Why should one believe in God?

Society Religion & Philosophy
21

No religion gives a satsfactory explanation for the existance of life, evolution , origin of the universe, and all other things which are usually cited as reason why people believe in God.

Genesis in The Bible and stories of creation of the universe in Hinduism don't connect up much with the evidence we have. I don't think The Quran mentions much about the origin of the universe. Though people do keep trying to match latest scientific findings with verses in holy texts, it is pretty clear that most such stuff is optimistic thinking.

Science , on the other hand, is able to put forth much more convincing theories for the presently "unexplainable" stuff.

Yet, most people prefer to hold on to a religion, and believe in a God as preached by the religion.

22

The fact that life looks complex does not mean that there is some strange mechanism is working behind the scenes. Very simple rules can lead to complex systems. Look at Chinese game 'go'. Very simple rules, dynamics is so complex.

23

Assalam Alaikum

Mr Xtreme,

Subhanallah, that was any excellent essay.

Queer,

I think that most of what we are discussing is based on assumptions, I made the incorrect assumptions about Hinduism and Christianity and you're making the same assumptions about Islam and I don't know why nobody corrected you.

God is not male in Islam. God has no gender. The reason why we speak of God as He is purely because we are discussing in english.

What I meant when I said that the Islamic idea is far more superior is because of the proofs that we have and the strength of the proofs that we have.

Women do worship in mosques and are allowed too. There isn't an obligation on a woman to pray in the mosque i.e. she is not sinful but, a man would be sinful for not praying in the mosque. A man can't read the Friday prayer at home but a woman can.

Women were only given the right to vote a couple of decades ago but where Islam is concerned it is 1400 years ago. At that time the non-Muslims considered women to be inferior, girls were buried alive and basically women were'nt given any rights at all. When you see that at that period of time a way of life came that elevated the status of a woman from nothing to an equal citizen then how can you say that Islam is male dominated.

If today there was a law passed giving women the right to marry 2,3 or 4 men because in certain places it is allowed for a man to marry more than one woman, not just in Islam other places too. Muslims wouldn't allow this and be strongly against it and then you would again accuse Islam of being male dominated etc. but you don't see that these rights have just been made up in the head of some politician or lawmaker. Where do these rights come from? Why is it wrong to go against these rights?

Why would Muslims change their ideas which we believe are the words of God to suit non-Muslim ideas?

I don't agree with the theory of evolution. When one animal or whatever changes to suit its situation then that's one thing but when you look at the human eye, the human ear, the surinam toads... I would you agree that most things happen as a reaction like in the giraffe's case but how do three parts of the eye which make up the eye evolve at the same time by pure chance. Would the lens, the retina and the cornea suddenly show up at once at the same time?

Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?

What I have been taught is that anyone who has not heard of Islam cannot be accused of rejecting Islam so they will not go to hell i.e. not all non-Muslims will go to hell because kufr means to cover up or reject. Also we don't believe that Muslims will go straight to heaven. Some will and some won't but if anyone reads the shahada at least once in their life with full belief and the purest intention of being a Muslim then Heaven is guaranteed at some stage after death.

May Allah (S.W.T.) forgive our sins.

24

queer,

I forgot to ask,

What are the main methods of estimating the age of the earth?

25

Mudasser,
Let me answer your questions in a very direct way:
You say
"Why would Muslims change their ideas which we believe are the words of God to suit non-Muslim ideas"?
Fundamentalist Muslims need to get together and revise their intrepretations to reflect a more humanitarian Islam; your intrepretations of Islam are outdated, faulty and primitive and is in conflict with a humane world which is beginning to see Fundamentalist Islam more as a political movement rather than a religion; and, my friend - political movements can be outlawed!
You also state:
"Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell"?
Again, if your mullah or ulema has advised you that only muslims or in this case, Sunni muslims are true beleivers or jahanatti (blessed with eventual paradise) and all others are jahanammi (condemned to hell) then please be advised that your Sunni intrepretation of Islam is gravely in error and delusionary. Please also take serious note: Fundamentalist extremist muslims use exactly this notion of their 'superiority' to commit their heinous crimes or genocide against humanity.
Considering above makes it kind of irrelevant for you to get involved in the existence or meaning of God?

26

Mudasser,
About Ur question on how the age of the earth is estimated:
I know about one method. There are deposits of radioactive elements on the earth. Several deposits consist of just a family of decaying radioisotopes and the final non radioactive product, lead. By assuming that initially the rock had just one radioactive element in it ,(this is a valid assumption), and by looking at the percentages of the various intermediate elements and lead, the age of the rock can be estimated. Now, the rock would have formed at the time earth was formed from stellar matter, and stellar matter being mostly hydrogen and helium, the radioactive elements would have formed along with the other elements on earth, by nuclear fusion. Hence decay of the isotopes found on earth have their "zero time" set at the time of formation of the earth.
Incidentally, rocks from the moon have been found to be older than rocks from the earth.

27

Adbulmalick ,

Adbulmalick ? How did you manage to make a mistake with your name?

your accusations,

"your intrepretations of Islam are outdated, faulty and primitive and is in conflict with a humane world"

Outdated? I'm sorry but I didn't know that there's a time limit on the ideas that a Muslim is supposed to hold.

faulty and primitive? Prove it.

humane world? 95% of the wealth is held by 5% of the people. In the U.S. a schoolchild dies of gunshot wounds every 20 minutes, a woman is RAPED every 2 1/2 hours in Britain and every 6 minutes in U.S. A Rape victim can be questioned by her rapist in a court of law. What's so humane about what is happening in the balkans. Do you feel secure when you go out at night?

Islam isn't just a spiritual religion. It is a way of life and an ideology. This is because all ideologies have a viewpoint. With Capitalism it is loss and benefit and with Islam it is Halaal and Haraam.

"Fundamentalist Muslims need to get together and revise their intrepretations to reflect a more humanitarian Islam"

If I gave you a picture and asked you to tell me what you saw. Would you tell me what you saw or would you tell me what you wanted to see? Don't you see that Islam IS a threat to western society and culture ? i.e. a threat to kufr.

Next time read what I've posted because your last paragraph proves that you haven't.

Queer,

You seem to have chosen the one method which doesn't go against the theory of evolution. I attented a talk where a list of methods of working out the age of the Earth were shown.

Methods that I can remember,

Accumulation of meteoritic dust on the Moon ,
Accumulation of metals into the oceans,

The result that the majority of the methods used were coming up with is that the Earth is around 10,000 years old. The particular method that you are showing works out the age of the Earth to be around 4.5 billion years old.

I don't agree or disagree with any of these methods because I don't know if they were valid or not. I thought that you might be able to tell me.

Thanks for answering one of my questions how about the rest?

28

Mudasser,
I have written on this subject matter quite a few times on this Forum that MAJORITY ISLAM OR FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAM IS OUTDATED, PRIMITIVE & EXTREME.
I do not question the Fundamentals of Sunni or Shias here; however, I do, VERY STRONGLY, question the EXTREME intrepretations of the Sunni (Majority Muslims and Fundamentalists)on the issue surrounding:
1)NON-BELIEVERS (kafirs),
2)JIHAD(holy war) & PARADISE,
3)HUMAN RIGHTS.
The Sunni mullahs & ulemas clearly state & propagate: Anyone who reject Sunni intrepretations of Islam is a kafir or Non-believer; and a kafir is jahanammi(condemned to Hell).
Since Sunnis are Jahanatti (Destined for Heaven) - their battles or Jihad against non-believers are just and ordained by none other than Allah (God). And, for their battles against non-believers, they will be rewarded eternal Heaven with virgin females for their pleasure.
Examples: (1)Taleban of Afghanistan bent on establishing an purist Islamic State - the Taleban has clearly stated that it considers other muslims (non-Sunnis) of Afghanistan as kafir or non-believer and will not share power with infidels.
(2)Pakistan: Sunni fascist para-military groups (Sipah-i-Sabah, etc) have been waging murderous war against the Shia & Ahmedia muslims, Christians & Hindu population of Pakistan for years. The Sunni factions have stated that they perceive Shias & Ahmedias and other minorities as kafirs or Non-believers.
(3) Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia: Reports of barbarism committed against innocent civilians, Muslims & Christians, by Islamic Fundamentalist groups bent on establishing their brand of extremist Islam at any cost.
(4) Individuals like Sheikh Omar Bin Laden, Mullah Sheikh Abdel Rehman, responsible for bombings in US and at US targets abroad, are followers of Fundamentalist Islam who see USA as an infidel country.
It is worthy of note that the above incidents of terror are not random, they are carefully planned & executed with broad based support.
(5) Rejection of the Universal Code of Human Rights: Islamic code of Sharia and Human Rights are DEFICIENT in equal or comparable rights and protection for females & minorities; Majority of Islamic countries have rejected revisions that would safeguard human right guarantees for females and minorities.
(6) The followers of Fundamentalist Islam are indoctrinated to believe that criticism of "their Islam which God has perfected for them" or its activities is kufr or sin. Those who choose to speak out are quickly ostracized and threatened with violence.
I'll have more to say later; Please review my threads posted in the Religious Affairs:
i)HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST WOMEN,
ii)HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES - MIDDLE EAST,
iii)TALEBAN--IS THIS THE MESSAGE OF ISLAM?
iv)MULLAH SHEIKH ABDEL REHMAN-NO SHORTAGE OF EMULATORS,
Also, in the General Section:
i)OUR KILLING FIELDS,
ii)URGENT APPEAL!
Thank you.