Archive for April, 2010

There occurs in the saying of the Prophet Muhammad (alayhis salaam), narrated by al-Bukhari, Muslim, an-Nasaa’ee and Abu Dawud, in which he indicates an association between shirk and magic:

عن أبي هريرة أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: اجتنبوا السبع الموبقات. قالوا: يا رسول الله وما هن؟ قال: الشرك بالله، والسحر، وقتل النفس التي حرم الله قتلها إلا بالحق، وأكل الربا، وأكل مال اليتيم، والتولي يوم الزحف، وقذف المحصنات الغافلات المؤمنات

From Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) said: “Avoid the seven destroyers”. They (the Companions) said, “O Messenger of Allaah, what are they?”. He said: “Shirk (associating partners) with Allaah (in worship), magic

And the Scholars of Islaam explain that magic was placed after and alongside Shirk because magic occurs through Shirk, in the sense that in order for the devils to execute and implement instances of magic, the sorcerer will have already given obedience to the devils, worshipped them, or did what was requested of him by the devils of affairs that comprise disbelief.

In this article we want to explore this a little more from a historical perspective to show that magic is tied to ancestor worship and astrology and beliefs in the stars and planets.

Ancestor Worship in the Time of Noah

In the time of Noah (alayhis salaam), who was ten generations away from Adam (alayhis salaam), the people began to venerate and worship righteous people who had passed away. They are mentioned in the chapter in the Qur’an called “Nuh”:

وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَايَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا

And they say: By no means leave your gods, nor leave Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaghuth, and Ya’uq and Nasr. (Nuh 71:23)

These were the names of righteous men who had passed away, and then Satan came to the people and beguiled them into venerating these righteous men (through representations and statues). Then a few generations later Satan came to the people and said that your ancestors used to worship them as gods, and thus he made them fall into Shirk through ancestor worship. These were the people to whom Noah was sent, and they were destroyed when they refused to heed to his call through the flood.

Ancestor Worship and Astrology Amongst the Chaldeans and Babylonians

After the flood, there were from the offspring of Noah those who inhabited what was known as Baabil (Babylon), and this was Nimrod, a descendant of Nuh by around four generations. At-Tabari gives his genealogy as Nimrod, the son of Kan’aan, the son of Kush, the son of Saam, the son of Nuh (Noah). This is the tyrant king that the Prophet Ibrahim disputed with, as occurs in the verse:

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِي حَآجَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ فِي رِبِّهِ أَنْ آتَاهُ اللّهُ الْمُلْكَ إِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّيَ الَّذِي يُحْيِـي وَيُمِيتُ قَالَ أَنَا أُحْيِـي وَأُمِيتُ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ يَأْتِي بِالشَّمْسِ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ فَأْتِ بِهَا مِنَ الْمَغْرِبِ فَبُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ وَاللّهُ لاَ يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ

Have you not looked at him who disputed with Ibrahim (Abraham) about his Lord (Allah), because Allah had given him the kingdom? When Ibrahim (Abraham) said (to him): “My Lord (Allah) is He Who gives life and causes death.” He said, “I give life and cause death.” Ibrahim (Abraham) said, “Verily! Allah causes the sun to rise from the east; then cause it you to rise from the west.” So the disbeliever was utterly defeated. And Allah guides not the people, who are wrong-doers. (Al-Baqarah 2:258)

The people of Nimrod known as the Chaldeans and Kan’aanites had turned to star and planet worship, and they believed that the spirits of the dead inhabited the planets and stars, and they believed about Nimrod after his death that he went up into the sun (becoming a “sun god”), and continued to shine down upon the earth and that he later had a son called “Tammuz”, who was in essence a “reborn” of the “deity” Nimrod and the “son of god”. Built upon these ideas and beliefs and associated mythologies, the people were well-versed in astrology and they had built an elaborate belief system around the stars and planets, and around this belief, they also outlined their magic and occult practices that they were enticed into by the Jinn. Now even though magic already existed at least from the time of Nuh (alayhis salaam), it was nevertheless given a boost through the astrology that was associated with the deification of kings or authority figures.

Ancestor Worship and Astrology Amongst the Ancient Egyptians

The land of Egypt was populated by the descendants of Nuh after a a few generations and it is said that Mizraim, who is the son of Haam, the son of Nuh, inhabited and founded Egypt. From this genealogy there came another ruler king called Osiris who was murdered by Seth (his brother). So Osiris was slain and he went up into the stars, into the Sun and he was the “sun god” but he had a child called Horus who was a “reborn” of his father (a “son of god”) and he came to avenge his father.

With Tammuz coming back as the deity Nimrod and Horus coming back as the deity Osiris, according to the historical mythologies, this “reincarnation” or reappearance led the people to believe in “immortality” and that they could become gods themselves through continuous cycles of birth and rebirth (becoming more perfect each time) and by venerating these deities (through rituals of worship and sacrifice). Remember in an earlier article we established that Iblees caused Adam to err through the promise of things like “immortality” and becoming “angels” and “living forever”, and that it is with this same promise that Iblees and his offspring the Jinn have continued to beguile nation after nation in history. That is what was going on here in these “mystery religions” in Babylon and Egypt. Note that these “mystery religions” were taken up in other forms by other nations such as the Greeks, and it is the same pattern in all other nations on other continents.

Shaykh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah says in al-Hamawiyyah (p. 13, Dar ul-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah):

… and al-Ja’d bin Dirham -- in what has been said -- was from the land of Harraan, and there used to be amongst them a great portion of the Sabeans and Philosophers from the remmants of the religion of Nimrod, and the Kan’aanites, whose later ones authored [works] on the magic (sihr) of those people -- and Nimrod is the King of the Chaldean Sabean Pagans.

And Ibn Taymiyyah also says in Majmoo’ al-Fataawaa (35/195):

For Nimrod bin Kan’aan was the king of those (star and planet worshippers), and the Scholars of the Sabeans were the astrologers and their likes. And have idols been worshipped overwhelmingly except on account of the viewpoint (teaching) of this vile faction who consume the wealth of people in falsehood and hinder (others) from the path of Allaah.

Astrology and Magic

Just like in Babylon, Chaldea, magic and occult practices occurred in connection with astrology, the same happened in Egypt. These mythologies surrounding Nimrod and Osiris and Horus -- sun god and worship of the sun and the stars and planets -- all go back to ancestor worship, that’s the crux of it all and the crux of all mythologies in all past nations. These mythologies (tied with astrology) have remained the foundational background to a great deal of the magic that has been transmitted through the centuries or millenia for that matter, and it includes the magic rehearsed by the devils in the time of the Prophet Solomon and also the Qabbalah which was codified by the Jews exiled in Babylon in the time of Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC, when they studied the mystery religions. If you remember in our previous article on Prophet Solomon, the Jinn and Magic, we quoted from at-Tabari the following narration:

Ibn Hawshab: He states similar to what was said by Ibn Ishaq above, and explains that the devils would write, “Whoever wants to arrive at such and such let him turn to the sun and let him say such and such. And whoever wants [to be able] to do such and such, let him face his back to the sun and let him say such and such.” So they wrote the likes of this and put it in a book, and gave it the same title as mentioned by Ibn Ishaq above. Then they buried it under Sulayman’s throne. When Sulayman died, Iblees stood as a khateeb and said, “O people, verily Sulayman was not a prophet, but he was a magician, so hold to his magic which is in his place of retreat and in his houses”, then he showed them the place in which it was buried, and when they found it they said, “By Allaah, Sulayman was a magician, and this is his magic, with it shall we worship, and through it shall we subdue (others)”. However, the believers amongst those Jews said, “Rather, he was a Prophet, a believer”….

So we find that what the devils were teaching of magic and its rituals included the involvement of celestial bodies and their veneration or worship.

The Prohibition of the Worship of Celestial Bodies

And we find in the Qur’an an express prohibition of worship of the Sun (and moon):

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ اللَّيْلُ وَالنَّهَارُ وَالشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ لَا تَسْجُدُوا لِلشَّمْسِ وَلَا لِلْقَمَرِ وَاسْجُدُوا لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَهُنَّ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ

And from among His Signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Prostrate not to the sun nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah Who created them, if you (really) worship Him. (Fussilat 41:37)

And the Messenger (alayhis salaam) said, as is narrated by al-Bukhari from Ibn Umar,

When the (upper) edge of the sun appears (in the morning), don’t perform a prayer till the sun appears in full, and when the lower edge of the sun sets, don’t perform a prayer till it sets completely. And you should not seek to pray at sunrise or sunset for the sun rises between two sides of the head of the devil (or Satan).

And likewise, the stars and celestial bodies only have three purposes, beautification, guidance for travelers, and protection against the devils. And also there occurs in the hadeeth: (ومن اقتبس شعبة من النجوم، فقد اقتبس شعبة من السحر), “Whoever acquired a branch [of knowledge] of astrology, then he has acquired a branch of magic.” And thus astrology is considered magic, and the historical reality is that ancestor worship, shirk, astrology and magic are all tied and related along the lines that we have explained above.

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In two previous articles we covered texts from the Qur’an that relate to the issue of magic and the occult, in particular, a) the luring of Adam by Iblis through the promise of everlasting life, immortality, becoming angelic and an everlasting kingdom (see this article) and b) the teaching of magic by the devils to the Judaics in the time of Sulayman and also by the two angels in Babylon (see this article).

The false promise of Iblis (of eternal life and immortality through special knowledge and “illumination”) along with magic and its associated numerology, astrology coming from Babylon, transmitted by the Judaics in a codified form known as the “Qabbalah” has been behind much of the corruption (shirk, kufr, immorality) through the ages. In this article we want to look at another verse addressing the issue of magic in relation to those who were previously given something of the Book (i.e. revelation).

Concerning al-Jibt and at-Taghut

Allaah the Most High, said:

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ نَصِيبًا مِّنَ الْكِتَابِ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْجِبْتِ وَالطَّاغُوتِ وَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ هَؤُلاء أَهْدَى مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ سَبِيلاً

Have you not seen those who were given a portion of the Scripture? They believe in Jibt and Taghut and say to the disbelievers that they are better guided as regards the way than the believers. (An-Nisa 4:51)

At-Tabari (d. 310H) brings with his asaaneed, a large number of narrations from the classic commentators in explanation of the words al-Jibt and at-Taghut, and so what we can do here is to summarize them in the form of a table:

al-Jibt at-Taghut
Umar (radiallaahu anhu) Magic Satan
Mujahid Magic Satan
Mujahid Magic Satan, the Soothsayer
Zayd the Magician Satan
Sa’eed bin Jubair the Magician the Soothsayer
Abu al-Aaliyah the Magician the Soothsayer
Abu al-Aaliyah Magic Satan
Qatadah Satan the Soothsayer
as-Sudee Satan the Soothsayer
Sa’eed bin Jubair the Soothsayer the Magician
Muhammad (bin Ishaq) the Soothsayer the Magician

There are also two narrations in which Mujahid explains “at-Taghut” to mean “Satan in the form of a man, to whom the people refer to in judgment and who is in charge of their affair.” And there are also narrations from Ibn Abbaas (radiallaahu anhu) and ad-Dahhaak which between them explain al-Jibt and at-Taghut to mean “Ka’b bin al-Ashraf (al-Yahoodi)” or “Hayyiy bin Akhtab (al-Yahoodi)” interchangeably.

After all these narrations at-Tabari explains that both al-Jibt and at-Taghut admit to numerous explanations all of which are simultaneously valid and correct, and they are:

  • al-Jibt and at-Taghut are two (interchangeable) names for every glorified, worshipped or obeyed entity besides Allaah, whether that may be a stone, tree or devil.
  • That the idols worshipped besides Allaah (by the people of jaahiliyyah) are also al-Jibt and at-Taghut
  • That the devils obeyed by the disbelievers are also are al-Jibt and at-Taghut
  • That the magicians and the soothsayers are also al-Jibt and at-Taghut (as we have seen from the narrations above)
  • That al-Ka’b bin al-Ashraf and Hayyiy bin Akhtab are al-Jibt and at-Taghut for they were obeyed by the Judaics in kufr and disobedience

And so our intent here is to highlight the fact that al-Jibt and at-Taghut are interchangeable terms to refer to: Magic, sorcery, soothsaying, magicians, soothsayers, Satan and the devils, and that this verse is in reference to al-Yahood (Judaics), and they were the ones who followed what the devils rehearsed in the time of Sulayman (alayhis salaam) of magic, and also what was revealed to the Angels at Babylon, and these people they apostatized from what Moses (alayhis salaam) and abandoned the Tawrah and mixed their religion with magic, mystery, superstition and the likes. So remember what is stated in the above verse (يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْجِبْتِ وَالطَّاغُوتِ ), “They believe in al-Jibt and at-taghut” in light of the explanations from the classical commentators, meaning they believe in Satan and magic.

When the Judaics were held captive in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC, they added to their magic the astrology and numerology of the Chaldean Babylonians, the remnants of the people of Nimrod, and this magic was passed on orally through secret initiation only and it is what is called “the Qabbalah”. Although basic elements of it were put into writing (in the 13th century AD) with the higher, more esoteric and and innermost secretive aspects only taught through initiation.

The Core Secrets in the Mystery Religions of the Occultists

And at the core of this magic (in the innermost circles) from what is explicitly stated and written in their books is the belief that immortality can be achieved, and it is possible to become angelic, or that one can merge with God and become God, and that Iblis was truthful, and that he was wrongly cast out, and that he gave intellect (i.e. illumination, enlightenment) to Adam (which God wanted to hide from Adam, as they claim and believe) or that the Adam and his offspring are in fact emanations of God who can become immortal through that secret knowledge, and that it is through this so-called illumination that the practitioners of this magic (worshipers of the devils) believe that they can progress towards immortality, and that Iblis was in reality the true God, and he wanted good for mankind, and that he is in reality mankind’s savior by “enlightening” man. And thus “Lucifer” (Satan) is the real God and savior of mankind, and this is known as the “Luciferian doctrine”. It is being pushed to the masses today through what is called “New Age Spirituality“, and this is also being used as a vehicle to unite all religions.

These notions we have mentioned in the above paragraph are really getting right down to the core of what is believed by the occultists at the highest level. We are not talking about your average street-magician, pir, faith-healer and the likes of these charlatans and fraudsters trying make a quick buck through the aid of the Jinn in putting magic upon people and then appearing as “healers”, consuming the wealth of the people in falsehood. This is your low level small-fry at the very bottom of the ladder who is just seeking worldly gain through obedience to the devils, and these small-fry don’t believe in these esoteric doctrines and they don’t take it as a religion, they are just dabbling at the low level.

However, there are those high-level occultists who believe the doctrines we have outlined above and they are in league with the devils amongst the Jinn, with both parties seeking mutual benefit from each other (see this article on that subject). These are your Aleister Crowleys and your Helena Blavatskys (by way of example of the most disbelieving practitioners of magic and worshipers of the devils) who explicitly write and boast that they receive dictations of books (on magic and esoteric, secret knowledge) via “channelling” through spiritual beings (i.e. devils amongst the jinn) and this is an altogether different level of sorcerer (Satan worshiper) because they are upon this as a religion, and what these people indulge in of activities will make your average small-fry sorcerer appear to be innocent (even “righteous”) by comparison!

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Edgar Cayce The Sleeping (False) Prophet

Written by Lou Whitworth

The Early Years

In this essay we will examine the life and work of Edgar Cayce, often called “the sleeping prophet.” He was a demonically inspired prophet and healer very popular in the sixties and seventies. Today his influence is stronger than ever as he helped pave the way for the popularity of “channeling.”

Edgar Cayce was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1877. His family was ordinary in most ways, except for a current of demonic dabbling and occultism among the males. His grandfather was a water witch and unerringly accurate in dousing for water with the forked limbs of a witch hazel tree. Many of his acquaintances held that he was also able to make tables and brooms “dance.” Edgar’s father was an unwitting Pied Piper of snakes. Apparently snakes loved him and followed him around and even wrapped their bodies around his hat brim if he put his hat down while working in the fields. It unnerved him so much that he moved from the farm into the city and eventually became a justice of the peace.

Edgar Cayce’s childhood was very unique. As a boy he exhibited an occultic tendency to see and hear things that others didn’t see. For example, he had “little playmates” who disappeared when others came around. They always grew with him and stayed his size, but after the death of a neighbor girl who could also see them, they seemed smaller. He realized that he was growing up and would soon lose their companionship.

As a young boy Edgar attended the Christian church and wanted to be a minister. He resolved to read the Bible through once for each year of his life. By age 13 he was working on his thirteenth reading in his favorite place, a playhouse by a creek in the woods, when he heard a humming sound. He looked up to see a woman in brilliant white clothing with wings on her back standing in front of him. She said, “Your prayers have been answered, little boy. Tell me what it is you want most of all, so that I may give it to you.” Though very frightened, he told her, “most of all I would like to be helpful to other people, especially children.” Upon that the woman vanished.

The next day in school Edgar couldn’t master his spelling words. His brother Lucian, the school teacher, felt that the boy needed more drilling, so he tutored him that evening at home. Still Edgar couldn’t spell the words. When boy said he was tired and laid his head on the spelling book, Lucian went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Edgar fell asleep and heard the voice from the day before saying, “Sleep and we will help you.” When Lucian returned, the boy had slept several minutes. He then woke Edgar up and immediately tested him on the words. To Lucian’s surprise Edgar knew those words perfectly as well as any words anywhere in the book. Edgar then began to tell Lucian which words were on which pages and even what pictures corresponded to what page numbers. Apparently the female “angel” (unheard of in the Bible) was a deceiver from the evil realm and had given him the occultic ability called “remote viewing.”

These events and the things that followed them clearly suggest that Edgar Cayce had inherited through his family demonic spiritual powers and occultic tendencies. Now we will focus on the young man’s development into a psychic, or more accurately, a spiritualistic healer.

The Development of a Spiritualistic Healer

Edgar Cayce’s involvement in healing was just as strange as the other events in his life. It began at school when he was struck from behind with a baseball. He acted unusual the rest of the school day and in the evening when he returned home. When he went to bed he asked his parents to make a poultice of corn meal, onions, and herbs. They thought it extraordinary but did as he asked and applied the poultice to the back of his head as per his instructions. When he woke the next morning he was back to normal but remembered nothing that had happened since being struck by the baseball. His family was amazed. This was the beginning of his cures--the first one on himself!

The second stage in his healing journey also included self diagnosis. It happened after he developed a throat problem which prevented his speaking above a whisper. The condition persisted for some months and nothing was able to help. Finally, “Dr.” Al Layne, a local correspondence-school trained hypnotist and osteopath, convinced Cayce to let him try to help. Cayce stretched out and put himself to sleep. Then Layne suggested to the unconscious Cayce that he look into his own body and discover the source of the problem. He did and soon replied that the throat muscles were paralyzed and recommended increasing the circulation of blood into the area by mental suggestion. Layne took the cue and made the hypnotic suggestion. Soon afterward Cayce’s throat turned bright red. After about 15 minutes, the throat area returned to the normal pink color. He then woke up and spoke clearly for the first time in months.

The next day Cayce put himself to sleep and analyzed Dr. Layne’s stomach problems. Cayce’s diagnosis corresponded exactly with what various doctors had told Layne, but his recommended treatments were quite different. Once awake Cayce was as amazed as Layne because he had never heard of the medicines he had prescribed in his sleep nor could he even pronounce some of the medical terms he had rattled off in his trance. This is all the more amazing since Cayce had only an elementary school education. None of this mattered to Layne who said that if these recommendations worked, their fortunes were made!

They did work, but Cayce never made his fortune. He started giving these “health readings” regularly in 1901. In the beginning he worked as the healer for Dr. Layne. Layne would look into a medical need, get the facts on a case, and give these details to Cayce. Then he would put himself under and speak the diagnosis to Layne who recorded it. Layne would then present the “prescription” or recommended treatment to the patient as his own. But word got out as to what was going on, and Cayce’s fame spread. As it did, the people and the questions came in from further and further away. Cayce was “well packaged,” to use a modern concept. Many who would ordinarily never have considered visiting a psychic and would have labeled such powers “of the Devil” were lulled into a false sense of complacency by Cayce’s gentle demeanor, lifelong church involvement, and daily Bible reading. In truth, he was ultimately far more dangerous than he appeared.

The Healer’s Fame Spreads

Cayce began his readings in 1901. Two years later, after a six- year courtship, he married his sweetheart, Gertrude Evans. She was very supportive of the “work,” as they called the readings. They were usually not paid for the readings and were often on the verge of poverty. Living that way wasn’t easy, but because they both believed that the readings were God’s special calling for Edgar--his life’s work--they persisted. They were gratified by the fact that people were clearly being healed physically--usually people that other methods and medical authorities had been unable to help. Though Cayce held several different jobs to provide for his family, photography served as his principal financial resource. He returned to it again and again.

At this point we need to examine more closely Cayce’s health readings. His usual method was to put himself to sleep and have someone read to him the name and address of the person needing a reading. He did not need to have the person present; even if he or she were hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away, he could “find” the person. Shortly after putting himself “under” and being told the name and address of the person needing the reading, the sleeping Cayce would say, “We have the entity” as if looking directly at the person in question. Notice the word we; it hints at the presence of a spirit or spirits. His inner sight was apparently better than scopes, x-rays, or cat scans because not only did he visually observe the problem, but he also “received” the desired course of treatment. While still “sleeping,” he then described the medical or psychological problem to whoever was assisting him and gave recommendations for healing.

Cayce was able to help eye problems, injuries that led to complications, cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, arthritis, gall stones, kidney stones, hay fever, mental and psychological problems, digestive problems, epilepsy, hemorrhoids, ulcers, psoriasis, and countless other conditions. His remedies usually involved one or more of the following: natural foods, physical massage, various oil rubs, chiropractic adjustments, ointments of various kinds, medicines that were common, or those that were rare, in disuse, or forgotten. Sometimes the treatments were very messy, inconvenient, and time consuming, but Cayce’s followers maintained that his healing average was close to 90% for those who persisted in following his advice.

He frequently described how to make certain medicines and poultices and once was even able to “find” in his mind’s eye a certain medicine high on a drugstore shelf behind other bottles. This was in another state! He could “see it” and was able to explain to others how to find it. This practice is sometimes called “remote viewing” and is related to astral projection or soul travel. Though such “viewing” episodes occasionally occur naturally (because of stress or sickness), they are usually associated with occultism. This ability gives even more concreteness to the term seer than we usually think of. It also reveals a definite linkage with his ability to see and read (with covers closed) whole pages in his school books following his vision of the shining lady with wings at age thirteen.

From 1901 to 1922 Edgar Cayce’s readings were aimed almost exclusively at finding medical answers for hurting people. Though his motives were admirable, his methods were suspect biblically. There is an uncomfortable similarity here to what mediums and channelers do--practices expressly forbidden in Scripture (Lev. 19:31). In spite of his biblical knowledge, he was not sensitive enough to the parallels between what he was doing and occultic practices. Perhaps he was so enamored by the healings and so thrilled by the attention and admiration that he was unwilling to question seriously the source of his power early in his career. This failing, seemingly innocuous at the beginning of his health readings, became very critical when he began the “life readings” a much more blatant and dangerous spiritual threat.

The Life Readings

Cayce’s biographers generally attribute his healing powers to an ability to tap into what they called the “Universal Mind” or “Universal Consciousness.” However, the alert Christian who knows the Bible, and something of the spiritual realm, can easily pick up from Edgar Cayce’s biographies another explanation of his powers--evidences of demonic activity in his life. It was probably more difficult for Cayce himself to see these clues. Nevertheless, Cayce was aware enough to be concerned at times about the spiritual source of all of these powers and strange events, and he occasionally expressed these concerns. Usually, however, he expressed these concerns within his family and was always assured that everything was okay.

Up until 1923 there were two sides to Cayce. There was the Cayce who was orthodox: a church going, Bible reading, Sunday school teaching man who would have steadfastly defended Christ as the unique Son of God, the Bible as the Word of God, the reality of heaven and hell, and so on. Then there was the Cayce who had a family heritage of psychic abilities, a person who saw visions, heard voices, and who performed trance-style medical readings that looked suspiciously like what mediums do.

Somehow all these disparate beliefs were held together in one person until Cayce did his first “life reading” in 1923. For 22 years his readings had been almost exclusively devoted to medical or health issues. But after Arthur Lammers asked Cayce to do a reading for him in 1923 things changed. What Lammers did was probe the sleeping Cayce about astrology, mysticism, reincarnation, yoga, alchemy, theosophy, the cabala, the mystery religions, previous lives, and many other things related to the occult. When the reading was over and Cayce was able to read the answers he had given to the questions put to him by Lammers, he was amazed and frightened. These new readings supported all sorts of occultic beliefs. Cayce said to Lammers:

But what you’ve been telling me today, and what the readings have been saying, is foreign to all I’ve believed and been taught, and all I’ve taught others, all of my life. If ever the Devil was going to play a trick on me, this would be it.

Cayce was deeply concerned about all this and especially about reincarnation. His instincts, trained by years of reading the Bible through, resisted. “But instead of following this intuition, Cayce accepted Lammer’s explanations on reincarnation and other matters and turned away from a literal interpretation of the Bible. Cayce’s faith in the readings completed the transition.” He believed so strongly in the truth of the health readings, that he reasoned (falsely) the new information from what he called “life readings” must also be true.

Lammers was able to convince Cayce that reincarnation was compatible with the Bible, and soon Cayce had swallowed it all. Once Cayce embraced reincarnation, he accepted many other occultic beliefs. In fact, reincarnation became so central to what Cayce came to hold that his whole belief system would totally crumble if reincarnation were proven to be false. Like most cultists and occultists, Cayce came to believe that Jesus was not the unique Son of God. He also claimed that Jesus was reincarnated 30 times before He became “the Christ.”

An Evaluation of Edgar Cayce and His Legacy

Readings

Cayce did over 16,000 readings between 1901 and his death in 1945. The first 22 years were almost exclusively given over to health readings. After 1923 he added life readings, or perhaps more accurately, “past lives readings,” and came to accept reincarnation and many occultic beliefs.

Evaluation: Cayce was a very effective healer and helped many people physically. We must ask, however, how many Christians and non-Christians paid a price spiritually for their spiritualistic healing and how many non-Christians never came to saving faith because of Cayce’s influence.

Prophecies

There is not been enough time in this essay to deal with Cayce’s prophecies such as California falling in the sea, New York sinking beneath the waves, and the lost continent of Atlantis rising out of the ocean, and so on.

Evaluation: That is just as well; Cayce was an abysmal failure as a prophet and a false prophet by biblical standards.

Personal: Deceived and Deceiving

Reading Cayce’s biographies reveals that no one could have set a better trap for a sincere, but naive, young man. Satan gave Cayce enough rope to hang himself. In a statement intended to explain his dilemma, Cayce said: “The power was given to me without explanation. I’ve tried to discover what to do with it. It’s been hit and miss, trial and error….it was just an odd trait that was useful in medicine…. That’s what I always thought, and against this I put the idea that the Devil might be tempting me to do his work by operating through me when I was conceited enough to think God had given me special power”.

Evaluation: But Cayce chose not to pursue this line of thought. Satan had to wait 22 years to turn Cayce into a unabashed promoter of the doctrines of demons and a rejector of Jesus Christ as the unique Son of God, but it was worth the wait. Fascination with Cayce has pulled many naive dabblers deep into occultism.

Association for Research and Enlightenment

The organization Cayce founded, the Association for Research and Enlightenment, or A.R.E., to house his readings and research medical cures, has become a hotbed for practically every occultic idea imaginable.

Evaluation: The A.R.E. and Cayce’s life readings offer a theology that is basically a revised version of the mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, India, and Greece with a hint of Christian flavoring for palatability. There is no way to estimate the spiritual darkness spread through the influence of the A.R.E.

Books and Biographies

Most people “get into” Cayce through reading books on the occult or prophecy or through reading biographies on Cayce.

Evaluation: We advise people not to read these works unless there is a real need to do so because they are very deceptive, dangerous, and have been spiritually harmful to many curiosity-seekers.

Conclusion

A passage from Those Curious New Cults captures the tragic legacy of this well-meaning but misguided man:

For a good portion of his life, Cayce was a commercial photographer. He understood very well the mechanics of his trade. A blank film is inserted, the shutter is snapped, and then the film is developed in the dark. The nature of a photograph, whether it is a formal family picture or pornography, depends not on the film but on the photographer who uses the camera. During his trances, Cayce’s mind was like a blank film that would be developed in the dark. I believe that Cayce allowed his camera to get into the wrong hands.

What are your thoughts on this article?

Notes

1. Thomas Sugrue, There Is A River: The Story of Edgar Cayce (New York: Dell, a new Dell edition, 1961), 14.

2. Ibid., 38-39.

3. Jess Stern, Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), 26-27.

4. Sugrue, 27.

5. Ibid., 23.

6. Stern, 27.

7. Sugrue, 23-24.

8. Edmond Gruss, Ouija Board, Doorway to the Occult, Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company, 1994.

9. Gruss, 181.

10. Sugrue, 210.

11. Ibid., 305.

12. William J. Peterson, Those Curious New Cults,Keats Publishing, 1982, p. 46.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Buddhism: A new trend in the Western Culture

BUDDHISM AND MATERIALIST

WESTERN CULTURE

One reason why Buddhism has come to the world’s attention is not because of its existence in the Far East—its traditional home—but thanks to propaganda spread in the West. The beginning of this propaganda goes back as far as the 19th century and attracted more interest in the second half of the 20th century when it became a fad for those looking to be more “original.”

The beginning of this fad dates from the pop-culture of the 1960′s when a large number of western youth and some western intellectuals turned away from traditional Christianity looking for something else and found what they were seeking in far-eastern religions. The main impetus for this search was the desire to attract interest by going against the established order. When the late George Harrison of the Beatles, who helped define the pop culture of the ’60s, stated that he had become a Hindu (a pagan religion that preceded Buddhism) and later recorded his own composition, “My Sweet Lord,” a song to Krishna, many Beatles’ fans followed suit. John Lennon used Buddhist mantras in his song entitled “Across the Universe.” Buddhist hymns, styles of dress, and artworks were very popular among hippies in the ’60s and ’70s.

Interestingly, the most important architects of popular cultural expressions are imposing Buddhism on Western society. In this process, Hollywood has taken the lead. It’s generally accepted that Hollywood reflects the ideas of American society’s liberal wing, often supporting anti-religious ideas and values contrary to Christian morality and belief. For example, most films strongly impose the theory of evolution on the minds of viewers. In the evolution-versus-creation argument, “scientific” films are almost always come down on the side of Darwinism. (Hollywood’s anti-religious, pro-Darwin propaganda began with the famous film, Inherit the Wind.) And the tendency of today’s films to disparage Islam is a highly evident strategy.

But though Hollywood is generally unfavorable towards revealed religions like Christianity and Islam; when it comes to Buddhism, it takes a totally opposite line, depicting this religion in a most attractive light as peaceable and humane. Films like Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt, and Kundun, about the life of the Dalai Lama, directed by Martin Scorcese, have undertaken to popularizing Buddhism among the movie-going masses.

For spreading Buddhist propaganda, the private lives of actors and actresses are as important as the films they star in. The Supreme Head of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism has declared Steven Seagal, well-known for his roles in action films, to be the reincarnation of a 15th century lama (a Buddhist monk of Tibet or Mongolia)! Famous actor Richard Gere, in addition to writing books promoting Buddhism, has founded the Tibet House in New York with Richard Thurman, father of actress Uma Thurman. Other well-known Buddhists include Tina Turner, Harrison Ford, Oliver Stone, Herbie Hancock and Courtney Love.

Of course, a person’s private life and personal beliefs concern no one else. People are free to choose any religion they wish. But if these individuals learned about true Islam, certainly their hearts would be warmed. But the picture presented so far brings us to an important conclusion: Buddhism is attracting interest, being adopted and promoted in the West wherever a materialist culture predominates. Materialism Western culture has become alienated from the Judeo-Christian basis of its own spirituality.

But why? To answer this question, we must first determine the basic characteristics of Western materialism. This culture’s foundations were laid in the 18th century; its theoretical framework was established in the 19th and—despite the gradual erosion of the theoretical framework—it became a mass movement in the 20th. Essentially, it:

- denies the existence of God and believes the universe to be the result of chance.

- believes that living things arrived at their present state through evolution, and that Darwinism explains the phenomenon of life and the “origin” of species.

- believes that human beings are simply a higher species of animal and downplays the existence of any human spirit.

- rejects the idea of life after death, resurrection, Judgment Day and the existence of an eternal Paradise and Hell.

These assumptions of a materialist culture, every one of them false, naturally contradict all revealed religions. But significantly, all these erroneous assumptions are shared by another culture—Buddhism.

Huxley’s Discovery of Buddhism

An atheist religion, Buddhism doesn’t accept the existence of God, an everlasting hereafter, Paradise, or Hell. It supposes that the human spirit is no different from that of an animal and believes in continual karmic returns to the natural world. According to Buddhists, a fish could come back as a mammal in a later life, and a human could come back as a worm. This idea of the “transmigration of souls” between species has important parallels with Darwin’s theory of evolution.

One Buddhist researcher has described as follows the relation between Buddhism and evolution:

Buddhism. . . is quite happy with the theory of evolution. In fact, Buddhist philosophy actually requires evolution to take place—all things are seen as being transient, constantly becoming, existing for a while, and then fading. The idea of unchanging species would not be compatible with Buddhist ontology.6

For this reason, Darwinists have felt sympathetic toward Buddhism and promoted it ever since the 19th century.

The first to express Darwinist admiration for Buddhism was Thomas H. Huxley who, after Darwin himself proposed his theory, played the next most important role in the spread of Darwinism. Huxley appeared on the scene as Darwin’s most passionate supporter and became known as “Darwin’s bulldog.” His debates with scientists and clergy defending the idea of creation, and the passion of his writings and speeches have made him the 19th century’s most famous Darwinist.

One little-known fact about Huxley was his keen interest in Buddhism. Even while struggling with representatives of revealed religions like Judaism and Christianity, he regarded Buddhism as appropriate to the kind of secular civilization that he wanted to see established in the West. This is elaborated in the Philosophy East and West article, “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics,” which includes the following description of Buddhism from Huxley’s book of that name:

[Buddhism is] a system which knows no God in the Western sense; which denies a soul to man; which counts the belief in immortality a blunder and hope of it a sin; which refuses any efficacy to prayer and sacrifice; which bids men look to nothing but their own effortsfor salvation . . . . yet [it] spread over a considerable moiety of the Old World with marvelous rapidity and is still, with whatever base admixture of foreign superstitions, the dominant creed of a large fraction of mankind.7

The only reason for Huxley’s admiration of Buddhism is that it—like Huxley and other Darwinists—did not believe in God.

According to Vijitha Rajapakse, a professor at Hawaii University and the author of “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics,” Huxley saw a parallel between Buddhism and the atheistic pagan ideas of ancient Greece. This contributed to his admiration:

Huxley’s evident tendency to link Buddhist thought with Western ideas, which comes to the fore strikingly in his comments on the concept of substance, was further exemplified at other levels of his discussion as well. He found the nontheistic stance taken by the early Buddhists to be analogous to the outlook of Heracleitus and referred, in addition, to “many parallelisms of Stoicism and Buddhism.”. . .8

Rajapakse notes that some other 18th and 19th century atheists or agnostics were also great admirers of Buddhism. Parallels between Buddhism and the materialist Western philosophy of the time form part of the thought of David Hume, an 18th century Scottish philosopher and atheist with an antipathy towards religion. Rajapakse writes, “Interestingly enough, the parallelisms that exist between Buddhist and Humean standpoints on the question of a substantial soul were duly noted by certain early commentators on Buddhism” and continues:

Mrs. Rhys Davids [a pioneer translator of early Buddhist texts from Paali into English], for example, remarked that “with regard to the belief in an indwelling spirit or ego, permanent, unchanging, unsuffering, Buddhism took the standpoint two thousand, four hundred years ago of our own Hume of two centuries ago.”9

As Rajapakse maintains in his article, Buddhism intrigued many thinkers in Victorian England because they found it in harmony with the ascendant philosophies of the 19th century—atheism and Darwinism. Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German philosopher, looked with favor on Buddhism for the same reason.

Nietzsche’s Sympathy for Buddhism

Nietzsche, one of the 19th century’s most avid atheist thinkers, nurtured a passionate hatred for Christianity and promoted in its stead a pagan culture and morality. His views helped form fascism in the 20th century, especially Nazism. Nietzsche battled with Christianity for espousing the virtues of compassion, mercy, humility and trust in God. Therefore, in fact, he was also against the moral principles of Islam and genuine Judaism. He hated revealed religions not only because of their moral principles, but mainly because of his fanatic atheism. In his article on Nietzsche, American researcher Jason DeBoer writes that “atheism is a crucial part of Nietzsche’s thought,” adding that:

His is not an unbiased critique: Nietzsche burns with hatred toward Christianity, and his atheistic writings are extremely vitriolic.10

As we can imagine, Nietzsche directed his hatred at revealed religions only, not at pagan ones. On the contrary, as DeBoer writes:

. . . Nietzsche, although one of the fiercest atheists in history, was in fact not entirely anti-religious . . . [He] respected and admired many of the aspects of other religions, including paganism and even Buddhism.11

In his review of Robert G. Morrison’s book Nietzche and Buddhism:A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, English academic David R. Loy says the following on this matter:

Comparing Nietzsche with Buddhism has become something of a cottage industry, and for good reason: there seems to be a deep resonance between them. Morrison points out that they share many common features: both emphasise the centrality of humans in a godless cosmos and neither looks to any external being or power for their respective solutions to the problem of existence . . . Both understand [a] human being as an ever-changing flux of multiple psychophysical forces, and within this flux there is no autonomous or unchanging subject (‘ego’, ‘soul’).12

The sources of these erroneous ideas that Nietzsche shared with Buddhism were certainly nothing more than ignorance and arrogance. Anyone who looks at the universe and the world of nature with conscious intelligence can see clear proofs of God’s existence. This has been supported by modern, scientific discoveries: the Big Bang theory and the Anthropic Principle (the principle that every detail in the universe has been carefully arranged to make human life possible) have crushed the idea of a godless universe as proposed by Nietzsche and other atheists. Science has clear proofs that the universe was created and ordered in an extraordinary balance. These proofs show the invalidity of Darwin’s theory of evolution, but do support the existence of an intelligent design and prove the truth of creation. The results of scientific and sociological discoveries have also discredited the ideas of 19th century thinkers like Marx, Freud, and Durkheim. (For more information, please refer to Harun Yahya’s article “A Turning Point in History: The Fall of Atheism” at www.harunyahya.com/70the_fall_of_atheism _scie34.php)

Buddhism: False Spirituality

to a Materialist Culture

Ironically, this scientific testimony against atheism is closely related to why Buddhism is spreading in the Western world. Architects of atheism and materialist culture see that their theory is collapsing. To prevent the rapidly growing movement towards revealed religions, they counter it by promoting pagan faiths such as Buddhism. In other words, Buddhism—and other Far Eastern religions like it—are spiritual reinforcements of materialism.

But why should materialist Western culture need any such reinforcement? English writers Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln have examined the development (and degeneration) of ideas in the Western world over the past 2,000 years. In the 20th century, they explain, the Western world has fallen into a “crisis of meaning.” In other words, the way of life imposed on Western societies by materialist philosophy has stripped people’s lives of meaning by cutting them off from their belief in God’s existence and from worship of Him. These three authors put it this way:

Life became increasingly bereft of meaning, devoid of significance — a wholly random phenomenon, lived for no particular purpose.13

Adding to this crisis of meaning, the collapse of materialist theories on a scientific level has opened the way for a new return to revealed religions, especially Islam. For this reason, the monotheistic faiths are growing in their numbers of adherents; the number of those who believe and practice their religion is increasing; and religious concepts and values are assuming much more important places in social life.

Buddhism and similar pagan beliefs are eager to curtail this movement by offering, to those confused by the crisis of meaning brought on by the materialist culture, a false route to salvation. Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and versions of it like the Hare Krishna sect, Wicca and other New Age trends that bring together various pagan teachings, UFO religions that busy themselves with so-called holy messages believed to have come from space—these are all false teachings embraced by those who do not want to break with atheist and materialist dogmas, while eagerly search for spirituality at the same time. Besides, many who become Buddhists are largely influenced by a desire to unwittingly and blindly imitate something they do not understand, simply to attract attention and pretent that they are, indeed, aware and sophisticated.

To understand why these doctrines are unfounded, we need only pass them through the sieve of logic. We have already examined the concept of karma, the foundation of several Far Eastern religions, and shown it to have no rational basis. (For a more detailed discussion, see Harun Yahya’s Islam and Karma, Ta Ha Publishers, London, 2003) These religions do not believe in the existence of God, nor in an ultimate place of divine judgment for mankind. How, then, can they believe that every person will receive a reward for what he has done—in a subsequent life? Who will determine this? Those who revere “Extraterrestrials” also believe in similar nonsense. How can a person build a philosophy of life on UFOs, whose reality is quite debatable? Even if beings from outer space did exist, they too would, necessarily, have to have been created. But what is the guarantee that they could show humans the true path?

Those caught up in such superstitious ideas should think about these words of God from the Qur’an (56: 57): “We created you, so why do you not confirm the truth?” They should follow His way, as He has commanded:

This is My Path, and it is straight, so follow it. Do not follow other ways, or you will become cut off from His Way. That is what He instructs you to do, so that hopefully you may do your duty. (Qur’an, 6: 153)


COULD BUDDHISM BE A TRUE RELIGION THAT’S BECOME DISTORTED?

Although up to this point we’ve examined Buddhism as superstitious and false, at the same time, we must say that it contains some positive moral principles. Buddhist scriptures warn people against stealing, encourages them to be helpful to one another and cleanse themselves of selfishness and worldly ambitions. All of this suggests that Buddhism possibly began as a religion founded on God’s revelation, only to become corrupted over the course of time.

In the Qur’an, God tells us that to every nation, He sent messengers to deliver His warnings:

We have sent you [Muhammad] with the truth bringing good news and giving warning. There is no community to which a warner has not come. (Qur’an, 35: 24)

We sent a Messenger among every people saying: “Worship God and keep clear of all false gods.” Among them were some whom God guided, but others received the misguidance they deserved… (Qur’an, 16: 36)

Elsewhere in the Qur’an, He affirms that, “Every nation has a Messenger” (10: 47) and “every nation [is] summoned to its Book” (45: 28). These verses show us that God could certainly have sent a messenger to the Hindus; and one of them could have been Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhism resembles revealed religion in another one of its tenets: that throughout history, prophets have come to reveal the same truths to humanity, but after them, human followers have debased these religious truths. Indeed, after Gautama’s death, his teaching may have lost its roots and become distorted in just this way, mixing with the religions and cultures of the countries to which it spread, and assimilating various local myths and superstitions. (But of course, only God knows the truth.)

In such case, doubtless the real biography of Siddhartha Gautama would be much different from the mythological stories about him that we know today. There exist conflicting versions of his life story—a clear sign that the reality may have been probably quite different from the “history” we are now familiar with. Some of the true moral principles that Buddhism promotes lead us to believe that it might have developed from an originally monotheistic religion. Western scholar J. M. Robertson explains the Buddhist belief of the “chain of prophets”:

[Buddhism] did not claim to be a new teaching. The tradition holds that it had been promulgated many times before—that Gotama [sic] was only one of a long series of Buddhas who arise at intervals and who all teach the same doctrine. The names of twenty-four of such Buddhas who appeared before Gotama have been recorded . . . It was held that after the death of each Buddha, his religion flourishes for a time and then decays. After it is forgotten, a new Buddha emerges and preaches the lost Dhamma, or Truth.14

All of this suggests that Buddhism could be one of the perverse, distorted beliefs that came to degenerate in the wake of the prophets. On the other hand, Buddhism’s set, conservative structure reminds one of the classic distortions that can occur during the degeneration of the true religion.

In the Qur’an, God says that Christians and Jews have fallen into the same trap and have smothered their religions with useless minutiae and prohibitions. For example, erroneous ideas in Buddhism about withdrawing from the world and subjecting one’s self to pain also arose in Christianity as it degenerated through the years. God speaks of this error in the Qur’an (57: 27):

Then We sent Our Messengers following in their footsteps and sent Jesus son of Mary after them, giving him the Gospel. We put compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. They invented monasticism—We did not prescribe it for them—purely out of desire to gain the pleasure of God, but even so, they did not observe it as it should have been observed. To those of them who believed, We gave their reward, but many of them are deviators.

Buddhism may have been a true religion that was ruined after the development of a priesthood. It has certainly degenerated much more than Judaism or Christianity. However much these two religions have been distorted over the course of time, still they are devoted to God’s revelations and found their faiths upon Him. Even if the essence of Buddhism actually comes from a true source, it has completely departed from that essence and become smothered in superstitious ritual, with only a few true moral principles left.

Buddhism resembles the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in another way: It, too, believes in the End Times and in one ultimate savior for humanity—Jews and Christians know him as the Messiah; and for Muslims, he is the Mahdi.

The End Times is the period immediately preceding the Last Day. Both the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) contain a number of indications that in the End Times, Islamic morality will spread throughout the whole world. The Qur’an says that Jesus (peace be upon him) did not die, that he was not killed but was raised to the presence of God while he was still alive, and that he will come to earth again. The Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) also announced the good news that Jesus will be sent to the world again, and in those End Times while he is here, the world will be filled with peace, justice, well-being, and prosperity. The Prophet’s sayings reveal that the Mahdi will assist Jesus in his blessed work. (For a more detailed account, see Harun Yahya’s Jesus Will Return, Ta-Ha Publishers, London, 2001.)

In the Prophet’s sayings, the End Times are divided into two distinct periods. In the first, God will be openly denied; the number of people living according to the values of religion will be few; the cost of living and distress from material want will be great. There will be famines. People will suffer from natural disasters; injustice will be widespread, wars and conflicts will increase, and pitilessness and cruelty will dominate over love, mercy and compassion. Afterwards, humanity will be saved from the godless and irreligious philosophies that are the real source of all their anguish and turn to the values of religion. As a result, conflict, injustice and cruelty will come to an end. Instead of anxiety and repression, humanity will live in comfort, peace, security and prosperity. The whole world will be filled with plenty and abundance.

In Islam, as well as in Judaism and Christianity, there is the belief in the Mahdi, the Messiah, and the End Times. The Bible—made up of the Old Testament (the Torah and other Jewish writings) and the New Testament (the four gospels and other books and letters)—offers several descriptions of the end times. The gospels especially deal with the coming of Jesus (peace be upon him) and show important parallels with what is written in the Qur’an and in the sayings of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace).

Although the name of Jesus does not occur in the Old Testament, of course, the Hebrew Bible does foretell a Messiah as a savior from the lineage of David (peace be upon him). And in some places in the Old Testament there are mentions of what will happen at the Time of the End. The Messiah, whose coming is promised and about whose deeds are spoken of in the Old Testament, is—as in the Qur’an—Jesus. Apart from the title “Messiah,” this person is called by other descriptions such as “king,” “lord” and “most holy.”15

The Old Testament speaks of the Messiah’s coming, and much is said about the kingdom he will found on earth. Some of the essential things said about him are that he will gather the nations under his rule, that he is of the lineage of David (peace be upon him) and that he resembles his ancestor, David (who in his own time, established his dominion everywhere he went). Some of these relevant passages from the Old Testament are as follows:

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces; From heaven He will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed. (1 Samuel 2: 10)

And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2: 44)

Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; he will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for his law . . . I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. (Isaiah 42: 1-7)

But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins . . . (Isaiah 11: 4-5)

The New Testament gives much information about the Second Coming of Jesus to the world:

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14: 2-3)

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. (Acts 1: 11)

Therefore if they say to you, “Look, he is in the desert!’ do not go out; or “Look, He is in the inner rooms!” do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. (Matthew 24: 26-27)

Iurge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus. . . that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. (1 Timothy 6: 13-16)

The kingdom that will come into being with the second coming of Jesus will be a period of justice, wealth and high morality:

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5: 5)

In this manner, therefore, pray . . . “Your kingdom come . . . .” (Matthew 6: 9-10)

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last. (Luke 13: 28-30)

As we mentioned earlier, Buddhism also foretells and expects a savior-messiah. Buddha said that 1000 years after him, the Metteya (or Maitreya) would come and bring divine mercy to the whole universe; and with his coming, religion would reach its completion. The following are some examples of this expectation from Buddhist writings from two different countries. First Burma:

Buddha said: “Our cycle is a happy one, three leaders have already lived . . . The Buddha supreme am I, but after me, Maitriya comes. While still this happy cycle lasts, before its tale of years shall lapse. This Buddha, called Metteya, shall be supreme chief of all Men.”16

Now, from Sri Lanka:

I am not the first Buddha [awakened one] who has come upon the Earth, nor will I be the last. In due time another Buddha will rise in the world, a Holy One, a supreme enlightened one, endowed with auspicious wisdom embracing the Universe, an incomparable leader of men. . . He will reveal to you the same eternal truths, which I have taught you. He will establish his Law [religion] . . . He will proclaim a righteous life wholly perfect and pure, such as I now proclaim. His disciples will number many thousands, while mine number many hundreds. He will be known as Maitreya.17

Notes

1. Sahih Bukhari

2. Sahih Bukhari

3. Buddhism, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3, Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight, http://www.newadvent.org

4. Edward Washburn Hopkins, The Religions of India, Ginn & Company, pp. 319-320

5. Dr. Ali Ihsan Yitik, Hint Kokenli Dinlerde Karma Inancının Tenasuh Inancıyla Iliskisi (The Relation of the Idea of Karma in Indian Religions with the Idea of Reincarnation) , pp. 130-131

6. Sean Robsville, Arguments Against Buddhism, http://www.geocities.com/scimah/argumentsagainstbuddhism.htm

7. Thomas Henry Huxley, Evolution and Ethics, p. 74; Vijitha Rajapakse “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics: A note on a Victorian evaluation and its comparativist dimension,” Philosophy East and West, vol 35, no. 3 (July 1985), p. 298

8.Thomas Henry Huxley, Evolution and Ethics, p. 90; Vijitha Rajapakse “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics: A note on a Victorian evaluation and its comparativist dimension,” Philosophy East and West, vol.35, no. 3 (July1985), p. 301

9. Ryhs Davids, Buddhism-A Study of the Buddhist Norm, (London, n.d.), p. 79; Vijitha Rajapakse “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics: A note on a Victorian evaluation and its ‘comparativist dimension’,” Philosophy East and West, vol. 35, no. 3 (July 1985), p. 299

10. Jason DeBoer, “Sublime Hatred: Nietzsche’s Anti-Christianity,” http://www.absinthe-literary-review.com /archives/fierce6.htm

11. Jason DeBoer, “Sublime Hatred: Nietzsche’s Anti-Christianity,” http://www.absinthe-literary-review.com /archives/fierce6.htm

12. Robert G. Morrison, Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, Reviewed by David R. Loy. Asian Philosophy, Vol. 8, No. 2, (JUly 1998), pp. 129-131, http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw//FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/ loy.htm

13. Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, Messianic Legacy, London: Corgi Books, 1991, p. 184

14. “Buddha as Fiction” excerpt from Pagan Christs, by JM Robertson, Dorset Press

15. Psalms, 149:1-9; 145:1-17; 110:1-7, Isaiah 66:13-4, Daniel 9:23-4

16. Henry C. Warren, Buddhism in translation, p.481-82

17. John Hogue, The Messiahs, The visions and prophecies for the second coming, Element Books, p. 35

18. Conway Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959, pp.85-87

19. Conway Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959, pp.85-87

20. K. Mehnert, Kampf um Mao’s Erbe, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1977

21. Sidney Fox, Klaus Dose, Molecular Evolution and The Origin of Life, W.H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1972, p. 4.

22. Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, Dover Publications, NewYork, 1936, 1953 (reprint), p. 196.

23. “New Evidence on Evolution of Early Atmosphere and Life”, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol 63, November 1982, p. 1328-1330.

24. Stanley Miller, Molecular Evolution of Life: Current Status of the Prebiotic Synthesis of Small Molecules, 1986, p. 7.

25. Jeffrey Bada, Earth, February 1998, p. 40

26. Leslie E. Orgel, “The Origin of Life on Earth”, Scientific American, vol. 271, October 1994, p. 78.

27. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, The Modern Library, New York, p. 127.

28. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 184.

29. B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?, Pennsylvania: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 1988, p. 7.

30. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 179.

31. Derek A. Ager, “The Nature of the Fossil Record”, Proceedings of the British Geological Association, vol 87, 1976, p. 133.

32. Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial, Pantheon Books, New York, 1983. p. 197.

33. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, Toplinger Publications, New York, 1970, pp. 75-94; Charles E. Oxnard, “The Place of Australopithecines in Human Evolution: Grounds for Doubt”, Nature, vol 258, p. 389.

34. “Could science be brought to an end by scientists’ belief that they have final answers or by society’s reluctance to pay the bills?” Scientific American, December 1992, p. 20.

35. Alan Walker, Science, vol. 207, 7 March 1980, p. 1103; A. J. Kelso, Physical Antropology, 1st ed., J. B. Lipincott Co., New York, 1970, p. 221; M. D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971, p. 272.

36. Jeffrey Kluger, “Not So Extinct After All: The Primitive Homo Erectus May Have Survived Long Enough To Coexist With Modern Humans,” Time, 23 December 1996.

37. S. J. Gould, Natural History, vol. 85, 1976, p. 30.

38. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, p. 19.

39. Richard Lewontin, “The Demon-Haunted World,” The New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997, p. 28.

40. Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980, p. 43.

Popularity: 2% [?]

TRUTH HAS COME AND FALSEHOOD HAS VANISHED

In ages past, people worshipped statues made of wood and stone and beseeched them for help. They feared these statues, believing that they were watching them and would become angry whenever a person committed sin. Buddha is the Buddhist idol. But Buddhists who equate Buddha with God—and those who hop on the bandwagon and become Buddhists to draw attention to themselves—do not realize how seriously they are deceived. Because they do not believe in the eternal afterlife, Paradise or Hell, it never occurs to them that they will have an accounting in the presence of God. Since they believe that they are already on the right path, they react with great surprise when invited to follow it.

All of the messengers who warned against the pagan religions that people had followed and called others to the oneness of God encountered similar reactions. In the Qur’an (38: 4-7), God says:

They are surprised that a warner should come to them from among themselves. The unbelievers say, “This is a lying magician. Has he turned all the gods into One God? That is truly astonishing!” Their leaders went off saying, “Carry on as you are! Hold fast to your gods. This is clearly something planned. We have not heard of this in the old religion. This is merely something contrived.”

In this book, we invite Buddhists and all others who, for whatever reason, feel sympathy with this superstitious religion to understand the truth that there is no god but God; and to accept that God is One and that there is no other. We invite them to come to Islam, the religion of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them all). A person who perceives all his ancestors as believing in a religion that associates other things with God—and who himself associates them with God—may find it hard at first to make this decision. He may not understand how, after giving up all those powers he once associated with God, he can worship Him alone. Be that as it may, the only One Who supports and feeds him at this moment; the only One watching over him and protecting him is God. The One Who gives him life and heals him when he is sick is God, Lord of all the Worlds, Who created this Earth according to a pre-ordained decree. As it says in the Qur’an (81: 29), human beings have submitted to the will of God, to the point where they have no power to will unless God wills, cannot act except by the will of God. As God says of Himself in the Qur’an (11: 56), “There is no creature He does not hold by the forelock.”

Satan can show Buddhists, and everyone else, that it is impossible to escape associating others with God. However, this is simply an intimation that comes from Satan; the Qur’an (14: 22) announces that, on the Last Day, Satan will say, “God made you a promise, a promise of truth, and I made you a promise, but broke my promise. I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you responded to me. Do not, therefore, blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor you to mine. . . .” and all of those who have associated others with God will be left completely alone.

As we know, being saved from the error of associating other things of His creation with God entails a sincere change of intention, turning one’s thinking to the oneness of God. And no matter what situation he finds himself in, that person decides to trust in God and conform his life faithfully to the Qur’an. Certainly, his faithfulness and decisiveness will bring about God’s help, incomparable blessings, mercy and abundance. No doubt, God will direct a person on the right path, protecting him from Satan’s attempts to misguide him.

Anyone who submits himself to God sees that real happiness and contentment can be found only in faith, and in the belief in God’s oneness. In the Qur’an (65: 2-3), God gives this good news to believers:

Whoever heeds God—He will give him a way out and provide for him from where he does not expect. Whoever puts his trust in God—He will be enough for him. God always achieves His aim…

For this reason, a person who repents of his error of associating other things with God should abandon his idols without a moment’s hesitation. Those who believe that Buddha is a god (God is surely beyond that!) who sees and hears all things, gives strength, gets angry and forebears, must change their minds and abandon their perverse understanding. And those who are caught up in the unfounded idea of karma and reject the existence the everlasting afterlife, must use their intelligence to save themselves from this error, because “What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless.” (Qur’an, 7: 139)


THE DECEPTION OF EVOLUTION

In the present day, there are people who live in a manner far removed from God, and who even reject faith and deny the existence of God for their own ends. On account of their blindness and mindless fearlessness, they try to influence others and turn them away from God. They have put forward a whole range of inconsistent ideas and twisted ideologies by which to do this. One of these is the theory of evolution.

The Ideological Collapse Of Darwinism

The aspect of Darwinism that stops it from being a claim of interest only to the scientific world and makes it of great importance to society as a whole is its ideological dimension. The answer it gives to the question of how living things, including mankind, came into existence makes Darwinism the basis of a number of philosophies, worldviews and political ideologies.

Here, we shall consider the relationship between Darwinism and materialist philosophy. Materialist philosophy, or “materialism,” is a system of thought going as far back as ancient Greece. Materialism rests on the assumption that matter is the only thing that exists. According to materialist philosophy, matter has always existed, and will continue to do so for all time. Again according to this philosophy, nothing exists beyond matter.

Naturally, materialism is also reflected in the political arena, with communism indisputably taking pride of place in this regard. Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-95), regarded as the founders of communism, were also the founders of dialectical materialism. In any case, communism is nothing more than materialist philosophy adapted to the social sciences by Marx and Engels.

Communism is today regarded as an ideology consigned to the wastes of history, whereas the fact is that it is still exceedingly influential. The destructive effects of this ideology can still be felt in many countries.

This is where Darwinism assumes great importance. Since Darwinism, or the theory of evolution, maintains that living things were not created but came into being by chance, it has received a wide acceptance among materialist ideologies, and has been adopted as the “basic foundation” of communism in particular. All the main communist ideologues have accepted the theory word for word, and have based their ideologies upon it.

In a letter to Friedrich Engels in 1860, for instance, Karl Marx said of Darwin’s book that “This is the book which contains the basis in natural history for our view.”18 In another letter the following year, this time to Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-64), Marx said: “Darwin’s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history.”19 Similarly Mao Tse Tung, the founder of Chinese communism, openly stated that “The foundations of Chinese socialism rest on Darwin and the theory of evolution.”20

Thus the intellectual struggle against communism must be aimed at materialist philosophy and, therefore, the theory of evolution. It is also clear that the wide acceptance of the theory of evolution in society will further nourish materialism as well as communism.


The Scientific Collapse

of Darwinism

Although this doctrine goes back as far as ancient Greece, the theory of evolution was advanced extensively in the nineteenth century. The most important development that made it the top topic of the world of science was Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, published in 1859. In this book, he denied that God created different living species on Earth separately, for he claimed that all living beings had a common ancestor and had diversified over time through small changes. Darwin’s theory was not based on any concrete scientific finding; as he also accepted, it was just an “assumption.” Moreover, as Darwin confessed in the long chapter of his book titled “Difficulties of the Theory,” the theory failed in the face of many critical questions.

Darwin invested all of his hopes in new scientific discoveries, which he expected to solve these difficulties. However, contrary to his expectations, scientific findings expanded the dimensions of these difficulties. The defeat of Darwinism in the face of science can be reviewed under three basic topics:

1) The theory cannot explain how life originated on Earth.

2) No scientific finding shows that the “evolutionary mechanisms” proposed by the theory have any evolutionary power at all.

3) The fossil record proves the exact opposite of what the theory suggests.

In this section, we will examine these three basic points in general outlines:

The First Insurmountable Step:

The Origin of Life

The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved from a single living cell that emerged on the primitive Earth 3.8 billion years ago. How a single cell could generate millions of complex living species and, if such an evolution really occurred, why traces of it cannot be observed in the fossil record are some of the questions that the theory cannot answer. However, first and foremost, we need to ask: How did this “first cell” originate?

Since the theory of evolution denies creation and any kind of supernatural intervention, it maintains that the “first cell” originated coincidentally within the laws of nature, without any design, plan or arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate matter must have produced a living cell as a result of coincidences. Such a claim, however, is inconsistent with the most unassailable rules of biology.

“Life Comes from Life”

In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The primitive understanding of science in his time rested on the assumption that living beings had a very simple structure. Since medieval times, spontaneous generation, which asserts that non-living materials came together to form living organisms, had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed that insects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it was believed that mice would originate from it after a while.

Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was later understood that worms did not appear on meat spontaneously, but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae, invisible to the naked eye.

Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief that bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter was widely accepted in the world of science.

However, five years after the publication of Darwin’s book, Louis Pasteur announced his results after long studies and experiments, that disproved spontaneous generation, a cornerstone of Darwin’s theory. In his triumphal lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: “Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment.”21

For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resisted these findings. However, as the development of science unraveled the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the idea that life could come into being coincidentally faced an even greater impasse.

Inconclusive Efforts in the Twentieth Century

The first evolutionist who took up the subject of the origin of life in the twentieth century was the renowned Russian biologist Alexander Oparin. With various theses he advanced in the 1930s, he tried to prove that a living cell could originate by coincidence. These studies, however, were doomed to failure, and Oparin had to make the following confession:

Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell is perhaps the most obscure point in the whole study of the evolution of organisms.22

Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experiments to solve this problem. The best known experiment was carried out by the American chemist Stanley Miller in 1953. Combining the gases he alleged to have existed in the primordial Earth’s atmosphere in an experiment set-up, and adding energy to the mixture, Miller synthesized several organic molecules (amino acids) present in the structure of proteins.

Barely a few years had passed before it was revealed that this experiment, which was then presented as an important step in the name of evolution, was invalid, for the atmosphere used in the experiment was very different from the real Earth conditions.23

After a long silence, Miller confessed that the atmosphere medium he used was unrealistic.24

All the evolutionists’ efforts throughout the twentieth century to explain the origin of life ended in failure. The geochemist Jeffrey Bada, from the San Diego Scripps Institute accepts this fact in an article published in Earth magazine in 1998:

Today as we leave the twentieth century, we still face the biggest unsolved problem that we had when we entered the twentieth century: How did life originate on Earth?25


The Complex Structure of Life

The primary reason why the theory of evolution ended up in such a great impasse regarding the origin of life is that even those living organisms deemed to be the simplest have incredibly complex structures. The cell of a living thing is more complex than all of our man-made technological products. Today, even in the most developed laboratories of the world, a living cell cannot be produced by bringing organic chemicals together.

The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too great in quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The probability of proteins, the building blocks of a cell, being synthesized coincidentally, is 1 in 10950 for an average protein made up of 500 amino acids. In mathematics, a probability smaller than 1 over 1050 is considered to be impossible in practical terms.

The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of a cell and which stores genetic information, is an incredible databank. If the information coded in DNA were written down, it would make a giant library consisting of an estimated 900 volumes of encyclopedias consisting of 500 pages each.

A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: DNA can replicate itself only with the help of some specialized proteins (enzymes). However, the synthesis of these enzymes can be realized only by the information coded in DNA. As they both depend on each other, they have to exist at the same time for replication. This brings the scenario that life originated by itself to a deadlock. Prof. Leslie Orgel, an evolutionist of repute from the University of San Diego, California, confesses this fact in the September 1994 issue of the Scientific American magazine:

It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic acids, both of which are structurally complex, arose spontaneously in the same place at the same time. Yet it also seems impossible to have one without the other. And so, at first glance, one might have to conclude that life could never, in fact, have originated by chemical means.26

No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated from natural causes, then it has to be accepted that life was “created” in a supernatural way. This fact explicitly invalidates the theory of evolution, whose main purpose is to deny creation.

Imaginary Mechanisms of Evolution

The second important point that negates Darwin’s theory is that both concepts put forward by the theory as “evolutionary mechanisms” were understood to have, in reality, no evolutionary power.

Darwin based his evolution allegation entirely on the mechanism of “natural selection.” The importance he placed on this mechanism was evident in the name of his book: The Origin of Species, By Means of Natural Selection…

Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive in the struggle for life. For example, in a deer herd under the threat of attack by wild animals, those that can run faster will survive. Therefore, the deer herd will be comprised of faster and stronger individuals. However, unquestionably, this mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and transform themselves into another living species, for instance, horses.

Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary power. Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in his book The Origin of Species:

Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences or variations occur.27

Lamarck’s Impact

So, how could these “favorable variations” occur? Darwin tried to answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive understanding of science at that time. According to the French biologist Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829), who lived before Darwin, living creatures passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next generation. He asserted that these traits, which accumulated from one generation to another, caused new species to be formed. For instance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from generation to generation.

Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin of Species, for instance, he said that some bears going into water to find food transformed themselves into whales over time.28

However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics, which flourished in the twentieth century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired traits were passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, natural selection fell out of favor as an evolutionary mechanism.

Neo-Darwinism and Mutations

In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the “Modern Synthetic Theory,” or as it is more commonly known, Neo-Darwinism, at the end of the 1930′s. Neo-Darwinism added mutations, which are distortions formed in the genes of living beings due to such external factors as radiation or replication errors, as the “cause of favorable variations” in addition to natural mutation.

Today, the model that stands for evolution in the world is Neo-Darwinism. The theory maintains that millions of living beings formed as a result of a process whereby numerous complex organs of these organisms (e.g., ears, eyes, lungs, and wings) underwent “mutations,” that is, genetic disorders. Yet, there is an outright scientific fact that totally undermines this theory: Mutations do not cause living beings to develop; on the contrary, they are always harmful.

The reason for this is very simple: DNA has a very complex structure, and random effects can only harm it. The American geneticist B.G. Ranganathan explains this as follows:

First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly, most mutations are harmful since they are random, rather than orderly changes in the structure of genes; any random change in a highly ordered system will be for the worse, not for the better. For example, if an earthquake were to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building, there would be a random change in the framework of the building which, in all probability, would not be an improvement.29

Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful, that is, which is observed to develop the genetic code, has been observed so far. All mutations have proved to be harmful. It was understood that mutation, which is presented as an “evolutionary mechanism,” is actually a genetic occurrence that harms living things, and leaves them disabled. (The most common effect of mutation on human beings is cancer.) Of course, a destructive mechanism cannot be an “evolutionary mechanism.” Natural selection, on the other hand, “can do nothing by itself,” as Darwin also accepted. This fact shows us that there is no “evolutionary mechanism” in nature. Since no evolutionary mechanism exists, no such any imaginary process called “evolution” could have taken place.

The Fossil Record:

No Sign of Intermediate Forms

The clearest evidence that the scenario suggested by the theory of evolution did not take place is the fossil record.

According to this theory, every living species has sprung from a predecessor. A previously existing species turned into something else over time and all species have come into being in this way. In other words, this transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years.

Had this been the case, numerous intermediary species should have existed and lived within this long transformation period.

For instance, some half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived in the past which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits they already had. Or there should have existed some reptile-birds, which acquired some bird traits in addition to the reptilian traits they already had. Since these would be in a transitional phase, they should be disabled, defective, crippled living beings. Evolutionists refer to these imaginary creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as “transitional forms.”

If such animals ever really existed, there should be millions and even billions of them in number and variety. More importantly, the remains of these strange creatures should be present in the fossil record. In The Origin of Species, Darwin explained:

If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all of the species of the same group together must assuredly have existed…. Consequently, evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains.30

Darwin’s Hopes Shattered

However, although evolutionists have been making strenuous efforts to find fossils since the middle of the nineteenth century all over the world, no transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All of the fossils, contrary to the evolutionists’ expectations, show that life appeared on Earth all of a sudden and fully-formed.

One famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact, even though he is an evolutionist:

The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of orders or of species, we find – over and over again – not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.31

This means that in the fossil record, all living species suddenly emerge as fully formed, without any intermediate forms in between. This is just the opposite of Darwin’s assumptions. Also, this is very strong evidence that all living things are created. The only explanation of a living species emerging suddenly and complete in every detail without any evolutionary ancestor is that it was created. This fact is admitted also by the widely known evolutionist biologist Douglas Futuyma:

Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed have been created by some omnipotent intelligence.32

Fossils show that living beings emerged fully developed and in a perfect state on the earth. That means that “the origin of species,” contrary to Darwin’s supposition, is not evolution, but creation.

The Tale of Human Evolution

The subject most often brought up by advocates of the theory of evolution is the subject of the origin of man. The Darwinist claim holds that modern man evolved from ape-like creatures. During this alleged evolutionary process, which is supposed to have started 4-5 million years ago, some “transitional forms” between modern man and his ancestors are supposed to have existed. According to this completely imaginary scenario, four basic “categories” are listed:

1. Australopithecus

2. Homo habilis

3. Homo erectus

4. Homo sapiens

Evolutionists call man’s so-called first ape-like ancestors Australopithecus, which means “South African ape.” These living beings are actually nothing but an old ape species that has become extinct. Extensive research done on various Australopithecus specimens by two world famous anatomists from England and the USA, namely, Lord Solly Zuckerman and Prof. Charles Oxnard, shows that these apes belonged to an ordinary ape species that became extinct and bore no resemblance to humans.33

Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as “homo,” that is “man.” According to their claim, the living beings in the Homo series are more developed than Australopithecus. Evolutionists devise a fanciful evolution scheme by arranging different fossils of these creatures in a particular order. This scheme is imaginary because it has never been proved that there is an evolutionary relation between these different classes. Ernst Mayr, one of the twentieth century’s most important evolutionists, contends in his book One Long Argument that “particularly historical [puzzles] such as the origin of life or of Homo sapiens, are extremely difficult and may even resist a final, satisfying explanation.”34

By outlining the link chain as Australopithecus > Homo habilis > Homo erectus > Homo sapiens, evolutionists imply that each of these species is one another’s ancestor. However, recent findings of paleoanthropologists have revealed that Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus lived at different parts of the world at the same time.35

Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo erectus have lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiens neandarthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) co-existed in the same region.36

This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the claim that they are ancestors of one another. A paleontologist from Harvard University, Stephen Jay Gould, explains this deadlock of the theory of evolution, although he is an evolutionist himself:

What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lineages of hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines, and H. habilis), none clearly derived from another? Moreover, none of the three display any evolutionary trends during their tenure on earth.37

Put briefly, the scenario of human evolution, which is “upheld” with the help of various drawings of some “half ape, half human” creatures appearing in the media and course books, that is, frankly, by means of propaganda, is nothing but a tale with no scientific foundation.

Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respected scientists in the U.K., who carried out research on this subject for years and studied Australopithecus fossils for 15 years, finally concluded, despite being an evolutionist himself, that there is, in fact, no such family tree branching out from ape-like creatures to man.

Zuckerman also made an interesting “spectrum of science” ranging from those he considered scientific to those he considered unscientific. According to Zuckerman’s spectrum, the most “scientific”—that is, depending on concrete data—fields of science are chemistry and physics. After them come the biological sciences and then the social sciences. At the far end of the spectrum, which is the part considered to be most “unscientific,” are “extra-sensory perception”—concepts such as telepathy and sixth sense—and finally “human evolution.” Zuckerman explains his reasoning:

We then move right off the register of objective truth into those fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory perception or the interpretation of man’s fossil history, where to the faithful [evolutionist] anything is possible – and where the ardent believer [in evolution] is sometimes able to believe several contradictory things at the same time.38

The tale of human evolution boils down to nothing but the prejudiced interpretations of some fossils unearthed by certain people, who blindly adhere to their theory.

Technology in the Eye and the Ear

Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary theory is the excellent quality of perception in the eye and the ear.

Before passing on to the subject of the eye, let us briefly answer the question of how we see. Light rays coming from an object fall oppositely on the eye’s retina. Here, these light rays are transmitted into electric signals by cells and reach a tiny spot at the back of the brain, the “center of vision.” These electric signals are perceived in this center as an image after a series of processes. With this technical background, let us do some thinking.

The brain is insulated from light. That means that its inside is completely dark, and that no light reaches the place where it is located. Thus, the “center of vision” is never touched by light and may even be the darkest place you have ever known. However, you observe a luminous, bright world in this pitch darkness.

The image formed in the eye is so sharp and distinct that even the technology of the twentieth century has not been able to attain it. For instance, look at the book you are reading, your hands with which you are holding it, and then lift your head and look around you. Have you ever seen such a sharp and distinct image as this one at any other place? Even the most developed television screen produced by the greatest television producer in the world cannot provide such a sharp image for you. This is a three-dimensional, colored, and extremely sharp image. For more than 100 years, thousands of engineers have been trying to achieve this sharpness. Factories, huge premises were established, much research has been done, plans and designs have been made for this purpose. Again, look at a TV screen and the book you hold in your hands. You will see that there is a big difference in sharpness and distinction. Moreover, the TV screen shows you a two-dimensional image, whereas with your eyes, you watch a three-dimensional perspective with depth.

For many years, tens of thousands of engineers have tried to make a three-dimensional TV and achieve the vision quality of the eye. Yes, they have made a three-dimensional television system, but it is not possible to watch it without putting on special 3-D glasses; moreover, it is only an artificial three-dimension. The background is more blurred, the foreground appears like a paper setting. Never has it been possible to produce a sharp and distinct vision like that of the eye. In both the camera and the television, there is a loss of image quality.

Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this sharp and distinct image has been formed by chance. Now, if somebody told you that the television in your room was formed as a result of chance, that all of its atoms just happened to come together and make up this device that produces an image, what would you think? How can atoms do what thousands of people cannot?

If a device producing a more primitive image than the eye could not have been formed by chance, then it is very evident that the eye and the image seen by the eye could not have been formed by chance. The same situation applies to the ear. The outer ear picks up the available sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middle ear, the middle ear transmits the sound vibrations by intensifying them, and the inner ear sends these vibrations to the brain by translating them into electric signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalizes in the center of hearing in the brain.

The situation in the eye is also true for the ear. That is, the brain is insulated from sound just as it is from light. It does not let any sound in. Therefore, no matter how noisy is the outside, the inside of the brain is completely silent. Nevertheless, the sharpest sounds are perceived in the brain. In your completely silent brain, you listen to symphonies, and hear all of the noises in a crowded place. However, were the sound level in your brain was measured by a precise device at that moment, complete silence would be found to be prevailing there.

As is the case with imagery, decades of effort have been spent in trying to generate and reproduce sound that is faithful to the original. The results of these efforts are sound recorders, high-fidelity systems, and systems for sensing sound. Despite all of this technology and the thousands of engineers and experts who have been working on this endeavor, no sound has yet been obtained that has the same sharpness and clarity as the sound perceived by the ear. Think of the highest-quality hi-fi systems produced by the largest company in the music industry. Even in these devices, when sound is recorded some of it is lost; or when you turn on a hi-fi you always hear a hissing sound before the music starts. However, the sounds that are the products of the human body’s technology are extremely sharp and clear. A human ear never perceives a sound accompanied by a hissing sound or with atmospherics as does a hi-fi; rather, it perceives sound exactly as it is, sharp and clear. This is the way it has been since the creation of man.

So far, no man-made visual or recording apparatus has been as sensitive and successful in perceiving sensory data as are the eye and the ear. However, as far as seeing and hearing are concerned, a far greater truth lies beyond all this.

To Whom Does the Consciousness That

Sees and Hears within the Brain Belong?

Who watches an alluring world in the brain, listens to symphonies and the twittering of birds, and smells the rose?

The stimulations coming from a person’s eyes, ears, and nose travel to the brain as electro-chemical nerve impulses. In biology, physiology, and biochemistry books, you can find many details about how this image forms in the brain. However, you will never come across the most important fact: Who perceives these electro-chemical nerve impulses as images, sounds, odors, and sensory events in the brain? There is a consciousness in the brain that perceives all this without feeling any need for an eye, an ear, and a nose. To whom does this consciousness belong? Of course it does not belong to the nerves, the fat layer, and neurons comprising the brain. This is why Darwinist-materialists, who believe that everything is comprised of matter, cannot answer these questions.

For this consciousness is the spirit created by God, which needs neither the eye to watch the images nor the ear to hear the sounds. Furthermore, it does not need the brain to think.

Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should ponder on Almighty God, and fear and seek refuge in Him, for He squeezes the entire universe in a pitch-dark place of a few cubic centimeters in a three-dimensional, colored, shadowy, and luminous form.

A Materialist Faith

The information we have presented so far shows us that the theory of evolution is a incompatible with scientific findings. The theory’s claim regarding the origin of life is inconsistent with science, the evolutionary mechanisms it proposes have no evolutionary power, and fossils demonstrate that the required intermediate forms have never existed. So, it certainly follows that the theory of evolution should be pushed aside as an unscientific idea. This is how many ideas, such as the Earth-centered universe model, have been taken out of the agenda of science throughout history.

However, the theory of evolution is kept on the agenda of science. Some people even try to represent criticisms directed against it as an “attack on science.” Why?

The reason is that this theory is an indispensable dogmatic belief for some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to materialist philosophy and adopt Darwinism because it is the only materialist explanation that can be put forward to explain the workings of nature.

Interestingly enough, they also confess this fact from time to time. A well-known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist, Richard C. Lewontin from Harvard University, confesses that he is “first and foremost a materialist and then a scientist”:

It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, so we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.39

These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma kept alive just for the sake of adherence to materialism. This dogma maintains that there is no being save matter. Therefore, it argues that inanimate, unconscious matter created life. It insists that millions of different living species (e.g., birds, fish, giraffes, tigers, insects, trees, flowers, whales, and human beings) originated as a result of the interactions between matter such as pouring rain, lightning flashes, and so on, out of inanimate matter. This is a precept contrary both to reason and science. Yet Darwinists continue to defend it just so as “not to allow a Divine Foot in the door.”

Anyone who does not look at the origin of living beings with a materialist prejudice will see this evident truth: All living beings are works of a Creator, Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise, and All-Knowing. This Creator is God, Who created the whole universe from non-existence, designed it in the most perfect form, and fashioned all living beings.

The Theory of Evolution is the Most

Potent Spell in the World

Anyone free of prejudice and the influence of any particular ideology, who uses only his or her reason and logic, will clearly understand that belief in the theory of evolution, which brings to mind the superstitions of societies with no knowledge of science or civilization, is quite impossible.

As explained above, those who believe in the theory of evolution think that a few atoms and molecules thrown into a huge vat could produce thinking, reasoning professors and university students; such scientists as Einstein and Galileo; such artists as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Luciano Pavarotti; as well as antelopes, lemon trees, and carnations. Moreover, as the scientists and professors who believe in this nonsense are educated people, it is quite justifiable to speak of this theory as “the most potent spell in history.” Never before has any other belief or idea so taken away peoples’ powers of reason, refused to allow them to think intelligently and logically and hidden the truth from them as if they had been blindfolded. This is an even worse and unbelievable blindness than the Egyptians worshipping the Sun God Ra, totem worship in some parts of Africa, the people of Saba worshipping the Sun, the tribe of Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) worshipping idols they had made with their own hands, or the people of the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) worshipping the Golden Calf.

In fact, God has pointed to this lack of reason in the Qur’an. In many verse, He reveals in many verses that some peoples’ minds will be closed and that they will be powerless to see the truth. Some of these verses are as follows:

As for those who do not believe, it makes no difference to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe. God has sealed up their hearts and hearing and over their eyes is a blindfold. They will have a terrible punishment. (Qur’an, 2: 6-7)

… They have hearts with which they do not understand. They have eyes with which they do not see. They have ears with which they do not hear. Such people are like cattle. No, they are even further astray! They are the unaware. (Qur’an, 7: 179)

Even if We opened up to them a door into heaven, and they spent the day ascending through it, they would only say: “Our eyesight is befuddled! Or rather we have been put under a spell!” (Qur’an, 15: 14-15)

Words cannot express just how astonishing it is that this spell should hold such a wide community in thrall, keep people from the truth, and not be broken for 150 years. It is understandable that one or a few people might believe in impossible scenarios and claims full of stupidity and illogicality. However, “magic” is the only possible explanation for people from all over the world believing that unconscious and lifeless atoms suddenly decided to come together and form a universe that functions with a flawless system of organization, discipline, reason, and consciousness; a planet named Earth with all of its features so perfectly suited to life; and living things full of countless complex systems.

In fact, the Qur’an relates the incident of Prophet Moses and Pharaoh to show that some people who support atheistic philosophies actually influence others by magic. When Pharaoh was told about the true religion, he told Prophet Moses to meet with his own magicians. When Moses did so, he told them to demonstrate their abilities first. The verses continue:

He said: “You throw.” And when they threw, they cast a spell on the people’s eyes and caused them to feel great fear of them. They produced an extremely powerful magic. (Qur’an, 7: 116)

As we have seen, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to deceive everyone, apart from Moses and those who believed in him. However, his evidence broke the spell, or “swallowed up what they had forged,” as the verse puts it.

We revealed to Moses, “Throw down your staff.” And it immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth took place and what they did was shown to be false. (Qur’an, 7: 117-119)

As we can see, when people realized that a spell had been cast upon them and that what they saw was just an illusion, Pharaoh’s magicians lost all credibility. In the present day too, unless those who, under the influence of a similar spell, believe in these ridiculous claims under their scientific disguise and spend their lives defending them, abandon their superstitious beliefs, they also will be humiliated when the full truth emerges and the spell is broken. In fact, Malcolm Muggeridge, an atheist philosopher and supporter of evolution, admitted he was worried by just that prospect:

I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.40

That future is not far off: On the contrary, people will soon see that “chance” is not a deity, and will look back on the theory of evolution as the worst deceit and the most terrible spell in the world. That spell is already rapidly beginning to be lifted from the shoulders of people all over the world. Many people who see its true face are wondering with amazement how they could ever have been taken in by it.

They said, “Glory be to You!

We have no knowledge except what You have taught us.

You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.”

(Qur’an, 2:32)

Notes

1. Sahih Bukhari

2. Sahih Bukhari

3. Buddhism, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3, Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight, http://www.newadvent.org

4. Edward Washburn Hopkins, The Religions of India, Ginn & Company, pp. 319-320

5. Dr. Ali Ihsan Yitik, Hint Kokenli Dinlerde Karma Inancının Tenasuh Inancıyla Iliskisi (The Relation of the Idea of Karma in Indian Religions with the Idea of Reincarnation) , pp. 130-131

6. Sean Robsville, Arguments Against Buddhism, http://www.geocities.com/scimah/argumentsagainstbuddhism.htm

7. Thomas Henry Huxley, Evolution and Ethics, p. 74; Vijitha Rajapakse “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics: A note on a Victorian evaluation and its comparativist dimension,” Philosophy East and West, vol 35, no. 3 (July 1985), p. 298

8.Thomas Henry Huxley, Evolution and Ethics, p. 90; Vijitha Rajapakse “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics: A note on a Victorian evaluation and its comparativist dimension,” Philosophy East and West, vol.35, no. 3 (July1985), p. 301

9. Ryhs Davids, Buddhism-A Study of the Buddhist Norm, (London, n.d.), p. 79; Vijitha Rajapakse “Buddhism in Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics: A note on a Victorian evaluation and its ‘comparativist dimension’,” Philosophy East and West, vol. 35, no. 3 (July 1985), p. 299

10. Jason DeBoer, “Sublime Hatred: Nietzsche’s Anti-Christianity,” http://www.absinthe-literary-review.com /archives/fierce6.htm

11. Jason DeBoer, “Sublime Hatred: Nietzsche’s Anti-Christianity,” http://www.absinthe-literary-review.com /archives/fierce6.htm

12. Robert G. Morrison, Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, Reviewed by David R. Loy. Asian Philosophy, Vol. 8, No. 2, (JUly 1998), pp. 129-131, http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw//FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/ loy.htm

13. Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, Messianic Legacy, London: Corgi Books, 1991, p. 184

14. “Buddha as Fiction” excerpt from Pagan Christs, by JM Robertson, Dorset Press

15. Psalms, 149:1-9; 145:1-17; 110:1-7, Isaiah 66:13-4, Daniel 9:23-4

16. Henry C. Warren, Buddhism in translation, p.481-82

17. John Hogue, The Messiahs, The visions and prophecies for the second coming, Element Books, p. 35

18. Conway Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959, pp.85-87

19. Conway Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology and the Social Scene, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959, pp.85-87

20. K. Mehnert, Kampf um Mao’s Erbe, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1977

21. Sidney Fox, Klaus Dose, Molecular Evolution and The Origin of Life, W.H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1972, p. 4.

22. Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life, Dover Publications, NewYork, 1936, 1953 (reprint), p. 196.

23. “New Evidence on Evolution of Early Atmosphere and Life”, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol 63, November 1982, p. 1328-1330.

24. Stanley Miller, Molecular Evolution of Life: Current Status of the Prebiotic Synthesis of Small Molecules, 1986, p. 7.

25. Jeffrey Bada, Earth, February 1998, p. 40

26. Leslie E. Orgel, “The Origin of Life on Earth”, Scientific American, vol. 271, October 1994, p. 78.

27. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, The Modern Library, New York, p. 127.

28. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 184.

29. B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?, Pennsylvania: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 1988, p. 7.

30. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition, Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 179.

31. Derek A. Ager, “The Nature of the Fossil Record”, Proceedings of the British Geological Association, vol 87, 1976, p. 133.

32. Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial, Pantheon Books, New York, 1983. p. 197.

33. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, Toplinger Publications, New York, 1970, pp. 75-94; Charles E. Oxnard, “The Place of Australopithecines in Human Evolution: Grounds for Doubt”, Nature, vol 258, p. 389.

34. “Could science be brought to an end by scientists’ belief that they have final answers or by society’s reluctance to pay the bills?” Scientific American, December 1992, p. 20.

35. Alan Walker, Science, vol. 207, 7 March 1980, p. 1103; A. J. Kelso, Physical Antropology, 1st ed., J. B. Lipincott Co., New York, 1970, p. 221; M. D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971, p. 272.

36. Jeffrey Kluger, “Not So Extinct After All: The Primitive Homo Erectus May Have Survived Long Enough To Coexist With Modern Humans,” Time, 23 December 1996.

37. S. J. Gould, Natural History, vol. 85, 1976, p. 30.

38. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The Ivory Tower, p. 19.

39. Richard Lewontin, “The Demon-Haunted World,” The New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997, p. 28.

40. Malcolm Muggeridge, The End of Christendom, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980, p. 43.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Question: Salamu `Alaykum. Reiki is a Japanese art for healing which was re-discovered by Mikao Usui in early 1900. This is a way of treatment with the energy through the hands. While giving treatment, there is no such concept which is against our belief. However, the way of attunement and use of some signs before a treatment is disturbing me and it seems to be driven from Buddha’s thoughts.

I use Reiki with very firm belief in Allah, and there is no teaching of Buddha’s thoughts at all although I know that we should pray Allah before giving treatment to anybody. Could you please let me know if Reiki practice has any interaction with the teachings of Islam?

——-

One of our member also asks similiar question:

2 years ago, I completed reiki initiation, to become a reiki practitioner. If I were to become a muslim, would it be permited for me to continue this? I practice this ancient healing art on myself only.   Reiki is known as the healing energy that comes from ‘the divine’ ie God. After initiation, you become a ‘channel’ for this energy. It is taught that you are not the source- only that the ‘ creator’ uses you for a channel, once you are ‘switched on’ to the source. It can only be used for the good and benefit  of living entities.   Surely, it cannot be regarded as ‘sorcery’, as it is regarded as the natural universal energy, that is given by God?

Answer

Wa`alaykum As-Salaamu Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

In The Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

“If the kind of treatment you have indicated does not involve any procedures unacceptable in Islam, and there is no assuming of invoking anyone other than Allah for healing, then there is nothing in Islam objectionable to this practice. But in Reiki is it different, mediation ultimately leads to Buddhism and Buddha’s teachings which is considered polytheist faith by Islam, therefore it is not acceptable and Muslims must be on the alert.

Islam is all for learning and development, we are encouraged to learn and push ourselves, spiritually, mentally and physically.

Healing and learning about cure, health etc and healing is important and we are encouraged to do as much as we can for our own benefit and the benefit of our society and mankind as a whole the way that Qur’an teaches us.

The healing touch website advises Reiki practitioners to use Reiki symbols to focus on them and get their beautiful energy and feel very empowering by them. You might also use some Yantra and symbols (e.g. OM Yantra, Dancing Shiva, the Creator and Destroyer, Buddha) used in that website. But not almighty God (Allah). Islam is a monotheist religion and polytheism is strictly prohibited in Islam. Islam is fundamentally differ from Christianity, just because we accept Jesus as one of the greatest prophet sent by God while Christians believe that he is the son of God.

Allah Almighty knows best.

Quranichealing.com

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THE INSIDE STORY ON THE KABBALAH

GLOBAL FREEMASONRY
Author: HARUN YAHYA

THE INSIDE STORY ON THE KABBALAH

“Exodus” is the title of the second book of the Torah. This book describes how the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, left Egypt and escaped the tyranny of Pharaoh. Pharaoh made the Israelites work as slaves and would not consent to set them free. But, when confronted by the miracles God performed through Moses, and the disasters He inflicted on his people, Pharaoh relented. And so, one night the Israelites gathered en masse, and began their emigration from Egypt. Later, Pharaoh attacked the Israelites, but God saved them through a further miracle He performed through Moses.

But, it is in the Qur’an that we find the most accurate account of the exodus from Egypt, because the Torah underwent much textual corruption after it was originally revealed to Moses. An important proof of this is that in the five books of the Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—there are many contradictions. The fact that the book of Deuteronomy ends with an account of the death and burial of Moses is indisputable proof that this portion would have to have been added after Moses’ death.

In the Qur’an, in the account of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, as in all other stories related in it, there is not the slightest contradiction; the story is recounted soundly. Moreover, as with other stories, God reveals much wisdom and many secrets in the course of what is related. For this reason, when we examine these stories closely, we can extract a number of lessons from them.

THE GOLDEN CALF

One of the important facts concerning the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, as related in the Qur’an, is that they rebelled against the religion revealed to them by God in spite of the fact that God had rescued them through Moses from the tyranny of Pharaoh. The Israelites were not able to comprehend the monotheism that Moses communicated to them, but tended continually toward idolatry.

The Qur’an describes this strange tendency here:

We conveyed the tribe of Israel across the sea and they came upon some people who were devoting themselves to some idols which they had. They said, “Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods.” He said, “You are indeed an ignorant people.

What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless.” (Qur’an, 7: 138-139)

Despite Moses’ warnings, the Israelites continued in such perversion, and when Moses left them, to ascend alone to Mt. Sinai, it manifested itself fully. Taking advantage of Moses’ absence, a man by the name of Samiri came forth. He fanned the sparks of the Israelites’ inclination towards idolatry, and persuaded them to fabricate the statue of a calf and worship it.

Moses returned to his people in anger and great sorrow. He said, “My people, did not your Lord make you a handsome promise? Did the fulfillment of the contract seem too long to you or did you want to unleash your Lord’s anger upon yourselves, so you broke your promise to me?”

They said, “We did not break our promise to you of our own volition. But we were weighed down with the heavy loads of the people’s jewelry and we threw them in, for that is what the Samaritan did.”

Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound. So they said, “This is your god—and Moses’ god as well, but he forgot.” (Qur’an, 20: 86-88)

Why was there such a persistent tendency among the Israelites to erect idols and worship them? What was the source of this inclination?

Clearly, a society that had never before believed in idols would not suddenly adopt such inane behavior as to construct an idol and begin to worship it. Only those for whom idolatry was natural inclination could have believed in such nonsense.

However, the Israelites were a people that had believed in one God since the days of their ancestor Abraham. The name “Israelites” or “the Sons of Israel” was given first to the sons of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, and afterwards to the whole Jewish people who derived from him. The Israelites had safeguarded the monotheistic faith that they had inherited from their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, peace be upon them. Together with Joseph, peace be upon him, they went into Egypt and preserved their monotheism for a long period of time, despite the fact that they had lived amidst Egyptian idolatry. It is clear from the stories related in the Qur’an that, when Moses came to them, the Israelites were a people that believed in one God.

The only explanation for this is that the Israelites, however much they adhered to a monotheistic belief, were influenced by the pagan peoples among whom them lived, and began to imitate them, replacing the religion chosen for them by God with the idolatry of foreign nations.

When we investigate this matter in light of historical records, we see that the pagan cult that influenced the Israelites was that of Ancient Egypt. An important evidence in support of this conclusion is that the golden calf the Israelites worshipped, while Moses was on Mt. Sinai, was actually a replica of the Egyptian idols Hathor and Aphis. In his book, Too Long in the Sun, the Christian author Richard Rives writes:

Hathor and Aphis, the cow and bull gods of Egypt, were representatives of sun worship. Their worship was just one stage in the long Egyptian history of solar veneration. The golden calf at Mount Sinai is more than sufficient evidence to prove that the feast proclaimed was related to sun worship…23

The influence of the Egyptian pagan religion on the Israelites occurred in many different stages. As soon as they had encountered a pagan people, this leaning towards heretical belief appeared and, as the verse maintains, they said “Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods.” (Qur’an, 7: 138) What they said to their Prophet, “Moses, we will not believe in you until we see God with our own eyes.” (Qur’an, 2: 55) reveals that they were inclined to worship a material being that they could see, as their pagan religion provided the Egyptians with.

The tendency of the Israelites to the paganism of Ancient Egypt, that we have here outlined, is important to understand and gives us some insight into the corruption of the text of the Torah and the origins of the Kabbalah. When we consider these two topics carefully, we will see that, at their source, is found Ancient Egyptian paganism and the materialist philosophy.

FROM ANCIENT EGYPT TO THE KABBALAH

While Moses was still alive, the Israelites began to create likenesses of the idols they had seen in Egypt and to worship them. After Moses died, there was less to deter them from backsliding farther into perversity. Of course, the same thing cannot be said of all Jews, but some of them did adopt Egyptian paganism. Indeed, they carried on the doctrines of the Egyptian priesthood (Pharaoh’s magicians), that lay at the foundation of that society’s beliefs, and corrupted their own faith by introducing these doctrines into it.

The doctrine that was introduced into Judaism from Ancient Egypt was the Kabbalah. Like the system of the Egyptian priests, the Kabbalah was an esoteric system, and its basis was the practice of magic. Interestingly, the Kabbalah provides an account of creation quite different from that found in the Torah. It is a materialist account, based on the Ancient Egyptian idea of the eternal existence of matter. Murat Ozgen, a Turkish Freemason, has this to say on this topic:

It is evident that the Kabbalah was composed many years before the Torah came into existence. The most important section of the Kabbalah is a theory about the formation of the universe. This theory is very different from the story of creation accepted by theist religions. According to the Kabbalah, at the beginning of creation, things called Sefiroth, meaning “circles” or “orbits,” with both material and spiritual characteristics came into being. The total number of these things was 32. The first ten represented the solar system and the others represented the masses of stars in space. This particularity of the Kabbalah shows that it is closely connected to ancient astrological systems of belief… So, the Kabbalah is far removed from Jewish religion and much more closely related to the ancient mystery religions of the East.24

The Jews, by adopting these Ancient Egyptian materialist and esoteric doctrines that were founded on magic, ignored the related prohibitions in the Torah. They took on the magic rituals of other pagan peoples, and thus, the Kabbalah became a mystical doctrine within Judaism, but contrary to the Torah. In her book entitled Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, the English writer Nesta H. Webster says:

Sorcery, as we know, had been practised by the Canaanites before the occupation of Palestine by the Israelites; Egypt, India, and Greece also had their soothsayers and diviners. In spite of the imprecations against sorcery contained in the Law of Moses, the Jews, disregarding these warnings, caught the contagion and mingled the sacred tradition they had inherited with magical ideas partly borrowed from other races partly of their own devising. At the same time the speculative side of the Jewish Cabala borrowed from the philosophy of the Persian Magi, of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Neo-Pythagoreans. There is, then, some justification for the anti-Cabalists’ contention that what we know to-day as the Cabala is not of purely Jewish origin.25

There is a verse in the Qur’an that refers to this topic. God says that the Israelites learned satanic sorcery rituals from sources outside their own religion:

They follow what the satans recited in the reign of Solomon. Solomon did not become unbeliever, but the satans did, teaching people sorcery and what had been sent down to Harut and Marut, the two angels in Babylon, who taught no one without first saying to him, “We are merely a trial and temptation, so do not become unbeliever.” People learned from them how to separate a man and his wife but they cannot harm anyone by it, except with God’s permission. They have learned what will harm them and will not benefit them. They know that any who deal in it will have no share in the hereafter. What an evil thing they have sold themselves for if they only knew! (Qur’an, 2: 102)

This verse maintains that certain Jews, although they knew that they would lose out in the hereafter, learned and adopted the practices of magic. Thus, they strayed away from the Law that God had sent them and, having sold their own souls, fell into paganism (magic doctrines). “They have sold themselves” for an evil thing, in other words, they abandoned their faith.

The facts related in this verse demonstrate the main features of an important conflict in Jewish history. This struggle was, on the one hand, between the prophets that God sent to the Jews and those believing Jews who obeyed them, and on the other hand, those perverse Jews who rebelled against God’s commandments, imitated the pagan culture of the peoples around them, and followed their cultural practices rather than the Law of God.

PAGAN DOCTRINES ADDED TO THE TORAH

It is important to note that the sins of the corrupt Jews are often reported in the holy book of the Jews itself—the Old Testament. In the book of Nehemiah, a kind of history book within the Old Testament, the Jews confess their sins and repent:

Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God [for one-fourth] of the day; and [for another] fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God. Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

…[They said:] “…they [our fathers] were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets, who testified against them to turn them to Yourself; And they worked great provocations. Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them; And in the time of their trouble, when they cried to You, You heard from heaven; And according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.But after they had rest, They again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; Yet when they returned and cried out to You, You heard from heaven; And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies, and testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear.

…Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You [are] God, gracious and merciful.

Now therefore, our God, The great, the mighty, and awesome God, …You [are] just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers, have kept Your law, nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies, with which You testified against them. For they have not served You in their kingdom, or in the many good [things] that You gave them, or in the large and rich land which You set before them; Nor did they turn from their wicked works.” (Nehemiah 9: 2-4, 26-29, 31-35)

This passage expresses the desire that a number of Jews had in returning to their faith in God, but in the course of Jewish history a different segment gradually gained strength, and came to dominate the Jews and later thoroughly altered the religion itself. For this reason, in the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament, there are elements that derive from heretical pagan doctrines, as well as those mentioned above which urge a return to the true religion. For example:

• In the first book of the Torah, it is said that God created the entire universe in six days from nothing. This is correct and derives from the original revelation. But, then it maintains that God rested on the seventh day, though it is a completely fabricated assertion. It is a perverse idea derived from paganism which attributes human qualities to God. In a verse of the Qur’an, God says:

We created the heavens and the earth and all between them in six days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us. (Qur’an, 50: 38)

• In other parts of the Torah, there is a style of writing that is not respectful of the honor of God, especially in those places where human weakness is falsely attributed to Him. (God is surely beyond that) These anthropomorphisms are made to resemble the human weaknesses that pagans applied to their own fictitious gods.

• One such blasphemous assertion is another that claims that Jacob, ancestor of the Israelites, wrestled with God, and won. This is clearly a story invented to confer the Israelites with racial superiority, in emulation of the racial feelings widespread among pagan peoples. (or, in the words of the Qur’an: “fanatical rage”)

• There is a tendency in the Old Testament to present God as a national deity—that He is God of the Isrealites only. However, God is the Lord and God of the universe and of all human beings. This notion of national religion, in the Old Testament, corresponds to tendencies of paganism, in which every tribe worships its own god.

• In some books of the Old Testament (for example, Joshua) commandments are given to commit horrible violence against non-Jewish peoples. Mass murder is commanded, with no regard for women, children or the elderly. This merciless savagery is totally against God’s justice, and recalls the barbarism of pagan cultures, who worshipped a mythical god of war.

These pagan ideas that were introduced into the Torah must have an origin. There must have been Jews who adopted, honored and cherished a tradition foreign to the Torah, and changed the latter by adding into it ideas derived from the tradition they espoused. The origin of this tradition stretches back to the priests of Ancient Egypt (the magicians of Pharaoh’s regime). It is, in fact, the Kabbalah which was passed on from there by a number of Jews. The Kabbalah assumed a form that enabled Ancient Egyptian and other pagan doctrines to insinuate themselves into Judaism and develop within it. Kabbalists, of course, assert that the Kabbalah simply explains in more detail the hidden secrets of the Torah, but, in reality, as Jewish historian of the Kabbalah, Theodore Reinach, says, the Kabbalah is “a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it.“26

It is possible, then, to find in the Kabbalah clear traces of the materialist ideology of the Ancient Egyptians.

THE KABBALAH–A DOCTRINE OPPOSED

TO CREATIONISM

God reveals in the Qur’an that the Torah is a divine book that was sent as a light to humanity:

We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light, and the Prophets who had submitted themselves gave judgment by it for the Jews—as did their scholars and their rabbis—by what they had been allowed to preserve of God’s Book to which they were witnesses…(Qur’an, 5: 44)

Therefore, the Torah, like the Qur’an, is a book that contains knowledge and commands related to such topics as the existence of God, His unity, His qualities, the creation of human beings and other creatures, the purpose of human creation, and God’s moral laws for humanity. (But, this original Torah is not extant today. What we possess today is an “altered” version of the Torah, corrupted by human hands.)

There is an important point that both the true Torah and the Qur’an share in common: God is recognized as Creator. God is absolute, and has existed since the beginning of time. Everything other than God is His creation, created by Him from nothing. He has created and formed the whole universe, the heavenly bodies, lifeless matter, human beings and all living things. God is One; He exists alone.

While this is the truth, there is a quite different interpretation found in the Kabbalah, that “subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it.” Its doctrine of God is totally opposed to the “fact of creation,” found in the real Torah and the Qur’an. In one of his works on the Kabbalah, the American researcher, Lance S. Owens, presents his view on the possible origins of this doctrine:

Kabbalistic experience engendered several perceptions about the Divine, many of which departured from the orthodox view. The most central tenet of Israel’s faith had been the proclamation that “our God is One.” But Kabbalah asserted that while God exists in highest form as a totally ineffable unity—called by Kabbalah Ein Sof, the infinite—this unknowable singularity had necessarily emanated into a great number of Divine forms: a plurality of Gods. These the Kabbalist called Sefiroth, the vessels or faces of God. The manner by which God descended from incomprehensible unity into plurality was a mystery to which Kabbalists devoted a great deal of meditation and speculation. Obviously, this multifaceted God image admits to accusations of being polytheistic, a charge which was vehemently, if never entirely successfully, rebutted by the Kabbalists.

Not only was the Divine plural in Kabbalistic theosophy, but in its first subtle emanation from unknowable unity God had taken on a dual form as Male and Female; a supernal Father and Mother, Hokhmah and Binah, were God’s first emanated forms. Kabbalists used frankly sexual metaphors to explain how the creative intercourse of Hokhmah and Binah generated further creation…27

An interesting feature of this mystical theology is that, according to it, human beings are not created, but are in some way divine. Owens describes this myth:

The complex Divine image …was also visualized by Kabbalah as having a unitary, anthropomorphic form. God was, by one Kabbalistic recension, Adam Kadmon: the first primordial or archetypal Man. Man shared with God both an intrinsic, uncreated divine spark and a complex, organic form. This strange equation of Adam as God was supported by a Kabbalistic cipher: the numerical value in Hebrew of the names Adam and Jehovah (the Tetragrammaton, Yod he vav he) was both 45. Thus in Kabbalistic exegesis Jehovah equaled Adam: Adam was God. With this affirmation went the assertion that all humankind in highest realization was like God.28

This theology comprises of a mythology of paganism, and formed the basis of the degeneration of Judaism. Jewish Kabbalists breached the limits of common sense to such an extent that they even tried to make human beings into gods. In addition, according to this theology, not only was humanity divine, but it consisted only of Jews; other races were not considered human. As a result, within Judaism, which was originally founded on the basis of service and obedience to God, this corrupt doctrine began to develop, whose intent was to satiate Jewish arrogance. In spite of its contrary nature to the Torah, the Kabbalah was introduced into Judaism. Eventually though, it began to corrupt the Torah itself.

Another interesting point about the corrupt doctrines of the Kabbalah is its similarity to the pagan ideas of Ancient Egypt. As we have discussed in earlier pages, the Ancient Egyptians believed that matter had always existed; in other words, they rejected the idea that matter was created from nothing. The Kabbalah asserts the same thing in relation to human beings; it claims that human beings were not created, and that they are responsible for regulating their own existence.

To state it in modern terms: the Ancient Egyptians were materialists, and, essentially, the doctrine of the Kabbalah can be called secular humanism.

It is interesting to note that these two concepts—materialism and secular humanism—describe the ideology that has dominated the world over the last two centuries.

It is tempting to ask if there are forces who have carried the doctrines of Ancient Egypt and the Kabbalah from the midst of ancient history to the present day.

FROM THE TEMPLARS TO THE MASONS

When we mentioned the Templars earlier, we noted that this peculiar order of crusaders was affected by a “secret” found in Jerusalem, as a result of which they abandoned Christianity and began to practice magic rites. We said that many researchers had reached the opinion that this secret was related to the Kabbalah. For example, in his book Histoire de la Magie (The History of Magic) the French writer, Eliphas Lévi, presents detailed evidence that the Templars were initiated into the mysterious doctrines of the Kabbalah, that is, they were secretly trained in this doctrine.29 Therefore, a doctrine with its roots in Ancient Egypt was transmitted to the Templars through the Kabbalah.

In Foucault’s Pendulum, the famous Italian novelist, Umberto Eco, relates these facts in the course of the plot. Throughout the novel, he relates, through the mouths of its protagonists, that the Templars were influenced by the Kabbalah and that the Kabbalists possessed a secret that could be traced back to the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs. According to Eco, some prominent Jews learned certain secrets taken from the Ancient Egyptians, and later inserted these into the first five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch). But, this secret, which was transmitted secretly, could be understood only by the Kabbalists. (The Zohar, written later in Spain, and forming the fundamental book of the Kabbalah, deals with the secrets of these five books) After stating that the Kabbalists read this Ancient Egyptian secret also in the geometric measurements of the temple of Solomon, Eco writes that the Templars learned it from the Kabbalist rabbis in Jerusalem:

The secret—what the Temple already said in full—is suspected only by a small group of rabbis who remained in Palestine… And from them the Templars learn it.30

When the Templars adopted this ancient Egyptian-Kabbalist doctrine, naturally, they came into conflict with the Christian establishment that dominated Europe. This was a conflict they shared with another important force—the Jews. After the Templars were arrested, by joint order of the king of France and the Pope in 1307, the order went underground, but its influence continued, and in a more radical and determined way.

As we said earlier, a significant number of Templars escaped arrest and appealed to the king of Scotland, the only European kingdom at that time that had not accepted the authority of the Pope. In Scotland, they infiltrated the wall-builders’ guild and, in time, took it over. The guilds adopted the traditions of the Templars, and thus, the Masonic seed was planted in Scotland. Still, to this day, the mainline of Masonry is the “Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.”

As we investigated in detail in The New Masonic Order, from the beginnings of the fourteenth century it is possible to detect traces of the Templars—and some Jews associated with them—at various stages of European history. Without going into detail, here are some of the headings under which we examined this topic:

• In Provence, in France, there was an important Templar refuge. During the arrests, very many hid here. Another important feature of the area is that it is the most well known center of Kabbalism in Europe. Provence is the place where the oral tradition of the Kabbalah was made into a book.

• The Peasants Revolt in England, in 1381, was, according to some historians, fanned to flame by a secret organization. Those experts who study the history of Masonry agree that this secret organization was the Templars. It was more than a mere civil uprising, it was a planned assault on the Catholic Church. 31

• Half a century after this revolt, a clergyman in Bohemia by the name of John Huss started an uprising in opposition to the Catholic Church. Behind the scenes of this uprising were again the Templars. Moreover, Huss was very interested in the Kabbalah. Avigdor Ben Isaac Kara was one of the most important names that he was influenced by in the development of his doctrines. Kara was a rabbi of the Jewish community in Prague and a Kabbalist. 32

Examples such as these are signs that the alliance between the Templars and the Kabbalists was directed at a change in the social order of Europe. This change involved an alteration in the basic Christian culture of Europe, and its replacement by a culture based on pagan doctrines, like the Kabbalah. And, after this cultural change, political changes would follow. The French and Italian revolutions, for example…

In the coming sections, we will look at some important turning-points in the history of Europe. At every stage the fact that will confront us is that there existed a force that wanted to alienate Europe from its Christian heritage, replace it with a secular ideology and, with this program in mind, to destroy its religious institutions. This force attempted to cause Europe to accept a doctrine that had been handed down from Ancient Egypt through the Kabbalah. As we pointed out earlier, at the basis of this doctrine were two important concepts: humanism and materialism. First, let us look at humanism.

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The New Age Movement: The System Of Antichrist

The New Age Movement is of course a conglomerate of thousands of distict groupings, some of which are fighting against each other for they are competing for the following by the ‘masses’ with all the benefit this entails. They do however share distinct characteristics, which have already been listed at this site Here some more information on their workings will be presented.
Partly from Charles Upton: The System Of Antichrist

1.) What anti-traditional movements, such as New Age deny
1. They deny that God -- Allah knows us better than we know Him.
2. They deny that God actively intervenes in human affairs.
3. They deny that God requires something of us.
4. Therefore they hate revelation and deny it being of value. SAC391

“The denial of revelation leads to a false image of intellection** as a kind of ‘higher empiricism’. Those ‘esotericists’ who are looking for metaphysics without religion, an esoterism without the fullness of Tradition, will be tempted to see ‘the deep things of God’ as their private preserve, as arcane mysteries to be delved into, quasi-scientifically, by the ‘intellect’ transformed into a slave of mental passion, but not as the wisdom and power of the Living God, Who has a will and exercises it, Who actively intervenes in human affairs, and Who, far from being a mere specimen for their occult researches, requires something of them.”  SAC399
**Intellection: “direct perception (of) Truth via the Intellect, which is a ray of that Truth, (either as inspired by the great historical revelations, or by the primordial Self-revelation of God, which is the cosmos.)”  SAC398
“The function of revelation, along with its traditional expression, is to provide us dogmatic beliefs [or: a dogma, a teaching] which are [is] sufficiently wise to prevent us, on the moral level, from going seriously astray, and have sufficient objective truth, on the intellectual level, to lead us to knowledge and certainty.”  SAC392


5. They deny that there is such a thing as ‘good and evil’, at least objectively.

They hold that good and evil are values which are created by the person himself (or herself) and that therefore there is no objective good or evil. Also that every person knows (internally?) the meaning of ‘good and evil’. So there would be no need for anyone else to tell them.
The followers of the New Age Movement are in spriritual despair with their false opinion about God, when they maintain that when something (a desaster) happens, it is inevitable (we would say divinely decreed) and therefore, they think they cannot / don’t see themselves deploring it. Their nihilism, which here manifests itself as worship of blind fate, is in fact a denial of Divine Providence*, which is the faith, leading to knowledge, that everything that happens is by divine decree, and in a metaphysical sense, everything that God wills is the ‘greater Good’ because God is the Just, the Wise.
And fate-worship is the satanic counterfeit of the faith, because it is then held that everything that happens would have happened anyway, so that everything is meaningless -- but ‘we’ (in the New Age Movement) can confer meaning upon it by worshipping it, even if we hate it, and empower ourselves by becoming the priests of it.
But to say that we can make no moral judgements on events, or even on our own actions (which is part of the same belief system) since they are all God’s will, is to deny that it is also God’s will that there be divinely-instituted moral laws, and that every human being should possess, at least virtually, a divinely-implanted moral sense, which leads us to be delighted by manifestations of good and appalled at manifestations of evil, even though all manifestations of good and evil are indeed God’s will, and thus of a greater Good.
If good and evil did not exist, this moral law and this moral sense would have no field of operation, and it is God’s will that they operate, since they are indeed in operation.” SAC417

*Definition of ‘providence’: the guardianship and control exercised by God


2.) The Aims of The New Age Movement
The destruction of revealed religions
in the name of a ‘one world culture’. SAC391

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3.) One of the ‘Signs of the Times’, which N.A. ignores
__One of the ‘signs of the times’, [a development which New Age proponents glaringly ignore] is an unholy alliance between rationalistic, empirical thinking, including arcane* technology, and the occult sciences.
__As R. Guénon prophesised in The Reign of Quantity, ‘classical’ materialism is now splitting apart under its own dead weight, and flooding the world with energies from the ‘infra-psychic’ realm; an attraction to psychic powers, and a belief, for example, in UFOs and alien entities that bear all the marks of classical demons, have become pandemic in our society, without calling the materialistic paradigm into question in any essentiel way, a questioning which only could bear fruit if the dimensions of true, traditional spirituality were collectively understood. SAC419
*arcane: requiring very specialised, almost mysterious knowledge

http://www.abc.se/~m9783/o/nnam_e.html

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NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY: A System to be doomed

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