Thank you for your patience,
That video about the sun revolving the Earth…I'm too shocked. That's stupider than people who think Barrack Obama was not born in the United States. Whenever there is a transit of the planet Venus or Mercury we can know that they do not orbit the Earth. This is a clear case of someone denying reality because of what they believe.
On the subject of Saudi, I think you'll be inclined to agree when I say Mecca should be more like the Vatican. If the Vatican was part of Italy then the Italian government could exert their influence on it, which is exactly why the Vatican is a separate entity. Mecca should be a place for all people yet I hear stories of bookshops in Mecca distributing the Saudi narrative, e.g. anti-Sufi and anti-Shia literature. You're right, Saudi wants to turn Mecca into some kind of theme park (surrounded by lots of their propaganda).
I think the Saudi oil minister, Sheikh Zaki Yamani, put it best when he said: “the Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil”. So they realize they need other sources of income. I was shocked when I found out how much Saudi spends on Dawah. It goes into the billions. Think of all the starving people that could have been fed.
Let's move on.
Nobody was meant to be immortal, sure, but given recent advances in technology, it's looking increasingly likely that some people alive today will become immortal. People are talking about nanotechnology in the bloodstream, entire organs grown in a laboratory and very soon there will be a cure of cancer too. Did you know that there are certain types of organisms that are immortal? That means some humans may never be judged. By the time the universe comes to an end, I'm sure humanity will have found ways to avoid even that.
In fact, Wikipedia has an entire article on biological immortality. There are people out there, scientists, who seek to take the genes that make these organisms immortal and put it into humans. I believe there will come a day when people are periodically given new organs to keep them alive. There will be people alive today who may never die.
What I take away from all the pain and suffering in the world is that Allah loves us so much that Allah allowed us to harm ourselves. It's like you say with the crane at the Grand Mosque. Allah is allowing humans to harm themselves (even though humans were created weak).
We have free will and, by your own admission, Allah does not have the willingness to intervene in many situations so how can Allah be all good at the same time? How different do you think a universe with no god would be from our current universe? If Allah chooses not to intervene in all these circumstances then there might as well not be a god.
Allah is claimed to be 'all good' yet Allah does not have the willingness to stop excessive suffering (e.g. holocaust; Adolf Hitler was known to have good relations with Hasan al-Banna so maybe that can give us clues to Allah's absence in the situation). How can it be claimed that Allah is all good when suffering which is clearly unnecessary continues? There are ways of testing people without causing them any physical harm.
Like you say, there are lots of Earthly delights that tempt us. Naturally these would lead us away from Allah. So why couldn't Allah give humanity a much less painful test, say testing our knowledge of scripture or judge how well we have looked after our corner of the Earth? There's a thought: Why is the criteria for entering Jannah not based on our good deeds and instead based on whether or not we believe? There's every change that even if we pick the right religion that we picked the wrong branch of that religion.
It is humans who are putting an end to suffering, not Allah. We could have had the schematics for a fusion power planet ages ago and put an end to global warming, had Allah given it to us. But Allah chooses to do nothing even as the Ummah themselves die painful deaths. Where was Allah when Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab went around Arabia pillaging important shrines and other historical places?
Quran 2:256 grants freedom of religion but Allah was not helping to defend the freedoms the Quran says humanity should have. Not even the suffering Ummah, at the hands of the evil duo of Muhammad bin Saud and Abdul Wahaab, could Allah find the will to defend. And people tell me Allah is all good?
Moving on to slavery:
So there's nothing stopping me, if I wanted to be seen as a good believer, from stockpiling slaves and then freeing them as I deem necessary (e.g. freeing one whenever I break a promise)? You said people can use slaves in order to atone for their sins, so it would make sense for people to keep some slaves for themselves. But you also said slavery is a sin, though on what basis can you claim that? You also told me the Quran has no specific verses claims telling people not to keep slaves.
It's a sin to treat slaves badly, sure, but the Quran does not condemn the act of keeping people enslaved if they are treated well. If you go to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania you will find that something like every one in twenty people is a slave, so you will no doubt find people using the scriptures to justify the act of keeping slaves. They can say so, of course, because, as you said, Quran isn't explicit about not keeping slaves. Have a look at the global slavery index:
http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/
Interesting video:
When you say about the banks and modern society I think we have limited free will in that regard. We can still make some conscious decisions. I don't have to put my money with the big banks if I don't want to. I could put my money in a building society instead, or maybe the Islamic Bank in my country, if they'll have me.
Likewise, I don't have to go into the 'mega fast food chains'. For me at least, it's so much nicer to cook burgers at home. Even basic cookery skills can go a long way.
I still have some reliance on big business, but there are steps I can take to minimize cooperate influence on my life. I could walk more or go to the market in my town, for example; and buy local produce and help farmers get a better deal. And I can eat seasonably too. If we care about our planet we can all make changes to our lives.
Let's no go into New World Order. That sounds like crazy land. All I'm saying is we need to be more conscious of the world around us.
That video about the sun revolving the Earth…I'm too shocked. That's stupider than people who think Barrack Obama was not born in the United States. Whenever there is a transit of the planet Venus or Mercury we can know that they do not orbit the Earth. This is a clear case of someone denying reality because of what they believe.
On the subject of Saudi, I think you'll be inclined to agree when I say Mecca should be more like the Vatican. If the Vatican was part of Italy then the Italian government could exert their influence on it, which is exactly why the Vatican is a separate entity. Mecca should be a place for all people yet I hear stories of bookshops in Mecca distributing the Saudi narrative, e.g. anti-Sufi and anti-Shia literature. You're right, Saudi wants to turn Mecca into some kind of theme park (surrounded by lots of their propaganda).
I think the Saudi oil minister, Sheikh Zaki Yamani, put it best when he said: “the Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil”. So they realize they need other sources of income. I was shocked when I found out how much Saudi spends on Dawah. It goes into the billions. Think of all the starving people that could have been fed.
Let's move on.
Nobody was meant to be immortal, sure, but given recent advances in technology, it's looking increasingly likely that some people alive today will become immortal. People are talking about nanotechnology in the bloodstream, entire organs grown in a laboratory and very soon there will be a cure of cancer too. Did you know that there are certain types of organisms that are immortal? That means some humans may never be judged. By the time the universe comes to an end, I'm sure humanity will have found ways to avoid even that.
In fact, Wikipedia has an entire article on biological immortality. There are people out there, scientists, who seek to take the genes that make these organisms immortal and put it into humans. I believe there will come a day when people are periodically given new organs to keep them alive. There will be people alive today who may never die.
What I take away from all the pain and suffering in the world is that Allah loves us so much that Allah allowed us to harm ourselves. It's like you say with the crane at the Grand Mosque. Allah is allowing humans to harm themselves (even though humans were created weak).
We have free will and, by your own admission, Allah does not have the willingness to intervene in many situations so how can Allah be all good at the same time? How different do you think a universe with no god would be from our current universe? If Allah chooses not to intervene in all these circumstances then there might as well not be a god.
Allah is claimed to be 'all good' yet Allah does not have the willingness to stop excessive suffering (e.g. holocaust; Adolf Hitler was known to have good relations with Hasan al-Banna so maybe that can give us clues to Allah's absence in the situation). How can it be claimed that Allah is all good when suffering which is clearly unnecessary continues? There are ways of testing people without causing them any physical harm.
Like you say, there are lots of Earthly delights that tempt us. Naturally these would lead us away from Allah. So why couldn't Allah give humanity a much less painful test, say testing our knowledge of scripture or judge how well we have looked after our corner of the Earth? There's a thought: Why is the criteria for entering Jannah not based on our good deeds and instead based on whether or not we believe? There's every change that even if we pick the right religion that we picked the wrong branch of that religion.
It is humans who are putting an end to suffering, not Allah. We could have had the schematics for a fusion power planet ages ago and put an end to global warming, had Allah given it to us. But Allah chooses to do nothing even as the Ummah themselves die painful deaths. Where was Allah when Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab went around Arabia pillaging important shrines and other historical places?
Quran 2:256 grants freedom of religion but Allah was not helping to defend the freedoms the Quran says humanity should have. Not even the suffering Ummah, at the hands of the evil duo of Muhammad bin Saud and Abdul Wahaab, could Allah find the will to defend. And people tell me Allah is all good?
Moving on to slavery:
So there's nothing stopping me, if I wanted to be seen as a good believer, from stockpiling slaves and then freeing them as I deem necessary (e.g. freeing one whenever I break a promise)? You said people can use slaves in order to atone for their sins, so it would make sense for people to keep some slaves for themselves. But you also said slavery is a sin, though on what basis can you claim that? You also told me the Quran has no specific verses claims telling people not to keep slaves.
It's a sin to treat slaves badly, sure, but the Quran does not condemn the act of keeping people enslaved if they are treated well. If you go to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania you will find that something like every one in twenty people is a slave, so you will no doubt find people using the scriptures to justify the act of keeping slaves. They can say so, of course, because, as you said, Quran isn't explicit about not keeping slaves. Have a look at the global slavery index:
http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/
Interesting video:
Likewise, I don't have to go into the 'mega fast food chains'. For me at least, it's so much nicer to cook burgers at home. Even basic cookery skills can go a long way.
I still have some reliance on big business, but there are steps I can take to minimize cooperate influence on my life. I could walk more or go to the market in my town, for example; and buy local produce and help farmers get a better deal. And I can eat seasonably too. If we care about our planet we can all make changes to our lives.
Let's no go into New World Order. That sounds like crazy land. All I'm saying is we need to be more conscious of the world around us.
