Religion or Cult? Stay Away from Islam.

Islam is not a religion. It's a cult. You think that "cult" is a bad word, but it conveys a definite message.

Islam is deviant, misconceived, misleading and illegitimate.  So, no matter how mainstream a "religion" may be, it can still be a cult... from the point of view of those it opposes.

By definition, a "cult" is a group whose teachings are:
1. authoritarian
(don't mock the Prophet)
2. apocalyptic
(replete with descriptions of the End Time)
3. violent / suicidal
(jihad & suicide bombing)
4. oppressive of some members
(burkas & honor killing)
5. exploitative
(slaves & dhimmis)
6. sexually abusive
(sex slaves & female circumcision)
7. endogamous
(can only marry muslims)
8. difficult to escape
(apostacy merits death)
ALL of these are typical of those groups we should call "cults."

And not to forget, Islam is lacking in some of the characteristics usually required of "real religions" like:
1. a consistent moral code
2. prohibition of lying and deception
3. promoting peace with outsiders
etc.

Islam is neither small nor new, but if you are going to have any kind of useful definition of the word "cult" pejorative or otherwise, then it must be applied fairly. Islam is a cult. They may deny having sex slaves and oppressing dhimmis any more, but look at Boko Haram and ISIS. We can't just throw away the word because we are afraid of being labeled as bigots or "Islamophobes." But we must insist that it be used correctly.

One might try to reply that Christianity was once a cult, but that would be wrong. Jesus was a reformer. His followers usually chose to stay close to Judaism, until political differences intervened. It was a question of interpretation of an established form of devotion.

This is totally different from Muhammad. He decided to create his own religion from his own "revelations" and refused to be moderated by recognized standards. Muslims even violently attacked their Jewish neighbors after they refused to affirm the legitimacy of his "recitations."

Nor are Judaism and Christianity the sole targets of Islam's aggression. Islam has tried to overrun the entire world, by violence or by infiltration, by revolution, subversion, extortion or demands for tribute. Whatever means they thought they could, they used, without any compunction for the suffering they caused. This has happened in Persia, Turkey, Armenia, Ethiopia, Mongolia, India, Indonesia and Afghanistan, just to mention a few. That is why China wants no part of Islam today. Such tactics are still in use, in Europe, and the U.S.A. has fought more than one war in response to attacks from Islam.

And the apocalyptic worldview inherent in Islam is the essential reason that the world cannot afford to allow Muslims to replicate and proliferate the technology of nuclear weapons. Jihadi suicide attacks can not be deterred by reason or counter-threats. It would only take one crazy imam to bring the world to catastrophe.

We can never acquiesce and allow this cult to attain its self-stated goal of global supremacy. If we do, all hope for the ideals of Truth, Freedom, Love and Wisdom would be lost, as would be any future of building prospective analogs of Heaven in space. Authoritarian dictators and governments can not countenance real freedom, and Islam has sabotaged their ability to do real science centuries ago. They can only emulate what others have already achieved.

Put simply, "We don't bow to attacks by terrorists," and "We don't negotiate with terrorists." These follow in a direct line from, "We don't pay ransom for hostages," and "We don't pay bribes to facilitate government operations." And these come from our original declaration: "Millions of dollars for defense, but not one penny for tribute," as stated by President Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers.

America can never become an Islamic state, and we will do whatever it takes to protect ourselves and prevent that from happening. We know the difference between a real religion that aims to improve the lives and characters of its believers, and a cult whose only aim is power and world domination.

Reasons for Faith in Jesus Christ:

I Peter 3:15
... Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.

Reason Number One:
The argument from witnesses' testimony, historical facts and reasonable certainty.

1. Jesus died by Crucifixion. This is a historical fact, as sure as any. No one ever survived a full crucifixion. Therefore, when the soldiers took him down, they were positive that he was dead.

2.  His disciples preached, on Shavuot, that Jesus rose from the dead, having appeared and taught them in his transformed body. This could have gotten them arrested, and stoned for preaching heresy. Why would anyone make up a story that would get them killed?

3. Unbelievers, who had not followed him during his lifetime, soon came to believe he had risen from the dead, even testifying to having personally encountered the risen and living Christ ... and one of these was his brother, James, who had previously thought he was crazy.

4. The enemies of the Christians soon stepped forward to testify to personal encounters with the risen Christ, proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and God. And they too are willing to die for their belief. Yet again, liars make poor martyrs.
(e.g., Paul, I Corinthians 15:3-5.)

5. If you rule out miracles even before you begin to investigate Jesus, you are not giving him a fair hearing. You are bringing your own biases. You are demanding a sign, even though he has already given you one.

6. The asserted hypothesis, that Jesus actually rose from the dead, is the only reasonable explanation for what we know happened after the Crucifixion. All of the alternative theories fail:
a. mass hallucination theory
b. stolen body theory
c. survival, not death, theory
d. "evil twin" theory
e. "super alien" theory
These don't fit the historical facts of the responses of his followers after his death. These people were ready to proclaim that the impossible had actually happened, and call it the "good news" that would change everything!

Without the experiential evidence of the resurrection, Jesus' followers would simply have dispersed and gone into hiding, or even denied that Jesus was ever important. The followers of previous false rebel  messiahs had done just that before.

If therefore Jesus died and rose from the dead, as he told his close disciples would happen, then what does that mean for you?
a. Jesus has the power to forgive your sins.
b. Jesus values you enough to die for you, so that you can be saved.
c. God has claimed Jesus as his true "only begotten" Son.
d. Our response to Jesus does matter, and we should follow him, and love one another as he has loved us.
e. God has the power to raise you also from the dead, and to take you to Heaven.

Now, what can you honestly say to that? Such evidence, coming from eyewitnesses, would even stand up in our own courts, if it wasn't for the explicit bias of refusing to believe in miracles or anything that can't be explained by reason or science.

What is our Universe expanding into?

No one knows the answer to that, and we can never find out. That information is not in this computer. Go back to your simple mundane simulated lives, and trust God. He knows why we are in this sim... By the way, there is no way to ever observe our Universe from the outside, or even discover whether there are "edges" dividing it from whatever is beyond it. You would have to be God to do that.

New space-time is emerging between the empty spaces, pushing our galaxy clusters apart until we will lose sight of them? WOW!! How are these new regions of space-time created? Where do they come from?  Is God doing this? This is a big question, bigger than Science. But, if space-time can be created, then maybe we can beat the lightspeed limit.

We need warp-speed, Scotty!
Sulu! Third star to the left, and straight on 'til morning, then ... indulge yourself.

We do live in an island universe, but our island is one of billions, in a great ocean of archipelagos. And it is unlikely that we will ever know the details of more than our own archipelago, if we ever master this one island of a few billion stars.

There are about 50 to 60 galaxies in our local cluster, which is probably about 1% of our "local" super cluster. Beyond that, the universe will expand and rip away the rest of the stars and galaxies. So that's all we can ever know in any detail, other than the 14 billion years old baby pictures, anyway.

It blows my mind to try to imagine how anyone can create a simulation in a computer with this much detail, just to play at evolving intelligence and watch it try to expand beyond its own planet. It cracks my soul and sanity to try to imagine God doing all of this "for real"!! Lord, I believe! Help thou my unbelief!

If you want to suppose that there is no God, AND it's all real, then answer the big questions for yourself:

1. Why and how did the Universe begin?
2. How many planets can support evolving life?
3. What are the odds for the beginning of life?
4. What are the odds of creatures evolving intelligence?
5. What are our chances of surviving to expand into space?
6. How do we avoid destroying our planet, so we still have a home?
7. If we can do it, where is everyone else?
8. Why are we here?

If there is a God, then we will figure all of this out, whenever we need to know.