My Reasons
OP - November 12, 2014, 02:15 PM
I thought I would share this. Although please note it is very rough and something I wrote up when I felt I needed to affirm my decision as whenever a family member or friend suspects me I would keep going back to what if they are right and I am wrong. So I constructed this to solidify my disbelief:
Reasons for leaving islam:
Islam appears to be man made for several reasons. The whole ideology of islam is based on a revelation that was sent to a man in a dessert. The teachings of islam borrow a lot from the religion that was prevalent in that day and age, from rituals of salah, tawaf, hajj, fasting all existed prior to islam. Islam begs and borrows from a variety of religion. Now, I can understand how some people link this to believing that islam is from god, their logic being that all religions are from god and islam came to clarify things as the final religion. This poses the question, why did god allow sooooooooooo many previous religions before islam to be corrupted? And then expects believers of those religions to accept islam as the true religion? This is a cruel and unusual test from a god don’t you think? Why would one abandon their own religion and accept islam, when most people knowledgeable in JUST aspects of their own religion consider theirs to be true. Why would god not send ONE religion to all of mankind and not allow that ONE to be corrupted? If he revealed and protected islam, why could he not protect the religions before islam? Now I know and am aware that apologetics have several reasons for gods ‘logic’ behind all this, but I am sorry, why would you need to make excuses for god? His reasons should be clear and straightforward not something men have to conjecture and come up with a variety of different reasons and explanations all that are very ambiguous and don’t really answer the question.
Muslims claim islam is an unchanged religion, and maybe it is true that the words of the quraan have not been changed, but over time the MEANINGS and INTERPRETATIONS have been chopped and changed in order to fit peoples whims and fancies. Now while one may argue but the quraan was never changed, the meanings are constantly changed to suit people, how is god protecting against this confusion of his religion? This confusion led to the invention of many different sects in the religion. I find it hard to believe that islam is the one true religion and only one sect of islam will enter heaven, yet so many sects exists all claiming to be the right one. The quraan does not clearly specify which sect is correct as all sects have evidence from the quraan that theirs is the right one. There is no evidence which hadith is the correct ones to support and follow which leads to a new sect, the quranist. If allah is god he must be having a good laugh at this mayhem and confusion he has created.
Now a lot of religions refer to Adam and Eve or Hawa. This poses a lot of questions. IF adam and eve were in fact the first man and woman to be created, wouldn’t religion be around from the beginning of time? Would this not mean that islam would be evident from the beginning of time? There is no biological evidence for a.) The existence of adam and eve. B) That islam existed from the beginning of human creation.
All religions contradict the overwhelming EVIDENCE that exists for evolution. Contrary to what religious people believe, atheist do not BELIEVE in evolution, rather we understand and accept the overwhelming evidence that EXISTS for the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution directly contradicts the belief of adam and eve. Natural selection, evolution, the age of the universe all contradicts what religious belief teaches.
The more one digs deep and with an open mind into all religions one would find that religions served a purpose at their time of creation. They came at a time when man needed guidance and structure, in some way religion plays a role in moulding civilised societies, if one looks into anthropology. But essentially they fill the gaps of human knowledge with god. And those gaps are now slowly being filled by scientific discoveries, one of the largest gap being natural selection by Charles Darwin which has a lot of scientific evidence to back it up.
I understand why people need religion and are afraid to realise religion is in fact NOT true but manmade. Accepting that we may be alone in this universe is scary. But this does not make religion true, or god for that matter.
Religious people throw around terms like logic and reason when talking about religion. This is, I am sorry to say, laughable. Where is the logic in a most merciful god that will rein the most ghastly punishment on you if you step a toe out of line unless you live your life in complete repentance? Looking into the types of punishments described in the Abrahamic faiths, they are prehistoric and primitive punishment stemming from that particular era. Why did god not talk about nuclear bombs or more modern forms of injustice? Why stick to that particular age? Did god not know the world would progress and evolve for so long after islam was ‘revealed’?
Another thing is if islam was the one true religion, why did god not give us ALL the answers to things people are only discovering recently, why did god make no reference DIRECTLY to evolution, and teach his creation about how they came to be? Why spend an entire book discussing mundane things like when you are allowed to hit your wife or describing what you can or can’t do with your genitals, instead of telling us CLEAR and precise things that are important like the origins of the universe or how to avoid climate change. Funny enough it’s easy for people to believe with NO EVIDENCE that a god created the world with a magical big bang then to look into the actual big bang theory and theory of evolution.
Islam is actually so ambiguous and unclear, the quraan is a book that so many people disagree with, people all interpret it in so many different ways. If it was from god it would be clear to anyone who reads it. Yet only parts of the quraan stand out to certain people, which leads them to believe it as being from god. Psychologically these would be parts of things people are looking for and not things that are actually clear or precise.
An example here would be of converts to islam or any religion for that matter. Religions came as something to provide structure for a civilised society, note this can now be done without the use of religious doctrine, often people who are looking for a religion are those who have no structure or control in their lives. You will see that they lived some extreme lifestyle or the other. So when they come across religion, whatever type of mindset they have will dictate the type of religion they will believe to be true. In the case of islam people with no structure in their lives are drawn to the strict rules islam gives them to live their lives. They is however another alternative for these people, outside of religion. With a proper life coach and support system they can also find their way to enlightenment. Ok I drifted off a bit there.
The so called miracles mentioned in the quraan baffle me as well. Now I often hear muslims complain about how absurd it is for god to come down on earth and take the form of Jesus, ok so if this is crazy then by all logic and reason Musa’s staff turning into a snake makes perfect sense right? Noah building an ark to support a pair each type of animal from drowning in a flood that god caused makes perfect sense right? Soloman talking to ants makes sense right? A baby talking in full sentences is perfectly possible right? I’m sorry but how is this logic and reason again? How is one miracle outside of your religion discarded as ludicrous yet you accept all the outrageous other miracles in your book?
Why are muslims so scared of properly studying evolution? Why are they so afraid to look into the age of the universe and natural selection? If islam were true than all knowledge would compliment islam, yet islam and science are largely not compatible at all.
In fact there are a lot of things that islam got wrong, granted a few things are right, but the religion got things wrong too. The Islamic system of marriage is largely outdated and simply does not work, you wonder why divorce is so high? Look into how many marriages are rushed for religious reasons. Gays are not unnatural in fact evolution proves that being gay is VERY VERY natural. Alcohol in moderation is actually good for you and not harmful at all. Woman don’t need to be looked after as much as the Islamic culture stresses, the modern day woman is very capable of looking after herself and for this reason the Islamic inheritance system for woman is actually highly unfair and unjust. A woman’s body is NOT an invitation to rape, men actually possess a lot more self control then islam paints a picture of. In fact it is the sexual repression that causes a lot of cultured men to be more aware of a woman’s body and their sexual urges. Again moderation is the answer. The more you think about this the more you will see these are manmade ideas, not from a god.
There are so many solid reasons why islam is not true, yet if you try really hard you can find excuses that are not quite precise, excuses that cling on to the fears of what if, and you can call this faith. Faith is actually your fear of the unknown. Stop fearing the unknown and start being curious about it. Seek the knowledge that scares you so much.
Another part of this would be the emotional reasons for not believing in islam, which is another chapter on its own. But for now I prefer to look at logic and reason that is LOGICAL AND REASONABLE.
And this is not arrogance, this is the power of knowledge and thinking critically. Arrogance lies in believing your view is true without properly studying all other views and knowledge available. Arrogance is the unwillingness to change your opinions when presented with SOLID evidence. That my friend is arrogance...
"I Knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then." Alice in wonderland
"This is the only heaven we have how dare you make it a hell" Dr Marlene Winell
Topic: My Reasons