Atheism in the Islamic world - The Atheist Experience #680

Muhammed, a former Muslim from Alexandria in Egypt talks about losing his faith, the Qur'an, the Old Testament, Jesus, the Ramadan and prayer. During a short segment of this call that was edited out of this clip, he mentioned that this was the first talk he ever had with other Atheists.

This is a clip from The Atheist Experience #680 of October 24, 2010 (topic: viewer calls), with Matt Dillahunty and Martin Wagner. The complete episode is archived on Blip.tv and Ustream.tv:

► http://www.blip.tv/file/4292662 (television broadcast on Channel Austin)
► http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/10406161 (webcast with pre-show banter)


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• yt:stretch=16:9

[TheFestivelights]

That's an excellent point made by the caller. 'Why didn't God reveal himself to all people on the planet in all the languages and not just ancient Arabic? Why only reveal himself to a 7th century Arabic warlord in a cave where there were, conveniently, no witnesses to this 'miraculous' event? Anyone else smell a rat here? You would have to be an idiot to believe in any of this shit.

[rogan71]

I worked in several Muslim countries...It was recommended in many to pretend to be a Christian rather than atheist, so they'd think of me as deluded rather than evil.....I've seen first hand the social damage Islam does, and the skewed world view it gives it's followers.

[ultim4t32]

My favorite bible chapter is Leviticus 14 (15 too if you wish). In this chapter, god lays out his cure for leprosy. A must read, bring your popcorn. I laughed so hard when I read this yesterday. It seems antibiotics may have been a better choice, you make the call.

[ultim4t32]

@TheFestivelights or why did he wait until 2000 years ago to come to earth to "save us"? Why did he bother with the 4000 years (according to the bible) of failed experiments?

[SicSeb]

unbelievers are the “vilest of created beings” (98:6). Unbelievers are unclean (9:28)

Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:83:17: "Whoever changed his (Islamic) religion, then kill him"

Watch out for your safety mate, because if you say you are an atheist, they can hurt you and even kill you.

[werebee]

The Ministry of Virtue and Vice? That's practically out of 1984.

[r0l0kcs]

@leptismagna10 Thank you for all the information, you gave me, about these authors! I'm an atheist myself and therefore feel kind of honored to talk to an Arabic atheist, because it's so much easier to be an atheist in western countries (except for certain "bible belt"-regions in the US; look for "bible belt" in wikipedia).

You're the first Arab I'm talking to over youtube, whose mind is not clouded by religion. I'm glad that people like you exist. :)

[leptismagna10]

@r0l0kcs these authors and poets wrote things that were much more meaningful and creative than anything in the quran.

The quran was written by Arabs. The poetry and prose and science of the middle ages were not done by arabs, but by Arabized people of North Africa and the levant, where there was already an established Hellenistic (but also christian unfortunately) civilization.

The arabs themselves, and the religion they created, has done nothing for humanity.

[leptismagna10]

@r0l0kcs There are plenty of great modern and pre-modern Arabic writers from several countries. You'll find most of these writers come from Egypt, Syria and Iraq, rarely from Saudi Arabia.

Naguib Mahfouz and Youssef al Sebaa'y are two of my favorite authors. There is also great poetry from the 16th century, Hafiz of Shiraz, although its in Persian not arabic.

[r0l0kcs]

@leptismagna10 Thank you for the information about the origins of poetry in the quran! This is interesting. I'm curious; What kind of Arabic literature would you recommend? Maybe there exist good translations of these literature.

[leptismagna10]

@r0l0kcs actually, as an arab who has read and heard the quran, i can tell you that its only good as the first book ever put together in Arabic.

the quran is a cocktail of arabic-syriac texts ranging from poetry of different tribes, and stories of the prophets taken from the old testament. 60% of the quran is boring repetition and threats made by allah to his enemies.

I have read MUCH better Arabic literature.

[Ikhwanalsafa]

very good