Foundations & Arguments in debate for Muslims vs Atheists

[Abdullah123]

I'm just going to post some small posts below which will be some foundations for Muslims insha Allah, so they know where they stand in debate against atheists and some agnostics (who may believe in God but not a religion.)


if i stop posting all of a sudden, u can find them all here insha Allah:

[MOD EDIT: no links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

Domino Theory


Imagine a row of dominoes lined up in a row (they're the creation), the first 1 in that row needs to be pushed by a force in order for the rest to fall.

That first force will be a push of a human (or anything putting weight or pressure against the 1st domino), and after that first push - all the other dominoes will fall in order.


That's a good comparison as to how the beginning of the universe (or the creation) is dependant upon another force [i.e. God] to allow the universe to 'begin' (with events one after the other/dominoes falling one after each other) and continue to be sustained.

(Atheists don't know what caused the universe to begin, and anything they say is not based on evidence but based on personal opinions only. Because they do not know what was 'before' the universe or big bang, and they have no solid proof for their opinions.)

[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

When you're in debate, especially with atheists about different topics - you need a starting point.


They will say that the starting point of the debate is that there is no God, so you have to prove that there is one in order to convince them.




But this isn't true at all:

Some will even claim atheism isn't even a paradigm but the default starting position. They are obviously wrong, Agnosticism (believing in a God) is the default starting position. Atheism is negatively biased towards the existence of God whereas theism (relligion) is positively biased.


The difference is, at least the theists acknowledges that their view is a belief.

[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[This is A Muslim site who is an ex-atheist - he has some really good articles mashaAllah.]

That's a really good point to make, since the person who believes in God knows and says that they know they require faith to believe that He [God] exists.

From there, all you need to do then is to explain why you feel Islam is the correct religion from all the rest. Since the default starting point in the debate is agnosticism, not atheism.




As my friend always says.. Ha! lol


[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

Who 'created' God?


If they ask who created God - tell them we take Allah as a God because He is uncreated. If he was created He would not be God, and therefore we would not take him as God. The whole reason why we are forbidden to worship other than God is because they themselves are created, yet He is not. This is our belief, and it is a much more convincing belief than doubt (of the atheists) who have no answer as to who caused the beginning of all events.


Because we cannot see God, it doesn't mean that he doesn't exist. 'Absence of proof is not proof of absence' - as the debate argument goes. There can be someone behind a door and although you can't see him, it isn't proof that he isn't there.

We cannot see emotions physically, but we see their product; tears, smile etc. The hormones in our body cause us to get these feelings, however the feelings cannot be physically seen except through their product i.e. tears, laugh etc.


Similarly, we see the universe around us, and how it is sustained and controlled for so long - & we believe that this is the product of an All Powerful, Knowing and Wise Creator. This is our belief.



Why doesn't God show Himself then?

Allah tests us and sends guidance to us -Will we obey Him (by doing good and abstaining from evil) without seeing Him? This is part of our test. If Allah was clearly watching us, while we watched Him - then none of us would even feel inclined to sin out of awe and fear for Him.

We know it requires faith to believe in Allah without seeing Him. Yet there are many signs (aayaat) that He has given us which help us in accepting and strengthening in this faith. These will be discussed later insha Allah (God willing.)

[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

The reason why God is God is because He is perfect.


In arabic, an illaah is anything which is worshipped. Worship consists of being a slave (abd), and doing anything which your master commands you (ibaadah.)


The only true illaah who can be obeyed is the One who is Perfect, this is why Islam does not permit the worship of the creation.

That's why, God is known as Al-Illaah (Allah) - the One and only true God.



Since God is not like His creation in any way, and He is Perfect. There is none similar or like Him in any way - this is a sign of His Uniqueness. So none shares His Power, Knowledge, Wisdom, or any of His Attributes.


For One to be Perfect, they can not have an equal in any way. So those who claim that God is similar to His creation - they are contradicting this concept.



There are 2 extremes throughout the many different religions in the world;

1) This is the extreme in which 'god is similar to the creation.'

This is the claims of some christians who say Jesus son of Mary is God or the ancient Greeks who claimed that god had a family, or others who say that we can serve idols because these idols are 'god'. They use the claim that 'everything is God' because the creation is within God himself!

However, this is false because if humans, idols or the creation was God - then doesn't the Big Bang explain that the universe had a beginning?

Also, some claim (i.e. in some aspects of hindusim) - God came to life by the energy of 'Om' - so if God had a beginning, then can that really be an attribute of One who is perfect? Doesn't Perfection imply that One is not dependant upon another? (i.e. in this context, 'god' is dependant upon that energy source.)


So how can God be God if He has human attributes? This is falsehood, because the only reason why God is God is because He is NOT similar to His creation.



2) The other extreme is that there is none like God, therefore God cannot have any attributes. This includes many religions like Sikhism, and even some Islamic sects which strayed such as the Mu'tazilah [the philosophers.]

These people attempt to defend God but because of this extreme caution, they argue that He has no attributes. So they deny that God has Knowledge, Wisdom, Control etc. because all these attributes - the creation has them also.

The above is another extreme.

Islam is the answer to all the confusion that has occured throughout history;


The answer is in the Qur'an;

There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer.

[Qur'an Ash-Shura 42:11]

He has many Attributes, but there is none Like Him in sharing these attributes.

So when He is the Seer, Hearer, Knower, Powerful etc. - He is in reality all of these, however - there is none like Him in these attributes in any way. We do not know the 'howness' of these Attributes, but we accept them as they are. We cannot comprehend God, so we accept them without knowing the details.

So His eyes are not like human eyes, and whatever He has said about Himself - we accept without distorting its meaning. (because some sects say that these attributes are different to what they're apparent [dhahir] meaning is - which made them reject what Allah said about Himself.


This is God's Perfection, a perfection which people throughout history have differed about. And this Qur'an was sent down to unite mankind on what they differed.



And Allah knows best.

[Abdullah123]

Question:
If God is so kind and loving, why does He allow evil to occur on the earth?

Answer:


God is the Kind, Loving, yet He is also the Most Wise. He says in the Qur’an (translation of the meaning):

..It is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not.


[Qur'an 2: 216]

We see from this verse that since we are only humans, we are limited to the present. We might face some trouble and think that we can never come out of it, imagine this scenario;

A man works for a service where his job is to torture people without a just cause (probably thinks it easy money), now imagine he gets caught by another party and they start to torture him to get some information from him. – At this moment in time, he is facing a real hard time and like any human, he’s thinking why he never went home early today so he wouldn’t be caught and face this torture? – Anyway, after a few hours of torture they release him (maybe he just doesn’t have any secret info.) He goes back home and remembers all that he faced and reflects on how the people he tortured must have felt. Because he realises the severity of what he went through, he feels that he’s not doing the right thing by torturing others either – so he quits his job and doesn’t ever torture people again, rather he starts to help the police so that they can prevent this kind of evil from occurring in the future by other people.

Now looking at his scenario, if he never had faced this evil – he wouldn’t have stopped doing his evil either, rather he’d continue and there would be more harm through that. But since we’ve read the future and outcome of that evil, we see that there was a greater good which occurred through this evil that he had faced. Similarly, it is God who is the All-Knowing, and therefore He places people under similar situations so that they do submit to Him and do good – while doing so out of their own free will.

Another good scenario is this; You wake up in the morning and realise that you got up 10mins late for work, you're really frustrated that it was in your destiny that you woke up late. So you get up and leave the house, as you drive down the main road - you see that there's been an accident just a few cars ahead of you. Ask yourself - if you had woken up 10mins earlier, maybe you would be that person who had just died?



[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]



In regard to people being rewarded or punished eternally in the afterlife, then the response is that the person has a choice of being obedient or disobedient in this temporary life, and since the afterlife is eternal - then by choosing the correct choice in this life - they'll be given an eternal life of whatever path of consequence they chose for their ownselves. So none will be dealt with unjustly. Since they will have been warned of the consequences of their actions in this life. If they were not truly warned [i.e. no Messenger was sent to them] - then they will be tested on the Day of Judgement.

Because Allah says (translation of the meaning):
And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning). [Qur'an Isra 17:15]

[Abdullah123]

Question
If God is so perfect, why does He need us to worship Him?



Answer:

First of all, what is worship? Worship is to do an act which Allah/God loves, whether its praying to Him, helping the needy, helping society become a better place, even small factors such as feeding your family and providing for them - with the intent of pleasing Allah.

Allah/God isn’t in need of our worship, but we as His creation are in need of His worship. We see as humans today that there is a great amount of evil that is widespread on the earth, people kill each other unjustly, loot each others wealth, taking the rights of people without any just cause. Now if the people were aware, and 100% certain without doubt that God is watching over them and that He would either punish them a severe punishment or reward them a great reward according to what they did do in this world, there would be a lot less evil, and much more harmony and peace on the earth.

So God isn’t in need of us or our worship, but we clearly see that there is a great deal of corruption when people do not worship God. Having a healthy fear of Gods punishment, hoping for His reward and Mercy, and loving Him for everything He has given us (sight, hearing, health, sustenance etc.) are all acts of worship – if these were instilled into the people, it would give everyone a balanced life in all aspects.
It would humble those who have been given authority and great wealth, aswell as give respect and kindness to those who may be given less in worldly riches. The rich would give a share of their wealth to the poor, hoping for reward from God, and the poor would be thankful for that. The family ties would be upheld, people would be pleased with that because they would be sure that this is what God wants, and they would hope that God would be pleased with them for that – and this would strengthen their love for God, aswell as God’s love for them, which would mean that God would give them an easier life in this world, and the one to come. If anyone ever thought of harming someone who had no right of being harmed, they could remind them of the punishment of God against injustice, which would make that person think twice before doing that evil.

From the above we see that all the aspects of worship which God orders us to perform are for the betterment of humanity aswell as ourselves, God never orders us to do something harmful for us unless the benefit is much greater than the harm.





Okay, that makes sense, but what about praying and fasting then? Why does God need you to pray to Him 5 times a day if He isn’t in need of your worship?

We fast – specifically in the month of Ramadan – in order to learn self-restraint, even when no-one is around we learn that God is watching over us, which will prevent us from committing evil and shameful deeds whether done in public or private. This is something praiseworthy no matter what way you look at it.
About the prayers, when we pray to God 5 times a day, the main central theme of the prayer is for our own benefit. If we look at what we recite, we praise God at the beginning, and then this is when the important part comes;

All Praise is to God, Lord of the Worlds.

The Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.
Lord of the Day of Judgement.
You Alone we worship, you Alone we ask for Help.
Guide us to the straight path.
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.

[Qur’an - Al Fatihah Chapter 1]

Since praising Allah/God is a means of gaining His pleasure, then we praise Him and then invoke (pray to) Him after that, yet He is not in need of us praising Him since He is the self sufficient, free of all wants.

Back to the prayer, we see that the main central theme of our prayer is to actually invoke God and ask Him for our guidance, and as we finish the prayer – we continue praying for the believers. Again, this doesn’t harm or benefit God in the least, however – He loves His servants and wants us to surrender and submit to Him [literal meaning: Islam, one who submits – Muslim] out of our own freedom of choice. Then He is willing to reward us for being grateful, or punish those who were ungrateful and belied Him and His signs.

[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

Destiny, a quick explanation on where Muslims stand

Allah knows His creation, He knows the past, present and future. That's His perfection. We believe in this.


So we sometimes get the question - what's the point of our creation if God already knows what's going to happen to us?

We simply say that God knows, but He also sent us the Criterion between wrong and right, truth and falsehood, and He ordered us to believe and do good - He informed us of the consequences of doing bad. We don't know whether we are successful in the next life (even though Allah does know) - that's why we have to strive to do the good in order to recieve the good (i.e. reward and pleasure of Allah.) If we don't believe and do good, then we have been warned of its consequences (i.e. the punishments etc.)


We believe in all the guidance sent by Allah, so since He informs us that He knows the future, and that we need to believe in this to be successful - we accept that. Since He informs us that we have to be obedient to be successful - we accept that. If we believe and obey, That's what makes us successful, in this life and the next.


Our pious predecessors (the salaf) would say that there is neither compulsion (i.e. you have the choice to do good or sin), nor total free will (i.e. you can't choose where you'll be born etc.) - but there is something between the two.

[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

By chance?!


Alot of Muslims get confused because alot of atheists act all confident when you ask them how the first cell 'came to life by chance', or how the planets came into the position for living things to survive 'by chance'.

You would probably say 'it couldnt have been controlled by chance, just look how everythings working perfectly' right? And that it could only happen except if God willed it.


Now alot of atheists act all confident, but they're really fooling alot of people. Alot of people actually think that the atheist knows more than me so i wont even attempt to question them.


But the weakness of the atheist argument is this, they say "If the earth had been in the position to sustain life, then life could have only come into existence, and thats the reason why we're surviving today"


So in other words they're saying that if everything had happened by chance, thats the only way life could have become existent. [They will talk about the different forces (i.e. gravity etc) in the universe which caused the different planets to form, but this still isn't controlled by anyone [according to them] - so its still 'chance']


We say God created the earth for us, placed it in the right place, and made it in a way so humans and living things could survive within it.


The only difference between both arguments is that we require belief that God who has control and power was able to do it, whereas they have to believe in something which they don't have proof for either, but something which they have to put blind faith in, that it happened 'by chance.'


So if they attack you for having faith in God without seeing Him in this life, tell them that they have blind faith in 'chance' - and guess what? They can't see 'chance' either.


[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]

[Abdullah123]

why are humans so much like other animals if they didn't evolve off them?


humans are created from earth, according to the evolution theory - animals also came and were produced from this earth. we say God allowed it to occur, and it happened by His will & control. He created humans the way He wanted (this is explained in the Qur'an), and since alot of explanation isn't given about how animals were formed - the issue of them evolving over time doesn't contradict Islamic teachings.



why are they and we so similar physically? because they and we were created/produced from similar materials - the (chemicals of the) earth and water.


why are their and our behaviours so similar? animals were on the planet before humans, scientific research shows this. humans lived on the planet and they also interacted with the animals during their lifetimes, they learnt survival techniques off these animals, they learnt hunting and many other world techniques by watching what animals do and progressing on that.


Those are the similarities. ^





The difference between humans and animals is that Allah/God has given humans an intellect, He has given humans the ability to understand wrong and right, to think ahead into the future, and He has given them many blessings so they have control over a great deal of His creation.

But this doesn't come for free, He has made us responsible for all that He has given us. The more we have, the more we're held responsible for. So Allah sends us guidance to give us a Criterion between right and wrong, truth and falsehood etc. We as humans have the choice to accept the guidance or reject it.


Those who accept the guidance and follow it - then they will have a life of goodness, and high morality in this life, and a greater reward in the life to come. Whereas those who reject the guidance, then they will continue following their vain desires EXACTLY like the animals, without any aid or light to guide them in their ways. So they will be equal to the animals, made from the same materials, doing the same things.. but without a beneficial purpose.

They have hearts wherewith they understand not, they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not (the truth). They are like cattle, nay even more astray; those! They are the heedless ones. [Qur'an 7:179]



Those who accepted the guidance, they learnt higher morals, rules and even worldly advances through the guidance which Allah sent to the Messengers' - messages to unite the people on where they differed. This guidance raised these people from being like lost animals, to the most honorable and helpful people to humanity and creation.

These Messengers' were sent to the people to warn them of the consequences of their actions and that they are responsible for them in the sight of God, since they have the choice of doing right and wrong, and have the concept of understanding consequences for their actions. We will return to Him who will inform us of all that we used to do, and none will be dealt with unjustly on that Day.

Those who did believed and did good, will be given good, but those who turned away and did evil - then they won't be punished except for their own evil deeds.
__________________

also read:

[MOD EDIT: No outside links allowed]