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Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 12:42 am
Hey All,
I was born to a moderate Muslim family. I was practicing till about three years ago. I am not an atheist, but there are a lot of things that I disagree with in my religion. In this forum I would like to see if atheism is the right path. I hope to find answers. Thanks a bunch.
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 1:49 am
I've always thought it very strange to base your whole concept of 'Life, the Universe and Everything' on stories that your parents have told you, who got those stories from their parents, who got those stories from their parents and so on....
Surely, if any particular ideology was true it would be obvious. Just as obvious as say, the fact that the Earth is a sphere (well, nearly).
When I was 10 I believed that there really was a god and all the stories of the bible where true. But as I got older I realised they made less and less sense and seemed to actually go against the way that the world/universe obviously worked. Once I was brave enough to say, there is no god and the bible isn't true, everything made sense and it was at that point that I turned to people who had actually studied this strange thing called the Cosmos for answers rather than ancient texts written many centuries ago by people who really didn't have a clue.
It worked for me so maybe it'll work for you too..
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 1:51 am
(July 17, 2009 at 12:42 am)Faith Tester Wrote: Hey All,
I was born to a moderate Muslim family. I was practicing till about three years ago. I am not an atheist, but there are a lot of things that I disagree with in my religion. In this forum I would like to see if atheism is the right path. I hope to find answers. Thanks a bunch. Welcome Faith Tester. I hope you'll find some answers here.
One question to start with: whose faith are you testing?
"I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped, in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap" - Tim Minchin in "Storm"
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 1:53 am
(This post was last modified: July 17, 2009 at 1:56 am by Faith Tester.)
(July 17, 2009 at 1:51 am)Purple Rabbit Wrote: (July 17, 2009 at 12:42 am)Faith Tester Wrote: Hey All,
I was born to a moderate Muslim family. I was practicing till about three years ago. I am not an atheist, but there are a lot of things that I disagree with in my religion. In this forum I would like to see if atheism is the right path. I hope to find answers. Thanks a bunch. Welcome Faith Tester. I hope you'll find some answers here.
One question to start with: whose faith are you testing?
I am testing my own faith  . I want to lead my life in light of truth, not dictated by some beliefs hammered in to my head.
(July 17, 2009 at 1:49 am)Darwinian Wrote: I've always thought it very strange to base your whole concept of 'Life, the Universe and Everything' on stories that your parents have told you, who got those stories from their parents, who got those stories from their parents and so on....
Surely, if any particular ideology was true it would be obvious. Just as obvious as say, the fact that the Earth is a sphere (well, nearly).
When I was 10 I believed that there really was a god and all the stories of the bible where true. But as I got older I realised they made less and less sense and seemed to actually go against the way that the world/universe obviously worked. Once I was brave enough to say, there is no god and the bible isn't true, everything made sense and it was at that point that I turned to people who had actually studied this strange thing called the Cosmos for answers rather than ancient texts written many centuries ago by people who really didn't have a clue.
It worked for me so maybe it'll work for you too..
It has been sort of the same story with me, the difference being that I was not smart enough to pose such questions to myself at 10. After reading the Koran I find nothing divine about the book. For me it is more like a collection of myths. Thank you anyway.
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 3:59 am
Welcome Faith Tester. Have fun
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 7:07 am
(This post was last modified: July 17, 2009 at 7:09 am by Kyuuketsuki.)
(July 17, 2009 at 12:42 am)Faith Tester Wrote: I was born to a moderate Muslim family. I was practicing till about three years ago. I am not an atheist, but there are a lot of things that I disagree with in my religion. In this forum I would like to see if atheism is the right path. I hope to find answers. Thanks a bunch.
Hi FT ... welcome to our little corner of cyberspace.
When you define yourself as "skeptic" what do you mean? I mean because there are those around here who would define themseves as such when they are quite the opposite, buying into various conspiracy theories and so on. Not meaning that to be offensive, just asking
(July 17, 2009 at 1:49 am)Darwinian Wrote: I've always thought it very strange to base your whole concept of 'Life, the Universe and Everything' on stories that your parents have told you, who got those stories from their parents, who got those stories from their parents and so on....
Why? Isn't that what we, as children, evolved to do? It's breaking out of it if it's wrong that's the challenge.
Kyu
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 11:25 am
Hi Faith Tester,
Welcome to the forum.
Atheism as a "path" is not much of a path to walk on. It only contends to one single question: Do I believe this claim of the existence of gods?
Anything else is up to you really. It says nothing on any other topic.
Best regards,
Leo van Miert
Horsepower is how hard you hit the wall --Torque is how far you take the wall with you
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Faith Tester,
You are on a good path by adopting the attribut of "skeptic", you should not let anyone dictate your beliefs to you. As Leo mentioned, atheism isn't a path we have no new plan for you. It is true when you say that religious beliefs are hammered into the head and they are hard to extract. For me the process was akin to deprogramming; I fought with my own mind to free myself from old beliefs. Stay around and enjoy the fireworks, this is a fun bunch both theist and atheist alike.
Rhizo
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 1:55 pm
(July 17, 2009 at 7:07 am)Kyuuketsuki Wrote: [quote='Faith Tester' pid='23057' dateline='1247805754']I was born to a moderate Muslim family. I was practicing till about three years ago. I am not an atheist, but there are a lot of things that I disagree with in my religion. In this forum I would like to see if atheism is the right path. I hope to find answers. Thanks a bunch.
Hi FT ... welcome to our little corner of cyberspace.
When you define yourself as "skeptic" what do you mean? I mean because there are those around here who would define themseves as such when they are quite the opposite, buying into various conspiracy theories and so on. Not meaning that to be offensive, just asking
Kyuuketsuki, Thanks a bunch. No offense taken at all.
By Skeptic I mean that I doubt the validity of all religions and their divine nature. This might be a little different from the standard skeptic definition, which is more close to agnostic views. I do not want to become an atheist without studying. (It would make me no better person than I was, blindly following the Koran and now blindly following atheism). I have very limited knowledge, I would love to improve on that and come to some sort of conclusion.
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."
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RE: Testing My Faith
July 17, 2009 at 4:47 pm
(July 17, 2009 at 1:55 pm)Faith Tester Wrote: By Skeptic I mean that I doubt the validity of all religions and their divine nature. This might be a little different from the standard skeptic definition, which is more close to agnostic views. I do not want to become an atheist without studying. (It would make me no better person than I was, blindly following the Koran and now blindly following atheism). I have very limited knowledge, I would love to improve on that and come to some sort of conclusion.
OK ... you're gonna hear this a lot round here so I might as well be first. Most here seem to agree (with me) that you don't choose to be an atheist ... you simply become one when you cease believing in claims to deity. Others claim it is valid to be an agnostic atheist ... I don't agree and am "discussing" it with the boss (  ) at the moment.
Whatever your view, you're questioning and that can only be a good thing.
Kyu
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