Bible verse by verse

[_ludwigm]

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Say;O disbelievers !
I worship not that which ye worship.
Nor worship ye that which I worship.
Nor will ye worship that which I worship
unto you your religion and unto me my religion.
...............................
Simple clear with a poetic cadence. (?)

You know there once was a time when I wished the Bible had a bit more to the Korans beauty simplicity and directness.

Surah 109


by the way "the Korans beauty simplicity and directness"
beauty? - Our concept about beaut is very different.
simplicity? - Primitiveness for simpletons.
directness? - Rudeness and foul language.

Sorry, Huck...
I've read it in Hungarian, German and English.
May be reciting it in Arabic - and don't understanding the words - is the key.

I know the church is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

[_huckelberry]

Sorry, Huck...
I've read it in Hungarian, German and English.
May be reciting it in Arabic - and don't understanding the words - is the key.

I know the church is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Ludwigm, I am quite capable of seeing the dark undercurrent in those simple verses. harbinger of war.

[_Bazooka]

The FACT is that some (if not most) of the rabbinical priests did not want to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They had him there in person. He healed, quieted storms and brought people back from the dead. He explained the Word of God, said he was the Son of God. Now you want me to prove that the Bible is God's Word. That isn't my job. Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the GOSPEL (the message of salvation). I'm not here to sell you a book. My job is to introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are to be saved, God will save you. Once you have Jesus, you will (by way of a changed nature) begin to understand and accept the Bible. God works through His Word to bless the Believer. Until a person accepts Christ, the Bible condemns the nonbeliever with the wages for sin.

Actually, the fact is that you are taking as Gospel the word of a "...disparate group of opinionated or agenda driving individuals" (rabbinical priests, to use your term) so thank you for making my point. Although I seriously doubt you have the self awareness to realise that that is exactly what you just did.

Secondly:
"Until a person accepts Christ, the Bible condemns the nonbeliever with the wages for sin." (said a group of rabbinical priests).
If Christ utilises a process involving 'rabbinical priests' for accepting Him that isn't credible to a significant proportion of humanity, why is that a failure in humanity?
Why isn't it a case that He should be a little more self reflective and consider making His message that bit more believable or demonstrable?
Perhaps those rabbinical priests just didn't do a good enough job or articulating the message? Perhaps they made up stories to make the point but which have been subsequently shown to be exactly that, stories made up by rabbinical priests trying to make a point...
Why should I believe what your set of rabbinical priests claims as opposed to what some other denominations rabbinical priests claim?
What makes your group any more special or credible as a source for understanding God (other than they themselves are claiming "we was there")?

And, the big one, why doesn't your God/Christ feel you important enough to just speak directly to you? Why is He playing a school yard game of Chinese Whispers?

[_subgenius]

I like way you discredit yourself by dismissing any inconvenient argument or fact you know you can't refute by merely calling it "drivel." It is no more drivel than attributing the brightness of daytime to the presence of the sun in the sky. You talk a lot about things you think are "self-evident." I can think of nothing more self-evident than the fact that the numerous, mutually contradictory religious belief systems sincerely claimed by their adherents to be of divine origin are proof of the extreme unreliability of appeals to or claims of divine authority.

like what you like, but drivel is drivel....if it walks like a duck....
your typical response here of "so many different religions contradict each other therefore all of them must be wrong" is so inept in basic reasoning and even common sense that it too is drivel.
Love how the scientific method is just a matter of convenience for opinions like yours.

The undisputable fact still remains that the scientific, empirical approach to ascertaining truth clearly works very reliably.

undisputable...yet only "very reliably". This faith based statement merely accentuates your apples approach to oranges.
The "scientific, empirical approach" is reliable when approaching scientific and empirical subject...i have never disputed that....you seem to be confused. Let me put it this way...while the conversation is about color you are busy touting the merits of your surround sound system.

The same cannot be said for the subjective, religious faith approach, no matter how you try to spin it. I still say that insisting that it is reliable in light of the undeniable fact that there are innumerable, mutually contradictory religious belief systems based on what their adherents firmly believe to be divine inspiration is like insisting it is midnight while staring directly at the sun at high noon on a cloudless day. This is separate from the question of whether there actually is a God or not. Whether there is or not, it is still clear that appealing to or believing in divine inspiration is horribly unreliable and inconsistent, and has resulted in a great deal of mutually contradictory nonsense, injustice and even atrocities (including those described in the Old Testament).

yawn...more drivel...got anything else?

Even if there is something that we can call God, it is very far from self-evident that such entity is necessarily like the Mormon concept of God, or any other particular concept of God that is currently in vogue.[/quote]

[_Gunnar]

Subgenius, I will grant that the fact alone that there are so many mutually contradictory religious belief systems based on the subjective faith approach is not enough to prove that all of them are necessarily false, but it still establishes beyond all reasonable dispute the unreliability of that approach. Thus one is fully justified in not relying upon it as a sure guide to truth, and certainly not one that Trump's all other approaches to truth, especially the empirical, scientific approach that is demonstrably far more reliable, and works well whether or not one initially believes in it.

It is far from mere drivel that divine authority has been used to justify belief in all kinds of nonsense, injustice and atrocities. Think of the witch hunts of medieval times and even in American colonial times, the Spanish and Italian inquisitions, 9-11, centuries of religious persecution of Jews by Christians and Muslims, Muslim persecution of both Christians and Jews and other "infidels", even the persecution and crucifixion of Christ himself. I emphatically repeat that for you to characterize this as mere drivel only discredits you, not me.

[_ludwigm]

Sorry, Huck...
I've read it in Hungarian, German and English.
May be reciting it in Arabic - and don't understanding the words - is the key.

I know the church is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Ludwigm, I am quite capable of seeing the dark undercurrent in those simple verses. harbinger of war.

I didn't address this verse; I addressed the Quran as a whole.

Even the Bible has dirty verses - Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. (Psalms 137:9) - the Q is full of it. I don't want to list them...

My another revulsion is the structure. Imagine a telephone book sorted by the height of customers - and the Q is sorted by this attribute.

Written in Arabic, which doesn't know the accusative case.
Oops... I've said something wrong... Again...

The accusative case (abbreviated acc) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of (some or all) prepositions. It is a noun that is having something done to it, usually joined (such as in Latin) with the nominative case. The syntactic functions of the accusative consist of designating the immediate object of an action, the intended result, the goal of a motion, and the extent of an action.
...
Modern English, which almost entirely lacks declension in its nouns, does not have an explicitly marked accusative case even in the pronouns.

[_LittleNipper]

Judges 7:1-25 Jerubbaal (Gideon) and his troops got an early start and went as far as the spring of Harod. The armies of Midian were camped north of them, down in the valley beside the hill of Moreh.
God said that there are too many men. Israel will boast that they saved themselves by their own strength! Men who are timid and frightened are to leave --- 22,000 leaving only ten thousand willing to fight. God said there are still too many, Gideon is to take them to the spring. So Gideon assembled them at the water. There the Lord told him to split them into two groups by the way they drink. In Group 1 will be all the men who cup the water in their hands to get it to their mouths and lap it like dogs. Group 2 will be those who kneel, with their mouths in the stream.

Three hundred men drank from their hands; all the others drank with their mouths to the stream. God will conquer the Midianites with these three hundred. the Lord told Gideon. The others were sent home. Gideon collected all the clay jars and trumpets they had among them, he sent them home, leaving only three hundred men with him.

During the night, the Midianites camped in the valley just below. The Lord said to Gideon to Get up and attack the Midianites, for God will cause them to be defeated. If Gideon is afraid, he may first go down to the camp alone and can take along his servant Purah and listen to what they are saying down there. He will be greatly encouraged and be eager to attack! The vast armies of Midian, Amalek, and the other nations of the Mideast were crowded across the valley like locusts and there were too many camels even to count. Gideon crept up to one of the tents just as a man inside had wakened from a nightmare and was telling his tent-mate about it.

“I had this strange dream,” he was saying, “and there was this huge loaf of barley bread that came tumbling down into our camp. It hit our tent and knocked it flat!” The other soldier replied, “Your dream can mean only one thing! Gideon, the son of Joash, the Israeli, is going to come and massacre all the allied forces of Midian!”

Gideon heard the dream and the interpretation, all he could do was just stand there worshiping God! Then he returned to his men and shouted, “Get up! For the Lord is going to use you to conquer all the vast armies of Midian!” The 300 men into 3 groups and gave each man a trumpet and a clay jar with a torch in it. Then he explained his plan. When they arrive at the outer guardposts of the camp, As soon as Gideon and the men in his group blow his trumpets, they are to blow theirs on all sides of the camp and shout, ‘We fight for God and for Gideon!’”

It was just after midnight and the change of guards when Gideon and the hundred men with him crept to the outer edge of the camp of Midian. Suddenly they blew their trumpets and broke their clay jars so that their torches blazed into the night. Then the other two hundred of his men did the same, blowing the trumpets in their right hands, and holding the flaming torches in their left hands, all shouting, “For the Lord and for Gideon!”

Then they just stood and watched as the whole vast enemy army began rushing around in a panic, shouting and running away. For in the confusion the Lord caused the enemy troops to begin fighting and killing each other from one end of the camp to the other, and they fled into the night to places as far away as Beth-shittah near Zererah, and to the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath. Gideon sent for the troops of Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh and told them to come and chase and destroy the fleeing army of Midian. Gideon also sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim summoning troops who seized the fords of the Jordan River at Beth-barah, thus preventing the Midianites from escaping by going across. Oreb and Zeeb, the two generals of Midian, were captured. Oreb was killed at the rock now known by his name, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb, as it is now called. The Israelis took the heads of Oreb and Zeeb across the Jordan to Gideon.


Young's Literal Translation (YLT)


1 And Jerubbaal (he [is] Gideon) riseth early, and all the people who [are] with him, and they encamp by the well of Harod, and the camp of Midian hath been on the south of him, on the height of Moreh, in the valley.

2 And Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `Too many [are] the people who [are] with thee for My giving Midian into their hand, lest Israel beautify itself against Me, saying, My hand hath given salvation to me;

3 and now, call, I pray thee, in the ears of the people, saying, Whoso [is] afraid and trembling, let him turn back and go early from mount Gilead;' and there turn back of the people twenty and two thousand, and ten thousand have been left.

4 And Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `Yet [are] the people too many; bring them down unto the water, and I refine it for thee there; and it hath been, he of whom I say unto thee, This doth go with thee -- he doth go with thee; and any of whom I say unto thee, This doth not go with thee -- he doth not go.'

5 And he bringeth down the people unto the water, and Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `Every one who lappeth with his tongue of the water as the dog lappeth -- thou dost set him apart; also every one who boweth on his knees to drink.'

6 And the number of those lapping with their hand unto their mouth is three hundred men, and all the rest of the people have bowed down on their knees to drink water.

7 And Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `By the three hundred men who are lapping I save you, and have given Midian into thy hand, and all the people go, each to his place.'

8 And the people take the provision in their hand, and their trumpets, and every man of Israel he hath sent away, each to his tents; and on the three hundred men he hath kept hold, and the camp of Midian hath been by him at the lower part of the valley.

9 And it cometh to pass, on that night, that Jehovah saith unto him, `Rise, go down into the camp, for I have given it into thy hand;

10 and if thou art afraid to go down -- go down, thou and Phurah thy young man, unto the camp,

11 and thou hast heard what they speak, and afterwards are thy hands strengthened, and thou hast gone down against the camp.' And he goeth down, he and Phurah his young man, unto the extremity of the fifties who [are] in the camp;

12 and Midian and Amalek, and all the sons of the east are lying in the valley, as the locust for multitude, and of their camels there is no number, as sand which [is] on the sea-shore for multitude.

13 And Gideon cometh in, and lo, a man is recounting to his companion a dream, and saith, `Lo, a dream I have dreamed, and lo, a cake of barley-bread is turning itself over into the camp of Midian, and it cometh in unto the tent, and smiteth it, and it falleth, and turneth it upwards, and the tent hath fallen.'

14 And his companion answereth and saith, `This is nothing save the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; God hath given into his hand Midian and all the camp.'

15 And it cometh to pass, when Gideon heareth the narration of the dream and its interpretation, that he boweth himself, and turneth back unto the camp of Israel, and saith, `Rise ye, for Jehovah hath given into your hand the camp of Midian.'

16 And he divideth the three hundred men [into] three detachments, and putteth trumpets into the hand of all of them, and empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.

17 And he saith unto them, `Look at me, and thus do; and lo, I am coming into the extremity of the camp -- and it hath been -- as I do so ye do;

18 and I have blown with a trumpet -- I and all who [are] with me, and ye have blown with trumpets, even ye, round about all the camp, and have said, For Jehovah and for Gideon.'

19 And Gideon cometh -- and the hundred men who [are] with him -- into the extremity of the camp, [at] the beginning of the middle watch (it hath only just confirmed the watchmen), and they blow with trumpets -- dashing in pieces also the pitchers which [are] in their hand;

20 and the three detachments blow with trumpets, and break the pitchers, and keep hold with their left hand on the lamps, and with their right hand on the trumpets to blow, and they cry, `The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon.'

21 And they stand each in his place, round about the camp, and all the camp runneth, and they shout, and flee;

22 and the three hundred blow the trumpets, and Jehovah setteth the sword of each against his companion, even through all the camp; and the camp fleeth unto Beth-Shittah, at Zererath, unto the border of Abel-Meholah, by Tabbath.

23 And the men of Israel are called from Naphtali, and from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and pursue after Midian.

24 And messengers hath sent Gideon into all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying, `Come down to meet Midian, and capture before them the waters unto Beth-Barah, and the Jordan;' and every man of Ephraim is called, and they capture the waters unto Beth-Barah, and the Jordan,

25 and they capture two of the heads of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb, and slay Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they have slain at the wine-vat of Zeeb, and they pursue unto Midian; and the heads of Oreb and Zeeb they have brought in unto Gideon beyond the Jordan.

[_LeVay]

In an effort to imbue this lengthy and tedious thread with some badly needed context and contrast, I will, from time to time, post excerpts from Anton Levay's The Satanic Bible. I begin with the the Preface, Prologue, and Infernal Diatribe as printed in the so-called "underground edition" of 1972. Hail Satan!

PREFACE
This book was written because, with very few exceptions, every tract and paper, every "secret" grimoire, all the "great works" on the subject of magic, are nothing more than sanctimonious fraud - guilt-ridden ramblings and esoteric gibberish by chroniclers of magical lore unable or unwilling to present an objective view of the subject. Writer after writer, in efforts to state the principles of "white and black magic", has succeeded instead in clouding the entire issue so badly that the would-be student of sorcery winds up stupidly pushing a planchette over a Ouija board, standing inside a pentagram waiting for a demon to present itself, limply tossing I-Ching yarrow stalks like so many stale pretzels, shuffling pasteboards to foretell a future which has lost any meaning, attending seminars guaranteed to flatten his ego - while doing the same to his wallet and in general making a blithering fool of himself in the eyes of those who know! The true magus knows that occult bookshelves abound with the brittle relics of frightened minds and sterile bodies, metaphysical journals of self-deceit, and constipated rule-books of Eastern mysticism. Far too long has the subject of Satanic magic and philosophy been written down by wild-eyed journalists of the right-hand path. The old literature is the by-product of brains festering with fear and defeat, written unknowingly for the assistance of those who really rule the earth, and who, from their Hellish thrones, laugh with noisome mirth. The flames of Hell burn brighter for the kindling supplied by these volumes of hoary misinformation and false prophecy. Herein you will find truth - and fantasy. Each is necessary for the other to exist; but each must be recognized for what it is. What you see may not always please you; but you will see! Here is Satanic thought from a truly Satanic point of view.
The Church of Satan,
San Fransisco, Walpurgisnacht 1968

PROLOGUE
The gods of the right-hand path have bickered and quarreled for an entire age of earth. Each of these deities and their respective priests and ministers have attempted to find wisdom in their own lies. The ice age of religious thought can last but a limited time in this great scheme of human existence. The gods of wisdom-defiled have had their saga, and their millennium hath become as reality. Each, with his own "divine" path to paradise, hath accused the other of heresies and spiritual indiscretions. The Ring of the Nibelungen doth carry an everlasting curse, but only because those who seek it think in terms of "Good" and "Evil" - themselves being at all times "Good". The gods of the past have become as their own devils in order to live. Feebly, their ministers play the devil's game to fill their tabernacles and pay the mortgages on their temples. Alas, too long have they studied "righteousness", and poor and incompetent devils they make. So they all join hands in "brotherly" unity, and in their desperation go to Valhalla for their last great ecumenical council. "Draweth near in the gloom the twilight of the gods." The ravens of night have flown forth to summon Loki, who hath set Valhalla aflame with the searing trident of the Inferno. The twilight is done. A glow of new light is borne out of the night and Lucifer is risen, once more to proclaim: "This is the age of Satan! Satan Rules the Earth!" The gods of the unjust are dead. This is the morning of magic, and undefiled wisdom. The FLESH prevaileth and a great Church shall be builded, consecrated in its name. No longer shall man's salvation be dependent on his self-denial. And it will be known that the world of the flesh and the living shall be the greatest preparation for any and all eternal delights!
REGIE SATANAS!
AVE SATANAS!
HAIL SATAN!

THE NINE Satanic STATEMENTS
1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!
2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates!
5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek!
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development", has become the most vicious animal of all!
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!

THE INFERNAL DIATRIBE
The first book of the Satanic Bible is not an attempt to blaspheme as much as it is a statement of what might be termed "diabolical indignation". The Devil has been attacked by the men of God relentlessly and without reservation. Never has there been an opportunity, short of fiction, for the Dark Prince to speak out in the same manner as the spokesmen of the Lord of the Righteous. The pulpit-pounders of the past have been free to define "good" and "evil" as they see fit, and have gladly smashed into oblivion any who disagree with their lies - both verbally and, at times, physically. Their talk of "charity", when applied to His Infernal Majesty, becomes an empty sham - and most unfairly, too, considering the obvious fact that without their Satanic foe their very religions would collapse. How sad, that the allegorical personage most responsible for the success of spiritual religions is shown the least amount of charity and the most consistent abuse - and by those who most unctuously preach the rules of fair play! For all the centuries of shouting-down the Devil has received, he has never shouted back at his detractors. He has remained the gentleman at all times, while those he supports rant and rave. He has shown himself to be a model of deportment, but now he feels it is time to shout back. He has decided it is finally time to receive his due. Now the ponderous rule-books of hypocrisy are no longer needed. In order to relearn the Law of the Jungle, a small, slim diatribe will do. Each verse is an inferno. Each word is a tongue of fire. The flames of Hell burn fierce... and purify! Read on and learn the Law.

Stay tuned, kids--there's more to come!

[Guest]

In an effort to imbue this lengthy and tedious thread with some badly needed context and contrast, I will, from time to time, post excerpts from Anton Levay's The Satanic Bible. I begin with the the Preface, Prologue, and Infernal Diatribe as printed in the so-called "underground edition" of 1972. Hail Satan!

PREFACE
This book was written because, with very few exceptions, every tract and paper, every "secret" grimoire, all the "great works" on the subject of magic, are nothing more than sanctimonious fraud - guilt-ridden ramblings and esoteric gibberish by chroniclers of magical lore unable or unwilling to present an objective view of the subject. Writer after writer, in efforts to state the principles of "white and black magic", has succeeded instead in clouding the entire issue so badly that the would-be student of sorcery winds up stupidly pushing a planchette over a Ouija board, standing inside a pentagram waiting for a demon to present itself, limply tossing I-Ching yarrow stalks like so many stale pretzels, shuffling pasteboards to foretell a future which has lost any meaning, attending seminars guaranteed to flatten his ego - while doing the same to his wallet and in general making a blithering fool of himself in the eyes of those who know! The true magus knows that occult bookshelves abound with the brittle relics of frightened minds and sterile bodies, metaphysical journals of self-deceit, and constipated rule-books of Eastern mysticism. Far too long has the subject of Satanic magic and philosophy been written down by wild-eyed journalists of the right-hand path. The old literature is the by-product of brains festering with fear and defeat, written unknowingly for the assistance of those who really rule the earth, and who, from their Hellish thrones, laugh with noisome mirth. The flames of Hell burn brighter for the kindling supplied by these volumes of hoary misinformation and false prophecy. Herein you will find truth - and fantasy. Each is necessary for the other to exist; but each must be recognized for what it is. What you see may not always please you; but you will see! Here is Satanic thought from a truly Satanic point of view.
The Church of Satan,
San Fransisco, Walpurgisnacht 1968

PROLOGUE
The gods of the right-hand path have bickered and quarreled for an entire age of earth. Each of these deities and their respective priests and ministers have attempted to find wisdom in their own lies. The ice age of religious thought can last but a limited time in this great scheme of human existence. The gods of wisdom-defiled have had their saga, and their millennium hath become as reality. Each, with his own "divine" path to paradise, hath accused the other of heresies and spiritual indiscretions. The Ring of the Nibelungen doth carry an everlasting curse, but only because those who seek it think in terms of "Good" and "Evil" - themselves being at all times "Good". The gods of the past have become as their own devils in order to live. Feebly, their ministers play the devil's game to fill their tabernacles and pay the mortgages on their temples. Alas, too long have they studied "righteousness", and poor and incompetent devils they make. So they all join hands in "brotherly" unity, and in their desperation go to Valhalla for their last great ecumenical council. "Draweth near in the gloom the twilight of the gods." The ravens of night have flown forth to summon Loki, who hath set Valhalla aflame with the searing trident of the Inferno. The twilight is done. A glow of new light is borne out of the night and Lucifer is risen, once more to proclaim: "This is the age of Satan! Satan Rules the Earth!" The gods of the unjust are dead. This is the morning of magic, and undefiled wisdom. The FLESH prevaileth and a great Church shall be builded, consecrated in its name. No longer shall man's salvation be dependent on his self-denial. And it will be known that the world of the flesh and the living shall be the greatest preparation for any and all eternal delights!
REGIE SATANAS!
AVE SATANAS!
HAIL SATAN!

THE NINE Satanic STATEMENTS
1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!
2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates!
5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek!
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development", has become the most vicious animal of all!
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!

THE INFERNAL DIATRIBE
The first book of the Satanic Bible is not an attempt to blaspheme as much as it is a statement of what might be termed "diabolical indignation". The Devil has been attacked by the men of God relentlessly and without reservation. Never has there been an opportunity, short of fiction, for the Dark Prince to speak out in the same manner as the spokesmen of the Lord of the Righteous. The pulpit-pounders of the past have been free to define "good" and "evil" as they see fit, and have gladly smashed into oblivion any who disagree with their lies - both verbally and, at times, physically. Their talk of "charity", when applied to His Infernal Majesty, becomes an empty sham - and most unfairly, too, considering the obvious fact that without their Satanic foe their very religions would collapse. How sad, that the allegorical personage most responsible for the success of spiritual religions is shown the least amount of charity and the most consistent abuse - and by those who most unctuously preach the rules of fair play! For all the centuries of shouting-down the Devil has received, he has never shouted back at his detractors. He has remained the gentleman at all times, while those he supports rant and rave. He has shown himself to be a model of deportment, but now he feels it is time to shout back. He has decided it is finally time to receive his due. Now the ponderous rule-books of hypocrisy are no longer needed. In order to relearn the Law of the Jungle, a small, slim diatribe will do. Each verse is an inferno. Each word is a tongue of fire. The flames of Hell burn fierce... and purify! Read on and learn the Law.

Stay tuned, kids--there's more to come!

Do I detect a sock puppet here?

[_huckelberry]

Sorry, Huck...
I've read it in Hungarian, German and English.
May be reciting it in Arabic - and don't understanding the words - is the key.





My other revulsion is the structure. Imagine a telephone book sorted by the height of customers - and the Q is sorted by this attribute.

Written in Arabic, which doesn't know the accusative case.
The accusative case (abbreviated acc) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of (some or all) prepositions. It is a noun that is having something done to it, usually joined (such as in Latin) with the nominative case. The syntactic functions of the accusative consist of designating the immediate object of an action, the intended result, the goal of a motion, and the extent of an action.
...
[b]Modern English, which almost entirely lacks declension in its nouns, does not have an explicitly marked accusative case even in the pronouns.

Ludwigm,
I spent a little while trying to imagine the use for an accusative noun, or any sort of noun declension. Perhaps its easier if one is born to it. I can imagine a variety of negatives about the Koran, its organization which you point out is a new one to me. Perhaps it is a different way of suggesting it is the sort of book which could have been made considerable longer or perhaps shorter and it would still have pretty much the same thing to say. I suspect believer may not share that perception.

I was not attempting to promote the book but recognizing that it does have something which influences a lot of people. I would myself prefer to keep a distance between my heart and that book.

Just for conversation does the book read differently in a location relatively close to historic geographic conflict lines than the way it might read here an ocean away? I might confess to enough reservations about its quality to admit to having doubts about the proposal that Islam is a religion of peace. I can believe some people would hope it to be....