As things stand, I ain't changing my mind. You see I feel I'm in this advantageous position because I know I do what I do for the right reasons. I have good intentions. So even if God does exist, which I don't believe he does, he will "judge me" on my actions and intentions and not on whether I believe he exists or not because if he has been witness to my.life he will have a full understanding of how I came to my.own conclusions.
Let me start with a disclaimer, there's 18 pages in this thread, i have not read them so my post might be redundant.
I am probably more conspiratorial then you are "Awoke". I don't trust anything coming out of the establishment. With this in mind the statement "religion being opium for the masses" has credibility. For the powers that be it is easy to write a book and say "this is from god, now obey."
I think you and me can both agree we live in an age of deception with a liar on every corner. Its difficult to prove water is wet these days let alone arguing religion, which for billions of people is faith and nothing more.
Islam has proofs but its not why I'm making this post. Fact is people disbelieved when the prophets walked. Jesus (as) brought clay birds to life and Muhammad (saw) split the moon in 2, yet people still disbelieved. They said "magic" and nothing more. I do believe there is a verse in the Quran that states stairs to heaven could appear and people would still disbelieve calling it "magic".
Its worth acknowledging there are people whose hearts are sealed and will never believe regardless.
Well, let me get more specific.
As things stand, I ain't changing my mind. You see I feel I'm in this advantageous position because I know I do what I do for the right reasons.
Have you heard of Pascals wager? The theory is a man spends his life in worship and God never existed. He dies, disappears into the earth. Decays and is never more. What did this man lose/gain? Other then some time / energy nothing really.
On the other hand God does exist and this same man who spent his life in worship meets the Almighty on the day of reckoning. He's saved because he did what God asked him to do. Compare this to the disbeliever.
If there is no god and the disbeliever never worships, he has the same ending as the believing man. Little more then worm food.
Yet if God does exist and this disbeliever didn't do a single act of worship, then he has an eternity of torment coming as depicted in the 3 Abrahamic faiths.
So when you say you're in an advantageous position?... The disbeliever has nothing what so ever to benefit from. Either he's worm food and barely a memory or in extreme torture for the rest of his existence.
As a comparison, the Prophet of Islam said our fire is 1/70th of the fire of hell. One seventy-ith is a fraction of a fraction.
I'm not trying to sell "Islam" to you. Just saying our fire is like a cold drink of water compared to the fire of hell according to Prophet Muhammad (saw). If this is real, extreme torture will be a reality.
So even if God does exist, which I don't believe he does, he will "judge me" on my actions and intentions
The way i see it, God sent down the Torah (Moses), Injeel (Jesus) and the Quran (Muhammad). 3 paths giving direction.
Let me give you my "factory" analogy.
Say I own a factory and I give you a job with a handbook. However, you never show up to work. You even tell people my factory doesn't exist. Still, you collect a check week after week.
Are you liable for a raise? Should i promote you?
Whether you acknowledge it or not our food is provided. Our health is a blessing, our family, job, wife/husband. Home, transportation, ect, ect, ect. We have countless blessings, ie a "pay check". Yet when you deny the "Employers" existence..
How well do you think God will "judge" you when you never showed up a single day to do your job?
3 books, 3 paths were sent down. If ignoring them was acceptable, why send them to begin with? Do you think God will judge you favorably? If you were the factory owner would you promote the disbeliever, or would you fire him?
This post is mostly rhetorical. Meant for self reflection. Like i said, you can't argue religion, especially in these times when the trust has been removed.
Food for thought, I've never been an Atheist (الحمد لله) but how do you explain the millions of stories with people having "paranormal" experiences? Surely there is an unseen world?
I don't intend to "sell" you Islam because truth is everyone thinks they have the one and only truth. If they didn't they'd convert. If a Hindu didn't think worshiping Kali was gonna take him to heaven, he wouldn't do it.
Me and you are alike in that we think, we're both "awake". Should Man question religion? Absolutely. We need to look for proofs. While some faiths have more then others.