| Revision as of 07:32, 18 October 2014 editAndywear1 (talk | contribs)68 editsmNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 17:45, 29 November 2014 edit undoGuy Macon (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, File movers, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers59,291 edits Atheism is not a religion. Bald is not a hair color. Off is not a TV channel. Barefoot is not a shoe. Silence is not a sound. Never is not a date. Clear is not a color. "Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby." --Penn JilletteNext edit → | ||
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Revision as of 17:45, 29 November 2014
| Muhammad al Warraq | |
|---|---|
| Born | Muhammad modern-day Iraq |
| Died | 9th century AD |
| Known for | Scholar |
Abu Issa Muhammad ibn Harun al-Warraq (Template:Lang-ar) was a 9th-century Arab skeptic scholar and critic of Islam and religion in general. He was a mentor and friend of scholar Ibn al-Rawandi in whose work The Book of the Emerald he appears. Some Muslim sources have described him as being a Muslim and others a Manichaean. The modern scholar of the Qur'an and critic of Islam, Ibn Warraq, derives his pseudonymous name from al-Warraq.
Views of revealed religions
Al-Warraq was skeptical of the existence of God because "He who orders his slave to do things that he knows him to be incapable of doing, then punishes him, is a fool". Al-Warraq challenged the notion of revealed religion. He argued that if humans are capable of figuring out that, for instance, it is good to be forgiving, then a prophet is unnecessary, and that we should not heed the claims of self-appointed prophets if what is claimed is found to be contrary to good sense and reason. Warraq admired the intellect not for its capacity to submit to a god, but rather for its inquisitiveness towards the wonders of science. He explained that people developed the science of astronomy by gazing at the sky, and that no prophet was necessary to show them how to gaze. He also said that no prophets were needed to show them how to make flutes, either, or how to play them.
Views of Islam
Warraq also doubted claims portraying Muhammad as a prophet:
That Muhammad could predict certain events does not prove that he was a prophet: he may have been able to guess successfully, but this does not mean that he had real knowledge of the future. And certainly the fact that he was able to recount events from the past does not prove that he was a prophet, because he could have read about those events in the Bible and, if he was illiterate, he could still have had the Bible read to him.
References
- ^ Hecht, Jennifer Michael (2003). Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson. Harper San Francisco. ISBN 0-06-009795-7.
- Virgins? What Virgins: And Other Essays. Introduction.
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