I just thought of a quick analogy. I've blogged on this subject before, explaining God's all knowing-ness in rather scientific and using imagery from physics terminology. I thought of another analogy that is less "clinical" and probably more comfortable for day to day contemplation.
This modern generation, full of guilty consciences and much to hide, ha, is not comfortable with the thought of an all knowing God. Ancient humans found that reassuring and so Biblical souls had comfort in knowing that God knew all that they did moment by moment, largely because they were more natural and less self conscious than people today. People today ask astronauts (cosmonauts) and God similar things, worrying about going to the bathroom, sex and so forth. In other words, privacy in modern times has been polarized into exhibitionism and its opposite, unfounded shame in natural functions. Thus modern people are uncomfortable at thinking about an all knowing God, differing from previous generations by far.
So here is an analogy that will help with this discomfort. Do not think of God as the "eye in the sky" or using a visionary means, since it's not even theologically or physically accurate anyway. Remember that God created humans, the universe, and is present among people as the Holy Spirit, who moves among all people like the wind, or the water. So it would be accurate and perhaps more comforting to think of God's all knowness as being like the air that is breathed, oxygenates the body, and is expelled, moving in constant cycle through the bodies of the living and also among the landscape's features. It is not so much that the air is "watching" anyone, but the air obviously knows how it is being used. So it's not like God is looking with eyes when someone tells a lie, for example, but God knows about the lie because the lie is spoken with air, and air is present throughout all everywhere.
Or think of God's all knowing as being like invisible water that flows among and through all. When one's heart is hard and one sins or is uncharitable, it is like a rock being put into place (we could make a pun that it is like a dam, ha) and the water must move around the rock, so obviously the water "notices." It's not like the water is "watching" at that moment, but the water is shaped by all that one does and thinks. Later when one is in God's presence and judged, he knows all that you have done because his spirit moved, like air or water among you all, and retains the shape of one's thoughts and deeds, and how one has lived one's life.
It is also more accurate because God is interactive on an individual basis, not just "the observer." Through the Holy Spirit God constantly tries to inspire people to be loving, kind, righteous, strong and hating of sin. So the Holy Spirit is like a warm wind that blows when one is cold, or a cool breeze that blows when one is hot, or water that flows, either impeded or unimpeded, according to one's own actions. It is thus a more accurate way to describe God's all knowingness than to think of him as the constant judging observer of one's every deed.
I hope that is a helpful pointer to a less clinical description of how God knows all.
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Bible Reading: Esther A:4-10
This was his dream. There was noise and tumult, thunder and earthquake-confusion upon the earth. Two great dragons came on, both poised for combat. They uttered a mighty cry, and at their cry every nation prepared for war, to fight against the race of the just. It as a dark and gloomy day. Tribulation and distress, evil and great confusion, lay upon the earth. The whole race of the just were dismayed with fear of the evils to come upon them, and were at the point of destruction. Then they cried out to God, and as they cried, there appeared to come forth a great river, a flood of water from a little spring.
The light of the sun broke forth; the lowly were exalted and they devoured the nobles.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Crash course in water pollution & contamination
One typical article of new developments, about Chicago starting water testing:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-waterfoloapr18,1,4136982.story
There's a lot in the news about this (FINALLY! Time's a wasting). So many have obsessed about carbon in the air that no one has paid attention to a far more serious problem, which is the contamination of the water supplies of the earth. Here's a crash course in the basics so you can understand better what's happening.
Water rolls downhill. It starts with rain from the sky and the melting of snow from high elevations every spring. This fills the bodies of water from which municipalities draw their water supplies. This is why during drought and after mild winters (of little snow), reservoirs start to get low and even run dry. People who are not connected to public water get their water from wells. Wells tap what is called the "ground water table." That is a layer of water that exists underground all the time. How much water is there and how easy it is to reach varies also according to drought. Sometimes wells "go dry" first. Sometimes municipal sources dry first while wells still supply. It varies according to the region of country and the weather.
Water enters your house in "drinkable" form (the technical term is potable). However it leaves in "undrinkable form" because obviously it is flushed down toilets and runs down your sink. Pipes take it to municipal treatment plants. Many are very primitive and only take the basic physical stuff out of it, plus disinfect, before emptying it into the ground again. They don't pour it right back into the reservoir but since it goes into the nearby bodies of water and the groundwater, whatever is in the waste water ends up in your water supply sooner or later again, and also in the environment (plants, animals and dirt) around you. So when people take drugs, both prescription and illegal, and pee it out, treatment plants do NOT have the capability to remove it. It ends up in the groundwater table, in lakes, in water supplies, and in the bodies of plants and animals, and the soil throughout your environment. This is why some fish have extreme deformities, especially of sex organs. They are exposed to the drugs humans pee out of their systems (and that manufacturers flush from their factories). So everything that you flush down the toilet or sink that is a chemical (including cleaning agents) does not "go away." Sooner or later it bounces back to your water supply and also ends up in your body tissue and that of plants and animals.
Now, water that falls as rain is like a big car wash. It carries along with it all the dirt that it strikes on house, building, road, farm and factory surfaces. In towns you have what is called "storm sewers." Run off from rain goes down these grates in the street and are directed "downhill" toward nearby bodies of water, such as streams, rivers and lakes. Obviously nothing is treated, since it does not go through the sewage treatment plants. All layers of dirt and contamination are washed by the rain into your ground and water supply, concentrating in its flooding whatever it picks up.
This is why, for example, you would not want to drink rainwater that runs off of your roof. While rain is pure in that it only contains what it picks up in the atmosphere as it falls (both natural or pollution), as it hits your roof it washes minute traces of the man made materials and chemicals that your roof is made up of, such as the shingles, tar, preservative and metal. Rain that falls on roads washes the roads of minute amounts of the road material itself, natural dirt, and also the exhaust of cars, oil, and other things that accumulate and stick to the roads. Where it falls on the ground it dissolves and washes away dog doo, garbage, and whatever materials it hits. On a farm that is a serious problem because this is where the large amounts of animal waste is hit by rain and washes along with the rain. Pollution as I listed above that results from the rain washing man made and animal surfaces is called "nonpoint" pollution. It's because it is a continual wave of pollution, rather than from a specific source of pollution, like the output of a factory or school.
Nonpoint pollution is also a HUGE problem because it has overwhelmed the natural cleansing that the earth systems can process on its own. This is because much of what is washed away are man made chemicals, not meant to be broken down into harmless components by nature. People remember that there was a huge bank breaking clean up required when PCB's sank to the bottom of bodies of water like the Hudson River. Nature can break down cow doo, for example, but nature cannot easily break down compounds of material that humans have manufactured, such as drugs, plastics and chemicals. Even cow doo becomes a problem if too much enters a natural body of water than it can clean on its own in a given time. One example is in Albuquerque where the Rio Grande river actually had too much dog poo to keep clean on its own, and the mayor and the governor have to continually educate people that their dog doo, small as it seems, is adding up and overwhelming the river (a water supply, by the way).
The HUGE example of this is that nonpoint pollution has been recently in the news. This is the increasing "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, where for many square miles not a single fish or marine animal can live. The water is "dead" because of nonpoint pollution that runs off the coast of Texas. When huge quantities of any substance are endlessly poured into nature's ecosystems, even the powers of nature to break them down and process them are overwhelmed. People have thought the oceans are endless and can rejuvenate. Well, they cannot. Not only are the oceans choking on nonpoint pollution, but also the dumping of municipal garbage and sewage is overwhelming the ocean, plus the "litter," that is found all the way to Antarctica by the ton. The oceans are unable to recover from the quantities of unprocessed pollution poured into them. If the oceans pass the point of no return, so will humanity, mark my words on this and heed. While the oceans are not the source of drinking water (except through desalination), they are the kitchen for so much nutrition for the world's people, for the animals that occupy the ocean and the oceans are also the main generators of the weather systems that allow life to occur on earth.
The pollution of both fresh and sea water is THE global ecosystem crisis, more so than carbon based "climate change" worries. Carbon can be easily managed, and it is not an unnatural substance. The pollution that contaminates drinking water and sea water is man made and life altering artificial substances, combined with unmanageable amounts of natural pollution. If I'm scaring you I am glad, though I'm certainly not glad about the situation. There's hell to be paid on earth if the pollution of water continues unabated. Environmentalists do no favor to the environment by painting humans as the "enemy" and the "polluters." Years before human civilization the oceans teemed with life. It is estimated that the whales that are rare now numbered in the many MILLIONS. But the whales gobble food and take a crap in the ocean, just as humans do. So it is not like animals are all "noble" and people are old mean polluters, they are not. The key is that the oceans were able to process large amounts of natural effluent from animals because it was in balance using natural processes on natural effluent. It's not like the whales were crapping plastic and anti-depressants. The gift of life means that people should be able to multiple and prosper and give life to babies and their children. The earth can support billions more people than already exist. "Overpopulation" is anti-life propaganda. What should be done is the return of many people who focus on the harvesting and natural replacement of earth's resources, just as most humans used to be farmers. Rather than worry about minimizing "foot print," people should study ecosystems and use technology to cleanse what we do utilize and discard, and restock and recharge the parts of the earth that are under too much strain. The technology already exists. It is crucial that people start thinking in a cleansing and restocking strategy of "recharging the earth's batteries" so that earth can optimize its own natural processes. The water crisis is the ideal, and essential, critical, vital place to start.
I do hope this helps with perspective, ideas and background. Thanks for your attention and support in advance.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-waterfoloapr18,1,4136982.story
There's a lot in the news about this (FINALLY! Time's a wasting). So many have obsessed about carbon in the air that no one has paid attention to a far more serious problem, which is the contamination of the water supplies of the earth. Here's a crash course in the basics so you can understand better what's happening.
Water rolls downhill. It starts with rain from the sky and the melting of snow from high elevations every spring. This fills the bodies of water from which municipalities draw their water supplies. This is why during drought and after mild winters (of little snow), reservoirs start to get low and even run dry. People who are not connected to public water get their water from wells. Wells tap what is called the "ground water table." That is a layer of water that exists underground all the time. How much water is there and how easy it is to reach varies also according to drought. Sometimes wells "go dry" first. Sometimes municipal sources dry first while wells still supply. It varies according to the region of country and the weather.
Water enters your house in "drinkable" form (the technical term is potable). However it leaves in "undrinkable form" because obviously it is flushed down toilets and runs down your sink. Pipes take it to municipal treatment plants. Many are very primitive and only take the basic physical stuff out of it, plus disinfect, before emptying it into the ground again. They don't pour it right back into the reservoir but since it goes into the nearby bodies of water and the groundwater, whatever is in the waste water ends up in your water supply sooner or later again, and also in the environment (plants, animals and dirt) around you. So when people take drugs, both prescription and illegal, and pee it out, treatment plants do NOT have the capability to remove it. It ends up in the groundwater table, in lakes, in water supplies, and in the bodies of plants and animals, and the soil throughout your environment. This is why some fish have extreme deformities, especially of sex organs. They are exposed to the drugs humans pee out of their systems (and that manufacturers flush from their factories). So everything that you flush down the toilet or sink that is a chemical (including cleaning agents) does not "go away." Sooner or later it bounces back to your water supply and also ends up in your body tissue and that of plants and animals.
Now, water that falls as rain is like a big car wash. It carries along with it all the dirt that it strikes on house, building, road, farm and factory surfaces. In towns you have what is called "storm sewers." Run off from rain goes down these grates in the street and are directed "downhill" toward nearby bodies of water, such as streams, rivers and lakes. Obviously nothing is treated, since it does not go through the sewage treatment plants. All layers of dirt and contamination are washed by the rain into your ground and water supply, concentrating in its flooding whatever it picks up.
This is why, for example, you would not want to drink rainwater that runs off of your roof. While rain is pure in that it only contains what it picks up in the atmosphere as it falls (both natural or pollution), as it hits your roof it washes minute traces of the man made materials and chemicals that your roof is made up of, such as the shingles, tar, preservative and metal. Rain that falls on roads washes the roads of minute amounts of the road material itself, natural dirt, and also the exhaust of cars, oil, and other things that accumulate and stick to the roads. Where it falls on the ground it dissolves and washes away dog doo, garbage, and whatever materials it hits. On a farm that is a serious problem because this is where the large amounts of animal waste is hit by rain and washes along with the rain. Pollution as I listed above that results from the rain washing man made and animal surfaces is called "nonpoint" pollution. It's because it is a continual wave of pollution, rather than from a specific source of pollution, like the output of a factory or school.
Nonpoint pollution is also a HUGE problem because it has overwhelmed the natural cleansing that the earth systems can process on its own. This is because much of what is washed away are man made chemicals, not meant to be broken down into harmless components by nature. People remember that there was a huge bank breaking clean up required when PCB's sank to the bottom of bodies of water like the Hudson River. Nature can break down cow doo, for example, but nature cannot easily break down compounds of material that humans have manufactured, such as drugs, plastics and chemicals. Even cow doo becomes a problem if too much enters a natural body of water than it can clean on its own in a given time. One example is in Albuquerque where the Rio Grande river actually had too much dog poo to keep clean on its own, and the mayor and the governor have to continually educate people that their dog doo, small as it seems, is adding up and overwhelming the river (a water supply, by the way).
The HUGE example of this is that nonpoint pollution has been recently in the news. This is the increasing "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, where for many square miles not a single fish or marine animal can live. The water is "dead" because of nonpoint pollution that runs off the coast of Texas. When huge quantities of any substance are endlessly poured into nature's ecosystems, even the powers of nature to break them down and process them are overwhelmed. People have thought the oceans are endless and can rejuvenate. Well, they cannot. Not only are the oceans choking on nonpoint pollution, but also the dumping of municipal garbage and sewage is overwhelming the ocean, plus the "litter," that is found all the way to Antarctica by the ton. The oceans are unable to recover from the quantities of unprocessed pollution poured into them. If the oceans pass the point of no return, so will humanity, mark my words on this and heed. While the oceans are not the source of drinking water (except through desalination), they are the kitchen for so much nutrition for the world's people, for the animals that occupy the ocean and the oceans are also the main generators of the weather systems that allow life to occur on earth.
The pollution of both fresh and sea water is THE global ecosystem crisis, more so than carbon based "climate change" worries. Carbon can be easily managed, and it is not an unnatural substance. The pollution that contaminates drinking water and sea water is man made and life altering artificial substances, combined with unmanageable amounts of natural pollution. If I'm scaring you I am glad, though I'm certainly not glad about the situation. There's hell to be paid on earth if the pollution of water continues unabated. Environmentalists do no favor to the environment by painting humans as the "enemy" and the "polluters." Years before human civilization the oceans teemed with life. It is estimated that the whales that are rare now numbered in the many MILLIONS. But the whales gobble food and take a crap in the ocean, just as humans do. So it is not like animals are all "noble" and people are old mean polluters, they are not. The key is that the oceans were able to process large amounts of natural effluent from animals because it was in balance using natural processes on natural effluent. It's not like the whales were crapping plastic and anti-depressants. The gift of life means that people should be able to multiple and prosper and give life to babies and their children. The earth can support billions more people than already exist. "Overpopulation" is anti-life propaganda. What should be done is the return of many people who focus on the harvesting and natural replacement of earth's resources, just as most humans used to be farmers. Rather than worry about minimizing "foot print," people should study ecosystems and use technology to cleanse what we do utilize and discard, and restock and recharge the parts of the earth that are under too much strain. The technology already exists. It is crucial that people start thinking in a cleansing and restocking strategy of "recharging the earth's batteries" so that earth can optimize its own natural processes. The water crisis is the ideal, and essential, critical, vital place to start.
I do hope this helps with perspective, ideas and background. Thanks for your attention and support in advance.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Qur'an reading and commentary
Here is a reading from the Qur’an and a brief explanation.
Surah 14:32-33
Allah is He Who created the heavens and the earth and send down water from the clouds, then brought forth with it fruits as a sustenance for you, and He has made the ships subservient to you, that they might run their course in the sea by His command, and He has made the rivers subservient to you.
And He has made subservient to you the sun and the moon pursuing their courses, and He has made subservient to you the night and the day.
***
The first verse is very straightforward and easy to understand. It is a beautiful imagery of how Allah created the goodness that humans benefit from. He created the heavens and the earth, and the waters that not only rain but also nourish the agriculture of the land, and provide a means for transportation. So this section reminds the reader that Allah created heaven and earth and describes the benefits of the water that falls from the sky and how Allah gives humans the intelligence and physical dexterity to use the rains and waters to drink, use in agriculture, and for transport that humans can control.
But one might be puzzled by the second verse where it is stated that Allah makes subservient to humans the sun and the moon, and the night and the day. How can that be? Humans do not physically control the skies or the length of the day, or the movement of the sun and moon. So what does this mean? The explanation is clear when you pay close attention to the linkage between the first verse and the second. Allah sends the rain (which man does not control) but it goes into predictable placements, that is, the sea and the rivers. Humans are given the means by Allah to control the waters by virtue that humans can build irrigation canals, built and sail ships, and manage the rivers through walls and other systems to create lakes and to change their course. So the end result of the God given water is that humans can control the output, the results of the God given rain. This is a deliberate lead-in for the second verse. Obviously humans do not decree that the sun moves here, the moon there, and the day and the night are of these lengths. God did that in the beginning. But God gave humans the gift of the light and heat of the sun, and the rest and coolness of the moon at night so that humans have the energy of the sun and the timing of the moon (the ability to tell time). So humans have control over the sun in that they understand when it appears and when crops can be planted and outdoor life (in this time before electricity) can be lived. The subservience means that sunlight, warmth and timing are understandable by humans and can be used at their will. Why would Allah use the word “subservience” though to mean “usable?” Would it not be clearer if Allah said, “Don’t forget I control the sun, the moon, the night and the day, but I let you benefit from the results?” Not really because that misses the point. Allah is pointing out the nature of his gift to humans so that they do not take it for granted. Suppose that Allah did not create the sun and moon to be “subservient” to humans. The sun might pop out for only three hours of sunlight and heat one day, disappear for two days so that people are in darkness for forty-eight hours, then the moon would suddenly appear and zoom across the sky, but not return when it was expected, and so forth. Humans would not be able to have clocks, grow crops that rely on sunshine, nor have regular routines of work and rest. So God makes the sun and moon “subservient to human’s needs.” Can anyone think of a better system than these three hundreds plus of days in the year, each divided into day (work) and night (rest), where by day the sun warms and plants grow while animals thrive, and in the night it cools and there is rest, except for the animals who thrive in the night? God did not establish the sun and the moon and the day and night cycles for the benefit of algae, or frogs, or camels, or birds, or tigers. They live within the cycle that was created and optimized by God for the benefit of humans, since God in his infinite wisdom knew that this system is the greatest health and spiritual benefit of humans to thrive. People like to read science fiction where other planets are near a big red sun or having different color moons zooming around, but trust me, people would not thrive there as they do in this “system” of days and night guided by the reliable and punctual movements of regularity of the sun and the moon. We know this much better in modern times as we see people with "SAD" (seasonal affective disorder) and depression when there is too much unnatural office lighting, not enough sleep and so forth. God "tuned" the sun and moon, day and night perfectly for human health and goodness and deviating from natural cycles causes many problems with illness and spiritual disorders.
This is the meaning of the passage. It is not “permission” to attempt to control other people through astrology and fortunetelling. When you read scriptures in the full context you do not make errors of thinking that God is giving some sort of hint as to extraordinary occult power that humans should seize and abuse. Far from it; his entire passage is a reminder of reasons to be grateful to God. This is obvious to the reader who reads the entire passage in context that this is instruction from Allah, not a series of hints about more power to seize.
Let me be even plainer, not for my Muslim brothers and sisters, but for profane “new agers” who are always trolling for justification for their power seeking over others. If Allah was using this passage as “permission” for “astrology” he would have phrased it consistently as he does in the Torah, Gospel and here throughout the Qur’an. God would not have said that the sun and moon are subservient, because that is obviously a statement of gift. God would have said, “And people will be subservient to other people who understand the movements of the planets and use them wisely to manage and manipulate their lives, so that there will be a class of people who are the astrologers and a class of people who are the subjects. And just as in the Torah I outlined the duties of master and slave here are the duties of astrologer and subject.” Can you imagine God ever making such a statement when he is very clear about the forbidden activity of fortunetelling and prophesy that is not directly from God’s servants the prophets? Obviously not; God would never make this statement, he never has and he never will. Islam in particular is distinguished as the faith among the three brotherly faiths that is most distancing itself from a caste system or codification of slave and servant. For example the Haj is where all are equal before Allah. Astrologers do not march around one tier and the lower people they control around another tier. Astrologers do not get to Haj during the choice times in chariots while the ordinary ignorant must Haj when it is hottest, most crowded and on the unpaved dirt roads. So it would be an unbelievable mistake to misinterpret this beautiful passage as anything but that it is a reminder of the reliability of the life giving physical gifts (water, light, heat, coolness, and dark) that the Lord gives to humans. It is very obvious in closing to read the next passage.
And He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you count Allah’s favors, you will not be able to number them, must surely man is very unjust, very ungrateful. (Surah 14:34).
Notice that Allah “gives you” “of” “all that you ask Him.” Allah does not give humans everything; he does not give “all.” He gives them the portion they need, the “of all.” So this passage is a reminder of the many gifts that humans have openly received from Allah, and a reminder to be grateful, not a hint that like greedy children you should dig for more gifts when you already have received such abundance that you are too unmindful to make even a complete list!
I hope these comments are useful to all readers of my blog posting here.
Surah 14:32-33
Allah is He Who created the heavens and the earth and send down water from the clouds, then brought forth with it fruits as a sustenance for you, and He has made the ships subservient to you, that they might run their course in the sea by His command, and He has made the rivers subservient to you.
And He has made subservient to you the sun and the moon pursuing their courses, and He has made subservient to you the night and the day.
***
The first verse is very straightforward and easy to understand. It is a beautiful imagery of how Allah created the goodness that humans benefit from. He created the heavens and the earth, and the waters that not only rain but also nourish the agriculture of the land, and provide a means for transportation. So this section reminds the reader that Allah created heaven and earth and describes the benefits of the water that falls from the sky and how Allah gives humans the intelligence and physical dexterity to use the rains and waters to drink, use in agriculture, and for transport that humans can control.
But one might be puzzled by the second verse where it is stated that Allah makes subservient to humans the sun and the moon, and the night and the day. How can that be? Humans do not physically control the skies or the length of the day, or the movement of the sun and moon. So what does this mean? The explanation is clear when you pay close attention to the linkage between the first verse and the second. Allah sends the rain (which man does not control) but it goes into predictable placements, that is, the sea and the rivers. Humans are given the means by Allah to control the waters by virtue that humans can build irrigation canals, built and sail ships, and manage the rivers through walls and other systems to create lakes and to change their course. So the end result of the God given water is that humans can control the output, the results of the God given rain. This is a deliberate lead-in for the second verse. Obviously humans do not decree that the sun moves here, the moon there, and the day and the night are of these lengths. God did that in the beginning. But God gave humans the gift of the light and heat of the sun, and the rest and coolness of the moon at night so that humans have the energy of the sun and the timing of the moon (the ability to tell time). So humans have control over the sun in that they understand when it appears and when crops can be planted and outdoor life (in this time before electricity) can be lived. The subservience means that sunlight, warmth and timing are understandable by humans and can be used at their will. Why would Allah use the word “subservience” though to mean “usable?” Would it not be clearer if Allah said, “Don’t forget I control the sun, the moon, the night and the day, but I let you benefit from the results?” Not really because that misses the point. Allah is pointing out the nature of his gift to humans so that they do not take it for granted. Suppose that Allah did not create the sun and moon to be “subservient” to humans. The sun might pop out for only three hours of sunlight and heat one day, disappear for two days so that people are in darkness for forty-eight hours, then the moon would suddenly appear and zoom across the sky, but not return when it was expected, and so forth. Humans would not be able to have clocks, grow crops that rely on sunshine, nor have regular routines of work and rest. So God makes the sun and moon “subservient to human’s needs.” Can anyone think of a better system than these three hundreds plus of days in the year, each divided into day (work) and night (rest), where by day the sun warms and plants grow while animals thrive, and in the night it cools and there is rest, except for the animals who thrive in the night? God did not establish the sun and the moon and the day and night cycles for the benefit of algae, or frogs, or camels, or birds, or tigers. They live within the cycle that was created and optimized by God for the benefit of humans, since God in his infinite wisdom knew that this system is the greatest health and spiritual benefit of humans to thrive. People like to read science fiction where other planets are near a big red sun or having different color moons zooming around, but trust me, people would not thrive there as they do in this “system” of days and night guided by the reliable and punctual movements of regularity of the sun and the moon. We know this much better in modern times as we see people with "SAD" (seasonal affective disorder) and depression when there is too much unnatural office lighting, not enough sleep and so forth. God "tuned" the sun and moon, day and night perfectly for human health and goodness and deviating from natural cycles causes many problems with illness and spiritual disorders.
This is the meaning of the passage. It is not “permission” to attempt to control other people through astrology and fortunetelling. When you read scriptures in the full context you do not make errors of thinking that God is giving some sort of hint as to extraordinary occult power that humans should seize and abuse. Far from it; his entire passage is a reminder of reasons to be grateful to God. This is obvious to the reader who reads the entire passage in context that this is instruction from Allah, not a series of hints about more power to seize.
Let me be even plainer, not for my Muslim brothers and sisters, but for profane “new agers” who are always trolling for justification for their power seeking over others. If Allah was using this passage as “permission” for “astrology” he would have phrased it consistently as he does in the Torah, Gospel and here throughout the Qur’an. God would not have said that the sun and moon are subservient, because that is obviously a statement of gift. God would have said, “And people will be subservient to other people who understand the movements of the planets and use them wisely to manage and manipulate their lives, so that there will be a class of people who are the astrologers and a class of people who are the subjects. And just as in the Torah I outlined the duties of master and slave here are the duties of astrologer and subject.” Can you imagine God ever making such a statement when he is very clear about the forbidden activity of fortunetelling and prophesy that is not directly from God’s servants the prophets? Obviously not; God would never make this statement, he never has and he never will. Islam in particular is distinguished as the faith among the three brotherly faiths that is most distancing itself from a caste system or codification of slave and servant. For example the Haj is where all are equal before Allah. Astrologers do not march around one tier and the lower people they control around another tier. Astrologers do not get to Haj during the choice times in chariots while the ordinary ignorant must Haj when it is hottest, most crowded and on the unpaved dirt roads. So it would be an unbelievable mistake to misinterpret this beautiful passage as anything but that it is a reminder of the reliability of the life giving physical gifts (water, light, heat, coolness, and dark) that the Lord gives to humans. It is very obvious in closing to read the next passage.
And He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you count Allah’s favors, you will not be able to number them, must surely man is very unjust, very ungrateful. (Surah 14:34).
Notice that Allah “gives you” “of” “all that you ask Him.” Allah does not give humans everything; he does not give “all.” He gives them the portion they need, the “of all.” So this passage is a reminder of the many gifts that humans have openly received from Allah, and a reminder to be grateful, not a hint that like greedy children you should dig for more gifts when you already have received such abundance that you are too unmindful to make even a complete list!
I hope these comments are useful to all readers of my blog posting here.
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