More on BBC2's The Life of Muhammad

A while ago I posted about Rageh Omaar's TV series The Life of Muhammad (and talked briefly about it on the Skepticule Extra podcast). My skepticism about Muhammad's revelations — and about his "Night Journey" as well as other aspects of Islam — provoked a series of comments from a user by the name of Walid, who essentially claimed that it was true because the Prophet said so. I did try to elicit some valid evidence for this claim, but to no avail.

Some days later Stuart Parsons responded to my post with a condemnation of the TV series, and to rescue his comment from the depths of Walid's justification attempts I reproduce it here:

As someone who has made a seious study of the Islamic religion, I can assure you that the BBC2 'Life of Muhammad ' series was a travesty. It was more noteworthy for what it chose to conceal about the life of Muhammad than what is was prepared to reveal.

Islam's own sources, the Quran, Sunnah and sirahs of Ishaq, Tabari and Kathir, reveal a very different life of Muhammad than that disingenuously presented to us by the BBC Head of Religious Broadcasting, Mr Aaqil Ahmed. We certainly were not told that the Quran and many hadiths call for ongoing holy war against ALL non-Muslims, until the religion is for Allah alone throughout the entire world. Instead it was mendaciously explained that Jihad is the struggle of individual Muslims to lead a good life. According to many Quran verses and numerous ahadith a Muslim is leading a good life if he is killing non-Muslims, forcibly converting them to Islam or subjugating them as inferiors under Muslim control. 

This does appear to be a damning indictment of Rageh Omaar's programme, and incidentally of Islam in general. To be fair though, I noticed a good deal of "equivocation by stealth" in the programme, with many hints of "interpretation" of scripture and much use of the phrase "according to Muslim tradition". Often these phrases slip by unnoticed, but they serve the same purpose as judicious use of "allegedly" when saying something that could be judged defamatory in a court of law.

And if we were in a court of law, could we say that the jury's still out?

A heartfelt invitation to believe

Occasionally as an atheist I come across the saying, "It takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to believe in God." This, of course, is usually spoken or written by someone who does in fact believe in God. Sometimes this person claims to have been an atheist in the past, but is no longer, so I might question their sincerity when they now claim to have less faith then they did before.

I would suggest they look into their heart and examine their innermost convictions. Though they outwardly profess a belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator-agent, despite never seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling or otherwise having any compelling evidence — physical, historical, documentary or scientific — for the existence of this agent, I contend that they do not believe in this agent. They know in their heart that this agent does not exist. They are, in effect, in denial about the agent's non-existence, and therefore suffering cognitive dissonance when they proclaim their faith.

To all those in denial about their unacknowledged atheism I offer this simple challenge and invitation. Does the truth matter to you? Does the reality of the external world present itself to you in a way that allows you to represent it to others in the same way — as real? Does what counts for you as "real" depend on whether it can be verified by others, and by yourself, on a repeating basis?

If so, I invite you to accept the reality of the universe into your heart as your only reliable, repeatable measure of truth.

And the truth will set you free.

Burnee links for Thursday

The Atheist Experience™: A Critical Thinking Course You Just Won't Believe
No, you won't. It's incredible. There ought to be some kind of "trade descriptions" claim here.

Science: The incessant drive for 'balance' distorts education | the big issue | From the Observer | The Observer
James Williams leads this correspondence about science education, in the light of Steve Jones' criticism of the BBC's "balance".

Stop the teaching of pseudoscience - Blogs - Pulse
A mild request from Edzard Ernst provokes ridiculous vitriol in the comments -- homeopaths on the rampage!

As atheists know, you can be good without God - USATODAY.com
Good article by Jerry Coyne, but mostly depressing comments.

The Atheist Experience™: Evangelists panic when they're losing ground
Russell Glasser with another perspective on Jerry Coyne's USA Today article.

Jesus and Mo
It's an old one, but still valid.

Click to read the rest of the strip

New, extended, edition of Skepticule Extra

The latest Skepticule Extra, number 10 (double figures! Yay!), features Rosemary Lyndall Wemm who generously shares her insights on the neurological aspects of morality. (This show is our longest to date, making up for the one before, which was truncated.)

Other subjects discussed include near-death experiences, near-terrorist experiences, near-anti-semitic experiences, near-torture experiences, near-prison experiences and near-empathic experiences. Or in other words, a whole bundle of fun.

We also have feedback plus a progress report on a half century of God-arguments. Enjoy:

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/08/skepextra-010-20110724.html

Theology for the masses

It's less than a week since The Rev. Dr. Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, informed us on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day that America's financial problems were foreshadowed in the Garden of Eden. Now he's berating politicians for using fancy phrases that don't mean anything.

Not that theologians would do anything like that, of course — though Giles does acknowledge dismissals of theology as "unrealistic stargazing" and "the musings of unworldly philosophers with their heads in the clouds". However, says Giles, "...theology, like blue-sky thinking, is the attempt to see things in the widest possible context." Or to put it in a way comprehensible to the ordinary bloke and blokesse (that is, those who are so lacking in the finer subtleties of academe they can't tell exegesis from hermeneutics), theology is like a zoom lens pulling back to its widest setting. That's right, theology lets us see everything. But just in case said bloke and blokesse get a bit cocky by being shown how easy theology really is, Giles tosses in a snippet of Latin to keep them in their place.

Lest we think he's off on a flight of fancy, he warns us, "Of course the practical minded are not wrong to worry that all this abstract reflection can easily slip its anchor with reality." Next, to reinforce his cultural credibility he quotes a verse of poetry. By this time we're approaching the end of his allotted three-and-a-half minutes, and though Giles has dutifully included something theological (remembering to dumb it down for the hoi poloi), thrown in some Latin and even some poetry — he's so far not mentioned God.

But never fear — the flight of fancy may be postponed but it's not forgotten: God is everywhere! And God is in the details!

"One might even say," Giles continues, "that this incarnation of theology of God-become-human is the original localism." One might, but what would it mean if one did?

Whatever the "original localism" might be, Giles won't let those stick-in-the-muds obsessed with practical reality blunt our wild speculations. "Indeed, too often, talk of 'being realistic' is just code for a failure of the imagination."

Wild speculation, apparently, is essential to politics, just as it is to theology. I think the "practical minded" may be right. Giles Fraser slipped his anchor long ago.

Burnee links for Sunday

New Humanist (Rationalist Association) - L Ron Hubbard slammed in verse - by his own great-grandson
http://youtu.be/0QsCrFANMzc

A powerful, disturbing monologue.

CFI Condemns Use of Religious Materials for Instruction in Nuclear War Ethics | Center for Inquiry
I'd say the use of religious doctrine is inappropriate, period. Of course this wouldn't happen in jolly old Blighty, would it? Would it?

Edzard Ernst: The professor at war with the prince | Life and style | The Guardian
Professor Ernst may have taken "early retirement", but it's good to know he's still engaged with the issues in which he has specialized. We'll still be hearing from him, I think.

Church criticised over adverts for ‘Doctor Who’ event - Wales News - News - WalesOnline
If this church feels the need to disguise its identity when promoting this event, it should ask itself why.

The Importance of Unbelief | Stephen Fry | Big Think
Some brief but worthwhile snippets from Stephen Fry in 2009
http://bcove.me/xpw22zhg

Three men complete their mile-by-mile mission

The boys are back. Their triumphant formation ride into Guildhall Square, Portsmouth on Friday signalled the culmination of two weeks' intense cycling up hill and down dale, all in a good cause, and amply documented on the way via the blog and Twitter. Photographs of the final event are also available, as is the final blogpost:

The last day of our event. Of course we had technically finished our challenge, Friday was kind of supplementary. We assembled as planned at Andy's house and we were joined by Rob who we invited to ride down with us. We left at around 10:30 for a leisurely saunter, as we thought for once we could arrive at our destination without being red faced and sweaty. We were well ahead of schedule and so we decided to go down to Spice Island and recreate a picture from our first training run all the way back in March. Rob duly obliged with  the camera.

(Click here to read more.)

Well done guys!