Me and My Thoughts

[theVOID]

I live in NYC and I'm 23 years old. I'm from Bangladesh. Gender is male. And I'm a theist (Muslim).

How did I find out about this forum? Well, I just googled "atheist forums" and then I came across this site, and I liked it more than the other atheist forums.

It is true, we're the best

Welcome to the forums Would i be wrong in guessing you like Cricket? I'm form New Zealand so pretty much our most common introduction to Bangladesh is through the sport.

I joined because there are some things that I would like to know from atheists, while at the same time, I know that many of the atheists here might also want to ask me certain things.

Feel free to ask.

Let me pose a question, why do you believe in a God?

I think it's a healthy thing to talk about faith-related issues in an honest and respectable way.

It's not often possible to be both honest and respectable way, you can count on the former at least

I think it's interesting to talk to people who have radically different beliefs even though I might disagree with them.

Good attitude.

And I'm sure that participating in this forum will give me new ideas to think about. So, that's why I decided to join an atheist forum for the first time.

Awesome

At one point in my life, I was doubtful about the existence of God as well. Then from doubt I went to a complete disbelief. So, then I became an atheist just like many of you in this forum (not for too long though). It was around the last two years of going to high school. I stopped believing in God, Heaven, Hell, the Quran, Islam, and every other religion altogether. I thought that religion was like a disease in the mind and that's why I tried forget everything that I learned about God and religion. And being an atheist felt good to me in a certain way. Why? Because I felt that there was no superior authority who is telling me what to do, and I don't have to worry about going to Hell, and this gave me a greater sense of freedom and completeness in my life.

You would have been wrong Whether or not God exists you are still accountable in this life, to society. That is the point of government and law - If God were the only responsibility that mattered there would exist no laws outside of the religious traditions - Because this is not the case it would simply be impossible to claim that there is no authority other than god. Either totalitarian religious or militaristic authority is forced upon us, or we have the chance to vote for the governing authority.

However, this began to change as I learned more and more science, philosophy, and religion. I felt that my doubts about God forced me to think more deeply and try harder to understand the truth. I was thinking about a lot of things like the Big Bang theory, quantum mechanics, string theory, higher dimensions, evolution, the complexity of living things on this planet, the beautiful and awesome creatures that I see on the Discovery channel, etc. The more I learned about these things, the more it increased my faith in God.

You mean the more you realized we can explain things without any need for God the more you believed in him? That is bizarre

I don't want to explain too much about my beliefs right now because this is just an introduction thread. I will expand on my ideas later on, in other threads which are relevant to what I'm talking about.

Sure

I have read the rules about things like personal attacks, spamming, trolling, and being preachy, etc. I don't think that's going to be a problem for me at all. In fact, maybe I'll be the one to be on the receiving end and even get mocked for my religious beliefs.

Yeah it's going to happen at some stage If it does don't take it personally, it's the arguments for belief we find to be ridiculous, it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you and your arguments for other things, nor your general intelligence.

But that's already expected since this is an atheist forum. I don't mind if that happens, but feel free to refute me and to say whatever you think is the truth in your comments - I'll try to be as logical as I can - but of course, you have to judge for yourself about the soundness of my logic.

As long as you are intellectually honest we will be fine - That essentially means dropping arguments if they are displayed to be fallacious.

[DiRNiS]

Welcome Rayaan, that was a very nice introduction post.

You seem to be the type of theist who can add valuable insight to the discussions in this forum. Most of us atheists are always welcome to debate, especially with people with an open mind like you seem to be. It would be very interesting to read more of about your change of views and beliefs.

Enjoy your stay

[Rayaan]

Would i be wrong in guessing you like Cricket?

Yeah, that's wrong. I don't like Cricket too much but I don't dislike it either. But I know that my father definitely loves cricket. It's a nice game actually.

Let me pose a question, why do you believe in a God?

Oh, that's quite a big question lol. But thanks for asking.
I'll answer that in a separate topic which I'm going to make sometime later. I have to gather my thoughts together first (but know that I'm a little bit slow).

What is actually harder for me to understand is the question of *what* is God instead of *if* there is a God. Sometimes I get conflicting and strange ideas of what He could be, but I don't really understand Him, and I think it's impossible to understand Him. Why? Because I think that He is something so great that it is beyond our comprehension. For example, sometimes I think that God is like an Information Field somewhere in the highest dimension of the universe; or that He is a great, powerful Mind without having any physical properties; or that He is a being of pure, vibrating energy; or maybe He's some kind of an abstract self-referential system which is controlling everything in the universe. I also think of the metaphor that the universe might be a giant cosmological computer (as some philosophers today believe), and that God might be the "Programmer" of this universe, or maybe even the program itself.

But the point is that these are all pretty vague and questionable ideas. We can't really know the nature of God but still we are told to believe in Him. I think that could be one of the reasons why some people don't believe in a God, which is that they don't understand Him. They don't understand what is His relationship to the universe and everything else.

You mean the more you realized we can explain things without any need for God the more you believed in him? That is bizarre

Yeah, I know it's a bizarre thing to some people but not for me.

I don't think that being able to explain things without the need for a Creator automatically means that He doesn't play any role in the universe nor that He doesn't exist. I mean, that's really the whole point of science, which is to explain the everyday things that we see around us without invoking a God. For example, a scientist might be able to explain how the planets go around the sun by using the laws gravity, motion, the curvature of space, etc. But, he doesn't know where all the laws of the universe came from in the first place, does he? Nobody knows that. So, I think this the place where a Law Maker, or a God/Allah/Creator or whatever you want to call it, is needed.



To everyone else:

Thank you for the welcome.
I had a smile on my face when I was reading your comments. I'm happy to see nice, open-minded people like you guys.

I'll try to contribute something every now and then.

[Ace Otana]

I mean, that's really the whole point of science, which is to explain the everyday things that we see around us without invoking a God.

No, the whole point of science is to learn. Got nothing to do with removing god or adding him. It's all about where the evidence points. There is no evidence to support god and so there for, god is not used as an explanation. Just as there is no evidence for pink rabits under the moons surface, and so they are not used as an explanation to anything.

Hey, welcome to the forums BTW.

For example, a scientist might be able to explain how the planets go around the sun by using the laws gravity, motion, the curvature of space, etc. But, he doesn't know where all the laws of the universe came from in the first place, does he? Nobody knows that.

If we don't know something, we admit to not knowing. One day, we might very well know.

So, I think this the place where a Law Maker, or a God/Allah/Creator or whatever you want to call it, is needed.

So from going to "I don't know" to "god did it"? Not very rational. Your jumping from science to baseless assertion. Why jump to god if there is no evidence to even suggest that a god exists?

[Rayaan]

Why jump to god if there is no evidence to even suggest that a god exists?

Yeah, that's the main argument for atheists: "Where's the evidence?"

Although I don't think that there is any hardcore evidence for the existence of God, I believe in Him mostly because of a kind of intuitive analysis by looking at the world around me, and I feel that there is some kind of an "intelligence" unfolding in the universe when I look at the beauty and complexity of the stars, planets, and almost everything else. Therefore, I don't feel that it's necessary for me to ground my belief in a God through concrete knowledge and evidence only. I'll elaborate on this on a separate topic one day.

... And thanks for the welcome, btw.

[Ace Otana]

Although I don't think that there is any hardcore evidence for the existence of God, I believe in Him mostly because of a kind of intuitive analysis by looking at the world around me, and I feel that there is some kind of an "intelligence" unfolding in the universe when I look at the beauty and complexity of the stars, planets, and almost everything else.

I can understand that. I would like to point out that we are so very small, so small even that to mountins we are nothing but dots. The universe is somewhat, very very large and will impress us with it's sheer size and beauty. Just because we are awe-struck by it doesn't mean that there has to be a god behind it. Nature brought about mountins, the beauty of life, rivers and oceans and had no outside assistance. Why can't everything else? Despite all the beauty of the cosmos, it is very deadly to us. Also the stars are so far away that it really makes it extremely hard for us to search out new worlds. Doesn't seem like the universe was made with us in mind.

Remember, seeing paterns and beauty is proof of OUR intelligance. Not a greater intelligance.

Therefore, I don't feel that it's necessary for me to ground my belief in a God through concrete knowledge and evidence only.

I can't. Just because we see the beauty and wonder of the universe doesn't mean there has to be a god. Do take into consideration our size and the universe's size. It's going to impress us.
I will need verifiable evidence for a god. You are claiming that there is a very intelligent being out there who created all this and that is one epic claim that does need evidence for it be anywhere near credible.

[HeyItsZeus]

Welcome. Beautiful Cheetah by the way.

[Rayaan]

I can understand that. I would like to point out that we are so very small, so small even that to mountins we are nothing but dots. The universe is somewhat, very very large and will impress us with it's sheer size and beauty. Just because we are awe-struck by it doesn't mean that there has to be a god behind it. Nature brought about mountins, the beauty of life, rivers and oceans and had no outside assistance. Why can't everything else? Despite all the beauty of the cosmos, it is very deadly to us. Also the stars are so far away that it really makes it extremely hard for us to search out new worlds. Doesn't seem like the universe was made with us in mind.

Thanks for the reply. However, I don't still agree with you simply because my way of thinking is a little bit different from yours. But I'm going to leave it here for now because I'm afraid that our discussion might be going off-topic since this is an Introduction section. Maybe others are waiting to make their own intro threads lol. That's why I don't want to post here anymore.

Welcome. Beautiful Cheetah by the way.

Oops, now I changed it to some Matrix stuff. Sorry.


@ Watson: Thanks for giving me the first 3 kudoses although it doesn't really matter to me that much.

[Ace Otana]

Thanks for the reply. However, I don't still agree with you simply because my way of thinking is a little bit different from yours.

I didn't expect you to agree.
"If you could reason with religious people, there'd be no religious people".

But I'm going to leave it here for now because I'm afraid that our discussion might be going off-topic since this is an Introduction section.

That's fine.
Though, there's no rule against going into lenghty discussions in the introduction area. We've had many.