Orpheous99

Originally posted by jojo-sa:

I merely want to get a "feel" where the atheism "bug" comes from.
If you want to find out about the "real Islam" thats up to you to find out and study up on the subject. Advice from me would be to look at Islamic sources, for if you want to study Mathematics you do not got to fotune teller, you go to a mathematics teacher or professor.

Is that anything like the "real" Christianity? Oh, they're not "real" Muslams. They're just as real as you are. It is just that the fundies are more honest about their beliefs.

I've read much of the Qu'ran and it reads like disjointed poetry. It has even less context then the Christian bible does.

Just some info.

I am theist. why? I look at all the things around me and see a complete working system full of life and many other things. A system that works and cannot just happen. (just short explanation)

If it "worked" as well as you want to believe it does than nothing would wear out or die. The world, and the universe as well, are far from being all that well working. It's all a matter of prospective.

Being Muslim provides guidelines(these guidelines can be found if You take the time to study Islam, and that is not my duty its up to yourselves) for living in this system that was created and puts more definition to the qualities of the Creator of the system.

There are far fewer "guildlines" in a maximum security prison than there are in Islam. From cradle to grave the average Muslim doesn't have to do any real deciding in their lives. Everything is mapped out for them, from what time they must get up in the morning to which foot they put in the bathroom first. This is a far worse prison than any made out of concrete and steel.

Technos

Because I have never been trained to be otherwise, have been exposed to a number of different cultures and religions, and have no reason to believe in any deity whatsoever.

My case is unique. My father is an Atheist and my mother is Agnostic. My father was born into a deist setting, but my grandparents have a very secular take on life and their belief in a deity. My mother was shunned by her family for refusing to take part in an arranged marriage and is a former Hindu, now Agnostic. Because of this I was never taught to believe in any one god, and because I was moved around allot I wasn't raised in a culture promoting any one religion, so I was never religious beyond the childhood fear of monsters under by bed.

In short, I was never religious.



I hope it's helpful, if you can read all of the posts.

PS: If you're curious as to why so many Atheist rule out the mere possibility of joining Islam (other than the fact that Islam is just another religion among the hundreds known, and doesn't stand out as special or the fact that we disbelieve in all gods equally and Islam is on equal footing with Wicca, Hindu, Shinto, and Christianity), just read "The Quest for The Historical Muhammad" or "The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book" by Ibn Warraq

[ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Technos ]</p>

Synaesthesia

Orpheus,
To be fair, it may be partly that you have less context within which to interpret it.

Technos

Sorry, double posted.

[ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Technos ]</p>

David Gould

I was raised in an agnostic/Anglican household.

I believed in Jesus without thinking about it.

I rebeleed against it as a teengager.

Then I came back to Christianity, thinking that it was better for humanity if GOd existed.

Twelve years later, I came to the opposite conclusion and was horrified that the Christian God existed.

After some research, I found out that He did not exist. Furhter, I have discovered that all religions are based on the same lies, half truths and self deceptions.

Amos

Holy smoke David, you've sure bounced around!

So then fianlly some research told you that God does not exist . . . until the next "bounce?"

David Gould

I have changed my beliefs a few times, yes.

And obviously, every time I think that my new belief is correct - otherwise, I wouldn't hold it.

It is certainly possible that I will change my beliefs in the future - in fact, I think that that is the only rational position to take.

If enough evidence is offered that God exists, it would only be the willfully ignorant that did not alter their beliefs.

I have no predetermined position that I know to be the absolute truth.

However, as this is the only time my belief has altered due to reading, researching, discussion and questioning I suspect that this time my belief will be less easy to shift.

You are welcome, of course, to try.

southernhybrid

I was subjected to a very conservative, fundamentalist Baptist religion during my childhood. Whenever I had questions regarding the validity of the Bible, I was always convinced by those much older, more educated and seemingly wiser than I was that the Bible was true. Finally, at about the age of 18, I came to realize that the dogma that I had believed was far too oppressive, too narrow, too punishing to be the true word of God.

I spent the next ten years reading, searching, praying for the one true religion. I read and studied everything I could get my hands on. I decided that Buddhism was too vague, the Muslim faith even more oppressive and sexist than the Christian, and so on and so forth. I became interested in the Bahai Faith, one of the more tolerant of all the religions that I had found. Even there, I found things that didn't seem fair or just. There were still unanswered questions. During these years, I considered myself an agnostic.

Finally, one day when I had lost most of my interest in religion, it suddenly occurred to me, that the answer had been so very obvious and yet for so long I couldn't see the forest for the trees. There simply was no god. How could I have been so foolish for all those years. That awakening was about 25 years ago I have been a very happy and well adjusted atheist ever since. I don't know why, what now seems so very obvious took me so long to discover. I guess when one's mind is forced closed as a child, it takes time to open it up and see the light of day.

I_C_THE_LITE

1. I am an atheist because I have searched and researched various religions and have found almost no reason to continuing a belief in any deity.
2. Before my conversion, I was a Southern Baptist, enjoying myself immensely in my state of grace, umm ignorance.

Amos

[QUOTE]Originally posted by David Gould:
[QB]

No thanks, never believe what I write at will because it would not be your belief to have faith in. I am not here to convert but to confuse and that alone will reinforce your posittion if it is true. Otherwise you will re-think it.

It was just a sarcastic observation and I appreciate your honesty.