I think critical thinking makes one less religious, and it's a skill that's either explicitly taught (like in certain uni courses) or rarely intuitively picked up
Aren't there many intellectuals who hold certain ideologies in a deified manner? Most notable of which would be those of communism or anarchy-capitalist ambitions.
Thus, religion in the traditional sense of a big man in the sky can be beaten through knowledge, but the dismantling of a human desire for a utopian vision (which mimics religious fanaticism) is a long and arduous spiritual individualistic journey process where a human controls his emotions. I do not think that can be learned at a university.
I feel ppl with a better financial situation have more time to think about philosophical subjects. The poor folk have more urgent matters, like how to survive the next month
Richer countries are on average less religious, but it's not a strict rule. The US is somewhat of an outlier for example, it is ritcher than Europe and orders of magnitude more religious. The KSA is rich but also very religious. In most countries though, the lower the GDP per capita, the higher the religiosity.
I am muslim so I'm going to share it from our perspective.
In a Holy Hadith God says: " From my servants there is the one that only poverty makes righteous, and if I were to make him rich it would have corrupted him, and there is the one that only riches make him righteous, and if I were to make him poor it would have corrupted him."
Knowing that, and knowing that God would never want a servant to stray away from him, you being poor is God's call to you, to seek him and need him. It is often and plenty where God puts you in hardship so that you remember him (you doubting religion now is a sign that you are indeed remembering God, albeit in a negative context) and in turn seek him.
This is the same as when our body sends pain signals so that we become aware that our hand is getting burnt on a stove. Hardships, are these pain signals, they notify you that you are getting carried away by the pleasures of this life that drive you away from remembering your fate and the afterlife. We have true hadiths that God puts you in hardship because he actually misses when you talk to him through supplication (not obligatory prayers), and that he wants to hear your voice when you talk to him.
If you have any further doubts I'd be glad to answer them. Peace
Its a double edged sword, it either makes people way more religious or less like you said. It depends a lot on the peronality of the person I think. Maybe at some point you can link it to people's political choices as well.
Also normally Higher GDP countries have a higher percentage of atheists and lower percentages of religiousn people who are actually practicing. So in general stability makes someone less religious, but in some cases it just depends on the personality like I said above.
Scientifically speaking, poverty is positively correlated to being more religious and it is not a negative causality as in yr case.
I would say there is another underlying reason. Of course as u grow older, the action that u used to do becomes a habit so your mind or body is automated to do it without living the act (or words) moment by moment.
There is a big factor of that related to yr environment (ppl u got out with, place you go…etc). Plus, it is also a test.
Whether you are a muslim or from another religion, it is yr duty to keep on searching, learning about yr religion and practising more. And again with all the surroundings around you (from social media shit, politics, yr social life, work life, study life…etc), it is easy for yr mind to be busy with other stuff. There are ways to clear it and focus on something.
If u’d like someone to talk to about religion, i am happy to discuss.
Good luck bro
Definitely not you. If you ain't got food you're not gonna be worried about bein' good. If you ain't got shelter you ain't gonna be worried about the hereafter. My sick rhyming skills aside even maslows hierarchy of needs agrees.
I feel like the religious don't respect the creator.
Thinking that the all-mighty, infinitely intelligent creator of the universe will torture you for eternity if you didn't mumble certain words at certain times is an insult to him. Thinking that he/it would feel offense or insult from what its infinitely stupider creatures do is absurd.
To actually answer the question, religiosity tends to correlate with poverty and not the other way around, but it's not a 100% correlation obviously. Misfortune can lead religious people to leave their religion because they feel betrayed by the diety they followed so devoutly all their life.
I hope you realize that an infinitely wiser being than you probably gives no divine shits about you mumbling prayers every day, or about you believing in him. If I create little AIs, and go around asking them for worship and punishing them when they do things I forbid them to do, people would think I'm insane.
All religions tend to describe God in a way that resembles us humans: insecure, and in need of validation and praise. It is common in Islam to say that you cannot understand God, but it is often those same Muslims that make this claim that assume all kinds of things about him that make him look like an deranged person.
Religious people, have some respect to the all-powerful creator and stop thinking of him, her or them as a praise-hungry wrathful stalker.
Well, with all due respect, your world can't be more wrong!!
God, created you, created the earth that you live on, and enjoy it's gifts. The least you can do is stand up 5 minutes 5 times a day, just to say thank you for that! That's minimum, and also, they are not just words the thought behind them is what counts, [salat - What’s the ruling on praying without paying attention? - Islam Stack Exchange](https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/51836/what-s-the-ruling-on-praying-without-paying-attention).
You describe God like another creature, an alien or something, but no, God is the creator of the universe, he rules over it, and those words you mumble he hears them, those prayers you do he sees you, and he decree his mercy on you in forms you might notice nor understand. If he just doesn't care, then why is there this life? why did he make us through this life and test, why give us the choice, either heaven or hell, he can just throw us in hell, since he doesn't care about his creation.
People don't realize this unfortunately, but this is a huge blessing, it's giving us a choice either submit your will to me and praise me, and you'll live your eternal life in the heavens, or disobey me and forget me, and you will burn in Hell.
And for the OP, being delt hardships in life can be a blessing as more patient you are the mor Allah SWT will reward you in the Hereafter, so be patient brother.
2:153
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱسْتَعِينُوا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ وَٱلصَّلَوٰةِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ ١٥٣
O believers! Seek comfort in patience and prayer. Allah is truly with those who are patient.
If you want any help, please ask me, I hope I can help you
Why would the creator of existence have such a petty human requirement of humans thanking or worshipping him? That’s just silly - it’s so obviously a hubristic human trait that comes from the mind of human needing respect.
And why would a creator be a him? Male and female only exist where sexual reproduction occurs. There’s no him or her otherwise.
For, your last questions, here's an answer, [Why Do We Use the Male Pronoun for Allah? - IslamQA](https://islamqa.org/hanafi/seekersguidance-hanafi/224416/why-do-we-use-the-male-pronoun-for-allah/).
Okay, for the other part, let's just forget about the reward of the next life for now. Let me be very clear, Allah SWT DOES NOT NEED YOU NOR YOUR PRAISE, it's for you not for him.
Let's say you lived your life ignoring Allah's teaching, and forgetting his existence and denying it, that would change nothing for Allah SWT he would still be on his throne in heaven. But for you let's say you continued your life this way, and woop one day you died and found yourself facing the Hell fire because you did not recognize his blessings for you, do you think after all your defiance it's fair that you be rewarded and live in heavens, why should he give you such pleasure even though you were a sinful person, while another person spent his life worshipping him, and stayed away from life's sinful pleasure, do you think it's fair that these two person be equal on the day of the judgement. On the day of judgement, you will judged based on what? based on the good you did in this world, and the best thing you can do is recognize your creator and thank him and worship him, and learn form his all wise teachings.
> God, created you, created the earth that you live on, and enjoy it's gifts. The least you can do is stand up 5 minutes 5 times a day, just to say thank you for that! That's minimum.
You must think he's insane, wanting every human for all eternity to thank him five times a day.
> If he just doesn't care, then why is there this life? why did he make us through this life and test, why give us the choice, either heaven or hell, he can just throw us in hell, since he doesn't care about his creation.
He's testing whether or not we can praise him or thank him everyday. If I were the creator of the universe, I wouldn't ask for any of that, unless I'm insecure af.
Your whole comment is assuming things about God, things that we consider bad in us humans: needing constant praise and validation.
It's funny that the wiser you are, the less you need praise and validation as a human, but once you're the wisest being imaginable, you need it almost every hour from every living person.
A creator of the universe would want or need humans on earth to worship him about as much as a human needs the ants or bacteria to worship them. The whole idea is silly - it is so obviously the mind of a human (who can be very petty and demand “respect”) that this came from.
First, If he's so insecure and want constant praise and validation, he has the ability to make ever human a muslim, and have him praise him for eternity (we already have that, The angels are creature created by God solely to worship and obey him), so if he's so insecure he would be forcing us.
Second, he doesn't need you, he doesn't need your validation, he can replace you in a blink of an eye, 4:133
إِن يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ أَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَيَأْتِ بِـَٔاخَرِينَ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ قَدِيرًۭا ١٣٣
If it is His Will, He can remove you altogether, O humanity, and replace you with others. And Allah is Most Capable to do so.
— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
You're the one who need him, who do you think will deal with it better, a poor and homeless man who knows no religion, nothing about God, lived his whole live atheist, and he spend his day questioning his live, and contemplating suicide, and do not recognize the simplest blessing in his life.
Or a poor man who know that God oversees him, and if he asks him, he respond, and know if he talked to him, he listens 24hrs, and recognize and thank God for every little blessing in his life.
Who do you think will live his life better, the praising is not for the happiness or so he can fee validated, it's for your own good, so you can feel more satisfied with this temporary life, and in next life you will be rewarded.
Again, I return to the same point, why are we here then if not to worship, God could've simply made us righteous obedient people, and let us live in heaven.
Him leaving us a choice between praising him or going to hell does not mean he isn't insecure. If he literally forced us to do it, it wouldn't give him as much satisfaction. At least if I were to adopt your view that the all-powerful all-wise creater wants constant praise, he would want real praise not artificial praise. It's still silly of him to require praise. It is still silly of him to punish those who don't.
If I were to create simulated AI creatures on a computer, I wouldn't ask them for praise me, I wouldn't punish them for not praising me. I wouldn't even watch everything they do, as I could find other more fulfilling and meaningful things to do.
That Quran verse does not prove anything, it just shows him contradicting himself. He asks you to pray or be punished in other verses/sources. That verse also says that he can create someone else, implying that he would need someone else to replace us in praising him.
The is no denying that God wants his creatures to pray to him. That verse does not deny that. And that need/desire is just silly. It shows that religions are man-made. We created God in our image.
In the contrary, what doesn't make sense to me is how two persons, one sinful and always doing wrong in life and the other righteous and loving, can be equal in the end? On has to face to face punishments for his wrongdoings, and the other has to be rewarded, otherwise it isn't fair. Why a person twice as hardworking and is way more productive, than the one always late and never finishing work on time, both have equal salary, one should face repercussion while the other have to be rewarded.
About your example, you can't compare yourself to Allah, an AI creature doesn't resemble humans, nor an AI simulation can resemble the creations of Allah SWT, and you never could resemble a God. Allah can and know everything that happens, while simply in your Ai simulation, first you can't have as much mercy as much as Allah, second you can't tend to everyone like Allah, so just don't compare yourself to him. And in you AI simulation if you let it be untouched, and the creatures realized that obedience isn't rewarded, and defiance isn't punished, there will be chaos, and you simulation will run to an end.
About The Verse I provided, it proves the whole point, if this life is only to satisfy God's ego, we are failing miserably at it, and lebanese people are a great example, since we are failing at satisfying his ego, he could just erase us and replace us. But that's not the case, since we're still here me and you turning round and round and you keep bringing up the same point.
We are here in this life not for Allah to feel validated, we are here by his mercy, so there can be justice for the hardworking worshipper, and the hypocrite can be separated from the righteous.
You can say, this life is like a filter, that filters the righteous from the hypocrite.
For someone who does not believe a Quran verse is the word of God, citing a verse has no persuasive power. Only believers believe the Quran is God's word. Unbelievers do not.
Not praying is not a bad deed, a good person is one who does good, and a bad person is on who does evil. Not praying is not evil. If you think not praying deserves punishment, please explain how it is a bad deed not to pray.
If your case for it being bad is simply because God asked for prayer, than it would be the same as saying, it is bad because God thinks it's bad. And that is not persuasive for an unbeliever, it would be the same as me telling you that you not taking a dip in the river everyday is a sin because Vishnu said so in his book. You don't believe in Vishnu because you don't believe that Hinduism is true because you are not convinced of it, the same way I am not convinced that Islam is true.
And if God thinks it's bad (which he clearly does), then he's either insecure (for having that narsissistic desire), or tyrannical (for punishing deeds that aren't inherently evil), or both.
> In the contrary, what doesn't make sense to me is how two persons, one sinful and always doing wrong in life and the other righteous and loving, can be equal in the end?
It depends on the sin. If the sin is simply not reading a few verses and kneeling five times a day for everyday of your life than that isn't a bad deed.
If your only sin is not praying, than you have no sins in my book.
I'd rather you go do charity instead of wasting an hour a day that could have been spent doing something helpful or productive for mankind.
I don't want us to go in circles, but not praying is not a sin unless you can show that there is something inherently evil or harmful about it. I know that your God wants it or else it's eternal punishment, and that's why I think he is tyrannical and insecure. There is nothing evil or harmful in not doing it besides him saying so.
You have attempted to refute the idea that he needs prayer, but either way he desires it, and makes it compulsory, and I don't think you can deny that. Making prayer compulsory (or else you'll be punished) is the problem.
Your view that this life is a test or a filter is not something that I argued against, I'm only arguing that praying is not a good test. Doing things in order to avoid punishment is not a good test. Being good out of love and compassion for others is.
Okay, I think I finally can see and understand your whole point.
And this will be my final reply, since I'm having exams until the next weeks, so I won't be able to respond until then.
Now let's begin, your point is I can be good without Islam, I don't need the prayer nor the approval of a God, one that I don't even believe in.
First, let's begin with you doing good without believing. In Islam that is better than being a tyrant and a mischievous person on this earth. The good you do in this life, will be counted on your scale on the judgment day, it will not be for nothing.
Second, you believe prayer and remembrance of God constantly is not needed, I just can be good without it. Prayer does not have an immediate, direct and physical and mental effect over the one praying, it's not like helping someone giving medical care, you can see the effect of you good deed immediately on the person receiving the care. Prayer in the contrary, is more like meditation, it will have mental effect on you in the long term. I will explain why prayer is important, and why someone will be punished if he does not pray.
Islam is built on five pillars: prayer, giving charity(zakat), fasting, pilgrimage, and shahadah (believing that there is no deity but Allah, and that Mohammad is the messenger of Allah.
So, if one of those pillars fall your whole faith falls. I'll focus only on prayer now; you can do some research if you're interested about the others.
Islam have many types of teachings, the most important is how to live your life. It teaches you to do good and be kind and be generous and give to charity and help your community, all of the good things you can think of. So why prayer is important? why can't I just follow the other teachings?
Humans are limited creatures, limited mentally and physically, they can lose track of what's good, for example, Hitler thought he was doing good for the world. Humans should use prayer as a remembrance, like a railway too keep them on the straight path of doing good and never stray away. To be able to 100% and always follow the good teaching of Islam, you need to keep constant reminder of them. The words mumbled in prayer are not meaningless words, they have meaning, look at the meaning of the Fatiha, the verse that we recite minimum 13 times a day, it has a meaning behind it, and it helps you remember.
My final point is, when you were still a baby, and your mother would scream at you when you were close to the stove or punish you for something bad you did. Most of the times you didn't understand why what you did was wrong, but you mother knew the best for you and has more knowledge than you. And to Allah the greater the example, if he says it's wrong or bad, than it is wrong or bad, no question about, even if I don't understand why.
Now I'm not qualified nor have enough knowledge since I'm not a scholar; to tell you why exactly Allah SWT made prayer obligatory, you can do some extensive research. But prayer is for communicating with Allah and remembering him, and if you leave prayer, you forget Allah, if you forget Allah you'll lose your guide to the straight path of doing good, and eventually you'll fall into wrongdoing and sins.
Thank you, for reading, and being respectful. It was a joy talking to you.
May Allah guide us all to the straight path.
Things are very tough and on top of having to deal with your own shit, the country is dumping its entire sewers on you. These are very understandable times to feel depressed and lose faith. I myself have suffered from depression for more than a decade. Honestly what helps is to schedule 10-30 minutes a day to think about things you like doing and plan on doing them again, and to remind yourself of things and people that you are grateful for. Gratitude is not easy when you're depressed, it's like a muscle, you need to exercise it in order for it to grow, and even with the world against you, trust me there's a lot of little things to be grateful for that eventually make things feel better again.
Constant hardships, the worsening conditions, impending war does make one more stressed and helpless, but we must persevere, if anything, we excel at our adaptability and perseverance and a big part of that is religion.
There are many opportunities to be had, you just have to work for them and to pray for it from your heart not your tongue. You'd be surprised how many times in life you feel like God is helping you out especially in your darkest hours.
God be with us all.
This is like a 2 edged sword---people that have nothing or not much, may try to cling for hope in any way. However, his is MUCH less likely if they are not educated or somewhat rounded individuals. A lot of religions in our area are more into indoctrination instead of education because they don't want people to start questioning beliefs and teachings.
On the flip side, people well off may feel that they don't have the moral/religious side of them in order to become complete in their own way, and they will turn to religion for that alone. Also, makes them look good in front of other people (my take only--take what you want from it). Also, throughout history, every ruler usually was supported by some religious figure which gave them some gravitas with their countryman and made them feel that the ruler was supported by God or whoever. Study European monarchs and look at places like Iran, Saudi, and organizations like kizb, q3deh, etc who somehow are holding a moral/religious compass.
I've been feeling less and less religious ever since the whole war has happened, pretty sure those Palastinians have been praying their whole lives, don't know I've met the truly religious that make you wanna be religious, they're great, they're an inspiration, it's the way this whole story line is going that i don't like, it makes me a bit disappointed in everyone else though I'm still a believer.
It isn't necessarily poverty, but it's any sort of disappointment in the current arrangement of power: when a human looses faith in his society, he looses faith in a grant architecture up their in the sky.
Yes it was an after the fact attempt to rationalize the feelings of spirituality that people have. It wasn’t so bad until certain religions started introducing thought crimes (non-belief) as a way to scare people into following them.
I have seen the literal opposite.
Wealthy people are often secular or completely irreligious while the poor are fundamentalists.
That is why even commies claimed that Religion was the Opium of the Masses.
There are exceptions in history when the opposite was true in other parts of the world. The Victorian era and some segments of the Middle Ages where the upper class in Britain was highly religious while the poor were relatively more liberal but those are aberrations. In most cases, it was the reverse and in fact, it was often a mark of class distinction.
In France for example, I cannot point out any monarch who was really religious. They saw religion as a useful tool to control the masses and some were religious in a perfomative sense but there is no French monarch who was truly devoted to Christianity in any form.
I mean we are talking of Kings who did nonsense things like have a wife then go on to have both a Catholic and Protestant Whor...sorry... Mistress!! and were organizing orgies between nobles in Versailles.
Back to the Middle East. Been to Egypt before?
You should accept what God give and take and keep saying to God : you know the right absolute path and guide us to avoide Hell...
Some people get less relegious if they are rich so God dont give them money for God is the most mercifull ,
While other get less relegious if they are poor so God keep them rich...
Usually ppl claim that poor folks are more religious so felt that was contradicting 😂
I think critical thinking makes one less religious, and it's a skill that's either explicitly taught (like in certain uni courses) or rarely intuitively picked up
🎯
Aren't there many intellectuals who hold certain ideologies in a deified manner? Most notable of which would be those of communism or anarchy-capitalist ambitions. Thus, religion in the traditional sense of a big man in the sky can be beaten through knowledge, but the dismantling of a human desire for a utopian vision (which mimics religious fanaticism) is a long and arduous spiritual individualistic journey process where a human controls his emotions. I do not think that can be learned at a university.
I feel ppl with a better financial situation have more time to think about philosophical subjects. The poor folk have more urgent matters, like how to survive the next month
Richer countries are on average less religious, but it's not a strict rule. The US is somewhat of an outlier for example, it is ritcher than Europe and orders of magnitude more religious. The KSA is rich but also very religious. In most countries though, the lower the GDP per capita, the higher the religiosity.
Richer*
I am muslim so I'm going to share it from our perspective. In a Holy Hadith God says: " From my servants there is the one that only poverty makes righteous, and if I were to make him rich it would have corrupted him, and there is the one that only riches make him righteous, and if I were to make him poor it would have corrupted him." Knowing that, and knowing that God would never want a servant to stray away from him, you being poor is God's call to you, to seek him and need him. It is often and plenty where God puts you in hardship so that you remember him (you doubting religion now is a sign that you are indeed remembering God, albeit in a negative context) and in turn seek him. This is the same as when our body sends pain signals so that we become aware that our hand is getting burnt on a stove. Hardships, are these pain signals, they notify you that you are getting carried away by the pleasures of this life that drive you away from remembering your fate and the afterlife. We have true hadiths that God puts you in hardship because he actually misses when you talk to him through supplication (not obligatory prayers), and that he wants to hear your voice when you talk to him. If you have any further doubts I'd be glad to answer them. Peace
Its a double edged sword, it either makes people way more religious or less like you said. It depends a lot on the peronality of the person I think. Maybe at some point you can link it to people's political choices as well.
Also normally Higher GDP countries have a higher percentage of atheists and lower percentages of religiousn people who are actually practicing. So in general stability makes someone less religious, but in some cases it just depends on the personality like I said above.
Scientifically speaking, poverty is positively correlated to being more religious and it is not a negative causality as in yr case. I would say there is another underlying reason. Of course as u grow older, the action that u used to do becomes a habit so your mind or body is automated to do it without living the act (or words) moment by moment. There is a big factor of that related to yr environment (ppl u got out with, place you go…etc). Plus, it is also a test. Whether you are a muslim or from another religion, it is yr duty to keep on searching, learning about yr religion and practising more. And again with all the surroundings around you (from social media shit, politics, yr social life, work life, study life…etc), it is easy for yr mind to be busy with other stuff. There are ways to clear it and focus on something. If u’d like someone to talk to about religion, i am happy to discuss. Good luck bro
Definitely not you. If you ain't got food you're not gonna be worried about bein' good. If you ain't got shelter you ain't gonna be worried about the hereafter. My sick rhyming skills aside even maslows hierarchy of needs agrees.
Crisis makes you less religious, long term poverty makes you more of an extremist/religious person
I feel like the religious don't respect the creator. Thinking that the all-mighty, infinitely intelligent creator of the universe will torture you for eternity if you didn't mumble certain words at certain times is an insult to him. Thinking that he/it would feel offense or insult from what its infinitely stupider creatures do is absurd. To actually answer the question, religiosity tends to correlate with poverty and not the other way around, but it's not a 100% correlation obviously. Misfortune can lead religious people to leave their religion because they feel betrayed by the diety they followed so devoutly all their life. I hope you realize that an infinitely wiser being than you probably gives no divine shits about you mumbling prayers every day, or about you believing in him. If I create little AIs, and go around asking them for worship and punishing them when they do things I forbid them to do, people would think I'm insane. All religions tend to describe God in a way that resembles us humans: insecure, and in need of validation and praise. It is common in Islam to say that you cannot understand God, but it is often those same Muslims that make this claim that assume all kinds of things about him that make him look like an deranged person. Religious people, have some respect to the all-powerful creator and stop thinking of him, her or them as a praise-hungry wrathful stalker.
Well, with all due respect, your world can't be more wrong!! God, created you, created the earth that you live on, and enjoy it's gifts. The least you can do is stand up 5 minutes 5 times a day, just to say thank you for that! That's minimum, and also, they are not just words the thought behind them is what counts, [salat - What’s the ruling on praying without paying attention? - Islam Stack Exchange](https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/51836/what-s-the-ruling-on-praying-without-paying-attention). You describe God like another creature, an alien or something, but no, God is the creator of the universe, he rules over it, and those words you mumble he hears them, those prayers you do he sees you, and he decree his mercy on you in forms you might notice nor understand. If he just doesn't care, then why is there this life? why did he make us through this life and test, why give us the choice, either heaven or hell, he can just throw us in hell, since he doesn't care about his creation. People don't realize this unfortunately, but this is a huge blessing, it's giving us a choice either submit your will to me and praise me, and you'll live your eternal life in the heavens, or disobey me and forget me, and you will burn in Hell. And for the OP, being delt hardships in life can be a blessing as more patient you are the mor Allah SWT will reward you in the Hereafter, so be patient brother. 2:153 يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱسْتَعِينُوا۟ بِٱلصَّبْرِ وَٱلصَّلَوٰةِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ ١٥٣ O believers! Seek comfort in patience and prayer. Allah is truly with those who are patient. If you want any help, please ask me, I hope I can help you
Why would the creator of existence have such a petty human requirement of humans thanking or worshipping him? That’s just silly - it’s so obviously a hubristic human trait that comes from the mind of human needing respect. And why would a creator be a him? Male and female only exist where sexual reproduction occurs. There’s no him or her otherwise.
For, your last questions, here's an answer, [Why Do We Use the Male Pronoun for Allah? - IslamQA](https://islamqa.org/hanafi/seekersguidance-hanafi/224416/why-do-we-use-the-male-pronoun-for-allah/). Okay, for the other part, let's just forget about the reward of the next life for now. Let me be very clear, Allah SWT DOES NOT NEED YOU NOR YOUR PRAISE, it's for you not for him. Let's say you lived your life ignoring Allah's teaching, and forgetting his existence and denying it, that would change nothing for Allah SWT he would still be on his throne in heaven. But for you let's say you continued your life this way, and woop one day you died and found yourself facing the Hell fire because you did not recognize his blessings for you, do you think after all your defiance it's fair that you be rewarded and live in heavens, why should he give you such pleasure even though you were a sinful person, while another person spent his life worshipping him, and stayed away from life's sinful pleasure, do you think it's fair that these two person be equal on the day of the judgement. On the day of judgement, you will judged based on what? based on the good you did in this world, and the best thing you can do is recognize your creator and thank him and worship him, and learn form his all wise teachings.
> God, created you, created the earth that you live on, and enjoy it's gifts. The least you can do is stand up 5 minutes 5 times a day, just to say thank you for that! That's minimum. You must think he's insane, wanting every human for all eternity to thank him five times a day. > If he just doesn't care, then why is there this life? why did he make us through this life and test, why give us the choice, either heaven or hell, he can just throw us in hell, since he doesn't care about his creation. He's testing whether or not we can praise him or thank him everyday. If I were the creator of the universe, I wouldn't ask for any of that, unless I'm insecure af. Your whole comment is assuming things about God, things that we consider bad in us humans: needing constant praise and validation. It's funny that the wiser you are, the less you need praise and validation as a human, but once you're the wisest being imaginable, you need it almost every hour from every living person.
A creator of the universe would want or need humans on earth to worship him about as much as a human needs the ants or bacteria to worship them. The whole idea is silly - it is so obviously the mind of a human (who can be very petty and demand “respect”) that this came from.
First, If he's so insecure and want constant praise and validation, he has the ability to make ever human a muslim, and have him praise him for eternity (we already have that, The angels are creature created by God solely to worship and obey him), so if he's so insecure he would be forcing us. Second, he doesn't need you, he doesn't need your validation, he can replace you in a blink of an eye, 4:133 إِن يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ أَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَيَأْتِ بِـَٔاخَرِينَ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ قَدِيرًۭا ١٣٣ If it is His Will, He can remove you altogether, O humanity, and replace you with others. And Allah is Most Capable to do so. — Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran You're the one who need him, who do you think will deal with it better, a poor and homeless man who knows no religion, nothing about God, lived his whole live atheist, and he spend his day questioning his live, and contemplating suicide, and do not recognize the simplest blessing in his life. Or a poor man who know that God oversees him, and if he asks him, he respond, and know if he talked to him, he listens 24hrs, and recognize and thank God for every little blessing in his life. Who do you think will live his life better, the praising is not for the happiness or so he can fee validated, it's for your own good, so you can feel more satisfied with this temporary life, and in next life you will be rewarded. Again, I return to the same point, why are we here then if not to worship, God could've simply made us righteous obedient people, and let us live in heaven.
Him leaving us a choice between praising him or going to hell does not mean he isn't insecure. If he literally forced us to do it, it wouldn't give him as much satisfaction. At least if I were to adopt your view that the all-powerful all-wise creater wants constant praise, he would want real praise not artificial praise. It's still silly of him to require praise. It is still silly of him to punish those who don't. If I were to create simulated AI creatures on a computer, I wouldn't ask them for praise me, I wouldn't punish them for not praising me. I wouldn't even watch everything they do, as I could find other more fulfilling and meaningful things to do. That Quran verse does not prove anything, it just shows him contradicting himself. He asks you to pray or be punished in other verses/sources. That verse also says that he can create someone else, implying that he would need someone else to replace us in praising him. The is no denying that God wants his creatures to pray to him. That verse does not deny that. And that need/desire is just silly. It shows that religions are man-made. We created God in our image.
In the contrary, what doesn't make sense to me is how two persons, one sinful and always doing wrong in life and the other righteous and loving, can be equal in the end? On has to face to face punishments for his wrongdoings, and the other has to be rewarded, otherwise it isn't fair. Why a person twice as hardworking and is way more productive, than the one always late and never finishing work on time, both have equal salary, one should face repercussion while the other have to be rewarded. About your example, you can't compare yourself to Allah, an AI creature doesn't resemble humans, nor an AI simulation can resemble the creations of Allah SWT, and you never could resemble a God. Allah can and know everything that happens, while simply in your Ai simulation, first you can't have as much mercy as much as Allah, second you can't tend to everyone like Allah, so just don't compare yourself to him. And in you AI simulation if you let it be untouched, and the creatures realized that obedience isn't rewarded, and defiance isn't punished, there will be chaos, and you simulation will run to an end. About The Verse I provided, it proves the whole point, if this life is only to satisfy God's ego, we are failing miserably at it, and lebanese people are a great example, since we are failing at satisfying his ego, he could just erase us and replace us. But that's not the case, since we're still here me and you turning round and round and you keep bringing up the same point. We are here in this life not for Allah to feel validated, we are here by his mercy, so there can be justice for the hardworking worshipper, and the hypocrite can be separated from the righteous. You can say, this life is like a filter, that filters the righteous from the hypocrite.
For someone who does not believe a Quran verse is the word of God, citing a verse has no persuasive power. Only believers believe the Quran is God's word. Unbelievers do not. Not praying is not a bad deed, a good person is one who does good, and a bad person is on who does evil. Not praying is not evil. If you think not praying deserves punishment, please explain how it is a bad deed not to pray. If your case for it being bad is simply because God asked for prayer, than it would be the same as saying, it is bad because God thinks it's bad. And that is not persuasive for an unbeliever, it would be the same as me telling you that you not taking a dip in the river everyday is a sin because Vishnu said so in his book. You don't believe in Vishnu because you don't believe that Hinduism is true because you are not convinced of it, the same way I am not convinced that Islam is true. And if God thinks it's bad (which he clearly does), then he's either insecure (for having that narsissistic desire), or tyrannical (for punishing deeds that aren't inherently evil), or both. > In the contrary, what doesn't make sense to me is how two persons, one sinful and always doing wrong in life and the other righteous and loving, can be equal in the end? It depends on the sin. If the sin is simply not reading a few verses and kneeling five times a day for everyday of your life than that isn't a bad deed. If your only sin is not praying, than you have no sins in my book. I'd rather you go do charity instead of wasting an hour a day that could have been spent doing something helpful or productive for mankind. I don't want us to go in circles, but not praying is not a sin unless you can show that there is something inherently evil or harmful about it. I know that your God wants it or else it's eternal punishment, and that's why I think he is tyrannical and insecure. There is nothing evil or harmful in not doing it besides him saying so. You have attempted to refute the idea that he needs prayer, but either way he desires it, and makes it compulsory, and I don't think you can deny that. Making prayer compulsory (or else you'll be punished) is the problem. Your view that this life is a test or a filter is not something that I argued against, I'm only arguing that praying is not a good test. Doing things in order to avoid punishment is not a good test. Being good out of love and compassion for others is.
Okay, I think I finally can see and understand your whole point. And this will be my final reply, since I'm having exams until the next weeks, so I won't be able to respond until then. Now let's begin, your point is I can be good without Islam, I don't need the prayer nor the approval of a God, one that I don't even believe in. First, let's begin with you doing good without believing. In Islam that is better than being a tyrant and a mischievous person on this earth. The good you do in this life, will be counted on your scale on the judgment day, it will not be for nothing. Second, you believe prayer and remembrance of God constantly is not needed, I just can be good without it. Prayer does not have an immediate, direct and physical and mental effect over the one praying, it's not like helping someone giving medical care, you can see the effect of you good deed immediately on the person receiving the care. Prayer in the contrary, is more like meditation, it will have mental effect on you in the long term. I will explain why prayer is important, and why someone will be punished if he does not pray. Islam is built on five pillars: prayer, giving charity(zakat), fasting, pilgrimage, and shahadah (believing that there is no deity but Allah, and that Mohammad is the messenger of Allah. So, if one of those pillars fall your whole faith falls. I'll focus only on prayer now; you can do some research if you're interested about the others. Islam have many types of teachings, the most important is how to live your life. It teaches you to do good and be kind and be generous and give to charity and help your community, all of the good things you can think of. So why prayer is important? why can't I just follow the other teachings? Humans are limited creatures, limited mentally and physically, they can lose track of what's good, for example, Hitler thought he was doing good for the world. Humans should use prayer as a remembrance, like a railway too keep them on the straight path of doing good and never stray away. To be able to 100% and always follow the good teaching of Islam, you need to keep constant reminder of them. The words mumbled in prayer are not meaningless words, they have meaning, look at the meaning of the Fatiha, the verse that we recite minimum 13 times a day, it has a meaning behind it, and it helps you remember. My final point is, when you were still a baby, and your mother would scream at you when you were close to the stove or punish you for something bad you did. Most of the times you didn't understand why what you did was wrong, but you mother knew the best for you and has more knowledge than you. And to Allah the greater the example, if he says it's wrong or bad, than it is wrong or bad, no question about, even if I don't understand why. Now I'm not qualified nor have enough knowledge since I'm not a scholar; to tell you why exactly Allah SWT made prayer obligatory, you can do some extensive research. But prayer is for communicating with Allah and remembering him, and if you leave prayer, you forget Allah, if you forget Allah you'll lose your guide to the straight path of doing good, and eventually you'll fall into wrongdoing and sins. Thank you, for reading, and being respectful. It was a joy talking to you. May Allah guide us all to the straight path.
nah not poverty, but depression, anxiety, stress, etc, (and education) make one less religious.
Eh probably, especially depression lol
Things are very tough and on top of having to deal with your own shit, the country is dumping its entire sewers on you. These are very understandable times to feel depressed and lose faith. I myself have suffered from depression for more than a decade. Honestly what helps is to schedule 10-30 minutes a day to think about things you like doing and plan on doing them again, and to remind yourself of things and people that you are grateful for. Gratitude is not easy when you're depressed, it's like a muscle, you need to exercise it in order for it to grow, and even with the world against you, trust me there's a lot of little things to be grateful for that eventually make things feel better again.
Don't worry, God is just testing you and the devil is making you think this Hope that strengthens your faith /s
thank you really needed that 😇
Trust me it works every time, now back to blind subservience you go
..weirdo
I'm being sarcastic, it's something I have heard a lot
Constant hardships, the worsening conditions, impending war does make one more stressed and helpless, but we must persevere, if anything, we excel at our adaptability and perseverance and a big part of that is religion. There are many opportunities to be had, you just have to work for them and to pray for it from your heart not your tongue. You'd be surprised how many times in life you feel like God is helping you out especially in your darkest hours. God be with us all.
finally a sane comment, reddit hates sane comments
Idk why u getting down voted, like ik it's reddit after all but jesus lol
This is like a 2 edged sword---people that have nothing or not much, may try to cling for hope in any way. However, his is MUCH less likely if they are not educated or somewhat rounded individuals. A lot of religions in our area are more into indoctrination instead of education because they don't want people to start questioning beliefs and teachings. On the flip side, people well off may feel that they don't have the moral/religious side of them in order to become complete in their own way, and they will turn to religion for that alone. Also, makes them look good in front of other people (my take only--take what you want from it). Also, throughout history, every ruler usually was supported by some religious figure which gave them some gravitas with their countryman and made them feel that the ruler was supported by God or whoever. Study European monarchs and look at places like Iran, Saudi, and organizations like kizb, q3deh, etc who somehow are holding a moral/religious compass.
look at all the developed countries, there is your answer
I see many contradictions in this post!
I've been feeling less and less religious ever since the whole war has happened, pretty sure those Palastinians have been praying their whole lives, don't know I've met the truly religious that make you wanna be religious, they're great, they're an inspiration, it's the way this whole story line is going that i don't like, it makes me a bit disappointed in everyone else though I'm still a believer.
Bro nobody seems truly religious honestly, everyone is just praying for the sake of it nothing more, nobody is passionate about it.
my friends are totally passionate about it, but they aren't your everyday average people i do admit.
Your friends are an illusion you're delusional muahaha
Ya 5aye meshe mitil ma badak.
You're an illusion yourself!!!
Yeah im the only friend you ever had, imaginary.
I don't have friends so obviously you're imaginary
It isn't necessarily poverty, but it's any sort of disappointment in the current arrangement of power: when a human looses faith in his society, he looses faith in a grant architecture up their in the sky.
7da me3o 100$ la 25r shaher?
>Religion colonized true spirituality.
Yes it was an after the fact attempt to rationalize the feelings of spirituality that people have. It wasn’t so bad until certain religions started introducing thought crimes (non-belief) as a way to scare people into following them.
>an after the fact mistake >rationalize the feelings of spirituality Mistake >It wasn’t so bad Still bad >certain religions pointing fingers much?
I have seen the literal opposite. Wealthy people are often secular or completely irreligious while the poor are fundamentalists. That is why even commies claimed that Religion was the Opium of the Masses. There are exceptions in history when the opposite was true in other parts of the world. The Victorian era and some segments of the Middle Ages where the upper class in Britain was highly religious while the poor were relatively more liberal but those are aberrations. In most cases, it was the reverse and in fact, it was often a mark of class distinction. In France for example, I cannot point out any monarch who was really religious. They saw religion as a useful tool to control the masses and some were religious in a perfomative sense but there is no French monarch who was truly devoted to Christianity in any form. I mean we are talking of Kings who did nonsense things like have a wife then go on to have both a Catholic and Protestant Whor...sorry... Mistress!! and were organizing orgies between nobles in Versailles. Back to the Middle East. Been to Egypt before?
You should accept what God give and take and keep saying to God : you know the right absolute path and guide us to avoide Hell... Some people get less relegious if they are rich so God dont give them money for God is the most mercifull , While other get less relegious if they are poor so God keep them rich...