Religion: The Glorious Name "ALLAH"

The Glorious Name "ALLAH"

(Fawad Ahmed, Bahawal Pur)

The Glorious Name "ALLAH" Appeared on the Waves of Tsunami

"When men wish to construct or support a theory, how they torture facts into their service!" - John Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and madness crowds. 

Even In this 21st century, some people like to interpret facts, reports, events, perceptions, etc., according to what one would like to be the case rather than according to the actual evidence. We skeptics, like to term such tendency as "wishful thinking". If someone done intentionally and without regard for the truth, the approach is called misinterpretation of fact, falsification or perversion of the truth. If, however, done unconsciously but deliberately, wishful thinking may lead to Self-deception which is another way to justify false beliefs to gullible mind.

The interesting discussion on wishful thinking was initiated in Mukto-Mona last week when our friend Mr. Mohiuddin, a devout Muslim member sent an email to the forum claiming Tsunami wave, which literally created an havoc in this planet, bore Merciful Allah's name.

Colombo,Jan 10,2005 (Saudi Press Agency):

The glorious name "ALLAH" appeared on the waves of the Tsunami that hit

Srilanka and other Asian countries on December 26,2005.

AFP(Agencie France Press) quoted Mohamed Fayez , Director of the center of

Islamic Studies in Colombo ,as saying that the proof was satelite photos taken

seconds after the wave hit Kalotara town in Srilanka where the word (ALLAH) in

arabic was very clear. the photos were taken by the satelite :Digital globe

quick bird on december 26 at 10:26 AM, Srilanka time, just a few minuites after

the Tsunami occured, and were published at :Globalsecurity.org.

Fayiz said he visited the village near Banbakalwa where most of the people

are muslims. He said he found the religious school intact while four hundred

houses were destroyed and many people died.

Mr. Mohamed Famwy of the International Islamic Front for the Youth of

Srilanka said the name of (ALLAH) appeared to him like a vision when he looked.

Again, if a reader carefully observe the picture with his/her skeptic mind he/she would notice how cleverly/wishfully someone interpreting events according to what gullible mass would like to believe. I myself didn't find any "exact match" with "Allah" in that picture, though it's true there might have been some "accidental resemblance". let us observe the picture carefully once again.

Now, Do the black lines (i.e. "Allah" written in Arabic) really give an exact similarity in appearance with the white lines in the picture of the Tsunami waves? Any human being after observing the above picture with a rational mind would probably say- "no". However, a believer's mind does not work in such a way. A believer like Mohiuddin suffers from a "True-believer syndrome" which is an expression coined by M. Lamar Keene, a reformed "phony psychic" to describe an apparent cognitive disorder characterized by believing in the unrealistic fantasies:

The true-believer syndrome merits study by science. What is it that compels a person, past all reason, to believe the unbelievable. How can an otherwise sane individual become so enamored of a fantasy, an imposture, that even after it's exposed in the bright light of day he still clings to it--indeed, clings to it all the harder? 

Again, There can be many genuine unsolved mysteries, and infact there are (for example knowledge about dark matter, dark energy, conceptualization of eleven dimension in string theory and many others are still mystery) and it is completely okay for us to say, "We haven't yet solved all but someday perhaps we will." The problem is that most of us find it more comforting to have certainty, even if it is premature or absurd, than to live with unsolved or unexplained mysteries. 

Skepticism or debunking, according to Stephen Jay Gould, often receives the bad rap reserved for activities - like garbage disposal - that obviously must be done for a safe and sane life, but seem either unglamorous or unworthy of overt celebration. Yet the activity has a noble tradition, from the ancient Charvakas and Greek coinage of "skeptic" to Carl Sagan, Victor Stenger, Mark perakh, Paul Kurtz, Maichael Shermer, James Randi and Prabir Ghosh's work. This trend should be carried on. I would like to end my piece by quoting Natalie Angier.

"I don't believe in life after death, but I'd like to believe in life before death. I'd like to think that one of these days we'll leave superstition and delusional thinking behind."