Well done Ayaan Hirsi Ali for giving a civilized & detailed critique of Islam & Koran
One of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s best points IMO was at 1:17:00 where she says ~ we are dealing with documents like the Koran which were written a long time ago, in the 7th century, .. we are talking about the morality of the 7th century. These documents should be in museums but today it is disturbing that there are so many Moslems who use the Koran like a drivers manual.
Like John Loftus says; these are writings from a superstitious, pre-scientific age.
The ability of the shamans of the the Abrahamic religions to predict things is more pathetic than prophetic
Not only did Islam fail to predict the existence of the Americas but it also failed to predict the existence of tobacco, even after tobacco was brought to the Old World Islam failed to give a correct critique of the effect of tobacco smoke on humans. They failed to have a revelation that nicotine, though addictive, causes little harm in comparison to the smoke which causes cancer etc. Added to this failure was the inability of Allah to miraculously free people from nicotine addiction or to provide a method of quitting. It was not Islam which came up with E-cigarettes or personal vaporizers. Instead it was the Chinese who invented the PV and scientists who gathered data & did experiments to almost fully explain the workings of tobacco smoke and ways to escape the addiction to it.
The books of John W. Loftus are like the Personal Vaporizer which allow people to enjoy the leaves of scripture without getting addicted to its drug or getting cancer from its holy smoke. They also do a lot to blow away the religious smoke screen of obfuscation.
For a detailed explanation of the effects of smoking & studies on attempts to quit smoking & on the pros and cons of E-cigarettes see Youtube video by Dr Lynne Dawkins of University of East London, "Electronic cigarettes: What we know so far "
This is 21st century thought on the subject. It doesn't order anyone about what to do but just offers an impartial understanding on the subject so that people can make a free & informed choice.
See links in wikipedia on tobacco
Sir Walter Raleigh is credited with taking the first "Virginia" tobacco to Europe, referring to it as tobah as early as 1578. In 1595 Anthony Chute published Tabaco, which repeated earlier arguments about the benefits of the plant and emphasised the health-giving properties of pipe-smoking.
The importation of tobacco into Europe was not without resistance and controversy in the 17th century. Stuart King James I wrote a famous polemic titled A Counterblaste to Tobacco in 1604, in which the king denounced tobacco use as "[a] custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse."
The Styx (/stɪks/; Ancient Greek: Στύξ [stýkʰs], "Hate, Detest") is a river in Greek mythology that formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld (the domain usually called Hades, which is also the name of its ruler). {SEE Semele _ perished, consumed in lightning-ignited flame - what happens when you smoke ? But some PVs have exploded in people's faces too.}
Tobacco first arrived in the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th century, where it attracted the attention of doctors and became a commonly prescribed medicine for many ailments. Although tobacco was initially prescribed as medicine, further study led to claims that smoking caused dizziness, fatigue, dulling of the senses, and a foul taste/odour in the mouth.
Sultan Murad IV banned smoking in the Ottoman Empire in 1633, and the offense was punishable by death. When the ban was lifted by his successor, Ibrahim the Mad, it was instead taxed. In 1682, Damascene jurist Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi declared: “Tobacco has now become extremely famous in all the countries of Islam ... People of all kinds have used it and devoted themselves to it ... I have even seen young children of about five years applying themselves to it.” In 1750, a Damascene townsmen observed “a number of women greater than the men, sitting along the bank of the Barada River. They were eating and drinking, and drinking coffee and smoking tobacco just as the men were doing. "
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