianity which is founded upon the teachings of Jesus was NEVER violent when preached and practised by Jesus and the apostles and even now.”
The above is an absolutely false statement if one looks into and studies merely 2000 years of Christian history.
In fact, Christian history is so full of physical violence that Christianity’s idol — a dead Jew on the Gibbet — is as bloody as hell and the bloody Jew on the cross is blindly worshiped by Christians to this day all over the world.
Blood and gore are as symbolic to Christianity as beheading and rape of non-believers are absolutely essential in the faith of Islam.
Christianity was only rivaled by Islam in the history of mankind in terms of the systematic and institutional utilization of bloody violence to force all Pagans into believing in falsehoods.
Pagans disbelieved in Christianity and Islam; so, Christians and Muslims united in the bloody rampage to murder all Pagans during the middle age.
Pagan-temples were (are) turned into churches and mosques by Christians and Muslims throughout our known history and to this day.
Medieval Christians did not finish the Crusades against medieval Muslims; because, medieval Christians wanted medieval Muslims to murder all Pagans first as every drop of Pagan blood was needed to fulfill the bloody “Sacraments” of Christianity.
Christians love Muslims because Christianity and Islam are similar regions of falsehoods, blood and gore.
From the very outset, Christianity was bloody and Pagan-blood was drawn wantonly in order to spread Christian falsehoods while Pagan-arts, Pagan-philosophies, Pagan-science, and Pagan-structures were incorporated into the false-belief-systems of Christianity everywhere Christians went.
Christianity which is founded upon the teachings of Jesus was NEVER violent when preached and practised by Jesus and the apostles and even now.
Christianity as preached and practices by Jesus is not imperialism and does not look towards territorial expansion. The wars by monarchies and during imperialism were political and sometimes used or sparked by religion which has NEVER been advocated by Jesus or his disciples.
Jesus’ teachings were very clear: Bless those who curse you. Bless your enemies. Take care of the sick, widows, orphans, crippled, lame, blind, destitute, poor and needy
If there is a religion of love in this world it is Christianity. Even today there are millions of NGOs working for the betterment of humanity, including the services of 700,000 nuns each like Mother Theresa. 85% of good works in this world are done by them. 820 out of 850 Nobel laureates are influenced by the Bible.
I agree that Christianity was violent when it was in the grip of monarchies; and it is not so after the separation of the Church and the state.
The Bible is the written by men who were Holy Spirit inspired over 1600 years. They have been recorded by witnesses and is NOT written by God. The Ten Commandments have been written by God,
You have forgotten to mention that even the story of Jesus is written by Mathew, Mark, Luke and John and sometimes the description of the events differs slightly but the crux is the same.
Even now when one event is reported by different news channels you will find the description different.
If it was a forgery on a grand scale then they would take every precaution and see that every description matches word for word.
If there is a difference in level of reporting or numerical estimates it is understandable as it is NOT God who is writing it down.
The quran on the other hand is supposed to be spoken verbatim by God.
There are thousands of contradictions in the Bible – hundreds deal with mathematics. Read this full debate of William Campbell & Zakir Naik. You will see many errors in the Bible, contradictions, absurdities. http://www.faithfreedom.org/debates/NaikCampbellp9.htm
It is mentioned in Ezra, Ch. No.2, Verse No.1, and Nehemiah, Ch. No.7, Verse No.6, the context that… ‘When the people returned from exile, from Babylon , when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, when he released the men from Israel , they came back from captivity’ – and the list of the people are given. The list is given in Ezra, Ch. No.2, Verse No.2 to 63, and Nehemiah Ch. No.7, Verse No.7 up to 65; the list is given with the names as well as number of people released. In these 60 Verses there are no less than 18 contradictions in less than 60 Verses, of these two Chapters.
The author of the Bible, presumed to be ‘Almighty God’, does not know simple addition. If you give this problem, even to a person who has passed elementary school, he will be able to get the right answer. If you add up all the 60 Verses, it is so easy. Almighty God did not know adding – Nauzubillah… if we presume, that this is the word of God. Why should an idolatrous pagan Hindu or Buddhist accept Christianity when he can see hundreds of errors in the Bible, which will not be committed even by learned men, not to talk of God?
Further if we read, in Ezra Ch. No. 2, Verse No. 65, it says…There were 200 singing men and women – Nehemiah Ch. No. 7, Verse No. 67…‘There were 245 singing men and women.’ Were they 200 – or were they 245 singing men and women? Context is the same – A mathematical contradiction.
It is mentioned in the 2nd Kings , Ch. No 24, Verse No 8, that…‘Jehoiachin was 18 years old, when he began to reign Jerusalem , and he reigned for 3 months and 10 days. 2nd Chronicles , Ch. No 36, Verse No 9, says that…‘Jehoiachin was 8 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 3 months, 10 days. Was Jehoiachin 18 years when he began to reign, or was he 8 years old? Did he reign for 3 months, or did he reign for 3 months 10 days?
Further it is mentioned in the 1st Kings , Ch. No 7, Verse No 26, that…‘In Solomon’s temple, in his molten sea, he had 2000 baths. In 2nd Chronicles , Ch. No 4, Verse No 5, he had 3000 baths. Did he have 2000 baths or did he have 3000 baths?
Furthermore it is mentioned in the 1st Kings, Ch. No. 15, Verse No. 33, that… ‘Basha, he died in the 26th year of reign of Asa.’ And 2nd Chronicles Ch. No 16, Verse No 1, says that…‘Basha invaded Judah in the 36th years of the reign of Asa.’ How can Basha invade 10 years after his death? – It is unscientific
There are errors in reporting the numbers in the Bible – clear proof that it is not the verbatim word of God.
Bible says in Genesis Ch. No. 1 Verses No. 3 and 5,…‘Light was created on the first day.’ Genesis , Ch. , 1 Verses, 14 to 19… ‘The cause of light – stars and the sun, etc. was created on the fourth day’. How can the cause of light be created on the 4th day – later than the light which came into existence on the first day? – It is unscientific.
Bible says Genesis, Ch. 1, Verses 9 to 13… ‘Earth was created on the 3rd day. How can you have a night and day without the earth? The day depends upon the rotation of the Earth Without the earth created, how can you have a night and day?
Genesis , Ch. No. 1 Verses 9 to 13 says… ‘Earth was created on the third day.’ Genesis Ch. No. 1 Verses 14 to 19 says…‘The Sun and the Moon were created on the fourth day.’ Today science tells us… ‘Earth is part of the parent body… the sun.’ It cannot come into existence before the sun – It is unscientific.
The Bible says in Genesis, Ch. No.1, Verse No. 11 to 13…‘The vegetation, the herbs the shrubs, the trees – they were created on the 3rd day And the Sun, Genesis, Ch. No. 1, Verses. 14 to 19, was created on the 4th day. How can the vegetation come into existence without sunlight, and how can they survive without sunlight?
It is mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Hebrews, Ch. No.1 Verses No.10 and 11, and the book of Psalms, Ch. No.102, Verse No.25 and 26, that…‘Almighty God created the Heavens and the Earth, and they will perish.’ Exactly opposite is mentioned in the book of Ecclesiastics, Ch. No.1, Verse No.4, and the book of Psalms, Ch. No.78, Verse No.69, that… ‘The earth will abide forever.’ One has to be unscientific – Both cannot take place. The world cannot abide forever as well as perish – It is unscientific.
How can any idolatrous pagan accept The Bible as the Word of God when it contains so many blunders? Remember, no book is written by God. If the Quran is not the word of God due to mistakes (more than 3000 mistakes) the same applies to the Bible. The books of Hindus, Sikhs are not not written by God, but are written by men. Once you accept this, you will learn to be more tolerant of others, particularly of pagans like Hindus.
The Bible is a collection of books (66) written by men and is Holy Spirit inspired.
The Bible is not a science book, yet it is scientifically accurate. I am not aware of any scientific evidence that contradicts the Bible. We have listed statements on this page that are consistent with known scientific facts. Many of them were listed in the Bible hundreds or even thousands of years before being recorded elsewhere.
The Bible is the ONLY scripture that says earth is spherical. It is the only scripture that starts from the creation of man till Jesus and beyond to the future.
There are many but I am listing a few here.
• The Bible described the shape of the earth centuries before people thought that the earth was spherical.
Isaiah 40:22
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
The word translated “circle” here is the Hebrew word chuwg which is also translated “circuit,” or “compass” (depending on the context). That is, it indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched—not something that is flat or square.
The book of Isaiah was written sometime between 740 and 680 BC. This is at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested that the earth might be a sphere in this book On the Heavens.
Statements Consistent With Hydrology
• The bible includes reasonably complete descriptions of the hydrologic cycle.[3]
Psalm 135:7
He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightning for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.
Jeremiah 10:13
When He utters His voice,
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
“And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
In these verses you can see several phases of the hydrologic cycle—the worldwide processes of evaporation, translation aloft by atmospheric circulation, condensation with electrical discharges, and precipitation.[1]
Job 36:27-29
For He draws up drops of water,
Which distill as rain from the mist,
Which the clouds drop down
And pour abundantly on man.
Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,
The thunder from His canopy?
This simple verse has remarkable scientific insight. The drops of water which eventually pour down as rain first become vapor and then condense to tiny liquid water droplets in the clouds. These finally coalesce into drops large enough to overcome the updrafts that suspend them in the air.[1]
• The Bible describes the recirculation of water.
Ecclesiastes 1:7
All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.
Isaiah 55:10
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
• The Bible refers to the surprising amount of water that can be held as condensation in clouds.
Job 26:8
He binds up the water in His thick clouds,
Yet the clouds are not broken under it.
Job 37:11
Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds;
He scatters His bright clouds.
• Hydrothermal vents[4] are described in two books of the Bible written before 1400BC—more than 3,000 years before their discovery by science.
Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Job 38:16
Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in search of the depths?
This brings up an important historical note related to this topic. Many people are aware of the conflict between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Pope, Paul V. After publishing A Dialogue on the Two Principal Systems of the World, Galileo was summoned to Rome, where he was forced to renounce his findings. (At that time, “theologians” of the Roman Catholic Church maintained that the Earth was the center of the universe, and to assert otherwise was deemed heretical.)
We could not find any place in the Bible that claims that the Earth is flat, or that it is the center of the universe. History shows that this conflict, which took place at the time of the Inquisition, was part of a power struggle. As a result, scientific and biblical knowledge became casualties—an effect we still feel to this day.
@Ron, to prove Jesus as the only way to reach God, you should not give examples of conversions of some people to Christianity. There are many examples of conversions to Hinduism from Christianity (e.g. Margaret Noble who was the daughter of a Christian preacher, who converted to Hinduism and called herself Bhagini Nivedita i.e. Sister Nivedita), many of born Muslims converting to Hinduism in places like Palestine after realizing Krishna (ISKCON- International Society for Krishna Consciousness), born Muslims converting to Hinduism after rediscovering the Vedic heritage (e.g. Anwar Sheikh) etc, Muslims converting to Christianity especially in places in Africa and countries like Iran, and of course, Christians converting to Islam in Europe & USA. A report says that 1,00,000 White British, mainly girls have converted to Islam in UK till now.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343954/100-000-Islam-converts-living-UK-White-women-keen-embrace-Muslim-faith.html
You can see celebrities converting to Islam. Cassius Clay the boxer became Muhammad Ali, another basketball player of USA became Karim Abdul Jabbar, South African cricketer Wayne Parnell has also converted to Islam and many such instances. They do not show anything of the truth of any religion.
If Christianity is true which you are trying to show, you should give evidence that the Bible is a Word of God. What is there in the Bible which proves by its contents that it is from God? What about the mistakes in the Bible- contradictions, and facts totally contrary to modern knowledge? Prove the truth of Christianity, giving examples of conversions of others doesn’t prove anything. A great scholar Sitaram Goel has written a book: “Why I became a Hindu” from a staunch anti-Hindu Communist which he once was. This converted ex-Communist turned out to be one of the greatest Hindu scholars in the 1980s and 1990s.
Typo: The Jaffna hospital massacre happened in 1987
Typo: India lost some of its territory to Pakistan but gained some territory from Pakistan in 1965 (was stalemate).
Also pls read
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests_on_the_Indian_subcontinent
Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent mainly took place from the 12th to the 16th centuries, though earlier Muslim conquests made limited inroads into modern Afghanistan and Pakistan as early as the time of the Rajput kingdoms in the 8th century. With the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, Islam spread across large parts of the subcontinent. In 1204, Bakhtiar Khilji led the Muslim conquest of Bengal, marking the eastern-most expansion of Islam at the time.
Prior to the rise of the Maratha Empire, which was followed by the conquest of India by the British East India Company, the Muslim Mughal Empire was able to annex or subjugate most of India’s kings. However, it was never able to conquer the kingdoms in upper reaches of the Himalayas such as the regions of today’s Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan; the extreme south of India, such as Travancore and Tamil Nadu; and in the east, such as the Ahom kingdom in Assam.
The British defeated and controlled not only the former Muslims captured/controlled areas but also subjugated the Hindu kings of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Nepal (One-third of Nepal after the last Anglo-
Gorka war) and Bhutan; the extreme south of India, such as Travancore and Tamil Nadu; and in the east, such as the Ahom kingdom in Assam.
This message is for Ron_the_Christian:
Then, now why don’t you LEAVE India and go and preach your Jesus Christ in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Shri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic Republic of Iran instead?
Unknown Scholar you are reading from distorted pages of History.
When you look at the map of present day India it is obvious that British captured more territory from Hindus than from Muslims. But when you look at undivided Indian sub-continent, you will see that British controlled Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh, Burma including the (Rohingya part of Burma), Maldives, Moorish Sri Lanka.
You could travel these entire areas without a passport and use rupees or pounds during the British Colonial period.
These formal Muslim areas were once ruled by Hindus and the population was mix of either Hindu/Buddhist/Sikh or Jain.
It is fallacious to think that Hindus could stop Islam. India lost one-third of it areas during the first partition of 1947 and during the partition of Bengal in 1905. India further lost one-third of Kashmir to Pakistan in 1948. India lost some of its territory to Pakistan but gained some territory from Pakistan.
India lost territory to China in 1962. In 1971 India defeated Pakistan and helped in liberating Bangladesh, but NEVER gained any territory in the end. (as India returned captured territory at Shimla talks).
In 2015 Nepal gave China MFN (Most favored nation) status which never happened before in history as this land-locked country was protected and supplied by India. This was because India (BJP) tried to interfere and tried to make the new Nepalese constitution a Hindu constitution.
The IPKF in Sri Lanka were forced to withdraw after IPKF did rapes and the Jaffna hospital massacre in 1967.
Right now the situation in Kashmir has been the worst in history and it is a matter of time when Kashmir will separate or become part of Pakistan. All Hindus have run out of cowardice from the Kashmir valley. The only minority still there are Christians who are bravely doing evangelising and missionary work.
Surprisingly this Indian Government is not stopping the Christian missionaries from carrying out welfare, social activities and evangelising in Kashmir. Maybe they know that it easier to deal with soft Christians then with Muslims who resort to violence easily.
@Zakariya, You are free to believe any religion & in Jesus, but you are incorrect on facts when you say Hindus lost to Islam. Infact, it is the Hindus who resisted the onslaught of Arabs for over 2 centuries unlike regions West & North of Arabia, which succumbed immediately. It took over 570 years for Islam to gain a victory in heartland India (636-1206 AD). It took further 320 years before the Mughal empire could be established in 1526. It was only in 1600 that a stable empire could be established in India under the rule of Akbar which also perished after a century, within a decade of Aurangazeb’s death in 1707 AD. The Marathas, Rajputs, Jats and Sikhs (All Hindus, or at least non-Muslims) ended the Muslim rule in India. The Hindus were ultimately successful after the 1100+ year battle with Islam.
The British captured most of India from the Hindus and only some parts from Muslims. For the true history, read this article. See the maps of India to see how much the Hindus reconquered.
http://historyofmuslimattacks.blogspot.in/2013/02/islam-in-india-history.html
The British have, as is usual for them, distorted history by calling the period of the Turkish rule in India as the Muslim Period (instead of Turkish Period) and claiming that they captured power from them. By the same logic the European period should also have been called as the Christian Period! Again most of the important conquests of the British of the cities of Delhi, Agra, Lahore and Peshawar, and the bulk of the territory were from Marathas, Sikhs and other non-Muslim rulers. Only the regions in Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra, Bengal, Bihar, Sindh and middle and eastern Uttar Pradesh were captured from the Muslim rulers.
But ultimately Hindus in spite of their valour could not prevent the Muslim invaders from running over India for some centuries. Many reasons can be given for this. The greatest fault lies in them not studying the scriptures and psychology of the invaders which would have given a clue to their behaviour. Hindus’ standards of ethical warfare were not reciprocated by the invaders. When they lost, they were magnanimously pardoned and allowed to go back. But they used the reprieve only to regroup and attack treacherously again. Hindus never understood that treachery was an intrinsic feature of their religion (Islam) practiced by no less a person than their prophet. Unfortunately this lacunae still persists even today. Hindus also always fought defensively that is only when they were attacked and then too it was each king for himself. Their intelligence was inadequate if not absent (except during the rule of Shivaji and his successors, the Maratha rulers from 1664 to 1818, and during the Vijaynagar empire (1336-1565 AD), both of which kept strong intelligence) and the enemy could always spring an element of surprise leaving no time for the rulers to equip themselves adequately. The Hindus also lacked skills of military organisation, a forte of Muslims. Never did the Hindu rulers, even after convincing victories adopt an aggressive posture and take the trouble of uniting their forces and drive out the invaders once for all from the subcontinent and then fortifying the borders. Other shortcomings were excess of superstition, lack of adequate espionage and not keeping the military machine up-to-date.
In modern times, the Hindus lost to Islam in the 20th century, were unable to prevent partition and lost a large territory in Pakistan & Bangladesh. That was due to supporting incompetent and failed leaders like Gandhi who said on record on 6 April 1947: “If the Muslims want to kill us all, we should face death bravely” [CWMG Vol. 94 page 249] He also sat on fast onto death to make Indian Govt give Rs 550 million, half the treasury to Pakistan in 1947 even after Pakistan attacked Kashmir. He did this with the hope of getting the Noble Prize for Peace. Hindus’ failure in the 20th century doesn’t make Islam or Christianity as true or Hinduism as reprehensible. Hindus also won 1965 & 1971 wars against Pakistan. As a matter of fact, Europe is losing to Islam with Muslims dominating, imposing Shariah laws on the locals. Even in USA, they are regularly killing now, like Orlondo shootings and other bombings. Hindus have a far better experience of dealing with Islam. They have been much more successful in dealing with it in Kashmir.
Islam has eaten Hinduism. Sliced India into three pieces (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Hinduism was unable to defend Islam and end it. It submitted to Islam and still is in submission. Muslims are increasing in India each day. And Hindus are decreasing in Muslim dominated Bangladesh and already none in Pakistan. Only Christianity can STOP Islam. The Crusaders, 1000 years ago, forced Islam out from Europe and saved today’s time. Otherwise, it would have been a Muslim States of America and Muslim Union (EU?) at this time when we are talking democracy and freedom of speech and what not. I am not a Catholic and I have disagreement with many of their teachings. But, I am against division of Christians. Catholic belief in Jesus as God and the ‘only’ saviour and so do I. This is where ‘all Christians’ are one.
Christ is the ‘only’ way. My God Jesus Christ has ordered me to ‘love’ my neighbours and even my enemies. So, I ‘should not’ hate Muslims and Hindus although they blaspheme about my Lord everyday in their life knowingly and unknowingly.
I know and confident that when needed only the Christians will save the humanity. None atheist, no humanist or any Hindus or Buddhist will fight and are fighting the Islam, only Christians are. In the next crusade with Islam, the Christians will go and fight and will die to save the humanity again from the demons so that after the war is over the atheist, humanist, new ages, Hindus and Buddhists etc. can sit together with snacks and coffees and teas under the bright sunlight in peace and ‘discuss’ their ideologies and brain-storm and bash Christ and Christianity. Why not?
Off course, Christ is God, he died for my sins in the cross and he resurrected. Anyone disagree with this is wrong.
Every literate Christian should read the following books in order to understand Christianity very properly in historical contexts.
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William Benjamin Smith, “Ecce Deus: Studies of Primitive Christianity”, London, 1912
l. Gordon Rylands, “Did Jesus Ever Live?”, Watts & Co., London, 1929
Will Durant, “The Story of Civilization, Part III, Caesar and Christ”, Fourth Printing, New York, 1944
Paul Johnson, “A History of Christianity”, Penguin Books, London, 1978
Michael Arnhem, “Is Christianity True?”, London, 1984
Ian Wilson, “Jesus: The Evidence”, Pan Books, 1985
George Albert Wells, “Did Jesus Exist?”, Second Edition, London, 1986
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LINK
http://www.drabruzzi.com/ZINDLER-JESUS.PDF
LINK
https://orphicplatonism.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/jesus-christ-an-artifice-for-aggression-by-sita-ram-goel.pdf
In classical work of ancient Greek literature, by Plato, entitled THE APOLOGY OF SOCRATES it in written that Socrates had said that “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Likewise, in may also be said that “An unexamined religion is not worth believing in.” This is said about all religions. Yet to be specific, in this case, the topic is about the religion of Islam. Furthermore, one man who was as a former a Muslim and had lived in one of the Islamic nations of the Middle East but now he is Christian and an American citizen had explained in a book he wrote that “Driving into depths of the word of reasoned thinking and research in Islamic societies has always been costly. Some Muslim who have done this have even been excluded from their social rights and even sentenced to death.” [1]
[1] ISLAM AND THE SON OF GOD by Daniel Shayesteh page 70.
The Greek philosopher Plato is one of the contributors to Western Civilization. He may shed some light into the subject of those people who are shackled in the chains and darkness of Islamic thought. In Plato’s REPUBLIC he gave an allegory of a cave where “the condition of men living in a sort of cavernous chamber…Here they have been from childhood, chained by leg and also by the neck, so that they cannot move and see only what is in front of them.” This can fit into what the Imams do in the mosques and how they brainwash the young people in the madrassa’s by always programming Islamic doctrine into their victims and not exposing them to other worldviews. Furthermore, even in Islamic tradition when Muslims have their newborn child the father whispers words of the Quran into the infants ear so that that Quran verses are the first thing the newborn person hears. This programming process takes place all their lives. These are some of the chains that keep them bound in a mosque [cave]. The chains do not let them reach out for dialectic reasoning and let them examine the evidence both for as well as against, or even question whether Muhammad was a true prophet of God or not, and if the Quran is a hoax or not. As the chains and darkness of the cave blinds and holds the prisoners back from reality, so Islamic propaganda holds back the cognition to reason with the question if Islam is true or not. They are forbidden from even thinking to question Islam. Furthermore, if a Muslim by some miracle wakes up to the truth about Islam, it would be like the man in Plato’s cave allegory who was released from his chains and taken outside to the real world. At first direct light would be painful and disorienting, it would take some time for him to understand what the truth is all about, he even might cling to the shadows and still for a time believe some of the illusions to be real. But he would finally come to know “what he had formerly seen was meaningless illusion.” And that was “what passed for wisdom in his former dwelling-place.”And that the other cave prisoners also needed to see the light [the truth] for he “was sorry for them.” and he would re-enter the cave just to rescue them. Nevertheless, the cave prisoners wouldn’t understand and “if they could lay hand on the man who was trying to set them free.” And if they could “they would kill him.” Likewise, when someone escapes from the shackles of Islam, those still in the darkness of this religion would not understand and if possible kill him for leaving Islam, and even more so if he were to try to enlighten them about the truth about Islam. For these people in Islam are chained to an empty imitation of truth and godliness.
The author seems very aware of the faults Christianity of the West in the second millennium but perhaps has overlooked the Christianity of the East and of the first millennium. The so called “modern non-violent Christianity” is actually less so than the original nonviolent Christianity.
Please read this article to get an insight into the true core of Christianity in its first thousand years. St Isaac makes quite a contrast with Mohammed – even thought they were almost contemporaries.
http://www.wacom2017.org/sites/wacom2017.org/IMG/pdf/Bishop_Hilarion_Alfeyev.pdf
The violence of Roman Catholicism and later protestantism – often against each other – is an aberration from the middle years of the faith.
This above article starts with is a sentence that, in part,reads about “people who have blind faith…” My two first postings information was given from men who are Christians who studied Islam along with a relevant Bible verse. In contrast this posting is from intelligent men form American history who were not Christians. They ,nevertheless, still had wisdom about “people who have blind faith.” Which is explained in the following essay.
Concerning the subject of Islamic suicide/homicide – bombers /attackers: They are so thoroughly brainwashed and deluded that they actually think of their murderous actions as “martyrdom operations.” This jihad evil and madness is based on the Koranic doctrine, 9:111. , of a far-fetched and nonsensical doctrine of a sex- filled paradise with many virgins, hours, in it for the use only the jihadist/Muslim male who dies as a “martyr” fighting for the cause of Islam. This weird religious/Islamic teaching is found contained the Koran in 44:56. .55:56. 78:31. This bizarre and odd, irrational Koranic doctrine is not open, to the jihadist, to inquiry, questioning. logic or reason. So this blind unreasoning kind of “faith” in the Koran is a reminder that Thomas Jefferson had written. “Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” Likewise, Benjamin Franklin had printed in POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK something which may apply to this topic. For Mr. Franklin had printed “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
On the topic of Islam and its god Allah and the links of the two with paganism . The following does apply.
The God of the Bible is not really Allah the god of Islam. To explain, through the passing of time it has become widely accepted that the word “Allah” is just the Arabic word for God. This started when truth compromising Bible “translators” substituted the word Allah where the word God should have had been uses in the Arabic translation of the Bible. Furthermore, in the glossary in the book ASSASSINS! By Dr. Haha Lung it defines Allah as the “Pre-Islamic Lunar god : the god of Islam. “ Likewise, in the book entitled INSIDE ISLAM by a former Muslim who is now a Christian, Reza F. Safa on pages 22, 23 it reads “In pre-Islamic times both Allah –worship and Baal-worship involved the worship of the sun, the moon and the stars which h defines them as astral religions. [Which are condemned in the Bible, Second Kings 23:5] The crescent moon, which was the symbol of moon worship, is also the symbol of Islam.” In conclusion the Islamic god, Allah, is not the God of the Bible.
The words in brackets are my own. In addition other some other books that expose this little known truths are WHO IS THIS ALLAH ? by G..J.O.. Moshay also UNVEILING ISLAM by Ergun Mehmet caner and Emir Fethi Caner and THE ISLAMIC INVASION by Robert Morey . There is also PHILISTINE by Ramon Bennett
First, In the Bible it gives the account of the Prophet Elijah declared “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal be ,then follow him.” First Kings 18:21.[N.K.J.V.] In other words follow one of the other. Not both.
Second, many people say that the God of the Bible and the god of Islam are one the same. Is the majority always right? That’s not always the case. As an example the Christian pastor and scholar, Michael Youssef, who is also an Arab in his book entitled JESUS, JIHAD AND PEACE on page 69 informs the reader that “The name Allah comes from pre-Islamic times, and it corresponds to the Babylonian mane Bel or Baal. According to the Middle East scholar E.M. Wherry, pre-Islamic Arabs worshiped gods they called Allah. Both pre-Islamic Allah-worship and Baal –worship involved worship of the sun, the moon and the stars, which is why they are called astral religions. The crescent moon, the symbol of pagan moon worship, is also the symbol of Islam. It is printed on flags of many Islamic countries and placed atop minarets and mosques.” Likewise, a former Muslim who is now a Christian, Dr. Daniel Shayesteh, who used to live in the Middle East but now he lives in America . In his book ISLAM AND THE SON OF GOD. On pages 7,8. Reads “Allah is the generic term for God in many Middle –Eastern cultures. Allah is identified as one of the 360 or so idols worshiped by the Arabian people for centuries before Muhammad was born. Many do not know that Allah was the good god of the Arabians. This explains the crescent moon found on minarets and mosques and the flags of Muslim nations. .. .Historic writings also identify Allah with Baal.” It’s also worth mentioning that the Bible condemns such astral religions. As in, for example, Second Kings 23:5.
Therefore, now in modern times, it may be rightly said “If Yahweh Lord of the Bible , be the one True God follow Him. Yet if Allah the lord of Islam be the one true god then follow him.” The case is very clear cut.
If you accept Jesus is Lord God in your heart, He will send you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will bring your soul to God’s paradise after you die.