Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Annoucing a New Series: The Quran Project

There are times that I realize that when it comes to most religions of the world, other than Christianity, that I know enough about them to realize I don't really know anything about them.

I have really wanted to learn more about other religions, it's something I never did as a young fundamentalist (at least not information that wasn't passed through the critical filter of fundamentalist writings).

 I figure the best way to see what a religion teaches is to read it's foundational texts.  After all, that's how I learned about my own former faith, Christianity, right?  I didn't know which religion to start with, but somehow, I've settled on Islam. I want to read it for the first time, and give my thoughts on the text here on the blog.

I'm going to pattern my posts somewhat after the blog that is inspiring this series, Hausdorf's Bible blog, unfortunately, I don't have the time to produce a podcast and web comic like he does, but I plan to carry this out in a similar fashion. I'll post the text, with my thoughts, and when necessary, consult resources on the Quran if I get rather confused trying to read through it, or where further clarification is necessary.

I have noticed that there are great blogs like Hausdorf's, The Wise Fool, and Dwindling in Unbelief that do a great job of providing commentary from a skeptical/atheist perspective on the Bible, but I haven't encountered any yet that are doing the same for the Quran. Well, that's going to change soon.

I won't be posting everyday, probably once or twice a week on the Quran, the text I will be going by is the  English translation available at the University of Michigan library website, check it out if you want to read along with me. The rest of the week will be my typical random thoughts on life and religion, as well as my usual series, Exposing the IFB, Exposing Extremism, and Undercover Agnostic, which have been rather popular on the blog, and from time to time, I will be writing for other blogs, as I have in the past.

I'm hoping to post my first post in this series by the end of the week, watch for it.




7 comments:

  1. Hi Sheldon,

    I look forward to your Quran Project!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks.

      I see you will have a guest post up soon on Leaving Fundamentalism, that's a great blog, I've guest posted there myself. :)

      Delete
  2. That's great! Looking forward to your commentary.

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  3. As long as no one is getting persecuted for blasphemy, I applaud the Quran Project.

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  4. This is awesome, very much looking forward to this. I am curious how you decided on the translation you chose. I looked for one on kindle, there are several but this among the limited (free) options. It is definitely different than what you referenced, but to my untrained eye they look like they say roughly the same thing.

    Who knows, maybe if I am following along with a different translation something interesting will pop up along the way.

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    Replies
    1. Go ahead, it would be interesting to see your take on the Quran.

      Delete

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