Pity the ignorance

It's not really lying when one speaks from ignorance right? Right.

Most ignorance is innocent. There is just so much to know, that conversation and controversy help expose the facts and change minds. I love controversy.

But what is the correct response to invincible ignorance. Ignorance that will not change because of religious belief?

Faith and reason is a big subject for Catholics. It makes us constantly strive to bring the two together. New controversy, especially coming from science, keeps our faith fresh and exposed as we find the ways to better explain faith in the light of new discoveries from God's creation. Faith and reaon can not be in ultimate conflict because they are both God's gifts.

Invincible ignorance though, is a stand taken that resists the truth. Reason made little compared to faith will produce confusion, and confusion accompanies ignorance to the same results as confusion accompanies purposeful lies.

When there is confusion and lies, there is also present their author Satan. We need not fear him though, because even in the Bible accounts, he and his helpers do not come off as too clever. It is almost as if being the father of murder and lies, he himself is tainted by confusion.

This mufti is willing to disregard all of Roman history, if he ever knew it, by focusing on something which betrays his original premise:

"There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aksa [the mosque compound] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple," he told The Jerusalem Post via a translator. "Because Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand."

Because his allah is fair, what history records could never be true. And you know where this leads... that either his allah is wrong, or history is wrong. Invincible ignorance then demands that it must of course be history that is wrong.

Lies that cause confusion are seldom so clearly black and white. There is usually a blend of some truth, some lies, so that what is left are good people clinging to the pieces of truth that do exist, and also clinging in ignorance to the lies.

Although in the Bible accounts Satan is not too clever, there is one act of his that I think was exquisitely clever. I suspect that the angel whispering to the muslim prophet was really one of Satan's buddies. Mixing a lot of truth from the Jews and Christians, with just the right amount of lies and confusion from the author of lies and murder, and throwing in the requirement of total submission. Clever no?

Pity the ignorance. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Run the good race. God help us.

link

The former mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has made the claim that there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall was really part of a mosque.

"There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aksa [the mosque compound] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple," he told The Jerusalem Post via a translator. "Because Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand."

"The wall is not part of the Jewish temple. It is just the western wall of the mosque," he said. "There is not a single stone with any relation at all to the history of the Hebrews."

Asked if Jews would ever be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount under Muslim control, he replied: "It is not the Temple Mount, you must say Al-Aksa. And no Jews have the right to pray at the mosque. It was always only a mosque - all 144 dunams, the entire area. No Jewish prayer. If the Jews want real peace, they must not do anything to try to pray on Al-Aksa. Everyone knows that."

"Zionism tries to trick the Jews claiming that this was part of a Jewish temple, but they dug there and they found nothing," Sabri added.