since my young days i often wondered what purpose it serves by praying to a non existant Deity?

Question

From my young days as a practising muslim i gradually weaned myself out of the idea of a supernatural allah and i am confident now that such a creature exists only in the human imagination

Religious indoctrination usually blocks the human mind and the moment a person sets him/herself free from religion at that very moment the prison doors open and you are set free

thats how i felt the moment i rejected it

what are your comments?

osborne, i like to educate people to think for themselves

religion stunts the mind

Answer 1

You don't believe so don't believe.

Why does it bother you so much that others do?

EDIT: Senita says "I like to educate people to think for themselves. Religion stunts the mind"

So then people are only thinking for themselves if they think they way you tell them too?

Answer 2

I absolutely agree. Dogma of whatever form, be it religion, outdated science or whatever else, is quicksand. By filling the gaps in your knowledge with a pat answer like "God did it" or "That doesn't /can't exist" or "Asking what came before the Big Bang makes no sense" prevents you from asking the questions and doing the exploration that might eventually yield an answer. Personally, I think I live in a much more exciting world full of possibilities because I'm not afraid to say "I don't know, but I'll keep trying to find out."

Incidentally, I class dogmatic scientists who cling to specific theories or paradigms in exactly the same way as dogmatic theists who use God to explain everything. Just because we don't know how something works or could work, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Magic is only science we haven't discovered yet... who said that again???

Answer 3

Force-feeding anything makes the human soul wither. Whenever someone gives you the disrespect of saying, "believe without proof" or "don't think, simply accept" they exert power over you and confuse the way your brain works.

I was able to prove that the God of Abraham did not exist because of the immense amount of energy required to continually force myself to deny the evidence of my own eyes and experiences. No real deity would make it more difficult to accept its existence than to reject it. Once I shed all pretense of faith in a fairy tale that has done no good in all its existence, I felt relieved. I could spend my energy working on improving my moral center and behavior toward others and the planet without the interference of insulting mumbo-jumbo.

Answer 4

I'll try to answer this from the practice that I follow which has many images and are very confusing to people. As a Buddhist following the Tibetan belief, I do not believe in a God but there are many depictions of deities. Already seems contradictory but let me explain.

It is my personal opinion that the iconography in Buddhism regarding deities is a depiction of traits we are supposed to emulate in life. These images aid me in focusing my mind on the quality being depicted while I meditate.

For example, the deity Tara manifests to me that mercy and compassion are to be swiftly available to everyone; that it is immediate when sought and never ending. The lotus blossoms on either side of her represent this giving nature—you ask for it and "Bam!" it's there. Her right hand is in the gesture (mudra) representing "giving" while her left hand is in the position of "protection." Tara's right foot is extended out of the lotus position to show her readiness to come to the aid of the supplicant swiftly. Each of the deities, again in my personal opinion, represent an aspect of the Buddha. These same qualities are also in each of us since we all possess innate Buddha-nature.

There are other images in Tibetan Buddhism that represent actual historical figures such as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Chenresig in Tibetan Buddhism, Quan Yin in Chinese Buddhism, Kannon in Japanese Buddhism) who was a disciple of the Buddha as witnessed in "The Heart Sutra."

As Chenresig in Tibetan iconology he is frequently depicted as having four arms and hands. Obviously, I personally cannot believe in the existence of a four-armed individual. However, the four arms signify the four immeasurables: immeasurable loving-kindness, immeasurable compassion, immeasurable joy, and immeasurable equanimity. In a similar manner I interpret the physical representations of the other deities, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas.

I'm not sure whether other beliefs view symbols of their belief in a similar way whether it is a cross, statue of a saint, etc.

We can liken these images in much the same manner we view religious and secular icons in our traditional Western world. The only difference being that we have been raised around these Western icons and, as such, they are familiar to us. We don't question them if we even notice them at all. For example, the military equestrian monuments prevalent in our cities indicate the military rider's fate: a horse with one foreleg raised indicates the rider suffered a serious wound in combat; a horse rearing up on its hind legs would mean the rider died in combat; a horse with its four legs on the ground represents the rider died in circumstances far removed from combat, i.e., a peaceful death often from old age.

Sorry for the length but I hope this is of some help.

May all be at peace.

John

Answer 5

My son was a devout Christian for many years. As he grew older he questioned the bible, its cruelties and horrors. He is now an atheist and as much as he told me to be one also, I felt strange but I am now starting to agree with him. It makes more sense not to live in fear of some "deity" whatever creed you follow. It is too easy for all these believers to say" have faith in the face of all adversity" it is not the truth.
You and I are joining the ever growing belief that there is not some Supreme Being who is often cruel and demanding, maybe we are all learning in our own way to be better people anyway.

Answer 6

Good on you !! CONGRATULATION!!!

I dont think any muslim in the world miss you any way. Maybe your parents, but who cares.
And ALLAH SWT really Give everybody a free choice.

As atheist ,you can use your own mind to run your life,
there is no rules anymore.
You can drink what you like, you dont need to bend, you dont need to thank to anything you're having time to time,
you dont need to fast, you can eat pork if you want, people say that ham is quite nice;
you can wear anystyle clothing as you like, you can show your aurah if you like,
you can sleep and making love with man out of marriage, or another woman and have love with her,
YES!!! you have lots of freedom.

I know, lots of rules to be a good muslim.
Not many can live their life in khusnul khatimah .
It's very rare......it's only for them who THINK.

Answer 7

you have chosen to unlearn indoctrinations which you saw had low quality, I applaud this.

you ask if prayer holds any value, it does, it holds as much value as is placed in it, I expect no supernatural additional value to be added as i too do not see supernatural allah but what is put in remains and i have seen the religious generate a feeling of betterness within themselves through prayer, it's effective 'positive mental attitude', it's subjectively effective and far less harmful than anti-depressant drugs for example.



ignorance is bliss, and does not need to be challenged until harm is being caused through that ignorance, and i see no harm in prayer.

while indoctrination can stunt the mind, some traditions which are indoctrinated within each religion are of value, not necessarily of a high a value of moral output as a man can generate without the constraints of religious dogma but they are still of value.

you for example as a muslim probably have a highly developed sense of family values, which without religious indoctrinations within your cultural social fabric you may not have.

be good with your free mind, be loved for your free mind


Buff.

Answer 8

Me too... I remember being terrified of all the apocolyptic prophecies in the bible and wondered why woulda loving god be so cruel? How do these people know all of this to be true? Eventually, I realized that someone made it all up and took advantage of everyone else's superstitions.

Answer 9

I couldn't agree more,I spent most of my youth watching people around me praying for guidance in their lives and solutions to their problems while their lives slowly deteriorated around them,rather than seeking to solve their own problems. I also look around and wonder,is it any coincidence that many of the most fervently religious people on Earth are also in many cases the most impoverished and destitute. Praying to their non existent God for assistance while doing nothing real to improve their lot in life.

AD

Answer 10

Praying to a nonexistant deity doesn't really do anything...it just makes the person who does the praying feel good because they believe that what they pray for is actually gonna happen. Not that it ever does...but if it makes you feel good to believe....by all means...knock yerself out..:)

Answer 11

I feel like I was born without the make-believe gene too. I was raised to be Christian, but I can't remember ever believing that silly nonsense.