The Independent:
Atheists Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris face Islamophobia backlash
Dawkins surprised his fans and critics when he admitted he had not read the Koran
They are often described as “The Unholy Trinity” – a trio of ferociously bright and pugilistic academics who use science to decimate what they believe to be the world’s greatest folly: religion.
But now Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris are on the receiving end of stinging criticism from fellow liberal non-believers who say their particular brand of atheism has swung from being a scientifically rigorous attack on all religions to a populist and crude hatred of Islam.
In the last fortnight a series of columns have been written denouncing the so-called New Atheist movement for, in one writer’s words, lending a “veneer of scientific respectability to today’s politically-useful bigotry.”
Categories: Age, Anti-Islam Campaign, ATHEISM, Bigotry, Europe, ISLAMOPHOBIA
Atheists are working on a principle “Seeing is believing”. That is bad. I amend that principle to “Seeing is not denying”. i.e. to see is not to deny. That is all.
In fact seeing is no believing. Belief needs some kind of curtain or invisibility or doubt. For example, I see the Sun. If I believe in the Sun, it is not anything of importance. It would be foolish of me to deny the Sun. What do I gain by believing in the SUN.
We may need to define the word “Belief”. Belief should be concerned with the visible and invisible. If there are visible things and invisible things, if there are real and imaginary things, as we have in mathematics then we need to keep the belief for such things which are not visible. We cannot apply the belief to visible things only.
That is why, the Quran teaches, in the very beginning of the second chapter about belief. It says belief is for the unseen things (Yuminoona bi alghaib..) i.e. the God fearing people will believe in the unseen things… they will not apply the condition that they will believe only in the things which are seen.
In real world, we experience things which we cannot present but feel there effect. What is electricity?/ Current is running in the wire. We observe its effects but we cannot actually see the current. Similarly there is imaginary resistance (reactance) we cannot measure and we cannot deny it. So there is a realm of imagination which is being well admitted by all of us, of unseen things; things which we cannot present but at the same time we cannot deny.
I would request all atheists to abandon the saying “Seeing is believing.” We believe in the things by their effect. In fact we see those things by their effect only (not by the eyes), that may be love and hatred and pain and happiness, there are so many abstract things that are part of us. Shall we reject them all, i.e. our feelings? We feel hot, sometimes we feel cold. Have we seen the heat? But we admit it.
Let us chart out a good way as to not apply a precondition that Seeing is believing.
It is not the matter of the eye only or the five senses. It is the matter of the feelings and connected with the heart. So have a heart, please.
There was a time when British occupied India and send so many missionaries to convert Indians, which they did, a few. Now, Ahmadi Muslims have come to America to convert their fellow American citizens to Islam.That is enough for me to believe that God Exists.All the other reasons mentioned by Ghulam Sarwar Sahib are valid and make sense too.
Also, we run to hospital when we are sick, or run to shelter during earthquake or a storm. May be these gentlemen have never felt a need for God. God can be seen by you, when you desire or need.
probably they have none.
even pharaoh proclaim he was almighty god,when he was tested with calamity and affliction he accept god same to Richard Dawkins.