Tag: atheism

  • Often, after a tedious debate about atheism versus theism, the residual thought that keeps floating in my head is the last verse of Surah Kaafirun. And then I wonder why I had the debate to begin with. But I always get sucked into the debate anyway. It all feels so futile sometimes. But I guess I could never sum it up better than this Surah does…It confirms that unless there is a willingness to consider the alternative, we’ll always be locked in our own views of faith and belief. So instead of continuing the insane pattern of reblogging and debating, this is my reminder to myself, and anyone else that I may have been engaging in any discussion (meaningful or not) about issues of faith.

    Lakum, deenukum, wa liyadeen…to you is your way and to me is mine. 

    I’ll try to restrain myself to the point of only establishing understanding, but not to go as far as trying to convince. 

    (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

  • Another tiring post

    The day that science creates something out of nothing is the day that I will seriously reconsider my position about atheism. As long as man is manipulating what is already in existence, and as long as we always find more questions with every mystery that we solve, I’ll always marvel at the intelligence, form, function and ‘interconnectedness’ of this universe. We’re tiny and almost entirely insignificant specks of life that exist in this massive space, and we have barely scratched the surface of the true wonders of just the human body, yet we’re arrogant enough to believe that our theories about what might have occurred billions of years ago substantiated by assumed interpretations of our current state is authority enough to declare that we’re here because of a fluke of ‘stuff’ interacting and evolving over billions of years to eventually result in intelligent life that has reason and logic, and choice and emotions, and wisdom and beauty and so much more…

    The entire subject is the biggest brain fuck you could ever get. We assumed that the speed of light was unbreakable for decades…and then, quite by accident, we break it, but yet we continue in our arrogance to assume that we understand well enough to make absolute statements about what is and what isn’t true about life, death, this universe, and everything that exists within it, and in the process proclaim that there could not possibly be intelligence behind it all…it’s simply astounding the lengths we would go to just to obtain a level of peace so that we don’t have to accept our impotence and insignificance when faced with the grand design.

  • Purpose of Debate

    I once heard that the point of a debate should be to arrive at the truth and not to prove you’re right. This is something I fully subscribe to, but also forget often. After reflecting on some of my posts recently, especially in this blog, I believe that I have been blurring these very same lines in my tone and focus. I sometimes try to prove why others are wrong or why I’m more right, when in fact the focus of this blog, as my first post suggested, was to be an articulation of my struggle to come to terms with what I find distasteful around me, and in turn to formulate my own views based on principles that I subscribe to, and not views that may have been indoctrinated into me. 

    Whether or not I agree with the atheistic views, or even what exception I take to the traditional/ritualistic Muslims should remain a point of reference as to why I choose the views and opinions that I hold, but should not go as far as trying to convince them that they’re wrong. The Qur’an sums it up beautifully in Chapter 17, verse 81:

    And say: Truth has come and falsehood has vanished away. Lo! Falsehood is ever bound to vanish.

    Some may interpret this to be Muslim arrogance, yet others, if seen objectively, would acknowledge it as confirmation that whichever party is on the true path, this will become self-evident, and therefore there should be no need to shove our views down anyone’s throats. 

    So I hope that I will remain focused in presenting my views not at the expense of others, but rather relative to others only. Context is important, but it should never be used as an excuse to bash any other religion, philosophy, or personal perspectives. Which reminds me of another pertinent verse from the Qur’an in Chapter 18, verse 10:

    Our Lord! Send upon us Your mercy, and show us the solution to our problem in the right way.

    Sincerity of intention and resolve in purpose are always extremely difficult to maintain because of the trappings of the ego. 

  • Muslims, Christians, and Atheists. Spot the difference…

    I find it strange, if not unfortunate, that people that choose atheism, a great many of which despise religion, do so on the basis of acquiring (sometimes) in-depth knowledge of Christianity mainly, finding the flaws in their logic, tenets and scriptures, and then proclaiming that as the illogical base that substantiates their views on religion in totality.

    Muslims, unfortunately in their present form, do very little to dissuade such an approach because we’re just so ritualistic and often illogical in our application of the beauty of Islam based on how our forefathers did it, rather than a conscious effort through understanding the principles of what Islam offers, with the only saving grace being that we have a more logically sound base off which to work.

    But when we contaminate Islam with cultural rubbish and use that as a yardstick to measure the worth of other Muslims, boldly proclaiming who is kaafir and who is not, we erode that very same pristine base and expose ourselves to the same debasement and ridicule that the majority of Christians have so rightly earned, thereby playing into the hands of the atheists that can rightfully find so much in our actions to ridicule any true belief in the Oneness of Allah. 

    We imitate them (Christians) more than we realise. Look at our clerical hierarchies that we’ve created? Our symbolism that we attach to our places of worship? Our rhetoric from the pulpits launching our lectures on the basis of us all being sinners? The list goes on. We quote dogmatically from the books of scholars because we’ve been led to believe that we’re too simple-minded to apply the source in our own lives because the true teachings of Islam contained in the Qur’an and Hadeeth have been reduced to a science to be studied before it can be applied. We define the scholars as superior to the masses and openly refer to the masses as the ‘Awwaam’, which despite the best intentions of the one using that term, is a condescending term steeped in pride and arrogance. 

    I am not of the scholars, nor am I of the Awwaam. I am a Mu’min before I am a Muslim. This, to me, is the meaning of taqwa (piety/god-consciousness); realising who I am, and what I believe in before I contemplate how I wish to present my beliefs to the world in my appearance or rituals that are to be observed by others, hopefully in conformance with their expectations so that I may be accepted in those circles. Purity of intention is lost when we try to conform to a broader societal expectation. We’re breeding well-intentioned hypocrites by insisting that our children are schooled in the rituals of Islam without ensuring that they understand the principles and substance of the beauty that Islam offers. 

  • I always admire those that chose Islam later in life more than those that were born with it, not because I’m ungrateful for the blessing that Allah has bestowed on me by raising me in a Muslim home, but because there’s a wisdom and a value in making a conscious choice that I may never realise.

    To me, being born in a Muslim home was like receiving the gift of Islam. And like most gifts that are treasured, they’re seldom questioned, or appreciated for more than just being gifts. So the inherent value of the gift often escapes most of us. Islam is more a blessing than it is a gift. And blessings, to be appreciated, has to be understood and valued based on the realisation of what life would be like without such a blessing.

    Someone that was previously employed and now has no work to earn a living can relate to this. That job when it was available, no matter how tedious or trying, was a blessing. But the realisation of how much a blessing it was only dawns when it is no longer there.

    I think it’s the same with Islam. When we’ve had it with us all of our lives, it’s easy to take it for granted. And given how insular the Muslim community has become, it’s nearly impossible to witness the gravity of this blessing unless we venture outside our communities and engage with those that are godless. Witness the lack of purpose, the hopelessness, the depression and the destitution of a life without meaning, and then realising the true beauty and blessing of the gift of Islam becomes a tangible reality rather than a just a gift that we received but didn’t earn.

  • Wishful thinking…I wonder what’s so intelligent about observing symptoms of creation and then declaring that to be the source of intelligence and the purpose of life? It’s one thing to maintain a belief system, but entirely different to use it as a soap box from which to dismiss other belief systems. 

    I always wonder how prudent a use of time it is to spend your life seeking purpose and forgetting to live in the process? Perhaps some would argue that the search is in fact living in itself, and perhaps there is truth in that. But given that atheists firmly establish their belief system in science, and given that the foundations of science have recently been shaken to their core with the discovery that the speed of light is in fact not the limit that we thought it was, I wonder what implications that may have on the belief systems that are based on science?

    Seems rather convenient to suggest that theism is flawed because it can’t be proven when in fact atheism is just as theory-based. Big difference is that theism is capable of defining theories of existence that atheism was denying until they could prove scientifically that the theistic theories were actually true to begin with. The fact that those theistic theories were based on broadly accepted divine inspiration will always be conveniently overlooked. But the fact that the speed of light was based on one of the greatest scientists this side of the Ice Age and has now been proven to be incorrect as the basis for the theory of relativity will also be conveniently overlooked.

    But science is progressive, and must therefore be allowed the convenience of breaking its own rules in its search for the truth. It’s all just too convenient for me. Far too convenient to take the moral high ground as an atheist, dismiss the definitive influence that religion has had and continues to have on that same moral code, and then conjure up even more elaborate theories about how morality is independent of religion when a simple study of various cultures will confirm that morality is very definitely based on the religious customs of any community. 

    Reminds me of another post I wrote not too long ago on the subject of Atheism and Theism.

  • On Atheism and Theism

    This is a subject that has fascinated me for a long time, and will continue to do so for an even longer time. So when I came across this in a book that I’m reading (which is extremely rare for me, to read a book that is), I just couldn’t help myself but share it because of the eloquence in how it explains my perspective on the subject.

    “…the parable of the feeble-minded person who thinks that the light of the sun is the result of its rising, is like the parable of an ant which as it happened upon the surface of a sheet of paper, was endowed with reason and thereupon watched the movement in the process of writing, only to think that it was the work of the pen, but would not go beyond that to see the fingers, and behind the fingers the hand, and behind the hand the will which moves it, and behind the will a deliberate and an able scribe, and behind all, the Creator of the hand, and the ability, and the will. Most people do not look beyond the nearby and earthly causes and never arrive at the Cause of all causes.” ~ Imam Al-Ghazzali (The Book of Knowledge)

    The reason I’m so positively incensed about this is because recently I’ve been plagued with the arguments of science and religion on so many blogs. And the one thought that always lingers in my mind is that science will always be on the back foot because it is always an observation of what has been. Never will it be able to advise on what is to be, or why, only how. It will always be an observation after the fact, and never before, since it is aimed at establishing the knowledge of how everything relates to everything else.

    Anything before the fact is considered mere theory and therefore subject to change, interpretation or perspective. This does not imply that our ability to predict future events based on established relationships between different events or forces is not part of science. It is, but it is also entirely dependent on what is known, and will therefore always be a work in progress. Weather forecasting is a typical example of this.

    Therefore, in my mind at least, the belief in science as the ultimate pursuit of knowledge to define the purpose of our existence is inherently flawed. But this is just my opinion, and I suspect that I may be blissfully unaware of numerous refutations that have already been compiled in defense of science and atheism, of which I have no knowledge because of my aversion to read lengthy discourses about the philosophies of others.

    Am I naive, or perhaps ignorant? Am I over-simplifying a complex issue? Or does this perspective hold some merit?