Poop Shute

Holy F**king Religious Crackpots Batman!

Now, I've been noticing my good friend, David, talk about these crazy comic strips on his blog for quite some time and I have read them and laughed my ass off at how absolutely insane these people are.

Today I delved a little deeper into the site. I read this article on Islam and nearly vomited.

They are saying that Islam is in no way related to Christianity because the name Allah was apparently used to describe a moon god pre-dating Christianity in early middle eatern "pagan" religions.

Their assertion is that because the name, Allah, predates Mohammed and The Qur'an it makes Islam a whole different animal. They don't allow for the possibility that maybe Mohammed co-opted the name from the very prevalent tradition in order to make his religion more easily acceptable, and also to take power away from the pagan predecessor.

No, that couldn't possibly be it.

The only problem with their little theory is that it backfires on them too.

First of all, I've studied Islam. A LOT. I have never come across these historic underpinnings, but that is not to say they don't exist. But, let's just say that what they say is true. How does any of that change anything?

Just about anything and everything in the canon of Christian rituals is a throwback to their religious forefathers.

Actually, scratch "throwback" and insert "ripoff."

Let's see... Jesus's birth was not in winter at all, but it just happens to be celebrated in the middle of a pagan winter festival wherein the pagans would decorate trees with ribbons and other baubles. Hmmm... that sounds suspiciously familiar.

Then there's Easter. you ever wonder what the hell egg's and bunnies have to do with Christ rising from the dead like some kinda holy-pacifist zombie? The answer? Jesus's ascension was also moved to coincide with a pagan celebration of fertility and life. What better symbols of fertility and life are there than eggs and bunnies?

Drinking Jesus's blood and eating his flesh. Now in a religion that subscribes to such ethics as "thou shalt not kill" and all that, doesn't consuming his blood and flesh seem strangely out of place?

Beyond all these things is the actual heart of the matter that Muslims recognize the prophets of the jews, and The Prophet of the Christians (Jesus himself). That's right, THEY BELIEVE IN THE BOOK THAT CHRISTIANS CALL THE HOLY BIBLE, but they take it one step further and say "there is actually this one more guy with this other neat book that matters to us. That cool?"

Sidebar: Mohammed did go one better than the Jews and Christians though. He actually added language into Islam that basically states yeah, the jewish prophets and Jesus were all legit, but ours is designated as THE LAST of all the prophets. See, when Christianity came along it was easy to convert Jews because they were just adding this new guy to the roster, then the same with early Islam to Christianity. But anybody that comes along now will be hard-pressed to convince the Muslims of a new guy. That Mohammed was no clouch as a political philospher. :-) That was an homage to our beloved W, in case you missed it.

Now, obviously Islam and Christianity are as different as Judaism and Christianity. They are clearly not the same thing. BUT to suggest that they are completely unrelated is just plain asinine. I mean, if co-opting parts of the past into a religion of the present invalidates that religion, then... well, I would say that you Christians out there have your own explaining to do.