Reply to Moral Atheist – Part One

Specifically, the verse, and the example which Professor Kroner chose is a description in the Qur’an of the fact that this universe had its beginnings in one single entity.” P.34-35, This is the Truth, 1999.

“Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together [raqtan], before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing…” [Quran 21:30]

; just another interesting quote, for MoralAtheist @MoralAtheist; I already answered some of his/her questions. I can debate anybody, no problem, God willing. (It never ends, does it?)

You think everything is particles?

What about thoughts?

We are responsible even for our thoughts as well as our actions.

Are our actions particles?

I’m no biological chemist – one might ask, maybe our actions are just the result of chemical reactions and movements, which we don’t really have any control over: but who wants to believe something like that?

Then life is just, “meaningless” and our actions are just physical and chemical results of our biological existence, with nothing to do with an important reality, or greater plan; it’s not an adequate explanation, I think, for most people. (Of course, you might argue that life is about "the here and now", "doing good for the sake of doing good", and having a fun time, etc. etc.)

Besides, science can’t rule God out - that if we have all these chemical and physical “symptoms” that “maybe” “kind of” prove that we actually exist, and are not just thoughts or something happening in someone’s mind, or like will o’ the wisps, or “cells” that exist for no real purpose, or like residual waste in space, which atheists might believe is the only reality, and there is nothing greater or beyond this Universe, or beyond, beyond the Universe, and further than that, or they believe that everything is going to end in nothing, just because the entire cosmos are moving towards a “spot” (wonder if it’s a giant black hole?) which is pulling everything we know and don’t know into unknown blackness; and what else?? To disappear? And what happens when everything “disappears”?

Yes, what happens when everything “disappears”?

I could imagine different “possibilities” on and on, but most seem like ‘chimeras’, or half truths, and not anything like significant or real “probabilities”. Half of an answer isn’t enough; people usually want the whole answer. But that is easier in Mathematics, or the physical sciences, and less easy in “spiritual” matters.(The mention of the universe moving in a direction towards "something" is in the Qur'an, too, which is why I bring it up; later I can show proof of this, but not today...)

The thing is, you can take the Muslim out of Islam, but you can’t take Islam out of the Muslim.

You can take the believer out of faith (either he apostatizes because of doubts, or weakness, etc, like the man who gave a fly to a warlord, (or some self-proclaimed fake ‘god’ of men, who insisted that everyone who passes his road, must make a sacrifice to his idol), which he thought was too insignificant to merit a thought, but which landed him in Hell. You can force a statement out of her/him that is not really sincere (so it looks like s/he is not a believer, but really s/he is.) Allah looks at what is in the hearts, and He does not punish for weakness or forgetfulness, or compulsion (when one is forced), but He punishes for intentional words, or actions, and thoughts, or beliefs which reveal real disbelief.

The above story is not from the Qur’an (entirely)  but it is mentioned in one verse, I think, but the whole story, is I believe an old story from people of former times (before Muhammad’s time, I mean), and is kind of a cautionary tale. One interesting thing about some of the earlier peoples is that God gave them books, and sometimes many prophets were sent to them, so whether or not God punished one person for sacrificing a mere fly or not, it doesn’t mean that God was unjust to that person (because God always knows the intentions and the hearts). Just as God forbade the Jews from so many kinds of meat, because they insisted on rebellion at every turn, and actually made things forbidden with their own tongues, so Allah executed the Jews’ own “man-made” laws on them (He forced them to comply with their own made up list of “forbidden” things, by His making those things “forbidden” (for them only). Muslims have a much shorter list of forbidden foods, or things which are forbidden, (blood,(the one that flows out of the animal at the time of slaughtering, or at the time of “sacrifice”)swine, dead meat, (any food that is rotten, or meat which hasn’t been slaughtered according to Islamic rites, or animals which have died due to an accident ), meat sacrificed at an alter to an idol, gambling, divination with arrows, anything which has pig products in it, and alcoholic beverages, or anything which causes intoxication or illegal drugs, which cause hallucinations or are otherwise forbidden, are included in the “haram” or “forbidden”)

But you can’t take faith out of the believer.

You can’t make people disbelieve. The proof is that although many people (such as the Muslims in Myanmar? (revising; Burma?) who are being slaughtered) would find life a lot easier sometimes, if they just recant, but the fact is, in their hearts they still believe, and no one can take belief out of the heart, except Allah. And Allah, because He is just, doesn’t take faith out of people’s hearts; it is people who want to forget Allah. Allah never forgets His creatures, until they forget Him and when they insist on disbelief; He gives them time to rethink, and maybe return to Him, because Allah loves a slave of His, who returns to Him or repents. But eventually, it will be too late, for the ones who always “lag” and “argue” and “refuse” - sometimes just because they like their lives and don’t want to think about an Afterlife, or be responsible for their actions. And everyone has an appointed time, which is the time of death. Then, everyone will definitely know the reality, whether they “believed” or not. Muslims who take their religion lightly and are not heedful of Allah’s prohibitions also are included in those people who don’t want to think about the Afterlife and individual responsibility (for their actions, words, and beliefs). Some of these are sinners or others have gone astray; they may end up in Hell, either temporarily or permanently-- in the case of wrong beliefs due to a stubborn attitude and refusal to follow the Truth, they may be non-believers. (Allah knows best, in any case, I ask Allah to forgive me for my weakness and if I ever make a mistake In my explanations or if my understanding is lacking, due to some short -fall on my part, not out of deliberate wrongdoing or to mislead)

In Islam we know that we are responsible for our actions, thoughts, intentions.

Those are ‘ours’ just as Allah tells us that our evil deeds are ‘ours.’ But what good we have is from Him. We should not be arrogant, therefore, but grateful slaves. That being said, I do believe in a reward for good doers because God has promised His faithful rewards for their good actions and/or sincere intentions. (Muslims should refer back to the Qur’an for proofs of their statements, at all times, and whenever its likely to help in understanding the religion; here however, I am paraphrasing only; but the meaning is correct)

You might say, our emotions of happiness or grief, anger, etc and belief in God are due to chemical reactions, but that doesn’t mean that life is not more, and that there is nothing more after this temporary life. (That’s what Mel Gibson thought in his role as a grieving ex-Minister; I forgot the title of the movie. Anyway, later, after he and his brother thwart an alien invasion because of his wife’s dying words, “swing away”, which he thought was just gibberish due to her life force going away, and synapses sending weird messages to her brain, or whatever happens when one has thoughts, or when one is dying; this helped him renew his belief in a ‘higher power’. Yes, it’s only a movie. But often writers and people who make films, such as the directors, have their own vision, which they apply to their work or art. They, like everybody else, are looking for an explanation, or to question, or seek some kind of “probable cause” or are pondering at least the “probabilities”.

Life is much more amazing and complex than what either biological chemistry or a two hour movie can do to either “explain away” people’s faith, or even the opposite, “prove” that faith is not just hoping that there’s a God or an afterlife, or ‘something more’, after we die. It’s the similar case, with the discovery of a “God spot” in the brain, which some people think is evidence that faith in God is “biologically” explainable (or dismissible); again, God could have put the God spot there, as one religious cleric (a Christian) said, in an article about the discovery (I must try to find a link or reference for that, shortly (I hope)).

Atheists and others always insist that the ‘believers’ should prove to them there is a God, but they can’t at the same time prove that there isn’t a God. So it is everyone’s “choice” and “freedom” to believe what they want; I don’t think anyone has the right to insist on others relinquishing their faith or unbelief, either, without proof or at least some “reasonable uncertainty” (either way).

That being said, Muslims do believe that there is definite proof In the Qur’an that God revealed the Qur’an and that He had revealed previous scriptures.

IN another blog post I will continue the study of the Qur’an’s proofs, in brief and only with some few, or a minimum of examples, as actually there are too many for me to do in one or two blogs, although the major ones can be examined, such as the Big Bang, which incidentally I had previously (a couple of days ago) written about.

Some may think that “smoke” (and mirrors - I’m only joking) are not enough to prove the Big Bang. But what the Qur’an says, as I have already written, I believe about what Professor Kroner, at a symposium on the subject of scientifically advanced statements in the Qur’an, 1430 plus years ago, are nothing short of “proof” that the Qur’an was not written by a man, or men.

It is not only one Western or European educated non-Muslim scientist’s opinion (or Muslim scientists’ opinions), but many statements attesting to the amazing verses of a scientific nature (although Quran is a religious Book, primarily, and not a science text, as I often tell people), whether the scientist(s)embrace Islam or not as a result (some have done so, May Allah bless them, and all seekers of truth)of their study of such verses and their statements supporting the belief (of Muslims) that the Qur’an must be a revealed book; although they do not always admit it is revealed by “the God of Muhammad”, but some “superior intellect” or some other similar phrase, as Dr. Keith Moore, a Christian, proposed when he spoke in Canada, over two decades ago..

I have noted that there are many verses of a scientific nature, which I will not however discuss here. But stay tuned, insha Allah, for more in future posts, by me, J.D-N

Just a final word about the ‘revealed books’ which I mention earlier. In the Bible is a statement about the coming of the “comforter”, after Jesus, pbuh. He says to the apostles and believers at the time (his followers among the tribes of Israel, because he was sent only to them), that he will go away, “If I go not away, the comforter will not come”, or similar to that, (I’m sorry if it’s not the exact wording, I don’t actually have a Bible anymore, nor any of Ahmed Deedat’s useful books on comparative religion by him). At any rate, Then some earlier people, brother Deedat after them, translated the Greek text, this particular word “comforter” in fact, and the name is “Ahmed”, in other words Jesus is telling his people that after him they should expect another Prophet whose name would be Ahmed, which is a short form, or alternative name for Muhammad (Mohamed is the Orientalists way of spelling the same name). Why would a Christian, one of the suspected forgers or adulterers of the Bible (I mean they adulterated or changed the original book, which is called Injeel by the Muslims, and is a word in the Qur’an) let stand the name of Muhammad (“Ahmed”, which means “the praised one”)? It’s because they thought it meant the Holy Ghost, or something else. Maybe they didn’t think it mattered if it meant another person was coming, such as a reformer? Or maybe they believed, most likely, that it meant Jesus’ second coming, or would appear to the reader that that is what was meant, as they insisted that Jesus had been killed by the Jews (Muslims believe that the Jews wanted to kill Jesus, but that Allah took Jesus up to Himself, and that Jesus will in fact return before the end of time – with the difference that we don’t worship him, pbuh.) Whether Christians want to believe any of this or not is completely up to them, but I think it is important for everyone interested in the Truth, that they should at least ponder some of the verses in the Quran as well as statements of Jesus in the Bible. Muslims believe that some of the verses in the Bible are authentic, that not everything of the original text or scripture was lost, and that some (signs) of the “religion” of Jesus remain(s) in bits and pieces. It is Allah’s will that the Bible has this verse about the coming of a man whose name would be “Ahmed,” or Muhammad. Peace and blessings unto all the Prophets and Messengers of God.