There is an increasing number of Westerners who believe that there are scientific miracles in the Qur'an, and converting on that basis. This blog documents my attempts to persuade one Muslim convert friend to examine these miracle claims (and other worrying aspects of Islam) rationally. Muslims are invited to respond in the comments section where I am always delighted to debate.
A little while back I posited the theory that Pascal's Wager - the idea that it makes more sense to spend your life as a believer than not, since if you're wrong you lose nothing, and if you're right you win everything - in fact made more sense for Muslims than anyone else, since the threats and promises made by Allah are that much more ... extreme than those made by the woolly liberal, C of E, post enlightenment, post-modern, Christian God. I then came across this nasty, life-denying little quote from the Ayatollah Khomeini:
"Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious."
...and decided the wager didn't make as much sense for Muslims after all. Apart from the immediate reaction that this must...surely...be a quote made up by some loony-tunes Islamophobe (it's not, I checked), it strikes me that this vicious, vacuous denial of everything that makes life worth living has at its heart a kernel of truth about Islam. It's that word "test". It's a word that has cropped up many times in my discussions with my convert friend: "This life is just a test", he'll say... as I slap my forehead in frustration. And so to the big question: What if it's not? What if this life is all we have, Mr Khomeini? Suddenly the wager doesn't seem like such a no-brainer. What if you go through this life, denying yourself the earthly pleasures of laughter, joy, jokes, booze, gay sex (if that's your thing) and FUN ... only to discover that that was it? To paraphrase Basil Fawlty:
Whoosh! "What was that?" "That was your life, mate." "That was quick. What about the after-life?" "Sorry, mate - that's your lot!"
Of course I'm not suggesting that the majority of Muslims, like the sour-faced loon Khomeini, live their lives perversely relishing the rashes induced by their proverbial hair shirts. But hair shirts, like tests, come in all shapes and sizes. Fasting from sunrise to sunset in the middle of summer...not drinking...praying five times a day... covering yourself from head to foot in case a man sees your flesh...forcing yourself to deny evolution despite the evidence...eating only animals killed by having their throats slit while still alive..Muslims will say that all this gives them a feeling of peace and spirituality. But at what cost? Wouldn't the one life we all get be so much pleasanter and joyful if we knew that this was it? Enjoy this life and do good for goodness' sake instead of in the hope of winning the celestial lottery or out of a constant fear of the fiery pit.What must it be like to be constantly wondering how you're doing in the test?
(The Rationalizer’s recent interview with the chaps at iERA during their fund raising dawah campaign raised the issue of Pascal’s Wager. After watching David Mitchell's musings on the topic on QI, a thought occured to me...)
It goes without saying that regular readers of Rational Islam are cultured, educated and intellectually curious individuals and need no explanation of this philosophical piece of whimsy. Nonetheless, as there may be some itinerant visitors who are unfamiliar with Pascal’s proposition, herewith a quick summary:
Given there is no way of knowing whether or not God exists, it is sensible to behave as if He does -since if it turns out it’s all a load of baloney then one has lost nothing, but if He is there, then the rewards are infinite (as are the punishments for disbelief....). In other words, Pascal would say, were he alive today: “Belief in God is a no-brainer, innit.”
It strikes me, as presumably it has struck The Rationalizer and many other critics of Islam, that although Pascal was thinking of Christianity when he came up with his famous wager, it applies even more obviously to belief in Allah nowadays. And here’s why...
Few educated Christians believe anymore in the physical existence of Hell nor in a Heaven which rewards believers with physical delights. Liberal theologians are more comfortable with the woolly notion of separation from God (Hell) and communion with God (Heaven). As the C of E has found, once you stop threatening and bribing the masses, they soon lose interest and your churches empty. Pascal’s wager thus becomes a bit of an irrelevance. BUT for Muslims, the wager makes a great deal of sense, since Islam promises a heaven full of earthly sensual pleasures (lots of booze and big-titted but modest(!) houris) and a hell described in graphic, parental-advisory detail.
The inherent irony, of course, is that whilst Islam forbids gambling, the blunt instruments of an orgiastic Heaven and sickeningly sadistic Hell mean that belief in Allah can be nothing but Pascal’s wager writ large.
