Best religion (part two)

Before I forget. In the section on Islam below I need to add its two saving graces. Sufism and surrender. The best thing about Islam is this.

Lie on your back. Bear in mind that (apparently) the proportional size of human beings represents the half way point between the smallest thing there is and the biggest. Now zoom in your thoughts on something small, like an ant, and then imagine an ants eyes, then the components of an ants eyes. Then its molecules, its atoms, its electrons etc. Stop, zoom out, go past yourself to the room you are in, the house, the city, the country, the continent, the globe, the solar system, the universe. Do this consciously and slowly. Then ask yourself - given that such complexity, magnitude and details is uncomprehensible to me, do I have any other alternative than to surrender before its glory. Recognise my utter insignificance. This is part of Islam.

Sufism, popular in parts of the Islamic world, takes this logic a stage further and introduces various exercises to develop this understanding and therefore place useful limits on self obsession, me-ness and ego.

Added to this, fasting is a very useful activity.

So yes, there are bits of Islam that are great.

It falls down on the bits that are bedded in real historical moments. Because its followers were warriors their momentary battles mix with the universal message. Like Christianity, it converted through the sword. And still tries to.

Oh, Paradox was going to talk about the Bahai...

There is always a tomorrow.