Part 1 of this series covered much of the background of the Book of Job, some matters of translation, and the first two chapters, which cover much of the story of the book as it is commonly told. From here we’ll proceed through the parts of the story that have remained largely untold.
Category: readings
Readings and analysis from various literature
The Book of Job, pt. 1
The Book of Job, which relates the story of a devout and wealthy man from the land of Uz whose devotion to God is tested by profound suffering, is easily the most fascinating and enigmatic book of the Old Testament. In looking into it, I found that, once again, what is said of the text and what the text actually says are two very different things.
Pluralism in the Qur’an
I think that Samuel Huntington is right and that the West and the Islamic world are in the midst of a clash of civilizations. But I don’t think that’s what Islam really is. I don’t think that that’s what the Qur’an says that Islam is, and that’s the source I take to be most authoritative in this matter.
On Religious Propaganda
Earlier this week, my partner found a small religious pamphlet at the laundromat and brought it to me, and it reminded me of the work that I had done and got me thinking about the role that propaganda plays in religion.
A Satanist Reads the Qur’an
I want to know why Islam has been so successful, seemingly more so than any other modern religion, in convincing people to abandon this world for some other world and to construct what remains of them in this life around what awaits them in the next. I would know, is this truly what Muhammad intended? As much as I have fallen in love with the mystical Sufi poetry of Rumi and Hafez, and as much as I respect Islam’s singularity of vision, I see this religion as one of the greatest fonts of nihilism in the modern world. Is this nihilism reflected in the religion’s sacred texts? Are these texts misunderstood and misrepresented in Islam as Christian and Jewish texts are in their respective religions?
Lovecraft, Nietzsche, and the Satanism of Cosmic Horror
A mistake to which I think that I am especially prone is that I anthropomorphize the universe, turning its grandeur into something altogether human.
Apocalypse
The New Testament Book of Revelation is one of the most distinct and bizarre books of the entire Bible, and I think that its writer was saying the same things about what was to come that I had learned from both my Christians teachers and from history.
Satanic Meditations on Nietzsche
In this series, I’ll be looking at selections from Nietzsche’s extensive body of writing and considering them in the context of modern Satanism.
Faith and Sacrifice, pt. 1: Sacrifice in Sacred Literature
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” Abraham awoke in the early morning. He remembered his dream and he knew immediately what had befallen him. He arose,…
Books on Faith: The End of Faith
Coming back to it now, I read Harris’s text with disappointment but even greater disappointment in myself. Harris’s rhetoric is terrible, and though at the time I thought myself a competent critical thinker, I was nevertheless entirely blind to what I can now only call incompetence by way of still feeling too generous towards him to call him a sophist.