An Atheist Verse in the Qur'an

I have been emailing back and forth with the PR officer of my local Muslim group. We have been discussing a few things and, most recently, abrogation. He quoted a few verses to me, so I opened my Qur'an and read a few pages of context for them. I then came along this gem of a line:

And they say: None entereth paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian. These are their own desires. Say: Bring your proof (of what ye state) if ye are truthful. (2:111)

Well, what do you know? An atheist verse right there in the Qur'an. When Jews and Christians bring their claims to me, I say all the time: Bring your proof if ye are truthful. :-)

I must wonder, though, does this also apply to the Muslim's claims? Regardless, it's going in my collection of quotes from holy texts I like to quote. Not too much farther down the page comes another dandy:

And the Jews say the Christians follow nothing (true), and the Christians say the Jews follow nothing (true); yet both are readers of the Scripture.

Yet another good observation. If it weren't for all the vainglorious praise to Allah on every page -- and, not to mention, all the misogynistic, violent, and homophobic filling the gaps in between the praises -- I could really find the Qur'an enjoyable. Actually, I could live with the misogyny, violence, and homophobia; it adds intrigue. But in the name of the merciful and compassionate Allah, the repetitive praise of Allah persists ad nauseam.

Ray Has Damned the Midwest

The curse of Allah is on disbelievers. Evil is that for which they sell their souls: that they should disbelieve in that which Allah hath revealed... They have incurred anger upon anger. For disbelievers is a shameful doom. (Koran, 2:89-90)

Ray has posted an odious cartoon in his blog instead of a text article. The "moral" of the cartoon? Well, firstly, there is no scientific explanation for weather, it is a tool of God to inflict pain, torment, suffering, and sorrow on humans, depending on their actions -- or rather, on some of the actions of some of the people around them. Fires, floods, tornadoes, cancer, financial woes... there are no natural explanations for them, they are of supernatural origins -- used by God to punish the sinful Americans. Of course... that's why there were no weather disasters, diseases, or hardships back in the Christian times of the Puritans, Pilgrims, etc.

What Ray fails to notice, though, is that there are no raging wildfires ripping through the Middle East. There are no mud slides destroying homes and killing people in the Middle East. There are no floods destroying the Middle East (God can make a desert flood just as easily as he can the Bible Belt). So, it's obvious, then, why God is punishing Americans.

Christianity is false; Islam is the one true religion. The Qur'an clearly states of Christians, Jews, atheists, and the other disbelievers:

The curse of Allah is on disbelievers. Evil is that for which they sell their souls: that they should disbelieve in that which Allah hath revealed... They have incurred anger upon anger. For disbelievers is a shameful doom. (Koran, 2:89-90)

Isn't it obvious why, then, America has natural disasters? It's because of people like Ray Comfort. Ray Comfort has damned the Midwest to suffer floods. Ray Comfort has damned California to suffer wildfires. Hurricane Katrina? Yes, that was Ray Comfort's fault as well. Allah is angered by Ray Comfort who teaches that Jesus was the Son of God, which the Qur'an clearly states is wrong and wicked. Ray Comfort and his Christian message is causing us all to suffer natural supernatural disasters.


There's another thing wrong with this post, though. Is Ray dishonest, a liar, or forgetful? One of the commenters on the post, Geoff, points out the first one:

"Of course I would never say that fires are punishment for gay marriage, or that floods were a punishment for poor folks in the Midwest."

--Ray Comfort

You should have added...

P.S. But I will express these ideas in other forms, like cartoons and interpretive dance.

The Qur'an and the Bible both paint a very wicked, sadistic picture of a perfect being indeed. Is He simply unjust and unfair that he would slaughter the innocent along with the guilty, the babies along with the adults? Or is He simply not powerful enough to punish only those guilty by striking them dead rather that sending forth a natural disaster? Or is He a terrorist of the worst sort sending forth such natural disasters so that bigots like Ray Comfort can point to them and say "Convert and agree with me, or there's plenty more where that came from!"?

Bad weather and Hell: just two of the death threats Ray Comfort is armed with.

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Posts by others on this topic:
- Of Microbes and Men

Today's Theist Memory Verse, Vol II

Yet another one from the Qur'an. Tomorrow I will select a humorous one from the Bible.

They misbelieve who say, "Verily, God is the Messiah, the son of Mary"; but the Messiah said, "O children of Israel! Worship God, my Lord and your Lord"; verily, he who associates aught¹ with Allah, Allah hath forbidden him Paradise, and his resort is the Fire, and the unjust shall have none to help them. (Koran 5:76)

As you can see, Christians will not make it to Heaven (Paradise) and will be cast down into Hell (Fire). Surely, quoting from a book which Christians disbelieve in order to convert them to Islam is as asinine as quoting from a book which atheists disbelieve in order to convert them to Christianity.


¹ aught (n): anything whatever; any part

Today's Theist Memory Verse

Ray occasionally posts short blurbs called "Today's Atheist Memory Verse." In it, he quotes the Bible regarding atheists or something that may cause atheists to reconsider their non-position. I've chosen to do the same. My memory verses are for theists. I will pull them from the "holy" books I have (Koran, Hadith, Bible, Book of Mormon, Gnostic Gospels) and are intended for theists, mainly Christians.

The unbelievers among the People of the Book and the pagans shall burn for ever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures. (Koran 98:1-8)

People of the Book refers to any holy scriptures revealed to man from God before his final revelation to the prophet Muhammad. It is especially used for Christians and Jews. The moral of this verse is that you Christians are going to "burn for ever in the fire of Hell" for believing in the divinity of Jesus and the integrity of the Holy Bible.

If this does at all not bother you or give you pause, then maybe you see why when you say we atheists will burn in hell forever neither bothers us. The only reason you think it should cause us concern is because you believe it to be true. The reason it doesn't cause us concern is because we do not believe the Bible is the "Word of God." Similarly, Muslims believe the above to be true about you; the reason it shouldn't give you pause is because you don't believe that the Koran is the "Word of God."