Lol atheism is as much a religion as any that's the amusing thing. Atheism requires as much faith as believing in a God does.
The idea of God cannot be proved, but neither can it be disproved, hence why it's called faith in the first place.
I wrote a philosophy essay for my final coursework at A level (got an A* on it to) on the idea of God and our inability as human's to possibly understand the concept of either the existance of, or none existance of such a thing. Our intellect, language and current level of knowledge cannot simply comprehend any idea of God, the same way as it is near impossible for the human mind to adequately come to terms with the possibility of an inifinite universe and the idea that beyond that, there is simply nothing. We can try and understand it all we like, but the fact is, if God is indeed a higher power that is all knowing ect ect, then we can never truly understand what that means, and those words, although adquate, can't actually convey what God truly is. The same way, unless we can see the nothingness, we cannot truly comprehend it, it's an idea to difficult to come to terms with. There are far more similarities between atheism and religion than either would like to admit.
Devilize struck very closely to what I'm talking about:
Your thinking is stuck in the box, you need to think outside of it. God wouldn't "wonder", think, or even know. These very terms are created by humans to help define our understanding. God is beyond these worldly definitions as he created knowledge himself. We as humans will never truly be able to define God as God is because we are bound by the laws that God created to govern our universe, laws like gravity.
Just as 2 dimensions can never truly interact with 3 dimensions, the painting with the painter, nor will we every truly interact with god, the created with the creator.
I have switched between both atheist views and religious views in the past, without ever really associating myself with any particular version of each. My mind keeps changing, but as of now I am rather more of the view that all this isn't an accident and I'd rather have a little faith that there is something beyond, than face my own impending disappearence into nothingness. Call that naive or what you like, but I can write an essay against whatever arguments you could bring against me. Such is the nature of the subject.
I recently read the Quran, partly to try and gain a better understanding of something that most western cultures bitch about, but actually know nothing of. And I have to say, when it comes down to it, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the bible and certainly is misquoted 1000's of times. When people say something bad about Islam from the Quran, 99.9% of the time they have removed it from the context of the writing. Even when extremist Muslims quote something to support their actions, 99.9% of the time it'll be taken out of context. The Quran is written in such a way that it's very difficult to debate aspects of it (unlike the bible), but people still manage to take things the wrong way if they don't fully read something. I've had to re-read much of it because getting your head around it is difficult. But it certainly makes sense. Add on the fact that in Islamic law, and therefore Islamic countries, it is illegal to rewrite anything in the Quran the wrong way, even down to the punctuation. If you do this, it is considered not the Quran. Even translations of the Quran aren't actually the Quran, it has to be in Arabic (therefore to actually read it you have to learn Arabic). In that sense it's more likey that the Quran has remained unchanged for centuries and therefore has a greater possibility of actually being truer. Whereas the amount of different versions of the bible ect and the fact we know it was written by a variety of different people, throw that far more into question.
There are so many misconceptions of Islam. For example, people think it harsh towards women. It isn't, it's actually harsher towards men. For example, a woman may work and earn money and keep all of it for herself. However, the man is required by law to provide for the woman and share a certain % of his wage with her in order to support her, regardless of what the woman is earning. It also has some liberal views on sex. The husband can demand sex whenever he pleases from his wife, but he must satisfy the women if he does. If the man cannot satisfy his woman, she is allowed divorce on these grounds
The funny thing is, that even in the Quran it considers Christians, Jews and Muslims to be of the same religion. They are all people of the book. For example, a Muslim man is allowed to marry a Christian or Jewish woman (not the other way round, due to the fact it is considered necessary for the man to be Muslim because he is the head of the family, takes them to the mosque, the bread winner ect). Which is why it's even more ridiculous that there is such conflict between them.
O and as to those who say religion is generally a good thing. I would agree. Even though I'm not Christian, and my family is not particularly Christian, my parents made me go to Church as a kid, mostly because of the morals they teach. In school at assembleys my head teacher would read bible stories (dumbed down for kids) and it is certainly helpful at that age. Religion teaches children valuable lessons. Unfortunately adults warp this a bit.
I like to try and understand religions as much as possible before passing any form of judgement on them. But the fact is, all of them are just as likely as the next one, same with atheism.
Why make assumptions based on primite societies beliefs that were to satisfy human curiosity about the world?
This line bugged me. Primate societies as in 2000 years ago for Christianity? 1500 for Islam. Certainly older for the multi-god religions. But I do not consider 2000 years long enough for us to have evolved to gain any knowledge of the world that can expunge our religious assumptions. Certainly our scientific knowledge has expanded. But 200 years ago people thought the world was flat. What's to say that in another 200 years many of our current scientific theories won't be obsolete and out right wrong? Science, can also fall under the word religion. Scientific fact doesn't actually exist. Only foolish and popularist scientists claim something as fact. Academics claim the rest is scientific theory. For example, the big bang theory. Even 5 years ago I was taught this as fact by the science teachers at school and documentaries claimed it as such. Now even the people who came up with the theory think it's wrong and makes little sense.
PS: Yes I'm in and essay writing, argumentative mood
also, is it true the church or some religious authority declared a time where there are no longer Godly "divinitions" or messages from God? Like A.D 4453 to the present no more stuff like that?
In Islam it is believed that Mohammed was the last and final prophet. There are actually tons listed in the Quran before him, from Moses to Jesus (yes they believe in him, just not as the son of God). So in that sense there will be no more messages from God. The Quran was his final teaching, Mohammed was chosen to write God's final teachings down (supposedly an illiterate man. Arabic grammer, poetry and mathematical occurences are also considered beyond perfect in the Quran as in it's not possible that a human mind thought it and wrote it). Other than that we are now left to it. We can supposedly see God's work in our lives when we pray and are rewarded for being good and religious people. But otherwise there will be no more messages until the day of judgement.
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