Hello Eric

I dig your thoughts.
I agree.

Its a weird thought isnt it? The fame one.
Disceccting(sc) the thought to the core level of the self really makes it aubsurd.
Fuck people and what they think. And not an evil fuck you but a fuck you synonomous with a wake up call.

Cowards
Weak
Insecure

All because they cant find the time to know themselves; Dawsons Creek was on.

Peace, man

Paul

Noah was a Prophet of God, and a pure man. God purified his messengers, and they were all patient men with themselves and their people, especially Moses. There is no proof that he drank. I disagree with what you said.

When you disrespect the Prophets of God you disrespect the friends of God, and thus you are more vulnerable on many levels.

Rectify your thoughts and purify your intentions before you begin orbiting the inane at high-speed--ranting random ish and start flailing your limbs at innocent bystanders.

Out.

Noah is a fictional character in a book.

Eric, can you magic-eye? Maybe you have some deficiency in some kind of perception. Anyway, Eric likes to ignore obvious signs.

Do you speed around 'bends' over 'bumps' and through 'school-zones'?

Look you have never in your life seriously attempted to determine whether you really believe that Noah existed along with other notions of belief. You make assumptions based on pure ignorance because its easy.

I don't want to waste my time with you on this because its painfully obvious to me now that you have never read the Qur'an with an open heart, or had a frank conversation with a knowledgable Muslim on anything to the effect of belief. May you be guided.

Grow.

Nobu... I always get along much better with people who aren't preaching at me or trying to sell me something. Maybe if you just chilled on the with-me-or-against-me trip... I might not seem like such a bad buy.

Everything for you seems to come down to religion. And that's just not where I'm at. I'm happy to talk about anything other than religion with you. I'm taking it nice and slow. I got a Qu'ran by my bed. I got a Torah. I got some Eastern philosophy. And I take my time sifting through it. I'm not in a rush. I have no crisis of faith. I accept life and I accept death.

Whether I believe or understand these weighty religious issues is not important. Your need to convince me leads me to believe it is YOU with a void to fill. I am simply taking it all in. I don't care if you believe in what I believe in. I don't think less of you because you believe in this or that. But I do get bored.

Must everything devolve into religious assumptions with you? Like I said, it is a dead end.

I only tried to maintain the respect due to pious men.

The void I feel is only that I am not committed to my Lord enough. Every Muslim has a responsibility to EXPOSE people, but not preach. The message is clearly from God so, we shouldn't exhaust oureselves. Unlike as you assume, I enjoy conversations that may seem like 'dead-ends', many Jewish brothers have become Muslims. Many would have thought that a dead-end effort. I will respect your request. If I'm breathing down your throat with my opinions, I'll lay off. I don't have the luxury of resorting to such asides if others disrespect people I hold in high esteem.

Lastly, I resent the use of 'devolve' when discussing 'religion', whatever that is. To me, there is only the law of nature, and Islam is the natural way of life for human beings, just as orbit is the natural course for planets. Your ability to extricate these realities is where you and I will fail to see light through the same pane. It's all good, and as you said, we all have our own routes for the truth.

I am pleased to know (like it matters) that you are reading the Qur'an. The thing is, it isn't like a literary thing you read in college. Approaching it is easier if you know the history. It isn't in chronological order. The order of it was given after each verse had been sent. There are basically Makki verses and Madinan verses. Or the verses sent while Muhammad was in Makkah, and later in Madinah. The Makki verses deal with the purity of belief, Oneness of God, and other issues dealing with perfecting ones belief in the reality of God. Madinah verses deal with socio-politial issues alot because that's when the Muslims had control of their own city and needed to maintain a working society that believed. Reading the Torah and other texts is good too. I hope you find the guidance you seek.

Like you, I think it is essential to understand a wide range of teachings. And it takes a whole lifetime to acquaint oneself with all these traditions. I'm still very much in the early stages.

I certainly don't deny the relevance of monotheism. But I think we are still in the early stages of our understanding of "cosmic oneness" or God, or Atman/Brahman, or yin-yang, or whatever we might call it.

Non-religious philosophers -- Foucault, Nietszche, etc -- also have an enormous contribution. As well, I think there is a large realm of consciousness that can only be reached through art, culture, and drugs. Words do have their limit, and religious teachings generally acknowledge this.

I am wary of religion because it always seeks to "trump" the secular and non-verbal. If you can't explain it to people... it's not really religion, is it? People require clear instructions to participate in a religion. But life isn't always that simple.

The problem for me and religion is that I will always be in conflict with religion because it is static and I am dynamic. The only scenario of "Man vs. God" that I can believe is a dynamic one, where the rules change. In religion, the rules are presented as being inflexible. For me, there must be some flexibility. Religion is very all-or-nothing, with-me-or-against-me. And to me, that misses the point that we are all different and unique. Religion seems to be trying to make us all the same.