Hypocrites and Sharia Law

Sharia law

Recently, Facebook friends spent an afternoon decrying American Muslim desire to follow Sharia law, the rules and regulations derived from the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and later interpretations. In doing so, they proved only two things: they don’t know a thing about world history, and they are hypocrites.

The laws cover five distinct areas: 

1. Belief in Allah, prophets and requirements.
2. Morality, such as humility and patience.
3. Devotion, including the pilgrimage to Mecca and tithing.

4. Business and family law.

5. Punishment.

If that sounds familiar, it should.  The Bible covers the same ground.  Many of the laws are similar and equally fierce.  For example, the sharia requires death for anyone who leaves the faith.  So does the Bible, who orders death for anyone worshiping another god except Yahweh.

Also, according to the Bible, death is warranted if you curse your father or mother (Lev: 20:9) or let loose some blasphemy (Lev: 24:14). Among the long list of laws that the Bible lovingly prescribes capital punishment for include: for adultery and for a woman who is found not to have been a virgin on the night of her wedding night.

Naturally, not all sharia or biblical laws are the same.  Sharia law definitely is anti-women, especially in areas of sex and divorce.  That’s ironic since Prophet Muhammad was very liberal toward women for his day, a natural result of having only daughters.

10 Commandments posted in a courthouse

Today, sharia is followed in a few countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Mauritania, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Maldives, Pakistan, Qatar, Yemen, as well as parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.  Other Islamic countries follow portions of the law.

I can’t think of a single country that follows biblical law.  That doesn’t mean people haven’t tried to impose it in the past or in our time.

The same people bleating about Muslim preference for sharia law regularly try to force obedience to Bible-based laws.  They cite biblical prohibitions against homosexuality as grounds to discriminate, just as in the 1800s, southern leaders used the Bible as grounds to support slavery. They demand placement of the 10 Commandments in courts.  And so on.

Burning apostate at the stake

There’s no question to them the biblical laws should be obeyed, according to the New Testament.  As Jesus is quoted as saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke or a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”  (Matthew 5:17-18)

In fact, that requirement has fired much of Christian history as Church prelates spent their lives trying to impose laws on western civilization.  People were burned and massacred to uphold the biblical laws, as interpreted by the religious leaders.  Every part of daily life, from birth to death, was completely circumscribed by religious laws. That control wasn’t broken until the 1500s in the aftermath of the Protestant Revolution.  However, Protestants weren’t any more lenient when it came to obeying religious laws.

The fight between kings and popes regarding which set of laws to follow – religious or civil – continued for centuries, leading to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket and uprisings against papal authorities.  Eventually, civil law took precedent, but the battle is hardly over. Look at the fight today over punishment for priests who abused children.  The Church still wants to apply its own sanctions and avoid civil courts.

Orthodox Jew at prayer

Christians aren’t the only hypocrites who decry Muslim efforts to create laws dictating every human interaction.  Jews do the same thing. Orthodox Jews still obey laws that straitjacket behavior and activities, and want everyone else to kowtow to “God’s” requirements.

In fact, virtually every religion has extensive laws in an attempt to limit apostasy and increase control.

That’s another reason why religion must never be allowed to infiltrate the civic arena.  You are welcome to follow any law you want in the privacy of your home.  You can publicly call for the imposition of religious law, but the Constitution thankfully prohibits that from happening.

That’s one law we can all gratefully follow.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in communication from Kent State University.  You can reach him at wplazarus@aol.com. 

 He is the author of the famed novel The Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus as well as The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Comparative Religion for Dummies.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

Trump's Backward March

Trump

Welcome back to the Middle Ages.

You remember hearing about that lovely time when kings dictated, and opponents found themselves in serious trouble?  When one religion dominated and insisted everyone else was wrong?  When the rich controlled everything while the vast bulk of humanity slaved to support the few on top?  When what little media existed was censured and bullied?  When truth was whatever the leaders decided it was?

It’s all the rage these days.

Too bad if you are not one of the elite.  Of course, that’s no protection unless you support the king. 

Meet Donald Trump: the new king of the 16th century.

Trump can’t imagine he lives in a democracy.  Not knowing anything about government, only his ability to set the rules as an owner of a company, he intends to trample (or fire) his opponents.  He insists that only his way is correct.

Truman

We have had strong presidents before: George Washington, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, his cousin Franklin and Harry S. Truman, to name the most prominent.  They all had something in common: the desire to work within the system to help improve society as a whole.  They may have disagreed on the goal – Jackson destroyed the monetary system because he thought it undermined the average person; Franklin Roosevelt tried to strengthen the banking system – but the underlying premise was the same: will it help Americans?

Trump has no such concern.  His move to block incoming visitors has caused immense chaos not just for people with valid visas, but for Americans.  His decision to name a known racist as his chief advisor and nominate another as attorney general represents a direct assault on millions of Americans.  His choice for the Department of Education chief, a woman with an overt dislike of public education and limited knowledge about anything, throws a black cloud over the entire educational system in this country, affecting all Americans.

He has ordered scientists not to talk about Global Warming, an increasingly threatening danger to human life.  He has named someone who opposes environmental regulations to the Environmental Protection Agency.  He has threatened to end our role in the United Nations, which, for all its limitations, has managed to end diseases like smallpox, provide relief to refugees worldwide and reduce global tensions.

The list could go on, including supporting the effort to build a pipeline through the heart of United States, but it’s a sad legacy created in just a few short days in control.  It also portends far worse in the future.

Charles I

Given Trump’s unconscionable desire to restore the dictatorship of hundreds of years ago, perhaps some timely reminders would be helpful.

For starters, no kingdom survived the effort.  Common people, fed up with oligarchies, revolted.  The Church split in half, forever losing its control.  Kings were beheaded – Louis XVI, Charles I – or lost power to elected officials.  No omnipotent kings remain.  The closest is probably Kim in North Korea, although he doesn’t claim kingship.  Even the Saudi monarchs answer to their religious leaders. 

Media became stronger.  In the Middle Ages, men like Erasmus produced multiple and successful essays that offered a different view of life; the Bible was translated into vernacular despite the protests of the clergy; opinions that countered kings became commonplace.  Attempted censorship in the Middle Ages failed miserably; the same will happen these days with the wide array of communication channels available to everyone.

In the Middle Ages, more scientists grew emboldened to express truths that contradicted both regal and religious claims.  Given new tools, like microscopes and telescopes, they began to explore the reality of the world they inhabited, bequeathing us a treasure trove of knowledge.  Kings couldn’t stop the march; neither can Trump today.

Spence Tracy as Henry Drummond

As Henry Drummond told the court in Inherit the Wind – a retelling of the 1925 Tennessee trial when a biology teacher was arrested for teaching evolution:

“Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, backward, through the glorious ages of that 16th century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!”

Clarence Darrow addressing the real Scopes jury.

Drummond lost the case, but won the argument.  In the play, Matthew Brady, Drummond’s fictional opponent, discovered he was not a prophet of God.  The state of Tennessee in reality changed the law that banned the teaching of evolution. 

They all learned the same lesson: leaders can attempt to drive the world backwards for a short time, but, eventually, they are forced to learn that’s the completely wrong direction.

Trump will get that same message, too.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in communication from Kent State University.  You can reach him at wplazarus@aol.com. 

He is the author of the famed novel The Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus as well as The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Comparative Religion for Dummies.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

Sinking Noah's Ark

A group of “scholars” on the internet have been busily trying to “prove” that the story of Noah’s Ark really could have been true.  They have been going through incredible mathematical gyrations to show that the number of animals aboard the vessel could have been manageable, since many animals, such as seals and walruses, live much of their lives in water.  

The fact that such creatures -- except for animals like whales and dolphins, for example, that have fully adapted to water -- need to rest on dry land apparently never figured in the equations.  After 40 days forced to float in an Earth-covering ocean, they would all be dead.

The “scientists” also figured the size of compartments and calculated how big a boat would have to be to accommodate the animals.

In their haste to “prove” nonsense, however, they missed a few key points.

Dining elephant

For starters, the beastly passengers have to be fed.  They don’t line up at buffet tables, such as on a cruise ship.  They typically eat each other.  Obviously, then, Noah and his few companions would have been very busy divvying up food stored on board.  

Modern ships have refrigeration.  Noah wouldn’t have enjoyed that luxury.  Sailors just 100 years ago could have told the so-called scholars how long food lasts on a ship.  The navies of the world depended on hardtack and salted meat, almost all of it spoiled and maggot-filled on long sea voyages.

Herbivores also need food.  Let’s see: an elephant eats between 200 to 600 pounds of food a day.   Try keeping that fresh for 40 days. Or the tons also needed for hippos, which live in the water but eat on dry land, as well as rhinos, giraffes, deer and other large critters.

Then there’s a little thing called genetics, initially understood only in the beginning of the 20^th century.  The surviving animals would have to mate with each other and their offspring.  The resulting inbreeding would have shown up in serious illnesses and genetic weaknesses, just as it has in humans who restrict their genetic choices.

Long way to hop

On top of that, there’s the obvious problem of distance.  Are the scientists suggesting that two kangaroos, for example, calmly hopped across open water from Australia, through Asia to the Middle East to catch a ride on the Ark and then, when the boat came to rest, hopped back?  Where are the bones left by animals that failed to complete similar journeys?  Sloths probably wouldn’t get very far anyway.

Did Noah make stops en route as animals lined up at stations? The Bible missed that tidbit.

To make the whole scenario even more ridiculous, the would-be scholars somehow ignored whole sections of existing life that would have been destroyed by such a flood, including insects, plants and bacteria.  Few species of insects live in water.  Yet, there are more of them than any other creatures on Earth.  Somehow, the millions of species of beetles, ants, worms and fleas etc. managed to stay alive amid the flood waters.

Desert blooms

Then, too, plants endured.  Few of them can live in water full time, especially in dry areas like deserts.  As any home gardener knows, too much watering kills plants.  Think what a 40-day deluge would do.  Bacteria, too, overcame the obvious saturation. 

To resolve such difficulties, “scholars” working on “proving” the existence of Noah’s Ark proposed that the creatures somehow went to a period of suspended animation.  Why not just say God can do anything?  Great, He could kill everyone without a flood. Then, there would be no reason to bother with widespread hibernation or other absurd solutions.  To claim that, however, would require ignoring everything from biology to archaeology.

Not that it matters.  Such “scholars” are motivated solely by their beliefs.  Science then only becomes a roadblock to be avoided, not an arrow providing direction.

Real scientists don’t have that difficulty.  They go where the research takes them.  If it contradicts beliefs, so be it.

That’s what scares the faithful.  Science, now armed with an incredible array of instruments, has overwhelmed ancient religions born in distant generations when knowledge was limited to the weak human senses.  That’s the real flood that believers are trying to cope with.  They can’t, any more than they can prove that Noah’s Ark actually existed.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history with an occasional foray into American culture.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in communication from Kent State University.  You can reach him at wplazarus@aol.com. 

He is the author of the famed novel The Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus as well as The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Comparative Religion for Dummies.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.