Founding Fathers read the Koran

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27 Sep 2010, 11:00 am

For Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson among them, being properly educated included owning and reading the Koran. Via Boston.com, a glimpse at the little-known long history of the Koran in America:

Quote:

Reports of Korans in American libraries go back at least to 1683, when an early settler of Germantown, Pa., brought a German version to these shores. Despite its foreign air, Adams’s Koran had a strong New England pedigree. The first Koran published in the United States, it was printed in Springfield in 1806.

Why would John Adams and a cluster of farmers in the Connecticut valley have bought copies of the Koran in 1806? Surprisingly, there was a long tradition of New Englanders reading in the Islamic scripture. No book states the case more plainly than a single volume, tucked away deep within the citadel of Copley Square — the Boston Public Library. The book known as Adams 281.1 is a copy of the Koran, from the personal collection of John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson, especially, had a familiarity with Islam that borders on the astonishing. Like Adams, he owned a Koran, a 1764 English edition that he bought while studying law as a young man in Williamsburg, Va. Only two years ago, that Koran became the center of a controversy, when the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, asked if he could place his hand on it while taking his oath of office — a request that elicited tremendous screeches from the talk radio extremists. Jefferson even tried to learn Arabic.

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Quartz11
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27 Sep 2010, 9:52 pm

I wouldn't have considered any of the founding fathers to have been Muslim, even in secret. However, many of them were scholars of religious and theological thoughts. Jefferson for example revised the four gospels in the New Testament.

I think more people should study theology, at least have basic understandings of all major thoughts and faiths out there. It would make life much easier anyway, rather than clueless idiots running about spouting off crap and making things worse.

Jaythefordman
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27 Sep 2010, 11:45 pm

Quartz11 wrote:

I think more people should study theology, at least have basic understandings of all major thoughts and faiths out there. It would make life much easier anyway, rather than clueless idiots running about spouting off crap and making things worse.

agreed!

quiet_dove
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28 Sep 2010, 1:01 am

Quartz11 wrote:

I agree. Willful ignorance and a blind faith in politicians and political pundits (such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity) is quickly turning this country into an intellectual wasteland, where people would rather get their facts from the TV or radio than actually attempt to educate themselves.

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Quartz11
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28 Sep 2010, 6:58 pm

quiet_dove wrote:

Quartz11 wrote:

I do agree that blind faith and also taking comments as inerrant truth from whoever is a rather dangerous thing.

However, I will have to disagree with you on one issue. The power of conservative pundits like Hannity and Beck is far greater than liberal ones like Maddow and Schultz. Aside from the fact conservative pundits get better ratings, those watching are more likely to adopt their beliefs based on whatever they say. With those follwing Maddow or Schultz, it is less likely someone is using them to formulate their entire slate of political belief - the viewer is already aware of these concepts and watch because they agree.

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02 Oct 2010, 1:59 am

I also agree more people should study theology. It particularly pains me when people dismiss all religions as bunk when they know very little about any of them.

ruveyn
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02 Oct 2010, 8:05 am

Tensu wrote:

I also agree more people should study theology. It particularly pains me when people dismiss all religions as bunk when they know very little about any of them.

By their fruits ye shall know them. Look at what religions have produced: war, division, hatred, tyranny and death.

ruveyn

pgd
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02 Oct 2010, 8:58 am

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I also agree more people should study theology. It particularly pains me when people dismiss all religions as bunk when they know very little about any of them.

By their fruits ye shall know them. Look at what religions have produced: war, division, hatred, tyranny and death.

ruveyn

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pe ... s_heretics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanis ... nty_Python)

http://www.beliefnet.com/

skafather84
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02 Oct 2010, 1:59 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I also agree more people should study theology. It particularly pains me when people dismiss all religions as bunk when they know very little about any of them.

By their fruits ye shall know them. Look at what religions have produced: war, division, hatred, tyranny and death.

ruveyn

A more intelligent way to put this would be "if something can't be proven then it isn't worth fighting over or oppressing others over it."

Seriously...fighting over who's god is best is like fighting about whether rap or rock or classical is better. It doesn't matter and it's not something worth fighting about or forcing upon others. If people would stop thinking their own navels are so great, maybe they'd stop getting offended when someone else thinks that their own navel is great.

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02 Oct 2010, 2:40 pm

Jaythefordman wrote:

Quartz11 wrote:

agreed!

Religion is not concerned with truth

By the time religion's done with all the other business it gets up too truth has given up and gone to the pub to cure his headache

ruveyn
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03 Oct 2010, 2:14 am

skafather84 wrote:

Seriously...fighting over who's god is best is like fighting about whether rap or rock or classical is better. It doesn't matter and it's not something worth fighting about or forcing upon others. If people would stop thinking their own navels are so great, maybe they'd stop getting offended when someone else thinks that their own navel is great.

One of Jonathan Swift's satires in -Gulliver's Travels- was the war between the folks who broke their boiled eggs at the pointy end with those who broke their boiled eggs at the blunter end.

So in the Middle East we have the Israelis against the Muslims. In Ireland, the Protestants against the Catholics (although that has been quiet for some time now, but just wait....). In various South American countries the druggies and guerillas against the Government and in Africa the Muslims against the Christians. Never a dull moment.

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03 Oct 2010, 2:56 am

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I also agree more people should study theology. It particularly pains me when people dismiss all religions as bunk when they know very little about any of them.

By their fruits ye shall know them. Look at what religions have produced: war, division, hatred, tyranny and death.

ruveyn

You confuse people who are religious with people who claim to be religious. I could say I'm emperor of the squid-people of Triton, but that wouldn't make it true.

Laz: actually, religion is all about seeking truth, just a different truth than science seeks. that doesn't make it any less truth.

petitesouris
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06 Oct 2010, 12:49 pm

i have nothing against religion even though i am not religious. i just find it unsettling that extremists (both religious and secular) are morally uneven.

i have not read the Koran, but i am pretty sure that it tries to justify jihad. so a fundamentalist muslim beleives that being an "infidel" is on par with murder and therefore feels justified in engaging in terrorism.

Last edited by petitesouris on 06 Oct 2010, 1:13 pm, edited 3 times in total.

skafather84
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06 Oct 2010, 12:52 pm

ruveyn wrote:

skafather84 wrote:

All a bunch of navel gazers.

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06 Oct 2010, 3:23 pm

Tensu wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I also agree more people should study theology. It particularly pains me when people dismiss all religions as bunk when they know very little about any of them.

By their fruits ye shall know them. Look at what religions have produced: war, division, hatred, tyranny and death.

ruveyn

1) everyone should study theology in grade school. the basic concepts each of the major religions should be studied along with some of their more noteworthy beliefs and traditions. as an anti-theist, i believe that the more people know about other people's religions, the sillier they find them to be. eventually, people might even realize that their own isn't any less ridiculous than the others.
2) http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1745/religious-knowledge-in-america-survey-atheists-agnostics-score-highest
3) you confuse people who are religious with people who are scottish.
4) if the "truth" you're seeking is different from the "truth" science is seeking, you need a better dictionary. either your definition of "science" is off, or your definition of "truth" is.

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Tensu
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07 Oct 2010, 6:19 am

2: I don't remember being tested. besides, given the gross misunderstanding of religions that there is, there is a question as to wether or not the answers the proctors considered correct where actually correct.
3: There is a difference, because Christianity is a set of beliefs, and those who say they they are Christian but do not live according to those beliefs aren't really Christian. It's more like saying "I'm a vegan, but I eat meat." if one eats meat, in what sense is one a vegan?
4: now you are just being close minded :roll:

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