Changing the Word of God from Planck's Constant

Who hasn't heard children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance offering the eggcorn invisible instead of indivisible as in: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, invisible, with liberty ..."

The mistaken use of invisible is understandable - many children assume the word is in reference to God. But they most likely misheard it the first time they listened to the pledge. In my 65 years on this planet, I can tell you that most people fill in what they want to hear and not what is actually said.

It might surprise Muslims to learn that human beings barely retain 25 percent of what they hear. Consider that in English the average speaker pushes out about 130 words per minute; however our thinking speed is about four times faster so we naturally jump ahead of what is actually said - and we pre-interpret, we anticipate what we are about to hear.

I am an atheist. But for the sake of this argument, let's assume I believe in God. If there were a God, and if did give instructions to Moses, then depending on Moses' hearing ability, I doubt that he got more than 25% right of whatever God told him. This is no fault of Moses - that is how God made our ears. It's a survival thing. We don't have to hear 100% of a lion approaching, 25% is enough to persuade us to turn and run.

And even if we didn't mishear, no human being could possibly write an entire book without a few typos. The problem of course is that the proof-readers were not the ones who heard the original message. So over the centuries, God kept delivering His Message and corrected the mistakes that were written down. In this regard, the fact that Christians have modified the Holy Texts only goes to prove that they are writing down what God originally intended.

So when Muslims accuse Christians of changing the Word of God and corrupting the Holy Texts, they are quite mistaken. Just as we all learn to correct the misapprehensions of our youth, so too have Christianity and Judaism modified the meaning of their sacred texts.

THE MUSLIM CEMETERY (AMBER), JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, SUNDAY MORNING, 1 MARCH 2009

MUSLIM CEMETERY
Photo by: louisbickett

Muslims on the other hand, have cemented their Holy Quran in the savage concrete of the 7th century, unchanged and unchangeable forever. They have consigned their faithful to a way of life that was barbaric and inhumane even in its own time. Today, it is unforgivable that Muslims have not allowed a reformation to occur in their evil political system which we call Islam.

Imagine for a moment that our Founding Fathers accidentally wrote down that all men should be Fred, instead of Free. If Jefferson and Adams were Muslims and not permitted to change our founding documents, then by law today every American male would be required to be named Fred. And isn't that silly?

Sometimes it's better not to write everything in stone. But because the Quran is so written - it is a tombstone for the world.