What Is The Purpose Of Life? (Part 2)
What if you find a Watch in the Sand?
To the Atheist and the Agnostic the Muslim says: “Suppose you find a watch in the middle of a desert. What would you conclude? Would you think that someone dropped this watch? Or would you suppose that the watch came by itself? Of course no sane person would say that the watch just happened to emerge from the sand. All the intricate working parts could not simply develop from the metals that lay buried in the earth. The watch must have a manufacturer. If a watch tells accurate time we expect the manufacturer must be intelligent. Blind chance cannot produce a working watch.
But what else tells accurate time? Consider the sunrise and sunset. Their timings are so strictly regulated that scientists can publish in advance the sunrise and sunset times in your daily newspapers. But who regulates the timings of sunrise and sunset? If a watch cannot work without an intelligent maker, how can the sun appear to rise and set with such clockwork regularity? Could this occur by itself?
Consider also that we benefit from the sun only because it remains at a safe distance from the earth, a distance that averages 93 million miles. If it got much closer, the earth would burn up. And if it got too far away, the earth would turn into an icy planet making human life here impossible. Who decided in advance that this was the right distance? Could it just happen by chance? Without the sun, plants would not grow. Then animals and humans would starve. Did the sun just decide to be there for us?
The rays of the sun would be dangerous for us had it not been for the protective ozone layer in our atmosphere. The atmosphere around the earth keeps the harmful ultraviolet rays from reaching us. Who was it that placed this shield around us?
We need to experience sunrise. We need the sun’s energy and its light to see our way during the day. But we also need sunset. We need a break from the heat, we need the cool of night and we need the lights to go out so we may sleep. Who regulated this process to provide what we need?
Moreover, if we had only the warmth of the sun and the protection of the atmosphere we would want something more - beauty. Our clothes provide warmth and protection, yet we design them to also look beautiful. Knowing our need for beauty, the designer of sunrise and sunset also made the view of them to be simply breathtaking.
The creator who gave us light, energy, protection and beauty deserves our thanks. Yet some people insist that he does not exist. What would they think if they found a watch in the desert? An accurate, working watch? A beautifully designed watch? Would they not conclude that there does exist a watchmaker? An intelligent watchmaker? One who appreciates beauty? Such is God who made us.”
Did people always believe in a Creator?
It is a fact that throughout history and throughout the world, man had been found to worship and to believe in a Creator. Specialists in Anthropology, Civilizations and History are unanimous on this. This led one of the great historians to say: “History shows that there had been cities without palaces, without factories and without fortresses, but there has never been cities without houses of worship.” Since time immemorial, man believed that he was not created simply for this life, for this short period, and he knew that he would ultimately depart to another resting-place. We see this evidence with the early Egyptians, thousands of years ago, when they mummified their dead and built great pyramids (as graves) and even placed the treasures of the dead in their graves in addition to drinks and mummified food! From the earliest recorded history, mankind had been unanimous, with very few exceptions, that there is a Creator and that there is life after death. However, they differed about the essence of this Creator, how to worship Him and the description of the life after death. For example, Hindus believe in reincarnation and that after death one’s soul would then go into a human body or an animal, depending on whether one did good or bad in his life, and that this process would continue without end until the soul reaches perfection and unites into one with its Creator. People of other religions like Jews, Christians and Muslims also believe in life after death, but not in reincarnation like the Hindus. All three - Jews, Christians and Muslims -however have different views about what happens to the soul after one’s death.
The fact that all nations and communities throughout history believed in a Creator (with the exception of insignificant few) made the mission of all prophets in all ages concentrate on guiding their people away from the worship of creations to the worship of the one and only Creator God, i.e. rather than having to prove His existence.
Why did People turn away from God?
The situation now in the world is different because there are now a very large number of people who do not believe in a Creator or in life after death - for example two surveys in the Czech Republic in 2000 found in one only 13% believe in life after death and in the other only 17% believe in God. A major reason for this in the last century was the so-called theory of evolution by Darwin (other reasons include the impact of totalitarian communism rule on people’s faith.) The theory of evolution says that man evolved from the ape, rather than being created by a Creator. Although this theory has no academic or scientific substance, it gained favor with so many people because it appealed to the doubts they had about the God that they were told to believe in. This is not surprising. If you give an educated person a description of a Creator that is illogical and unreasonable and then ask that person to believe in Him as his God, he would refuse. This unfortunately is the situation right now, especially in the west. The Christian Doctrines advocate the trinity, that God manifests Himself in three distinct and equal persons, and that God came down to earth in the form of a man (that is Jesus) and that He was crucified and died as a vicarious sacrifice for the so-called sin of man. So the Christians believe that Jesus was God in human form, God-incarnate. But how can the Creator die?
Some of the most important doctrines of Christianity - the doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus, the Divine-Sonship of Jesus, the Original Sin and the Atonement are neither rational nor in conformity with the teachings of Jesus. These dogmas took shape long after Jesus, as a result of old pagan influence. For example we find in Hinduism, the “Triad” (the trinity): there is Brahma, the creator god, Vishnu, the preserver god, and Shiva, the god of destruction. Modern Hindus take Krishna the son of Divachi, the virgin, as Vishnu incarnate. Krishna is the savior who as a sacrifice for their sin, had to suffer. He was crucified, died and then was raised from death. In Buddhism we find the Buddhist gods: Guatama (the holy spirit), Maya (the virgin mother) and Buddha, the son (who was conceived when Maya was filled by the holy spirit) and who is the savior who died and was raised from death. It may be interesting to mention that the 25th of December is not the birthday of Jesus. It is the birthday of Krishna in Hinduism, and of Nimrod, the divine son (a Babylonian god), and of Mithra, the god of light (one of the gods of the Greeks and the Romans)!
The religion revealed to the prophets of various nations was the same, but in the course of time it had been misinterpreted and become mixed up with superstitions and degenerated into magical practices and meaningless rituals. The concept of God, the very core of religion, had become debased by (a) the anthropomorphic tendency of making God into a being with a human shape, needs and human deficiencies, (b) the association of other persons with the one and only God in His Godhead (as in Hinduism and Christianity), (c) by the deification of the angels (e.g., the Devas in Hinduism, the Yazatas in Zoroastrianism and, perhaps also, the Holy Spirit in Christianity), (d) by making the Prophets into Avatars or incarnations of God (e.g., Jesus Christ in Christianity, the Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism, and Krishna and Rama in Hinduism), and (e) by the personification of the attributes of God into separate Divine Persons (e.g., the Christian Trinity of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost, the Hindu Timurtri of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the Amesha Spentas of Zoroastrianism).
Due to major religions distorting the oneness and essence of God, pupils in the West are now being taught in schools to accept, as fact, Darwin’s theory of evo1ution. As a result, more and more students of school and university age are now Atheists. They even ridicule those who believe in God saying: “they are either stupid or lack confidence and so need something to give them security!”
I was recently attending a lecture in a Western country given by a Muslim to a group of retired men and women - more than 65 years of age. The lecturer in the beginning asked the group: which of you believe in God? They all raised their hands except two men. Then the lecturer asked: which of you do not believe in God? The remaining two elderly men then raised their hands. However, one of them paused and immediately interrupted the lecturer. He said: “Tell me what do you mean by God so that I can answer you!” After the session, I said to the lecturer: this man is intelligent because at first he said he did not believe in God, most probably because of the Christian concept of God, but then he was willing to have an open mind and rethink his position based on the concept of God that could be presented by the Muslim.
TO BE CONTINUED
You said.............Matter of fact, its very disturbing if belief in fiery torment is the ONLY thing motivating you to do good!
i absolutely agree. I've met many Muslims who just do things 'by the book' because they are told to. They have no hearts, they are not kind and caring, but they are so scared of hell fire they'll do as they're told. Well if I was the all seeing all hearing all loving God, I would rather see someone like mother Therasa in heaven (who won't go there as she didn't convert to Islam and pray 5 times a day etc) than a Muslim who did everything he was ordered but had no compassion or care.
I will not name a person here but there used to be a member just doing copy-paste after googling.. I think this guy is one step ahead than the other one... he copies with his eyes closed. LOL
..**.. ""They walk among us. They vote & they even reproduce"" ..**..
he is more lost then all of us
If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
I am still going through the main topic but before I forget what I read.. Just wanted to understand who told him about Krishna's birthday is on 25th Dec.... I am lost
All sensible replies are welcome, till the time I read the topic and the comments of all you guys.
..**.. ""They walk among us. They vote & they even reproduce"" ..**..
At least not for me....I think we see what we want to see....and I just wonder since most of today's religions are quick to dismiss all of mankind's ancient mythologies as just a need to have answers (ANY answers) so they are all made up....how they can be so utterly certain that they are not doing the same thing.
In the end I agree with you in that we should not force our beliefs on others...but I also think we should look for what unites us and religion doesn't do that....it may be surpefluos or worse yet, harmful to humanity's harmony...but that's just my opinion....in the end let everyone believe what works for them, but do not harm others, and give everyone the choice.
Stay safe.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
"While there MIGHT be instance of injustices....that should not mean that we must give up on justice....we still strive for fairness and equality and do the best we can"
No no ....I didn't say we must give up trying to implement justice as much as we can .Infact we should strive to our utmost to implement it .
But if there isn't a God to take care of those who got away because of human faliure that would be really unfair.
"otherwise why not argue that it would be better to just do away with ALL laws and just let god handle it later (after all he is much wiser than all of us)...no?"
But not trying to do justice is a sin itself so finally we are accountable for that too=)
"IF one day all of mankind agreed on ONE religion....then I swear even as a non believer, for the harmony and good of society I would shut up and go along with what's best for all."
But Ragnarock everybody is not likely to follow one religion .Nobody should FORCE their beliefs on another anyway .Belief is a personal choice as long as it is not harming another individual .
I was just wondering about how you can not believe in any God when all the "signs" points towards his existence.
And I would even go so far as to join you in the hope departement...but that's all it is....a hope...we do not have evidence of a divine creator punishing them later....otherwise why not argue that it would be better to just do away with ALL laws and just let god handle it later (after all he is much wiser than all of us)...no?
While there MIGHT be instance of injustices....that should not mean that we must give up on justice....we still strive for fairness and equality and do the best we can...otherwise we have no uniform set of laws that will satisfy all....I mean how many religions has man had since the dawn of time...how many do we have just today?
We really must find what unites us not what divides us....IF one day all of mankind agreed on ONE religion....then I swear even as a non believer, for the harmony and good of society I would shut up and go along with what's best for all.
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Sorry..but just to quote you here and not in another thread
Ragnarock Raider said ..
"Of course they will desertmoon.... ...Society creates the laws and ounishes the transgressors...."
Ragnarock but what about cases where soceity *fails* to do justice to the victims because either the criminal was too powerful ,it couldn;t find the evidence or whatever reason .
For example, innocent people who died in bombings ,wars etc..
It would really depress me thinking that people who commit heinous crimes are only accountable to a judicial system which maynot even punish them till they die .
But as a Muslim I have the hope that there will come a Day of Accountability when true justice will prevail .
Society creates the laws and ounishes the transgressors....we are having a great theoretical debate in Shuaibkazi's thread "THE REASON"...please join us won't you?
Stay safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Ragnarock ...what about murderers, criminals ,transgressors who do much wrong and get away with it ?Not only that but then live a luxurious life .
Who will punish them if they are above man made laws?Will they ever be punished according to you ?
But you seem totaly set in your way, so I doubt either of us will change the others mind.
First off I apologize that I don't have time to read EVERYTHING you link too...but I do browse it...its nothing new....it does not prove the existence of a creator....Polytheistic religions of the ancient worlds had holy books that meshed with what they believed to be scientific facts, and made up whatever was not known as filler. I'm sorry to burst your bubble when I say your holy book is no different.
To address your question about moraily: It is not religion which teaches good and bad....but man made laws....since almost all religion's morality stems from the ten commandements...which themselves are taken from Hamurabi's code (centuries BEFORE Judaism)! It was not god who said: "thou shalt not kill"....it was King Hamurabi....a man!!!
Matter of fact, its very disturbing if belief in fiery torment is the ONLY thing motivating you to do good! We have laws because humans are social creatures and to coexist in societies, we have to regulate our affairs....these concepts predate Religion (unless you believe the world started 2000 years or so ago)!
Religion is only ONE way to teach morality....and imho the WORST way to do it....I mean: scaring people into doing what's right? This is the divine creators plan? Sad.
Humans have been searching for piece of mind since they began to think....and have come up with numerous oracles, propehts, holy scriptures, religions etc... It is the height of arrogance to think that ones own religion is THE right one.
Maybe one day we will grow out of this infantile need to always know and always be certain...then again maybe we won't...it doesn't matter as long as you live and let live and leave a choice to others to believe in whatever works for them...unfortunately, history has shown us that religion is incapable of doing that....it divides instead of uniting...IF you must beleieve....at least let others choose what they want to believe in.
Stay safe Mofathi...and all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
You think all the religions are man made, so how can you explain the following:
http://www.sultan.org/articles/QScience.html
This is just one example that there is a lord for this world.
Another thing let's say there is no God, no resurrection, and nothing at all after death, why should I be good person?!!! when it's only one life and I'll be stupid if I waste it being ideal and lose my chance to earn and get as much as I can.
I hope you be patient with me and give yourself the chace to read the things I'm putting here. Maybe you will find something new you didn't ever know about it before.
Have a good day and wish you all the best
MOHAMED FATHI
All religions have converts that praise their new found faith for saving them.....but they are substituting one delusion for another.
You dismiss my beliefs because i'm from the West? Would it suprise you to know i'm a Canadian of Arab origin? born and spent the first 13 years of my life in the middle east?
No my friend...idoctrination into closeminded and illogical beliefs are a hallmark of humanitgy since the time earliest man started to think and wonder about the worlds around them.
ALL religions like to think that "they" are different....that they hold the answers, but they are all the same....Islam and Christianity....even hinduism and paganism...ALL of them are man made to try and sell piece of mind to those too frightened to think for themselves and admit "I don't know"!
Stay safe.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
http://www.elnaggarzr.com/en/index.php
MOHAMED FATHI
I agree with you that we can't believe anything are telling to us without a proof to assure us we are following the truth.
I can understand your situation as you are from the west which the Christianity and the Church dominate people's minds there and order them to follow what is telling to them without giving any explanations and evidences on the things which they preach.
If you give yourself the chance to explore what Islam and what is it about , I think you will find what you are looking for.
Here is another story for some one who knew the truth:
"Why did I Embrace Islam?
This is an extract from Dr. Gronier, a French MP, who embraced Islam. Revealing the reason of embracing Islam he said, I read all of the Ayat (Quranic verses), which have a relation to medical, health, and natural sciences that I studied before and have a wide knowledge of. I found that these verses are totally compatible with and give a picture of our modern sciences. Thus, I embraced Islam as it was obvious that Muhammad revealed the Absolute Truth more than a thousand years ago. Had every specialist, artist or scientist compared those Quranic verses to his own specialization, beyond the shadow of doubt he would embrace Islam, especially if he has a sound mentality and goodwill to search for the truth and not a mentally defective person with the intentions of malevolent aims".
Insha'allah I'll be happy to answer your questions as best as I can and hope you feel free to ask me anything you want.
Please check out this site and tell me what do you think about it:
http://www.55a.net/firas/english/index.php
Best Regards
MOHAMED FATHI
ALL mythologies and religions attempt to explain the unknown with no shred of evidence whatsoever except that since we do not know it MUST be a greater mind than our own, and we must worship to appease this great power....THAT is how they are like mythologies, except mythologies are now defunct and religion isn't there yet....throughout human history it has never been enough to just speculate, we had to be CERTAIN! So we just made stuff up...and later abandoned it when we realized how silly these widespread beliefs are. Not much has changed in all these centuries exept perhaps the forms of delusion and their sofistication or lackthereof.
Death is when you cease to be alive...medically debatable....but one of the cornerstones of religion is its attenpt (again with no proof whatsoever) to explain what comes after death because it is unknown at this pont in time.
Stay Safe all.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?
Dear Sir,
Thanks a lot for your comment and I do appreciate it but I would ask you to get me some examples that Islam is similar to The Ancient Greece's myths.
I'd be greatful if you give me these examples.
About your question what would happen when I die, can you please define me the meaning of death?
Hope to hear from you again soon
have a good day
MOHAMED FATHI
And to expand on what what Ragnarock Raider has said what's the use of praying 5 times a day but still we wont value and treat our fellow human being in a just way by illtreating, makes them slaves and not giving salary on time etc etc etc
If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
The purpose of life is to make answers up when we do not know them? Because that is all your doing by prepetuating mythology...yes I said it, Judaic, Christian, and Islamic MYTHOLOGY....because they are no different than ancient Greece's finding of the watch in the desert and concluding that it was the intelligent creator Zeus atop his cloud that MUST be the answer!
In your part 1 you said to give you time because you had a long post and so I waited to see what your part 2 would be like. It turns out to be religious propaganda....and poorly copy pasted one at that....dissapointing.
Expand your mind my friend....go beyond what you were brainwashed to believe as a child....for even children can see through the inconsitency of logic inherent in all regligion!
Worry about how to coexist with your fellow man instead of your creator's "purpose" for you, or what MAY happen when you die.
Stay safe.
Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?