Revolutionary Revelations
by the independent philosopher and journalist Gregor Flock from Vienna, Austria.
Introduction
There are challenges in the Quran to “produce a literary work of a similar caliber as the Quran”, whether that be an entire book (17:88), ten chapters or surahs (11:13), or even just one chapter or surah (2:23), the shortest one being Al-Kawthar (108:1–3):
The production of such a work is regarded as a “miracle,” i.e. as “the performance of a supernatural or extraordinary event which cannot be duplicated by humans.” (A discussion of the more specific requirements can be found here).
I hereby accept that challenge to produce a work of not just equal but significantly superior quality and when compared with surah 108. I furthermore invite readers to study this work without bias and prejudice with regard to its truthfulness and revealed wisdoms, to honestly consider whether it is this work or surah 108 that has more to offer to all of humankind, and to draw some corresponding conclusions from that independently of whether or not you identify as Muslim.
Revelation 1: Concentrate on the Commonalities, Not on the Differences
1.1 Common False Human Conceptions of and Expectations About the Superhuman and the Divine
1. Despite some attempts to prevent this, humans of the current age typically have false human conceptions, ideas, interpretations, notions of and furthermore expectations about the over- or superhuman and the divine.
2. These false human conceptions of the superhuman and divine result from humans psychologically projecting their own lower attributes or properties on the superhuman and divine which are drastically different from as well as above and beyond the merely human and their comparatively low understanding. This is part of what is known as the humans’ “anthropocentrism” or human-centered perspective on all things, and it is by way of that anthropocentric psychological projection of their own lower attributes that humans corrupt, pervert, lower and misconceive of the superhuman and the divine.
3. The ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes already understood how humans constantly and mistakenly project their own lower human nature on the thusly anthropocentrically perverted conceptions, ideas or notions of the superhuman or divine, and that these humans are thus on a par with how other animals would imagine their own gods. He purportedly said:
1. God is one, supreme among gods and men, and not like mortals in body or in mind.
[…]
5. But mortals suppose that the gods are born (as they themselves are), and that they wear man’s clothing and have human voice and body.6. But if cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and give them bodies in form like their own — horses like horses, cattle like cattle.
7. Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods all things which are disreputable and worthy of blame when done by men; and they told of them many lawless deeds, stealing, adultery, and deception of each other. (Fairbanks 1898, 67 and 69)
4. These false humanizations of the superhuman and divine can also be found in the supposedly holy and divinely inspired ancient Abrahamitic scriptures which often have a distinctly human ring or vibe, for instance in terms of being male-misogynist, patriarchal, racist, tribalistic and in various other ways anthropocentric and localized in the material world. But this anthropocentrism and these other characteristics are all distinctly human features and even human failings which have nothing to do with the superhuman or divine.
5. In line with these false humanized conceptions, ideas or notions, there are also false human future expectations about the superhuman or divine and about how they must be, about where, when and under what conditions they must appear, about what they must do and all that. But much of that is once again a human mistake and error, because that which is above the human does not follow or obey the merely human, just as that which is above the human does not correspond to their narrow-minded and misguided human conceptions of or expectations about it.
6. Quite on the contrary, it is mere humans who are supposed to live up to or ascend towards the expectations of the superhuman or divine.
7. But the minds of mere humans are quite limited, and they accordingly do not have the capacity to fully or, in worse cases, even remotely understand the superhuman or divine. This in turn is why they are in so much trouble.
8. Humans, however, can be brought or made to understand with certain bigger revelations. But even then it is once again as with horses: You can lead them to water, but you cannot make them drink. For these and many other reasons, the path to understanding and more so becoming more superhuman and closer to the divine is typically a long, arduous and hardly ever completed one.
9. A good place to start though is with the false human conceptions and expectations about the superhuman and the divine. That is because it is not so much the mere lack of understanding or knowledge but rather the false illusion or delusion of understanding or knowledge — i.e. false knowledge or pseudo-knowledge — that are the problem. That is because a mere lack still keeps humans open to actual understanding or knowledge. But the illusion of understanding or even knowledge closes humans off and shuts them out from actual understanding or knowledge, including of the superhuman or divine. This is why it makes sense to begin with debunking and dispelling the many false human conceptions and expectations about the superhuman and divine.
10. One pseudo-logical general expectation is that “It must be either this or that,” as in either this or that God, religion, prophet, etc. which is the one true or good one, with all others supposedly being false or bad ones. And yet, if properly examined, it would turn out that the true answer to that is actually “it is partially both or all and partially and in other respects none.”
11. To elaborate: There are the five official major world religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism with about as many denominations or divisions within those religions, so about five times five or 25. But if we approach this from an angle of “it must be either this or that,” that would mean that at least 24 out of those 25 religions and denominations got it wrong. Furthermore, why should only one religion and denomination — typically whichever one it is that humans happen to have — be the infallibly right one? The entire outcome that is generated by this either-or approach is absurd, and this in turn should tell humans that the responsible either-or approach is also absurd and mistaken.
12. By contrast, a wiser and more discerning all-and-none approach allows us to pick the true and the good and to discard the bad and the false from all of these human religions and to unify them to something that all humans can and ought to be able to agree on. There are, after all, no real contradictions in existence. For that reason and to properly correspond to that as per the principle of non-contradiction and the correspondence theory of truth, there should also only be one consistent system that consists of the best and truest parts of all religions, with their respective failures and mistakes safely discarded.
13. In other words: It is about the right kind of inclusivity and the right kind of exclusivity, with humans often making the mistake of being insufficiently inclusive and overly exclusive.
14. For that reason, it is also ill-advised to think of YHWH as the god of Jews, of God as the god of Christians, of Allah as the god of Muslims, of Vishnu, Shiva and others as the gods of Hindus, and so on and so forth. These are rather Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or other conceptions, ideas, interpretations, notions of and expectations about the superhuman and the divine. But the superhuman or divine itself — whatever that may or may not be — is one unit or set without any contradictions. The god itself or gods themselves would furthermore be the god or gods of humans and also other beings, with humans just happening to have different Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or other conceptions of the superhuman and the divine.
15. Relatedly, it also makes little sense to believe that only either this or that human can be the one true prophet, avatar, buddha, manifestation of the superhuman or divine, world teacher, or however you want to put it. This is already understood by Muslims who acknowledge not just Mohammed but also Jesus (i.e. Isa) and others as prophets. Similarly, Hinduists and Buddhists also acknowledge more than just one avatar or buddha, and humans should furthermore not rule out that there can be several such figures at the same time.
16. The human conception of and expectation about a “chosen one” coming to save everyone is consequently ill-advised, first because there is no good reason for why it should just be one being either throughout or even at the same time.
Second, “chosen” is also misleading since it is more about individuals rising to the occasion and not so much about someone getting tapped by God and then having magical powers and whatever. In other words: It is rather a ‘bottom-up’ and less of a ‘top-down’ approach that is required here. As noted by a wise Buddhist scholar: “Every [hu]man has within [them]self the potentiality of becoming a Buddha, if [they] so [will] it and [endeavour]” (Rahula 1974, ch. 1, 1). This is the right spirit and approach.
Third, the notion of a “chosen one” coming to save everyone is furthermore harmful since it may very well lead to passivity and inactivity among humans who might then be tempted to believe that they can just pray a little bit, put their legs up, and basically wait for whatever in-group savior figure to make everything right for them. But such a being would rather be a coach, facilitator or instructor, meaning that humans still need to put their own work in if they want to see proper results.
17. Another false human expectation is that praying or some other forms of meditation are methodologically sufficient, but they are not. Instead and just like in other fields of human activity, a more direct and straightforward way to the superhuman and divine is through exploring, studying, discussing with others, presenting evidence-based logical arguments or engaging in other such practices just like one would in theoretical and practical philosophy or also science.
18. Another false human expectation is that the Quran challenge needs to be fulfilled in Arabic and in prose. The to be learned lesson here is that content matters more than form: There have been too many spiritually empty rituals and spectacles in religions, too many intonations and incantations, too much dressing to impress — all forms with exceptionally little content. Arabic and prose also relate to form and not to content. But largely the same can also be written in English and then translated into Arabic or other languages if need be. English is furthermore a globally spoken and easy to learn language. So for conveying the essential content, English and no prose are sufficient and furthermore underline the importance of sufficiency or enough being enough. It would also make little sense to refuse an already sweet cake just because it has no sugar or cherry on top.
19. Another false human expectation is that it can only be religion, religious scriptures, religious prophets or prophecies that lead to the superhuman or divine. Instead, it may rather be philosophy, philosophical writings, philosophers and their wisdoms and predictions that provide humans with the best possible path to the superhuman and divine and to the solutions of their problems. The perhaps best already existing example for that is Buddhism which is fundamentally a philosophy of self-improvement and mental cultivation and not a religion of praying to this or that superhuman or divine being.
There is also the fact that God or a Supreme Being is regarded as all-aware, all-knowing and most importantly as all-wise. And it is philosophy and not so much religion but neither science nor academic pseudo-philosophy which are centrally associated with the key ingredient of wisdom. Instead, human religions are something inherently cult-like and problematic that come from an ending age, with the currently normal sciences or academic philosophy or what incorrectly passes for that also still having cult-like characteristics. So it is also to signal the beginning of a better and new age or cycle, since actual philosophy occupies a good and widely acceptable middle ground between religion and science as well as for other reasons that it is best to refer to this new system as a philosophy.
20. These are some of the ways in which false human conceptions of and expectations about the superhuman and divine need to be rejected and corrected.
[to be continued]
