Robert from World Union of Deists has the correct perspective on this Koran burning issue.http://www.examiner.com/deism-in-tampa-bay/instead-of-burning-korans-why-not-debate-the-merits-of-all-the-holy-books
Instead of burning Korans, why not debate the merits of all the "holy" books?
By Robert Johnson
A Christian preacher in Gainesville, Florida wants to burn Korans this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of 9/11. Muslims around the world are upset and some are taking to the streets to demonstrate their anger that anyone would want to burn what they consider the word of God.
From the start of the Abrahamic "revealed" religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, violence has been a key factor promoted by all three of them. For example, Numbers 31:15-18 has Moses instructing the Israeli army, "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." This repulsive instruction to murder all the little boys and the women who were not virgins and to keep all the virgins for themselves is even worse than what is being reported out of the Congo, of using rape as a weapon. And to make it even worse, in verse 31 the priest Eleazar claims this order Moses gave originated with God. As the Deist Thomas Paine wrote in The Age of Reason, "Is it because ye are sunk in the cruelty of superstition, or feel no interest in the honor of your Creator, that ye listen to the horrid tales of the Bible, or hear them with callous indifference?"
Christianity has shown through the Inquisition, the 30 Years War, ad nauseam, that violence against those who disagree with them is their chosen path whenever possible. Due to their lack of real power in secular governments, the last person they were able to murder via the Inquisition was the Deist, Cayetano Ripoll. They murdered Ripoll for his Deism.
Islam's "holy" book, the Koran, also contains disgusting calls to violence but seems less centered on murdering "little ones" than the Bible is. For example, Surah 3:151 says, "We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve because they ascribe unto Allah partners, for which no warrant hath been revealed. Their habitation is the Fire, and hapless the abode of the wrong-doers." Surah 9:5 says, "Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." There are many other instructions in the Koran to wage war against nonbelievers.
The reason the Abrahamic "revealed" religions all need to resort to violence whenever possible to deal with nonbelievers is due to the incredible lack of God-given reason in all of them. They can't stand the application of God-given reason on their doctrines and false claims to having received divine revelations. Even the celebrated Christian classic by C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, falls flat on its face when confronted with reason.
If the Gainesville, Florida Christians could defend the claims of Christianity and their Bible, they would not burn the Koran, they would debate it. However, debating the Koran would open up their Bible to debate. There is no way to defend either the Koran or the Bible in a way which satisfies our God-given reason.
God Gave Us Reason, Not Religion
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