When we live the lie, we expect: follow the rules of the world today and make tons of money and we’ll be happy. And at the end of our lives, nearly all find out the game was stacked against them. They lived the lie. But they don’t have the money. And even for the few that do – you know, the one percent – they aren’t happy either.
I was just reading an article that made me think about the differences in teachings related to orphans and widows in Christianity and Islam. Both books talk about widows and orphans. No real surprise there. But the things they have to say are very different. That should not have been a surprise, but it was. At least, it was more of a surprise than I expected. When we hear about something, like the Qur’an and Islam – and also read the actual Qur’an – it can be hard to remember what the actual book says versus what people claim about the book. The same is true for anything. We really need to pay attention to what’s real and what’s opinion.
I was doing some research on an article on “Orphans and Widows in Christianity and Islam” and found something interesting. I was looking at nine translations of the Qur’an. What I found was two very different translation of the same Qur’an passage. I had started with two, but they were so strikingly different that I went to nine. That first one still stuck out as being so very different.
Christianity and Islam both view submission as important. This begs the question, do both religions have the same definition of submission? Furthermore, do either, or both, of them use the same definition as the secular use of the word? It’s important to know. Otherwise, it’s like talking about fruit – but one person is talking about oranges and the other is talking about Japanese star anise. The orange is good for our health, flavorful, and can be eaten raw or cooked. However, the Japanese star anise (image below) fruit is highly toxic and its seeds are even used in animal poison.
Hills full of horses, but only one man can see them. Chariots of fire, also seen by only one man. And they aren’t burning up. Science or fable? Surely this is a fable. There can’t actually be such a thing. Can there? Or maybe it’s a miracle and science can give us a clue as to how that miracle could actually be real.
Separation of church and state is well known – but separation of church and children? I recently heard about how China was targeting children going to Christian schools. Given that there’s an entire Article in the new religious regulations about schools, thought I missed something in the new law. But I didn’t.