Quran's factual origins

Just as I have come to know that the Bible is a translation of several books written by different authors, decades after the events which they purport to describe by non-eyewitnesses whose stories were transmitted by hearsay in the intervening decades, I am interested to know what real history has to say about the formation of the "holy" book known as the Qu'ran.

L'Orientalist now has 2 videos with information pertaining to the topic and here they're.

The Inimitable Qu'ran

Did the Umayyads change the Qu'ran?

The creator of the videos provides citation of the literature he uses on his blog linked in the information below the video itself on Youtube.

Of objectivity and oughtness

QualiaSoup has uploaded the third video of his series on morality: Of objectivity and oughtness.

What's so Queer About Gay Marriage?

In this presentation, SisyphusRedeemed, a philosopher on Youtube outlines four arguments against gay marriage, and argue why they don't work.


Those are the secular arguments. Religious arguments can go play with the other childish arguments while actual moral and legal arguments are discussed.

And yes, I think Singapore is being, how do you put this..., backwards for still having 377A.

** On a side note, this happens to be my 200th entry.

Moral Absolutes and Morality

DiscoveringReligion has two videos up discussing further the religious idea of moral absolutes from their god.



It echoes and expands the same idea I briefly mentioned in the last part of this blog entry: Morality: Subjective, Objective.

L'Orientalist on Islam

A channel, L'Orientalist, with well referenced, clear content about Islam from a skeptic's perspective has come to my attention. I'd thought I'd post one of his videos here.


What do you think?

For liberal/moderate muslims, if you take issue with this video, may I ask, is it that the facts presented were incorrect or from the standpoint of your personal theological interpretation (in spite of the book's contents)? For the record, I only care about the former; the latter, not so much.

Atheism versus God: How did the universe begin?

You sir are dead wrong about almost everything in the article.

I am referring to this article: Atheism versus God: How did the universe begin? written by Vasko Kohlmayer in the Washington Times Communities. See the article if you wish to read the parts I truncated to maintain length.

There are those who claim that to believe in God is not only unscientific, but also absurd.

This is certainly not the case. To the contrary, it is the denial of God's existence that contradicts both science and common sense.

I'll grant you that common sense might indicate a god. But mind you, our intuitions about the actual mechanisms of the natural world has failed us many times. In fact, many scientific truths are counter-intuitive.

So, what about science? No. As far as scientific evidence is concerned, there is not a SINGLE verifiable piece of evidence indicating the existence of a deity.

The prevailing scientific consensus today is that the universe began with the Big Bang.

[Truncated -- some background on Big Bang theory]
The Big Bang theory describes the initial event as a great explosion which brought forth all the energy and matter in the universe. On this theory, the Big Bang was the beginning of all things. Prior to it, there was nothing: There were no particles, there was no matter. There was not even space or time.

Just a note: The Big Bang theory does NOT claim that there was nothing in the beginning. Please see this previous post: Something from Nothing?

Unlike some creationist retards who make the retarded claim that atheists believe "something came from nothing", that is not the author's beef. So let's move on.

Most of those who don't believe in God say that the Big Bang was a chance event. In other words, the great explosion that brought the universe into being was a cosmic fluke.

But this is an unsupportable position to take, because things just don't happen like that. Explosions – big or small – do not come about without someone or something causing them.

Here's his main beef: atheists believe that the universe/Big Bang is uncaused.

And he goes on to illustrate it,

To illustrate, consider this.

[Truncated -- the analogy]

And yet many atheists make precisely this kind of claim. They say that the greatest of all explosions just happened. On this view, the universe just popped into existence spontaneously.

But does this make sense?

Firstly, explosions, as described, have known causes and we understand the mechanisms -- unlike the Big Bang.

But more importantly, no atheist claim that the Big Bang is therefore necessarily uncaused. In fact, the atheists that I've heard of thinks that the Big Bang has a cause --- they simply don't think invoking a deity explains anything.

Common sense and experience tell us that the world does not work like this.

[Truncated -- lots of drama about a claim atheists do not make]

The problem is, however, that in all of its history science has never observed or documented a single uncaused event.

The atheistic position concerning the beginning of the universe thus goes not only against common sense and our everyday experience, but also against the axioms and observations of science.

In light of this, it is the atheist's position that has an air of absurdness about it.

Yes, the caricature of our position is very absurd. That, I don't disagree.

The huge irony here is that a majority of theists would claim that their god is an uncaused cause. So the absurdity that the author claims atheists believe sits squarely in his own court. All the drama about the absurdity of believing that something is uncaused applies to their god.

Yet, without a hint of irony, he goes on to say

It is only reasonable and logical to assume that the universe – just like everything else – had to have a cause. Judging by the staggering vastness, complexity and beauty of the universe, the cause that brought it forth must have been immensely powerful, superbly wise and exquisitely imaginative.

Such characteristics are normally associated with an entity we term God.

This reeks of stupid: "It's SO PRETTY! ...therefore, goddidit!"

To believe in God – the transcendent cause of the universe – is thus neither illogical nor absurd. Not to believe in him is both.

Unbelief will remain to be logically and scientifically untenable until it can be demonstrated that it is possible for an uncaused event to occur.

On the contrary, unbelief is the ONLY scientifically tenable position until evidence demonstrates the existence of a deity.

To believe that the existence of a god is justified by science is both illogical and absurd.

Tree of Wonder

I never quite understood the notion that beauty of nature is diminished when science explains the mechanisms of nature. I understand how people find the scientific method itself boring because they're not inclined to enjoy performing experiments and making observations. But that is a very different thing from saying science makes nature less beautiful by explaining it.

I don't get that. At all.

Just look at a tree. A tall, large tree with a crown of forest green leaves -- a majesty sight especially if contrasted by a lack of trees in the surrounding or smaller trees in the vicinity. The branching patterns in the crown and of the veins in leaves is itself beautiful sometimes very intricate looking. The powerful roots, a part of which spreads visibly above ground -- in urban areas, demonstrate its strength by breaking concrete as its grows larger and thicker. Depending on the time of the year, there may be flowers or fruits -- each adding colour to the crown.

That is beautiful. Visually. A majestic natural object to behold.

Science makes it even more beautiful -- not in your eyes but in your head.

When I look at a tree and contemplate its beauty, its beauty is not skin deep. Visuals is only part of the story. In the back of my head, the science of biology is summoned.

This large majestic tree is a multicellular organism -- a successful coalition of cells. Millions, billions of cells. Each cell as intricate and complex as the other. Each one following instructions laid out in its DNA -- having switched on or off different genes to perform its task in the coalition.

In the leaves, the chloroplasts are photosynthesizing -- the process that gave Earth its oxygenated atmosphere. And these chloroplast, like mitochondria, has its own genome, separate from the plant's own nuclear DNA, having descended from free-living ancestors of cyanobacteria.

This tree is one of the descendants of the primeval cell that started it all. A chain of unbroken parent-child kinship marching back more than 3 billion years. It stands tall on one of the tips of the tree of life where you stand on another. Yes, you're a cousin, a distant cousin of the tree you're looking at. Every single living thing is a cousin of differing degrees.

There is much more to think of but I hope this little description gives those people an inkling of how science beautifies.

There is much beauty, awe and wonder with science than without.