A Response To "Faith in God"
My refusal to submit.
"What about the people who have never heard of Christianity? Do they all go to hell? Does that mean that everyone else is going to suffer?" Because that's not actually what most Christian theologians believe. The alternative to the kingdom of heaven isn't eternal pain and torment. The alternative is unknown (though you can get into a lively debate as competing passages of the old and new testament, translated umpteen billion times get thrown back and forth)."
I will try to show how the Islamic people view these questions:
"What about people who have never heard of god? Will they goto Hell?"
"What about people with a disturbed childhood, family life, home life, etc?"
"What about people that were in ?"
First of all, let me say that I not a believer of the Islam faith (this doesn't make the religion wrong). I am simply educated in its teachings to some extent, due to my family life and heritage. I used to ask my father these very same questions. His answer was that no matter what the situation, god put within our hearts, that questioning voice, that certain need to search for him and answers. According to him, people that had a very rough childhood or never heard of or were educated in "The Right Religion", whichever it maybe, were not excused. It was within their hearts to go and seek God out, and if they did not, it was their fault.
I will be honest here, I have absolutely no idea how this works. The people who wrote these rules had no idea of what it felt like to be an abused child or an uneducated peasant. How could someone, who is not mentally or emotionally stable, be concerned with the path to finding god? The person is probably so hopeless or preoccupied that the idea of god sounds nothing more like a fairy tale made up by men, uneducated men, centuries ago.
How can an Islamic person blame a child that was brought up by Christian parents?
They can't. Rather, they blindly obey the teachings of a book.
Now a few words about faith.
"But for me, faith in Christianity (or any religion that shows there is more to the world than the physical) is something I desire but am incapable of. It's that the specifics of each religion almost always fall apart on closer, objective inspection."
It has been the same for me, and many others around me. I have wanted to become a Muslim, I have so desperately wanted to believe that a better life existed after this.
I don't deny the existence of a god, but I don't wholeheartedly belive in it either. I, to the disdain of my parents, refuse to follow his teachings. To me, they threaten to take away the few things that I enjoy in a rather miserable life. To me, its rules don't make sense. They aren't justified. If I want to eat pork, I will eat pork. Not a god damn thing should be able to stop me. If I want to live a life style as a drunken sex fiend, then I will. Let me suffer. Let me make my choices. If my life is supposed to be "free", then what is the point of all these limitations you burden me with? Yet I am told by those around me, if I don't follow these rules, I will most likely end up in hell, or be unhappy.
I don't think the Islamic religion is wrong. I don't think any religion is wrong. I try my best to keep an open mind about the way of life of religious people. When someone approaches me, preaching their religion, I try to listen. I try to keep an open mind. But when I'm not interested, I'm just not interested. But I always acknowledge the fact that I maybe wrong, and their religion maybe right. I am the fool, and they are the wise.
How easier would it be if we had some sort of physical evidence that god existed?
Sadly, there is none, save for a few books, which haven proven nothing to me thus far.
Therefore, I refuse to give up the things I enjoy in the name of Religion and God.
I maybe selfish, but I guess that makes me human.