• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

“It’s OK that Muhammad married a child because people didn’t live as long back then” – Really?

Aug 13, 2018 9:17 am By Stephen M. Kirby

One can still find Muslims who deny that Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage with she was nine. This is in spite of Aisha’s own words, e.g.:

“Narrated ‘Aishah that the Prophet wrote the marriage contract with her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).”[1]

“The Messenger of God came to our house and men and women of the Ansar gathered around him. My mother came to me [Aisha] while I was being swung on a swing between two branches and got me down. Jumaymah, my nurse, took over and wiped my face with some water and started leading me. When I was at the door, she stopped so I could catch my breath. I was then brought [in] while the Messenger of God was sitting on a bed in our house. [My mother] made me sit on his lap and said, “These are your relatives. May God bless you with them and bless them with you!” Then the men and women got up and left. The Messenger of God consummated his marriage with me in my house when I was nine years old.”[2]

And numerous Muslim scholars have also reported these ages of six and nine in many authoritative works over the centuries.[3]

Consequently, there are many Muslims today who do acknowledge these ages, but they rationalize it by claiming that since people on the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th Century did not live as long as we do today, things like marriage had to be done at much earlier ages. Really?

Let’s examine the claim that 7th Century Arabs had shorter life spans. We’ll start off by considering Muhammad’s eleven wives:

The Wives of Muhammad and Their Ages at Death:

Khadija[4] – age 65

Sawdah bint Zam’ah[5] – age 72

Aisha[6] – age 66

Hafsa bint ‘Umar[7] – age 61

Zaynab bint Khuzaimah[8] – age 30

Umm Salamah[9] – age 84

Zaynab bint Jahash[10] – age 51

Juwayriyyah bint al-Harith[11] – age 65

Safiyyah bint Huyay[12] – age 60

Umm Habibah bint Abu Sufyan[13] – age 73

Maymunah bint al-Harith[14] – age 80

Muhammad’s fifth wife, Zaynab bint Khuzaimah, was the exception among Muhammad’s wives in terms of age at death. Leaving Zaynab out of the equation, we find that Muhammad’s other wives died when they were between 51 and 84 years old; the average age of death was 67.7 years. Aisha herself lived to be 66.

The “Rightly Guided” Caliphs and Their Ages at Death[15]

These are the first four Muslim leaders after Muhammad died. They were called “Rightly Guided” because they are believed to have held the most firmly to the teachings and example of Muhammad.

Abu Bakr (the first Caliph) – age 63

‘Umar bin Al-Khattab (the second Caliph) – assassinated at age 63

‘Uthman bin Affan (the third Caliph) – assassinated at age 80

‘Ali bin Abi Talib (Muhammad’s cousin and fourth Caliph) – assassinated at about age 61

Muhammad died at age 62. We can see that three of his four successors also lived into their early sixties, with the fourth even reaching the age of 80 before he was assassinated.

Other Muslims and Their Ages at Death:

Let’s consider some other Muslims notable enough to be listed in various writings:

‘Abdullah bin Abbas (Muhammad’s cousin and Koran expert) – age 70

‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud (one of the most learned Muslims) – almost 70

‘Abdullah bin Umar (son of the second Caliph) – age 80

‘Abdur Rahman bin Auf (among the first eight people to accept Islam) – age 75

Abu Hurairah (close Companion of Muhammad) – about 60

Abu Qatadah Al-Ansari (the Horseman of Muhammad) – age 70

Asma bint Abi Bakr (Aisha’s older sister) – age 87

Khalid bin Walid (the Sword of Islam) – age 60

Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas (one of Muhammad’s uncles and an early convert to Islam) – age 83

Sa’eed bin Zayd (early convert to Islam) – over 70

Safiyyah bint ‘Abdul-Muttalib (aunt of Muhammad) – over 70

Salman Al-Farisi (known for his knowledge about Islam) – over 70

As we can see, these Muslims lived to between 60 and 87 years of age.

What immediately jumps to mind is the fact that those listed above actually lived life spans that are pretty common in our time. In terms of Muhammad’s eleven wives, with the exception of one, their average age of death was 67.7 years. And Aisha herself lived to be 66.

These facts refute the claim that the only reason Muhammad married a six year old child and consummated their marriage when the child was nine was because folks didn’t live as long back then.

The reality is that Muhammad married a child and consummated that marriage with the child simply because he wanted to and he could.

Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of five books about Islam. His latest book is The Lure of Fantasy Islam: Exposing the Myths and Myth Makers.

[1]           Muhammad bin Ismail bin Al-Mughirah al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari, trans. Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 1997), Vol. 7, Book 67, No. 5133, p. 57.

[2]           Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari: The Last Years of the Prophet, Vol. IX, trans. and annotated Ismail K. Poonawala (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1990), pp. 130-131.

[3]           Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 5, Book 63, No. 3894, pp. 139-140; Safiur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2008), pp. 176-177, and 562; Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri, When the Moon Split (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2009), p. 129; Abu’l Hussain ‘Asakir-ud-Din Muslim bin Hajjaj al-Qushayri al-Naisaburi, Sahih Muslim, trans. ‘Abdul Hamid Siddiqi (New Delhi, India: Adam Publishers and Distributors, 2008), Vol. 4, Nos. 1422, 1422R1 and 1422R3, pp. 353-355; Muhammad bin Yazeed ibn Majah al-Qazwini, Sunan Ibn Majah, trans. Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2007), Vol. 3, No. 1876, p. 76; Abu Dawud Sulaiman bin al-Ash’ath bin Ishaq, Sunan Abu Dawud, trans. Yaser Qadhi (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2008), Vol. 2, No. 2121, p. 540; and Vol. 5, No. 4933, p. 327; Abu ‘Abdur-Rahman Ahmad bin Shu’aib bin ‘Ali bin Sinan bin Bahr An-Nasa’i, Sunan An-Nasa’i, trans. Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2007), Vol. 4, No. 3257, p. 118, and Nos. 3380-3381, pp. 181-182; Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari: The Foundation of the Community, Vol. VII, trans. and annotated W. Montgomery Watt and M. V. McDonald (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1987), pp. 6-7; and The Honourable Wives of the Prophet, ed. Abdul Ahad (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2004), p. 42.

[4]           Brief Biography of Ist Ummul-Mumineen Syeda Tahera Khadijatul-Kubra Bint Khuwailid (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[5]           Brief Biography of IInd-Ummul-Mumineen Umme-Saudah Bint Zama (RA) –

http://www.quransearchonline.com/HTML/Biography/ilyref/saudaraz.html.

[6]           Brief Biography of IIIrd-Ummul-Mumineen A’isha Siddiqa (RA) Bint Abu Bakr Siddiq (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[7]           Brief Biography of IVth-Ummul-Mumineen Sayeda Hafsa (RA) Bint Umer Farooq (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[8]           Brief Biography of Vth-Ummul-Mumineen Zainab Bint Khuzaimah (Ummul-Masakeen)(RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[9]           Brief Biography of VIth-Ummul-Mumineen Umm-e-Salma Bint Abe Umayya (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[10]          Brief Biography of VIIth-Ummul-Mumineen Zainab Bint Jahash (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[11]          Brief Biography of VIIIth-Ummul-Mumineen Juwairiyah Bint Harith (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[12]          Brief Biography of IXth-Ummul-Mumineen Safiyah Bint Huyaiy (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[13]          Brief Biography of Xth-Ummul-Mumineen Umm-e-Habeebah (RA) Bint Abi Sufyan (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[14]          Brief Biography of XIth-Ummul-Mumineen Maimunah Bint Harith Al-Hilalia (RA) – http://www.quransearchonline.com/Home/Biography.asp.

[15]          This and the following section are based on: 1) Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul Wahhab at-Tamimi, Abridged Biography of Prophet Muhammad, ed. ‘Abdur-Rahman bin Nasir Al-Barrak, ‘Abdul ‘Azeez bin ‘Abdullah Ar-Rajihi, and Muhammad Al-‘Ali Al-Barrak (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2003); 2) Sa’d Yusuf Abu ‘Aziz, Men and Women Around the Messenger, trans. Suleman Fulani (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2009); and 3) HistoryMuslim, http://allabouthistorymuslim.blogspot.com/.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: child marriage, Featured, Muhammad Tagged With: Aisha


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Buraq says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 10:37 am

    This is the thinking behind Islam’s child bride structure. It is an integral part of a machine to conquer the world. And, by the way, the internal logic of the Islamic machine leads to its demise! Read on!

    An abundant supply of future believers is ensured by the ratio of 1 man with up to 4 wives. Slaves and dhimmis leverage the reproduction of believers by diversifying the gene pool, as well as making up for deficiencies in skill sets.
    Women join the production line as child bearers from the age of 9, in imitation of Islam’s prophet, Muhammed. Reproduction from the age of 9 assures no wastage of the years of fertility, while depriving women of education keeps them 100% dedicated to the role of reproduction. Since women are the ‘bottleneck’ in terms of human reproduction, they must be used to maximum effect.
    Islam’s efficiency is reminiscent of an ant colony or a bee hive, the Ummah acting as a single larger organism with tasks sub-divided between fighters, ideologues, and reproductive units (women). And given that there is 1 man with up to 4 women and any number of sex-slaves, a comfortable margin of men are born who can be sacrificed to jihad without a significant drag on reproductive capacity. The propagation of the religious culture also continues through migration into new territories, like Europe and America, while maintaining strict religious practices in these new countries through Madrassas or the cynically named, Faith schools. Buying time to establish itself, the Muslim immigrant declares Islam to be peaceful (taqiyya) while attacking the host country at all levels, steadily weakening the host culture it seeks to subjugate.
    One inherent disadvantage, however, is lack of intellectual development due to Islam’s anti-intellectual characteristic – Boko Haram is a prime example. A huge amount of intellectual potential is wasted (especially that of women), and anyway, Islam’s focus on destruction of competing societies and religions results in the weakening and finally the destruction of complex societies which have elevated forms of intellectual activity evidenced through music, philosophy, literature and art.
    Islam compensates for its intellectual poverty by taking what it lacks in terms of innovation and creativity from the societies it conquers and claiming them for itself. Even religious texts central to its ‘theology’ are a collection of plagiarized documents taken from pre-existing religions. Originality is not one of Islam’s strengths!
    However, Islam’s fatal flaw is its inability to adapt. The dogmatic mindset abhors innovation or change. So, when financial resources dry up – oil prices plummet, for example – or competing cultures race ahead technologically, Islam’s agenda comes under pressure. A solution would be to adapt to new circumstances and change aspects of the religion that no longer resonate with a new age of thinking and feeling. Christianity and Judaism did this. They still survive, albeit altered.
    In fact, adaptability is the key to survival. However, Islam is structured so that the belief-system itself would rather become extinct than for it to survive in a different, more peaceful form. Islam’s impetus and rationale is derived from conquest and war. Without that, it cannot continue.
    That is Islam’s fatal weakness! In other words, Islam’s demise is an integral part of its religious DNA. We only have to wait, and resist.

    • Blurb1000 says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 11:49 am

      Thank you. The best I’v read in a long time.

    • VRWC member77 says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 7:58 pm

      Excellent summation. Do you mind if I copy this and spread it around? I promise I will not claim it as my own.

      • Buraq says

        Aug 13, 2018 at 10:54 pm

        @ VRWC member77

        Thanks for the compliment! And yes, please spread the post as far and wide as possible. You don’t have to mention the source, the message is more important, I believe.

    • jayell says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 5:21 am

      “An abundant supply of future believers is ensured by the ratio of 1 man with up to 4 wives”…..on the assumption that islam is “inherited” from the man, and that all the wives and sex slaves are merely reproduction factories to produce islamic clones of the father. This stupid idea seems to be based on the fanciful thesis that (a) islam has a genetic basis when it is infact an acquired ideology, and (b) the father’s genes will automatically predominate in any offspring. Even if there is any mileage in the presumption that there might be an inherited predisposition towards islam (e.g., congenital psychopathy), this cannot guarantee that any child will remain a muslim, even given the murderous sanctions for apostasy. Also, the fact that the genetic profile of just one male will be allowed to proliferate in one population will lead to a contraction of the gene pool and resulting congenital defects (as is already evident in muslim communities worldwide) and consequent disabling of the community over a period of generations (as is also evident in the progressively poor attainment of the muslim world over the centuries) – which rather negates the idea that ‘Slaves and dhimmis leverage the reproduction of believers by diversifying the gene pool, as well as making up for deficiencies in skill sets’, because if this had been the case, muslims would have been world leaders in most if not all areas of human achievement. They haven’t been; in fact, it’s been the exact opposite!

      • Buraq says

        Aug 14, 2018 at 10:22 am

        @ jayell

        Assuming you can understand ‘the obvious’ – the definition of ‘obvious’ being ‘that which requires no further explanation – Islamic history mirrors exactly the model I have described in my post.
        And nowhere did I suggest that Islam is ‘inherited’. Islam is spread by conquest and force.

        And if you are looking for Muslims as world leaders, I offer Obama! Erdogan is another making waves at the moment.

        For the moment, I assume you are on the side of the angels, but don’t test my patience ……….
        Thanx!

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 9:26 pm

      Fine post, Buraq.

  2. mortimer says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 10:52 am

    What we know today about the psychology of child abuse makes it clear that pedophilia is an abuse of adult power and it can produce lifelong misery.

    Islam should be banned if only because it promotes pedophilia.

    • elee says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 12:08 pm

      Well stated and about time.

      (1) Raising children Muslim is child abuse;
      (2) Every Muslim was a child victim;
      (3) When and where do we break the cycle of abuse?

      The science is there for dealing with non-theocratic paedophiles. Why is there an exemption for those who claim Allah told them to do it?

  3. Rarely says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 11:17 am

    Life expectancy was very short until 20th Century medical advances. Death in child birth of mother and/or child was very common and accounts for much of the lower life expectancies. For many practical reasons early marriage was very common everywhere.
    BUT a 9 year old has ALWAYS been a child and has NEVER been a legitimate sex object.
    There is a terrible amount of pedophilia in our society but it almost always has been by lone twisted individuals. Personally I know of too many cases to count and they almost always are the acts of close relatives — super twisted.
    With muslim rape and grooming gangs it has been moved to a new level much like when Henry Ford developed the assembly line to speed up the manufacture of cars. That muslims close ranks whenever a muslim is acting illegally adds to the efficiency by providing a protective shield. I can’t see the situation improving significantly until the wider muslim community stops protecting the criminals.

    • Blurb1000 says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 11:52 am

      I can see it. Send them home and stop inviting new ones.

    • Phil Copson says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 3:09 pm

      Exactly – final life expectancy has got nothing whatsoever to do with it – marriage should be a consensual monogamous relationship between two psychologically and physically mature adults of different sexes.

      Slightly off-topic, but good to see the “average life-expectancy” canard being addressed – it’s obvious that long lives were always perfectly usual, and that the average age at death of adults is being skewed by including those who didn’t make it into adulthood in the first place.

      Publishing figures that don’t reflect the common experience is ridiculous.

      Example – you hear that the average wage at ABC Engineering is twenty-thousand per year. You apply for a job and find that the pay is only eleven-thousand per year. The figure comes from the owner’s paying himself one-hundred thousand per year and paying his nine workers only eleven-thousand. But the payroll of 1 x 100,000 plus (9 workers on 11,000 = 100,000) gives you a total of two-hundred-thousand divided between ten people equals an average of twenty-thousand each.

      But there is not a single person there who receives twenty-thousand, so the statistic is meaningless and actively misleading.

      Similarly, a police spokesman recently claimed that you shouldn’t sit in your broken-down car on the hard-shoulder of a motorway, because statistics showed that you’d be hit within 20 minutes ! This of course, is absolute cobblers – he was taking a calculation showing that cars which had been hit, were hit within twenty minutes, and then assuming that this meant that ALL broken-down cars would be hit, whereas they very obviously aren’t.

    • ann says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 6:30 pm

      Life expectancy was short among the poor, hungry, cold, and in times of war or epidemics. For well-nourished people in peaceful areas, life expectancy has always been fairly long. The Bible mentions three score and ten as being the average, or seventy years old. I’ve researched my ancestors, and most of them lived to their sixties to eighties. Medical advances really haven’t helped that much for most people. Antibiotics for severe infections have helped, but I’ve never had a life-threatening infection that antibiotics cured, nor have most people. I visited an Indian reservation once, and the guide said that the lower average lifespan was because of the relatively high infant mortality: but those babies who were strong enough to survive were strong enough for a long life. If you take out the infant deaths, then life expectancy then was comparable to now.

      Girls used to reach puberty at a later age than they do now. The ability to have a baby was really what marked a girl as being ready for marriage. Aisha was a child bride, and her marriage at six, consummation at nine, was a crime, and it set the example for many countries even now refusing to raise the age of marriage to at least eighteen.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 9:30 pm

      True.

  4. Jan Aage Jeppesen says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 11:38 am

    It is assumed that the average lifespan in Medieval Islamic Caliphates was just above 35 years. Average lifespan of scholars was 59–84.3 years in the Middle East and 69–75 in Islamic Spain.

    Source: https://www.google.dk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwijt6WGqurcAhUKsqQKHbGDB1cQFjADegQICBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLife_expectancy&usg=AOvVaw3eaDApid_aId2yr_xvEr_n

    A general much lower lifespan more than a thousand years ago cannot however justify marriage to pre pubescent girls. It can only justify marriage to post pubescent girls. The Christian dogma demanded a marriage age of 12 years for the girl and/or prof of maturity from early Middle Ages up to Modern Times. The 12 years was adopted from Roman Law and had a long life in the Christian tradition. In Denmark the first democratic penal code from 1866 stated the age of consent to be 12 years for girls. Changed in 1930 to 15 years for both male and female.

  5. PATRICIA KOENIG says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 12:50 pm

    By the 4th century, the Roman Empire established age 12 as the minimum age to marry for girls and age 14 for boys. That applied to pagans as well as Christians. Paganism had higher standards for behavior and the treatment of women that Mohammed set for Islam. In other words, Islam is worse that Arab paganism was.

  6. overman says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    You also have Imam Tawhidi of Australia saying that aisha was actually 21, but for political reasons and because they needed her to be a virgin, they reduced her age to 6 – although, lf muhammed raped her at 9 (consummation in their eyes of course) she would no longer be virginal. Strange idea, but Imam Tawhidi swears to it in this interview with Tommy Robinson. l’m not sure how to take this guy (tawhidi).

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 9:35 pm

      This is Taqiyya, despite his pose as a reformer. The Hadiths themselves confirm little Aisha’s tender age.

      Muslims never made claims like this until they had to lie to the “filthy Infidels”. They do not preach this among themselves.

  7. Mirren10 says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 2:55 pm

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/05/really-really-wishing-aisha-werent-nine

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 9:35 pm

      Thank you for that link, Mirren.

  8. Keith says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    I will be honest to me the fact that a man 1400 years ago married a child when she was 6 and then consumated that marriage when she was 9 really is of no great importance. Yes girls were married off at a young age quite often especially to cement alliances between royal houses in Europe. Their is nothing we can do about it as we are incapable of travelling back in time and stopping anything like that happening in the past.

    Having said that for me what makes Muhammads marriage to Aisha when she was 6 and the consumation at her age of 9 a major problem is simply because the koran calls Muhammad the perfect example of how a man should live his life. Many muslims support this idea.

    If an old man marrying a child is their idea of perfection to be copied they really need a reality check. It is time that western governments stopped allowing muslims to bring their child brides into our countries and prosecuted those who marry a child whilst they are here.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 9:36 pm

      Child marriage is rife among Muslims for just this reason.

  9. Peggy says

    Aug 13, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    people on the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th Century did not live as long as we do today, things like marriage had to be done at much earlier ages
    ==========================
    Well, the females didn’t and there’s their reason why.

    • overman says

      Aug 13, 2018 at 6:36 pm

      +1

  10. gravenimage says

    Aug 14, 2018 at 12:03 am

    “It’s OK that Muhammad married a child because people didn’t live as long back then” – Really?
    ……………………

    This claim is tripe for two main reasons–firstly, while in a society with shorter life spans it might make sense for people to marry young, this would still only make sense *after puberty* when they could conceive children. Ergo, finding people in their mid-to-late teens marrying might make sense, but marrying a *six year old child* never made any practical, let alone moral, sense.

    In fact, it is notable that Aisha was never able to bear children at all, even after she had gone through puberty–a likely result from being raped for the age of nine.

    It also does not explain why Muhammed–a man in his fifties–married a little six-year-old. Surely she could have married a little boy if she was going to marry at that age at all. But while this occasionally happens in Dar-al-Islam, it is *far* more common for old pedophiles to marry little children.

    Secondly, if this were the only reason for Muhammed marrying what would today be a first-grader in the Dark Ages, why are Muslims *still* marrying little children on the model of the “Prophet” today? Of course, they would not be.

    • Overman says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 4:04 am

      GI your last point destroys his argument. There should be absolutely no need to continue this barbaric practice of child abuse. Obviously, pedophilia is the only way to see it..

      • gravenimage says

        Aug 14, 2018 at 9:38 pm

        Thank you, Overman.

  11. b.a. freeman says

    Aug 14, 2018 at 10:14 am

    the fact that people actually fall for this “argument” speaks volumes about the education system, in the u.s., anyway. when it is noted that the average age of death in some past time was, say, 45, people tend to think that the distribution of number of deaths for each year of age was even, and that few lived beyond 45. up until the application of the scientific method to medicine, however, infant and child mortality was quite high, higher than the numbers of deaths at each year of adulthood. if we leave out the deaths of children, we find that adults in the 7th century, absent violent death, often lived just as long as adults today.

    so why the confusion over what should be a simple concept that every 12-year-old should understand? thank the educational system, which is run by innumerates (those who have little or no understanding of math) and magical thinkers, or, in other words, leftists. of course, before one can use the math, one must also know that one *should* use it, which means that one must first be a critical thinker who can go through a problem step by step, remembering to apply the correct tools at each point in the process. one may have a phd in math, but if one does not know how to think critically, the tools go unapplied, and the magical thinking of the hard left gets swallowed hook, line, and sinker.

    the problem that we in civilization face is that better than half of the populace may be highly trained in their fields of specialization, but they are completely untrained in thinking independently. education – *REAL* education – is the answer, but the day is ending, and it may even be too late to stop the coming wars and mass deaths. i fear that overpopulation will soon stop being even a potential problem for thousands, if not millions, of years to come.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 14, 2018 at 9:42 pm

      Exactly–good point. Infant mortality was very high centuries ago, but for those who reached adulthood the variation with life expectancy was much less. If life expectancy is, say, 40, that does not mean that most people are keeling over at that age at all.

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Walter Sieruk on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • Dude on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • Mojdeh on Audio: Robert Spencer on Muslim Brotherhood influence in a Biden/Harris administration

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.