Myths are so similar (Horus-Jesus, Osiris-Dionysus-Christ, the hero who dies and is resurrected, the divine child, the virgin mother, etc.) not because one religion copied another, but because they spring from the same deep structure of the human psyche: the archetypes of the collective unconscious. They are universal patterns that human beings generate almost automatically when they try to make sense of birth, death, suffering, transformation, and the mystery of existence.
However, that doesn't make us real history, as biblical and Quranic literalists claim.
It seems to me that this Muslim scholar wants to live in a country not currently Islamic but wants to turn his host population into Muslims as well.
By force!
"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)."
β Ayn Rand
βYou see, the religious people β most of them β really think this planet is an experiment. That's what their beliefs come down to. Some god or other is always fixing and poking, messing around with tradesmen's wives, giving tablets on mountains, commanding you to mutilate your children, telling people what words they can say and what words they can't say, making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, and like that. Why can't the gods leave well enough alone? All this intervention speaks of incompetence.
If God didn't want Lot's wife to look back, why didn't he make her obedient, so she'd do what her husband told her? Or if he hadn't made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would've listened to him more. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining?
No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business if there was any competition.β
β Carl Sagan, Contact
Exactly, we can criticize Hamas and the PIJ all we want, but as long as the settlers are acting with violence and oppression, often tolerated by the IDF, this is going to be a tremendous tug-of-war that completely polarizes society, without any possibility of opening negotiations and mutual respect.
Elizabeth Taylor described MJ best! This is an introduction she wrote in a book I have called βDancing the Dream.
βHe is not of this planet. He is filled with deep emotions that create an unearthly, special, innocent, childlike, wise man that is Michael Jackson.ββ€οΈπ₯Ήπ