The Quran is a relatively recent work; it has no archeological verification. Unconfirmed text.

Serious Question: What "translation" of what Quran are which Islamicists using? There are several hundred "schools" of Islam with dozens of Qurans. None of them date back to the century in which the Prophet Muhammad lived. Apparently the text was not considered very important to his peers....

If the Quran was written from oral dictation of the Angel Gabriel to Prophet Muhammad, was Gabriel speaking Arabic?  If it was re-transcribed by Aisha, Muhammad's child-wife, where was she educated and taught to write?  At that time, 600 AD, there was no written Arabic language. 

Perhaps it was written in Hebrew or Aramaic, two written languages used by Christians and Jews in the immediate vicinity, and which appear to be the direct sources of the earliest "versions" of what became the Quran. But the earliest versions of a written Quran are in classical Arabic. That language is as incomprehensible to modern Arab speakers as Olde English (think pre-Beowulf Anglo-Saxon) is to Americans.

The oldest versions of the Quran which have been found, under the ruins of a Manichaean Christian temple, upon which a Mosque was built, are very different from the current translations making the rounds in modern Arabic.

What do we know about The Tribes?

Racism is wrong--it is an economic, moral, and scientific error. In addition, the "traditions" of The Tribe suffers the same deficiencies. And yet, the invocation and "public policy" of race orientation continues.

Any invocation of loyalty to The Tribe should be scrutinized carefully. It is certain to be either rank naivete, or more likely, a cynical attempt by someone to gain power over others by using some means other than merit.

People have always been under the sway of Tribalism. We will never eliminate either "the poor" or "the aristocracy"; it's been tried. The poor have little to cling to, and The Tribe offers at least the illusion of a raft. The rich may find it easier or more convenient to demand loyalty to an abstration they control, than to earn respect, which is their remaining need. Hence, Tribalism is likely to remain an under-tow in the tide of humankind.

Today, we are looking at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I was almost stunned by how many different racial characteristics were evident in the participants just in the contestants from China. Although I am fairly certain that China has not implemented a policy of diversity -- many minority tribal groups are completely locked out (Uighurs, Tibetans) -- the diversity of the continent was reflected in the faces and bones of their Olympians.

In 1932, Jim Thorpe proved the metal of American Indian genes. The 1938 Olympics in Berlin show-cased the superiority of many non-Aryans over "Aryans" during the Guilt-en Age of Race Theory. Irish, Jewish, Hispanic and American Indians, and several African Americans (including Jesse Owens with 5 gold medals) competitively and fairly crushed the best that the Nazi ideologues of Aryan persuasions had to offer. The 1948-1956 victories of Emil Zatopek (Czek) showed the emptiness of tribalisms even within the realms of the Fatherland. Still, in spite of these individual performances, Race Theory did not die. It flourishes yet among the rich and the poor, and it is taught in text books throughout the Arab world, for example.

These 2008 Olympics offer some hope. Because of the scale of its manifestation, this laboratory proof leaves all Race Theory in the dust. It is not just a matter of individuals who are possible "exceptions" -- like Thorpe, Zaharias, Owens, etc.

The Finns (5 million), Norwegians (5 million), Ethiopians (50 million), South Koreans (49 million) and Australians (20 million) are racking up medals way out of proportion to their respective tribal pools. Clearly, the "races", if they exist, are irrelevant even if they were somehow defineable, which they are not. We do not know what "race" the ubiquitous "English" are -- Basques? Celts? Germans? -- or even how many of them there are.

The Arabs who are now spending the most money on teaching race theory to school children throughout Africa and the Middle East, ironically have the most serious problems with even defining race, much less proving it is in any way significant. For example, half the black Nilotic tribes of Ethiopia speak Semitic languages, and the Sabra "Jews" who are villified ("Death! Death!" shouted in Mosques) are genetically indistinguishable from the Bedouin tribes.

So, the Olympic lesson, once again. Perhaps it makes no difference when billions are spent on text-books that are indifferent to science, morals, or economics. Still, there are those golden victories. The Chinese team, the American team, the participation of 204 countries, and no single "race" being dominant. Not one. The Arab nations are represented by brave and beautiful athletes, but they are not examples of superiority over Jews -- in spite of the text books.

And there is that four-man team that won the 400-meter relay -- over all the boasts and bluster and threats of refusing to enter waters tainted by the sweat of Jews and "slaves" -- you have the victory of "Phelps", a mongrel English name, an African American, and two Jews.

Getting Back to God the Forgotten Son and wholly irrelevant Spirit

The leadership of this bustly world is involved in many interesting things and most of them have "got it" that there is a connection, and probably a valid one, between their manifest notions of success and money. What is abundantly clear, of course, to anyone with eyes and ears picking up the signals all about, is that the leadership of the entire globe is busy doing things other than what was taught, painstakingly, by The Buddha, Jesus Christ, or Mohammad, to name but three of the "spiritual" leaders who continue to be invoked, and who could not be less relevant to anything that is happening.

Can this be any clearer? No one can miss this. The observation is Fact -- What was taught, the content, by the so-called Spiritual Guides, is now utterly forgotten if it was ever remembered, AT THE TOP. The rest of us, the fumbling masses, the tired and hungry, the lotus-eaters among us, the retired, the spun-dry, whether we "believe" or have Faith, or not, at least we must see that our Leaders, across continents, across cultures and classes, none of them have what could be called any "religious Faith".

An example? You were waiting to hear from George Bush? He has claimed that Jesus Christ, no less, is his "model" and "hero". Yet, in his Presidency, in his decision-making as the "Decisioner", has George Bush performed a single act consistent with The Message of that Messiah? What part of "War" do you not understand?

Bush makes empty claims to a "religious" basis or justification for what he has done. It is impossible that anyone, even he, could "believe" there is any connection however remote or slight between what he has done and what Christ taught.

Another example? Bin Laden, of course. He claims to invoke the Quran, and even more than Bush (who almost never cites the Bible or indicates the slightest familiarity with the Gospel text), often quotes from the Quran. Unfortunately, his "quotes" are often inapt or incorrect. Not a single line of God's guidance delivered to Mohammad justifies suicide, war against unarmed innocents, repression of women, drug-profiteering (opium in Afghanistan!), tribal slaughter among Sunni and Shiite, or even the outright theft from the Jews who were only recently hounded out of their ancient homes to the profit of the Mullahs and other hypocrites after centuries of peaceful and prosperous cohabitation with the descendants of Mohammad from Persia through Babylon all the way to Granada. Jews Greeks Arabs Scythians and other smaller groups lived for Centuries of peace, literally creating a Golden Age presided over by a poetic and Learned Islam which EARNED the laurels upon which the ignorant Wahabi "warriors" now seek to sit.

There is no doubt that Arabs are important people. Not their warriors -- their old men waving weapons. The important Arabs are the engineers. Building the most beautiful cities in the world. They will hang gardens in Babylon once again. Gilgamesh Found.

Gottlieb's TNYer review of the Atheists ascension

Not content with reviewing the most important of the post-911 string of best-selling books written by atheists, Anthony Gottlieb [for the love of God!], has also provided historical perspectives, statistical comparisons, and poll data....I summarize:
Since the World Trade Center was attacked by Islamicists on September 11, 2001, Religion has definitively fallen. Not a single saint or revivalist has arisen, from a single cognizable "Religion", with a single publication. The date is significant, however, for creating a publication outbreak for militant atheists throughout the world which had previously been peculiarly silent -- tolerant to the point of complete deference.
In 2004, THE END OF FAITH, by Sam Harris, was on the Times paperback best-seller list for 33 weeks. Then came BREAKING THE SPELL, by the evolutionist Daniel Dennett, and THE GOD DELUSION, by Richard Dawkins, a biologist and Britain's preeminent science writer. In 2006, Harris again entered the virtually un-opposed list, with his LETTER TO A CHRISTIAN NATION. And this year, the nonpareil columnist for Vanity Fair and Slate, Christopher Hitchens has published GOD IS NOT GREAT. Gottlieb does not expressly mention this, but there is NO OPPOSITION to the "points" submitted by this triumvirate who have disposed of the virtual reality in which Religion flourishes. Of course, the biology and the economics remain intact.
And the statistics are bizarre. A significant survey in pre-911 2001 found that more than half of the Christians belief "that Jesus sinned" -- a rejection of a central dogma of their own churches. Religious polling is now established as completely untrustworthy or verifiable. Sociologists estimate that only half the Americans who report "regular church attendance" actually do so, and belief in God is almost certain to be a small minority the world over. Curiously, even non-Christians in America responded to a Newsweek poll, telling them that "they too, expected Jesus to return", possibly within the next 50 years. In a Gallup Poll, 83% of Americans believe the Bible is the Word of God, but virtually none of them have a clue what the Bible says. Most respondents do not know who preached the Sermon on the Mount, and almost none can state what point Jesus was trying to make in his last public appearance.
Gottlieb however, is able to "balance" this one-sided onslaught with history and biology -- he himself is writing a book on "nothingness". While the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa maintained apartheit, its priests also protected protestors. While Pope Pius XII appeased the Nazis, many clerics (among the Protestants as well) were almost alone in their condemnation of the thuggery which was permitted by the Intelligentsia, the Universities, the Army, the Courts, and the Political Parties. The Communists seemed just as interested in thuggery as the Nazis. In Latin America and Brazil, the "liberation theology" of the Church, has been important in safeguarding qualities which decidedly would have been lost at the hands of "atheist" conquerors and thugs. While not mentioned by Gottlief, the great work of Las Casas, Sor Juana Inez, and Armentin under the Cross of Christ in previous centuries has been the only formidable obstacle to the Sword of Tyranny. Gottlieb points out that "The idea that people would have been nicer to one another if they had never got religion...is a strange position...For if man is wicked enough to have invented religion...[to suppress others] he is surely wicked enough to have found alternative ways of making mischief." [79b]
Gottlieb points out, with no little irony, that Christians started out as the "atheists" on the scene in the early days of the Christian era. The first surviving anti-Christian polemic consisted largely as an attack on their failure to worship the accepted Gods -- referencing Celsus, ON THE TRUE DOCTRINE, 178 A.D.
Celsus proclaimed the contradictions of a "personal God" who is in fact indifferent to the triumph of wickedness over good. He did not even send his Son to help until long after many terrible things had been happening to really good people -- "Did He not care before?" This student of Plato noted that Socrates had already expressed most of the wisdom supposedly drawn from "biblical" sources, long before Christ. And continuously, ever since Celsus, Christian and Islamic mobs have sought out and destroyed tons of wonderful Pagan and secular texts.
Gottlieb reviews the work of Voltaire, one of the "fiercest critics of superstition" who was in fact a man of deep "religious feeling". The satirical tale, CANDIDE, is an attack on the idea that all is for the best in a world watched over by a concerned God -- the work was inspired by the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon which killed some 30,000 "believers" while worshipping in crumbling cathedrals. However, Voltaire was awed by the ordered beauty of the universe which he thought pointed to a supreme designer, as a watch implies a watch-maker.
Gottlieb sums up not only the systematic ideas, but also the careful presentation style, of David Hume. In the 1779 DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION Hume prized apart the analogy between the natural universe and a designed artifact. He argues that if it is necessary to ask Who made the world, it is also necessary to ask Who made the maker. But while undermining the concept of a God, and of zealotry in general, Hume avoided inflammatory statements, never replacing dogma with intolerance.
Why does Religion persist, when the arguments against Belief have been so widely published for so long a time? Hitchens says it is born of Fear. Harris holds that there is a genuine biology in play, although the creeds are meaningless. Dawkins devotes a chapter, and Dennet most of his book, to a functionalist account of Religion. However frayed, the propensity to Belief is "hard-wired".
Of course, if Belief is hard-wired, what about the large number of Non-Believers? Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist at Pitzer College in Claremont, reviewed studies of some 50 countries with varying social pressure to believe or not believe, and puts the figure of Non-Believers at more than 500 million. While Non-Belief in a God may constitute the 4rth largest "persuasion" in the world today, it is also necessary to understand that we still may all be "believers". Looking at this landscape historically, and personally, from country to culture, and from ignorant to educated, the following facts remain clear:

(1) God does not exist.
(2) Everyone believes.

Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of suffering fools with "the intolerant zeal" which offended Hume and Gibbon 300 years ago among the Believers or their detractors known as the Philosophes. Now, the dialogue is conducted with bombs. The Improvised Explosive Devices invariably exact "collateral damage" including the loss of life and limb. Many suffer who were otherwise not interested in the conversation. The zeal which offended Hume is armed, and is not content with killing opponents. We are facing a period in which "ludicrous mammals" [Hitchens] prefer to destroy everything rather than build anything. It is not just that the "argument" is over, or that it will no longer take place. People will always argue. This is the subtle part of that "hard-wired" Belief.

The difference today is that the argument will take place in bunkers instead of gardens. Al Quada is not interested in Virgins. The Taliban is not interested in wine, women, and song -- all major constituent elements of a good conversation. The Shia and Sunni warriors are blowing up each other's communities, starting with the some of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

Of course, the Arabs are under pressure. It is demographic. It is a terrible pressure, to be faced with teenagers everywhere, and more coming. In the past, Rome endured it, the Vikings had it, the Huns went through it, and those tragic people trapped on Isla Pascua almost died from it.

Ultimately, the Arabs will reclaim the bedrock of their civilization, which is, of course, the bedrock of ALL civilized people: Wine, Women and Song! As late as 100 years after Mohammed PBUH, the Arabs were still designing the most beautiful stone, ceramics, mozaics, and fountains in the world. We know archeologically, from the evidence of the ceramics, that the Arabs made wine. We know ideologically, from the text, that neither the Bible, nor the Quran, nor any Hindu Gita, teaches anything about race hatred or bombs.

We find only evidence of the people trying to raise their families and educating their children to have a better life, here, now. Civilization has antedotes to chaos, fear, and ignorance.

Why People Hate Americans

The American People are entitled to feel aggrieved by the fact that millions of people in South America, India, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East (have I missed a continent?) now despise us. After all, most of us are simply the direct descendants of People From There.

There must be some basis for what is now almost universal hatred for Americans so extreme as to draw sympathy even for wealthy Arab syndicates and obviously pathetic "suicide bombers".

Is the hatred because "foreigners" hold The American People responsible for what the American Government does?

Foreigners of course have NO VOTE in American Elections. Apparently they have heard that The American People have this power, this "election" to choose the leaders in a Government limited by a Constitution which enfranchises the governed.

Perhaps The American People are directly responsible for the things done by those acting in their name.

In India, it was the US Government which forced Indians to buy electric power produced by a private company which dramatically raised the cost of their electricity. In Bolivia, it was the US Government which forced the residents of Cochabamba to buy water from a private company which dramatically raised the cost of their water. In Iraq, it was the US Government which took over security functions and "public utilities" and turned them over wholesale to private "American" [actually "off-shore"] companies.

The American People are paying the costs, but receive none of the credit, none of the profit, and none of the benefits. Our leaders have "privatized" the benefits at the expense of the Government.

The American People can see it domestically: In California, huge profits from selling electrical power produced at Government expense were "gamed" by private interests. Californians have been as helpless as Bolivians to do anything about it, but Californians do know it happened -- they see it every time they pay quadrupled electrical bills. Even "voting" -- throwing out Governor Davis and replacing him with Governor Schwartzenegger -- although it provided a refreshing and entertaining hope, did not change the "net" result. Off-shore private corporations -- run by executives who pocketed billions at taxpayer expense -- had already executed their planned "privatized" piracy.

However, it is hard for The American People to appreciate it when the same piracy happens in other parts of the world. And their own culpability is completely invisible to them -- the pressure which the US Government puts on other governments through its ministers and ambassadors on behalf of Enron, Haliburton, and "private" companies, is virtually invisible. The American People do not realize that foreigners hold the Voting Citizen responsible for the Government which plays such a major "influence" in the rest of the world.

The hatred will only increase. It will be the hatred of the increasingly disenfranchised. The hatred of people who are being taken advantage of. If a pirate jumps your ship and plunders your best stuff, and then uses it to buy things, you do not "envy" his possessions -- you believe deep down inside that what he stole remains your own.

Piracy is not a form of trade or an activity which should be encouraged. Taking over Government functions may enable a pirate to shift expenses and extract risk-free benefits, but this extraction is not the "profit" of a business. It is theft.

People hate Americans today, like never before. Why?