25- Keeping people to believe in a false doctrine for 23 years is a hard thing to do. Look at the Islamic republic of Iran. After just a year or two people stopped believing that it is a good government. So how did people continue to believe in Muhammad for 23 years?

There have been many religions that have survived for many centuries.  How can a Muslim explain how these other religions are wrong, if they are believed by millions over many centuries?

Actually Muhammad did not just fool people for 23 years but for 1400 years. The difference between a government and a religion is in the claim of divinity. The Islamic Republic of Iran did not claim to be divinely ordained but that it pretended to implement the principles of a divinely ordained religion. People do allow themselves the liberty to question other people's interpretation  of the “holy scriptures” but they are unable to question the religion itself. This would mean defying God and his wisdom. Communism, Nazism or fascism are pseudo religions yet because their origin is not believed to be ordained by God and there is no infallibility associated to them, once proven faulty they are easily discarded. This awakening process however does not occur among the religious people who do not allow themselves to question the validity of their religion and the critical thinking never starts.

On the contrary religious people try to philosophize, rationalize and justify the absurdities of their religion to prove it right. In this case people are gladly WILLING to be fooled.  

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