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Talking to your family about being an Atheist
#1
Talking to your family about being an Atheist
Hey Guys, I am new here, I've never been part of a Atheist forum before so i am little excited to be posting here and seeing the responses I get.

This may be a long post I have much to talk about so bare with me.

I was born into typical Indian Muslim family, started learning and reading Quran when i was 5 years old and continued reading it, till i was about 16. I was brought up listening to stories from a book that my mom used to read to us when we were kids about who Allah is, how he created us, how Quran was revealed to Muhammed his journey etc. After turning 16 I had to concentrate on my studies so i left reading the quran and worked on my school exams. but i would still do Friday namaaz. after that my life kind got super busy and Quran was just kept aside... I would regularly miss out the Friday Namaaz, would not do anything else except studies and tv and computer and crazy things teenagers did Smile

So after finishing Graduation I was 21 looking for work and didn't have time for anything else except work. My Mom use to tell me that i have achieved what i wanted and should thank Allah & start namaaz and reading Quran again, but i had forgotten how read it properly now and even when i read it i didn't understand what it mean. So i bought a copy of Translation of the Quran in English by Yusuf Ali as i studied from an english medium school.

Reading the Translations is when i realized all the blunders that were in the Quran, as i dug deeper and deeper i found more. That time Dr Zakir was more famous than he is now, and i watched his Does God Exist? video where he twisted the meaning of "Dahaha" to mean egg shaped, where as the actual translation only says spread out, which would then prove that Muhammed believed that the world was flat,but even if that was not the case he goes on to say that we only recently found out that the world was spherical and that Muhammed could not have known that and therefore should prove that the Quran was from God, Then I remember the "God" Atlas even though he was fictional he still had a Spherical shaped world on his shoulders and Atlas story was older than Quran & Muhammed, then i searched Historical maps and found out that the first oval historical map was drawn by Anaximander that was 546 BCE. This showed me my very first contradiction in the Quran.

The other was on fruits/ seeds & trees, There mentions of only 10 of them, Pomegranates, Grapes, Olive, Cucumber, Garlic, Onion, Banana, Lentils (seed), Fig and Date Palm tree. If you search online for them in Google / Wikipedia. Pomegranates are native fruits of Persia (modern Iran), Grapes were cultivated in the Middle East, Olives were first cultivated in Syria & Egypt, Cucumber originated in India 3000 years ago and was introduced to the Middle East by the Greeks and Romans, it is listed among the foods of Ancient Ur, according to Islam Prophet Abraham was burnt there i think. Garlic has been in use for over 7000 years, its native to central Asia and has been known to Ancient Egyptians over 5000 years. Onions have also been cultivated over 7000 years traces of Onions alongside with date & figs have been found dating back to 5000 BC. Banana was cultivated atleast 5000 BCE Arab traders brought banana to the Middle East in the 7th Century (601 - 700) Muhammed's Quran was revealed in 622. Lentils have been a part of the human diet of the Middle East as early as 13000 years ago, because Lentils is virtually drought resistant and can be easily cultivated in the desert. Fir was naturally growing in the mountains of Kavir Desert of Iran also called Mountain Figs in Persia. Palm trees are as old as 80 million years, Middle East started cultivating Date palm trees more than 500 years ago.
Now finding all this i thought to my self, there should a reason why only these fruits, seeds and trees were mentioned in the Quran. One has to wonder why if the Quran was meant for all man kind and that Allah was indeed an all knowing God, why did he not know of any other fruit or seeds or trees growing outside the middle eastern region? my conclusion was this. Either Allah did not know Or Quran is not for the entire world.

There was another thing i read about How the world was going to end according to Quran. and About Dajjal then i saw this passage.

Safe Haven of Makkah and Madinah

The Dajjal will remain on earth for 40 days, the first of which will be a year long, second a month , the third a week, and the remaining 37 days like our normal days, moving from city to another causing fitna. Finally he will proceed towards Makkah and Madina but he will be unable to enter these holy cities, Masjid Tur and Masjid al-Aqsa. Every time he tries to enter these holy places, angels guarding these holy cities with swords in their hand will encounter him and chase him away, leaving Dajjal stationed behind Uhud. Meanwhile, earthquakes will hit Madinah thrice and all the hypocrites will be forced to leave.

All i could think of what why it had no mention of any other country? That would mean that people in countries like USA, Australia, India, Russia etc will be safe as its only mentioned that Dajjal will arise between Syria & Iraq and will move from city to city there causing fitna. that made my first point stronger that Quran was only written for the people of the Middle east.

The other was creation of the earth, its said that We created the heavens and the earth and all between them in Six Days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us. (Ghaf:38)

I asked this to my Imam at the mosque, he told me that one day of god equal to 50000 years, so i told him that would be 300,000 years, but our earth as we have have found out is 4.7 billion years old. and our universe is quite older. to this he had no answer and said that he believed in what the quran says not what we discovered. I thanked him and left. On my way home i was thinking. lets say 6 days is actually only 6 days (144 hours) even if that is so, when the all powerful Allah has to say "Be" and it comes to life, why would he take such a long time to make the earth?

Then there is that thing which i really hate about Allah, Supposedly He created Us, Set seals on our hearts so no matter how much one tries we will not believe, and wants to punish us for eternity for crime he himself inflicted upon us. How is that an unjust God??

These among many other contradictions have made me convert to Atheism. My Elder Brother, My Mom & my entire family knows that i do not believe in a Allah. A few of our family members ( 18 - 30 age group) are on whats app groups and talk all the time about any thing and everything, but sometimes they share stupid forwards like read this surah some number of times to get something etc. i tell them that crazy to believe that and that they should stop sending such forwards, they then fight with me call me names... today one of them said "talking with a non-believer of Islam is like talking to an illiterate person" that really hurt my feelings.

Anyways I am here to discuss and learn things, I may be wrong sometimes I may be right sometimes.
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#2
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
Welcome and enjoy!
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#3
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
Welcome, friend. Hope you find what you need here. Looking forward to reading what you have to say. Keep your head up and try and not let them get to you. Peace.Smile
“To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?”
― Christopher Hitchens

"That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject". - George Santayana

"If this is the best God can do, I'm not impressed". - George Carlin


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#4
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
You seem to have identified many of the problems with the primitive god concocted by ancient men all by yourself. Congratulations and welcome.
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#5
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
(May 20, 2013 at 1:55 pm)exmuslim Wrote: I asked this to my Imam at the mosque, he told me that one day of god equal to 50000 years, so i told him that would be 300,000 years, but our earth as we have have found out is 4.7 billion years old. and our universe is quite older. to this he had no answer and said that he believed in what the quran says not what we discovered.

Give him credit for honesty, although what he said is simply bizarre. And he probably doesn't think it is, which is even more bizarre. I think that religious people are often the best argument against being religious.

Anyway, good on you for seeing through the insanity. Welcome to the forums.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
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#6
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
Welcome
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
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#7
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist



How many angels with flaming swords does it take to guard a holy city? [Image: icon_ask.gif]


Spock: "The archangel Gabriel is intelligent, but not experienced. His account indicates two dimensional thinking."

Kirk: "Spock, is it possible that's because these are simply the ignorant musings of a goat-fucker whose experience of the world was that of a two-dimensional plane?"

Spock: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one."

Kirk: "Whut??"


[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
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#8
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
Thank you for your responses... I was browsing my facebook page and i saw this about what muslims think Jihad is...and i was wondering if any one here has anything to say about that.

I cannot see any way to attach pictures here. so i will upload it here

http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php?...3869553187

Please look at it and reply
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#9
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
I liked your post, I'm interested in knowing more of what the Koran says from an Atheistic perspective.. Welcome!
If I were to create self aware beings knowing fully what they would do in their lifetimes, I sure wouldn't create a HELL for the majority of them to live in infinitely! That's not Love, that's sadistic. Therefore a truly loving god does not exist!

Quote:The sin is against an infinite being (God) unforgiven infinitely, therefore the punishment is infinite.

Dead wrong.  The actions of a finite being measured against an infinite one are infinitesimal and therefore merit infinitesimal punishment.

Quote:Some people deserve hell.

I say again:  No exceptions.  Punishment should be equal to the crime, not in excess of it.  As soon as the punishment is greater than the crime, the punisher is in the wrong.

[Image: tumblr_n1j4lmACk61qchtw3o1_500.gif]
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#10
RE: Talking to your family about being an Atheist
I never doubted that the Koran was as riddled with holes and nonsense as the Christian Bible. I'm a universal atheist; I think all religions are equally ridiculous. I can see how being surrounded by a religious family would make you seek a community of unbelievers. It's not unusual for open atheists to get emails and not-so-subtle remarks from their pious friends and relatives. It's disrespectful, and if it continues it can cause a serious rift. It's the arrogance of the believer; they're sure they're right and we're wrong, and our opinions are not worthy of respect. The aunt of a friend of mine---my friend is an accomplished photographer and rabid atheist---gave some of his nature photos to her church for a calender which they sold for profit. She did this without his permission, and he got no compensation for it. So, not only was his work stolen, it was used to promote a cause he opposed! She couldn't understand why this annoyed him so much (but at least he learned to watermark his photos after that).

Anyway, the moral of this story is that atheists (in the U.S., according to several polls) are the most despised minority, and if you're is going to be open about it you need to be prepared for the backlash. I don't know where you live, but I look forward to reading your future posts and hearing about the experiences of an ex-Muslim. Welcome.
- C. Neron
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