I wonder do we really need religion and the concept of God. All these religions entice one with the promises after death. And whether it is true or not can’t be proved for one would have to die for it.
Is there a God/Allah really or are they just concepts? Don’t say it is written in $%#. Has anyone seen him/her.
Don’t go on arguing against Hinduism. My question is regarding all religions. Has religion done any good to humanity. Just break all your bondages and think how beautiful a place the earth would be without the religions and the religious boundaries.
What say Junta???
Okay...let's follow your reasoning for a moment....
Pray tell, what authority would set rules of behaviour? Who would define "morality" for us?
why we pray ? what everbody want from god?
samething? can we say god answers all our prayers?
we can’t stop our minds from thinking
- how did I (mankind) came into existence
- how did everything else came into existence
- why do we “feel”?
etc.
if you can stop your mind from thinking, you are a good candidate for Army
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/wink.gif
May Allah SWT guide us all towards right and help us follow the right
[QOUTE]:
We need the "invisible" means of support?
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[This message has been edited by Khairun Nisa (edited May 23, 2002).]
Tell me has religion set rules for good behavior. If what we are seeing today is good behavior, bad behavior is better.
Regarding the question who created us; my question is if God created us, who cretaed God.
One more thing common to all religions and scriptures is they ask you not to apply logic to them and take them at face value.
If we have mind why not question the religion and scriptures.
God is just a concept for weak mind. If u r strong enuff menytally, u don't need the concept of god to guide you.
I’d like to differ. The only way to conclusively accept IS to question and not to take them at face value. For this, application of logic is the only criteria to decide your “path”. Works for me, try it. As it is said: “Belief is fine, however, only knowledge will destroy our nagging doubts”.
Read up on Pascal’s Theory/Wager on existence of God and then place your bet.
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
If God/Supreme Being doesn’t exist, you have nothing to lose and neither does the “believer”, however if the being does exist, who loses?
Pascal's Wager:
[quote]
:
"If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is ... you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked. Which will you choose then? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is."
[/quote]
[quote]
Originally posted by ajit_kumar:
Tell me has religion set rules for good behavior. If what we are seeing today is good behavior, bad behavior is better.
Regarding the question who created us; my question is if God created us, who cretaed God.
Religion does set rules for good behavior, but the problem is if the follower really follows those rules. All religions in world today are having this same problem. ALMOST all religions emphasize on human being to do good but most followers are not doing what they are asked of by their religion. So religion is not to be blamed, but the followers.
One more thing common to all religions and scriptures is they ask you not to apply logic to them and take them at face value.
If we have mind why not question the religion and scriptures.
What about a "mixup" of logic and face value? many a times human being is unable to grasp the consequences of not following a command, the result of not following are not OBVIOUS so it is better to take it at face value.
God is just a concept for weak mind. If u r strong enuff menytally, u don't need the concept of god to guide you.
I say that denial of existence of God is a concept to runaway from religion.
[/quote]
May Allah SWT guide us all towards right and help us follow the right
i seriously haven't seen ur brain...how can i believe u have it???
anyways here is a small story i once read:
once a king asked a sint to give him a proof that there was a God as he was an atheist so the saint said that okay but u'll have to wait for a few days before i answer u.
the saint lived on the other side of the river so after a few days he went to the king.
well naturally king asked how did u come so the saint said. "i was on the river bank when suddenly i tree fell and it was cut in sheets and then the sheets joined together and formed a boat and the some sheets made two oars and i sat in the boat and that boat then transported me to the other side of the river and now i am here before u."
King was puzzled and he said : " what are you saying how can a tree get cut all by itself and be made into a boat"
the saint answered " if even a small boat can't be made all by it self then how can anybody believe that this world came into exsistance all by itself and there is no God?"
Ajit i hope this answers ur query, i mean look around urself was it anything u ever wanted that came into being itself..ofcourse u would have had to make. then how can this large universe containing infinite secrets within itself can be made without anybody constructing it ...and ofcourse u or i can't make it and it requires a divine hand and that hand is of God and as i am i am a muslim so according to my belief Allah made this universe.
[quote]
Originally posted by ajit_kumar:
Tell me has religion set rules for good behavior. If what we are seeing today is good behavior, bad behavior is better..........
If u r strong enuff menytally, u don't need the concept of god to guide you.
[/quote]
Has religion set rules for good behaviour: Yes.
What we are seeing today is not necessarily the implementation of what religion teaches, so you can't judge by individual interpretation or behaviour. You have to analyze the scripture and make your conclusions from there...not what you see around you.
Question: Do you believe in the concept of God?
Of course there is a God. If there were no God, I think that we would behave more like the other animals.
God gave us a mind, and a soul. God is that little voice in your head that tells you something you are doing is wrong, the voice that gives you hope when you feel hopeless, the voice that makes you want to help others.
I don't think the world would be very beautiful at all without God in it.
God believes in you, why do you doubt him?
Brenda
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst!!!
Well, while its tempting to think that without religion all the world will be at peace. The fact is that without religion people will simply find other things to fight over. There's Nationalism, theres greed, jealosy, ego, and PRIDE.
People by nature are violent, although they have good qualities, they are by nature nothing more then smart animals. Take away religion and we will find some other thing to discriminate and hate each other over. I feel sorry for religion though, its pulled this way and that, how many people take gods name in vain, everyone thinking god is on his side. Its isn't religion that has given us a bad name, it is we that have given religion a bad name.
[quote]
Originally posted by Adnan Ahmed:
*Its isn't religion that has given us a bad name, it is we that have given religion a bad name. *
[/quote]
Precisely.
Ajit, look around the earth
its already such a beautiful place with/without religions, but tell me if say you were walking in a field and you stumbled on a stone you wouldnt think abt where it came from or how it happened to be there. Now think if you had walked into the field and you stumbled upon a watch, the first thing youd think is what the watch was doing there, howd it get there?
a watch is a purposeful thing, why? bcos its wheels and cogs etc are all interelated to make the watch function and tell you the time
now compare the watch to the universe around youm everything in orbit, following laws everythings interelated like the watch
if parts in the watch are put together in a certain way to make something happen its a purposeful object.
So isnt there a purpose to the universe? the world? theres obvious design in the world, if thres design there must be a Designer and the only answer anyone can come up with is the Designer being God
And yes i dont know abt hinduism but Islam has done plenty of good to humanity, if someone takes the negative light off it which its usually placed under then maybe ppl will realise
sorry if my philosophical speach was abit long, i have my exam tomorrow
good practice
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
but i hope youve learnt something
Sugar, spice 'n all things nice
u dont need any proof....
no matter how much u deny the existence of Allah (or call Him simply God), u will, when in utmost despair and pain, call to who????
its easy to say u wont call Him....
but deep in all our hearts we know, when we r in big big trouble, we all call on only One Being....
"O GOD" os the first word that ur tongue will utter....
maybe then u will ask urself why????
and try to find out who He is who u called....
"Our Lord! forgive us our sins and anything we may have done that transgressed our duty; establish our feet firmly and help us against those that resist faith." **Quran(3:147)
True,
thats what Pharoah did, he waited till his dying breath to declare himself a muslim,
I was reading abt this yesterday, what is amazing is that in a hadith it wa written that the angel Gibrael later revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that when Pharoah was declaring well more like grudging his belief in Allah the angel was stuffing mud in his mouth so Allah wouldnt grant him forgiveness
it just shows, it really is true abt Allah having the 99 parts of Mercy
Sugar, spice 'n all things nice
[before i go any further plzz keep in mind that religion is meant to be a complete code of life]
quote:
Originally posted by ajit_kumar:
I wonder do we really need religion and the concept of God. All these religions entice one with the promises after death. And whether it is true or not can’t be proved for one would have to die for it.
first lets keep religion aside and consider the “so called” life itself w/o religion.
ok now lets consider a simple example; being a student we use text books to prepare/learn
about that specific course/subject..
now tell me can u imagine to pass/understand a course without actually having that “text book”???
quote:
Originally posted by ajit_kumar:
Has religion done any good to humanity.
keeping in mind what i mentioned earlier
if some student[mankind] doesn’t perform very well in the course[life] isn’t because his/her textbook[holy book] was at fault or because of his/her teacher[God] and on the basis of the student’s performance we just cannot assume that the teacher,course books and course itself should not exist..
SIMILARLY.. how do u expect to live ur life without any guidance? think of religion(holy book) as the burning candle in a dark room(life)…that candle is there to guide u through the darkness…hope u get the pic!
quote:
Originally posted by ajit_kumar:
Is there a God/Allah really or are they just concepts? Don’t say it is written in $%#. Has anyone seen him/her.
u belive in love right? show it to me ?
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
u believe in ghosts/spirits? show them to me?
http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/smilies/smile.gif
there are certain things in our life which cannot be touched or seen BUT can only be “seen” through our heart/soul… Faith in God is one of them.
not to mention that believing in God is a blind faith..and sometimes it can take a life time to achieve that…and following religion is part obedience and part logic..
hope what i mentioned helped u to understand the existence of God.
Heart beat,
Thanks for the logical analysis. Taking your example that religion is like a book and can't be held responsible for the present condition. Let me ask you why did we ban drugs, weapons etc. Certainly these things are in-animate and it is we who use them. But yet we have banned them.
In the same way, religious texts though were meant to guide us, have guided humanity to more wrongs than rights. These scriptures are so cryptic and ambiguous that they can be interpreted in variety of ways. Note that suicide bombers, gujarat genociders as well as the sufis and sanyasis quote the religious scriptures. It is not the suicide bombers who are aT FAULT- they are innocent young men indoctrinated with a particular interpretition of scriptures. When the scriptures are so confusing, why not ban them.
Remember a common thing in all scriptures - all of them tantalize us with the life after death. We are gullible enuff to be trapped by this. All of them say to take them at face value.
My question is why shouldn't religion be banned. Take the example of South-East Asia, in this piece of land, religion plays a very important part in the lives of everyone - from beggars to rich men. Yet where are we compared to the west(when religion is just a lip service)- poor. Why? West beleives in life here, we beleive in life after death.
If SE Asia wants to progress we must ban religion and confine all the religious texts to museums.
My vision is to see a developed SE Asia(not just India) and the only way out is to ban religion. We SEaSIANS have the energy and intellect to surpass the West but we invest our talent in religion and our young men are dying for having a good life after death. It is high time we give up this vice of religion and god.
As regards your saying Islam has done good to humanity, i have no doubt over it. Islam like other religions did good to humanity but it has done and is doing more bad to humanity now. Just go and trace your family history and you will find the atrocities which forced your ancestors to embrace Islam.(Certainly no-one would ditch his religion on his own and Islam didn't originate in SEAsia and not all of us migrated from arabia))
Btw, best of luck for your exams.
[This message has been edited by ajit_kumar (edited June 02, 2002).]
ajit, your argument of banning is just silly. Drugs do not disappear from a culture just because they are anned. US has spent a lot of money trying to interdict and stop the use of drugs. It has very little to show for it. You want to control how and what people think? Impossible! If someone wants to believe and think certain thoughts, how are you going to ban that?
Here is a suggestion: instead of banning encourage the use of new technologies to spread the word around. In the old days, religious discussions led to someone being declared an apostate or a kafir and getting his head chopped off. Now in the internet age, you can present your arguments, and let people decide for themselves. As you can see on this forum that some people malign certain religions in the crassest terms. Does that convince anyone of their viewpoint? So instead of banning, I suggest the total opposite: let the truth shine. Superstition, irrational belefs, nonsensical faiths, etc. etc. will lose their hold.