Gift or curse? You decide

Since I am somewhat of an early bird I tend to watch a little TV before I begin my day and this morning I had just parked myself in front of the tube with a glass of warm milk when I landed on the local propaganda machine (actually the only machine with the license to pollute our airwaves). The airing program was showing nature videos and the narration goes "The Earth with its vastness was created for only us, Humans. Its constituent rivers, ponds and oceans were created to quench our thirst. The firmness of the ground is just for us to trod on...". The program had the conspicuous undertones of TVM's famed religious documentaries so I decided to linger on for a while to catch the Koranic or Prophetic quote justifying this stupendous claim. Guess what? There were none! I am guessing that someone just woke up and realized all that for the benefit of us all.

Humans undoubtedly have the most power as it is well within their limits to either destroy their planet or to restore it to its former paradisaical glory. Our actions does have a higher impact than any other creature's but this doesn't mean we are the most important. It seems the higher a species is on the food chain, the less important it is for the survival of that chain. Scientists agree that we have virtually left the food chain and would not create a missing link if we are to go extinct for any reason. In other words, we are expendable in nature. Remove all humans (yes, all 6.5 billion of them) from the face of the Earth today and its biosphere will continue thriving with diversity and abundance. On the other hand, remove all the insects or the trees and life itself will come to a screeching halt. They deserve to gloat, if only they were capable of doing so.

I am disappointed to know that despite having all that power ot make a difference, the only thing we seem to do (without hindrance) is parade around thinking about our extremely confined self-centric universe, completely oblivious to our minisculity in a grand cosmic scale. As if it is not enough that we plunder the Earth and wipe out whole species in the process. There is genuine concern for our planet though (Kyoto protocol? Nope, thats just a joke by the industrialized nations) and I feel obliged to thank them all for their efforts.

Oh, and I just realized this. If we are God's gift to anything (the belief at least in the part of the word that I reside in) it would definately have to be arrogance and ignorance.

“The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

- Ted Perry (attributed to Chief Seattle c. 1786)

Evil Manifest

I was quite young when I was first introduced to the Islamic concept of the Antichrist (Arabic الدّجّال for the Deceiver/Impostor) and until last night I knew relatively nothing about him except that I was to flee when and if I ever caught sight of him. In order to know more I watched a video of a speech given by Canadian Islamic scholar Dr. Bilal Philips on the subject of the Antichrist.

Philips began his speech first by comparing the different versions of the Antichrist. He found the reference in the Christian scrolls to be to be vague and obscure. He continued to dig deeper into history by examining the Jewish scrolls (namely the Book of Daniel) and ridiculed the description found therein. Finally, he moved on to the Islamic concept after an initial bout of praise for the complexity in the narrations by the Prophet’s companions.

According to Philips, the Antichrist is a sun-tanned Caucasian male, with a muscular physique, stooped back, curly hair, green eyes (of which one is blind), protruding forehead and a most prominent feature, the Arabic letters ف , ك and ر which would be deciphered by all devout Moslems, regardless of their literacy, as the mark of the Disbeliever.

Then Philips began describing his earthly manifestation prior to the Day of Resurrection. Three years before the Antichrist is set to appear, God shall command the skies to withhold a third of its rain and the Earth a third of its produce. The second year two-thirds and everything on the third year. Then only would the Antichrist appear before man, bearing powers only a god could possess. He shall carry mountains of bread and meat, along with rivers from both Heaven and Hell, he shall be able to raise the dead, cure the sick and fling those who oppose him into the pits of Hell for all to see. (These contesters enter the real Heaven as Martyrs). Most important of all, he shall claim to be God. This ultimate trial of faith will save the faithful who reject him and bring out the infidels and the hypocrites who align with him. The latter will suffer eternal damnation.

I listened intently but all the while I was disturbed by an irritable conflict with the circumstances with which the Antichrist appears. Philips mentioned that he will be preceded by the Mahdi who will wage a global war against the infidels (a sort of crusade). Based on the narrations, I assume that after this war humanity’s stance on Earth would already be weakened. Then comes the drought and the famine brought about by Divine Intervention. We can all imagine what kind of a scenario this would create… think poverty struck regions of Africa, only a million times worse than that if agriculture is eradicated altogether. After taking this into consideration, how could any man (or woman for that matter) refuse the salvation offered by the Antichrist? How could anyone who is on the fringe of death refuse a morsel of food, even if it comes from this unholy impersonator, aided in his deception of mankind by God Himself? If a man were to be responsible for such acts of deception, would he not be deemed unfathomably cruel? Nobel winning physicist Steven Weinberg once said in an interview by a BBC documentary “The Atheism Tapes” by Jonathan Miller:

“Maybe at the very bottom of it... I really don't like God. You know, it's silly to say I don't like God because I don't believe in God, but in the same sense that I don't like Iago, or the Reverend Slope or any of the other villains of literature, the god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to me a terrible character. He's [a God] who obsessed the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. Now I realise that many people don't believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he's a terrible character. I don't like him”

Sadly, I must agree with Weinberg. His observations are accurate albeit exaggerated. However, I REFUSE to believe that those traits are inherent to God’s true nature. They are in stark contrast to the Divine Characters that I do believe in... that God is The Most Beneficent, The Peace and Blessing, The Merciful, The Ever Providing, The Loving and The Truth and The Compassionate. After a lot of contemplation I reached only one conclusion. We have distorted our collective perception of God to further our own trifle agendas.

May God forgive us all for the atrocities we have committed and continue to commit in His Name.