Having a religion to believe in God ??

but dont we have to have religions to know the best way of reaching God..........

please sisters and brothers..........where are your posts?

For me, religion/God is all about discovering my potential. That is, religions are teachings that enlighten us to our ultimate nature, which we may call God or whatever. This idea of "believing" in God I find suspect because if God exists, then He is a fact and believing Him is redundant. If 'believe' is used in the sense of 'faith', I concede that faith benefits man in all his endeavours. But unless faith in God leads us to our divinity, it is only a ploy to get us counted as loyalists by whom we call God.

Nice thread, SAYA.

I know of people who believe in God, but feel that the 'man-made' side of organized religions can get in the way of reaching God and feeling his presence.

If you think about it, 'religious people' aren't always the best advertisement for the religion they represent. People in churches/mosques/temples etc aren't always nice: they can the judgmental, there can be in-bickering and backbiting, people can be excluded or ignored. Leaders can be harsh and judgmental, followers can feel unheard and misunderstood ...

If you think about it, there can be lots of ways followers can tarnish their religion to the eyes of the outside world!

Another problem, I believe, is that many people don't trust scripture.
Many believe religious laws and rulings to be invented by those in power to keep the population quiet and obedient ... Along the lines of "If you don't do X,Y and Z, your punishment in the afterlife will be terrible!!" (That used to be my perception when I was young)

Consequently some people prefer to seek God privately on their own, without the guidance of scripture or other believers.
What they perhaps forget is on their own they are as much at risk of falling prey to their own human nature than they accuse those followers of other religions of: they can make up their own rules and rituals, without really knowing whether they are following God's wishes or merely their own ...

However, it is encouraging to know that there are many people out there seeking God.
I think in some ways I agree with SAYA: If we earnestly seek God, he will certainly guide us ... even if that process takes a lifetime and takes us through other religions along the way.

May we all be willing to hear and follow God's voice in our lives.

Peace

I think religion is something more like the user manual used to guide someone to know how to use what he has.
We can believe in one God, but in order to ensure that we are really believed in him we need to work. I mean the worshipping is the thing that comes along with the faith to ensure it and strengthen it.
For example, if someone goes around killing people, steal their properties, hurt them by any mean, can this considered as someone believe in God? I think this will be nothing but ignoring the existence of God by doing all those things.
And as glo said, many people don’t believe in scriptures, I meet some of them. They prefer to have their own ways of life they might think that some scriptures are written by human.
The question here is can they guarantee that their human rules can lead them to have perfect rules to guide their life. I mean no one is perfect; any one can make mistake and going astray, human laws are not perfect and if we end up with having all the population of earth deists and everyone has his own way of life, what kind of life we will expect?
Each one will think about his belief of God existence in different way than the others; each one will have his own standards and principles in life. This will lead the world to a big mess. I think religions are what gather specific groups of people in the world to have the same thought about the God existence

format_quote Originally Posted by SAYA

For example, if someone goes around killing people, steal their properties, hurt them by any mean, can this considered as someone believe in God? I think this will be nothing but ignoring the existence of God by doing all those things.

Sadly the past, the present and even our daily lives give us evidence of many so-called believers in God, who do such things. Are those indications that those people are not true believers?
Can we as believers in God really always claim to be better than our non-believing counterparts??

Personally, I am sure that I hurt some people in some way or another (by thought, deed or lack of deed) almost certainly every day that passes!

format_quote Originally Posted by glo

Can we as believers in God really always claim to be better than our non-believing counterparts??

true glo, Unfortunately there are strong believers who really work hard to make sure that they are not going against their religions instructions and there are those weak believers who still need much more to go on

format_quote Originally Posted by Gator

From the few non-religious theists I've met, I think people who believe in god but not organized religions believe that their innate morality is basically god's user manual (isn't that what a Gnostic is?).

True, the human instinct is originally good one and aim to the peace and the goodness, but whats going on around this instinct is what affecting it and lead wrongly sometimes. Yeah, we might do many good things, we might come up with some really good rules by our own. Yet, we cant reach the perfection in setting the way of life. Human natures are surely has many weakness, that's why we need some upper level to control our lives,

format_quote Originally Posted by - Qatada -

Sister, when atheists say you don't need a religion to understand God - then you ask them what their definition of religion is. In Islam, we need to understand who Allah is through revelation, through His Messengers' and from them we are able to understand who Allah is, what He wants from us, and what will help us reach our destination of Allah's pleasure and reward.

By saying that you can understand God without religion, then you're saying that you can understand God without guidance from Allah himself.


They may argue that you can, but its likely that they don't have a perfect system which covers all the ways of life which Islam teaches through one example (in our case, Muhammad (sal Allah alaihi wasalam)) - for them, they'll wander around blindly, not really being sure they're upon the truth since they will have to find their own answers for wrong and right, and they'll continuously live a life of contradiction on these issues since they won't be certain of what they believe, wandering to the left and sometimes to the right. This then isn't really a religion, but a selection of varying choices which the person keeps differing in. Whereas for a religion to be true, it has firm principles which the believer follows, a light so he can be sure what is right and what is wrong without contradiction and error.



That's why you need 'organized' religion which will be organized (not 'disorganised) so you know what is true, what is right, from falsehood and error. Otherwise you're just walking around blindly without a firm set truth. So you don't truly understand God, nor can you get close to Him, accept with a true Messenger who you don't doubt in his claim of Prophethood.


And Allah knows best.

absolutely right, May allah reward you al jannah for this explanation brother. Human beings rules are im-perfect just as the human themselves to reach the perfection of the God rules. No human can be error-free. thats why we need superior regulations to guide us

Peace

this is just reminding me with glo thread about following a religion without believing God which is interesting topic as I see it.

my question is can we apply the concept that said the "good deeds have to be associated with faith" in order to combine both two cases together?

because it looks like we have one group are satisfied by religions teaching without believing the God which that religion approach while the other group are satisfied with the existence of God but prefer to do it on their own way

format_quote Originally Posted by SAYA

but dont we have to have religions to know the best way of reaching God..........

please sisters and brothers..........where are your posts?

Yes we do. Allah has shown us the PROPER path of reaching him. If a man is exposed to Islam and then rejects it but maintains that he "belives" in Allah, he will still be punished. He rejected the truth and followed his desires.

You cannot pick and choose faith in Allah. He has sent messengers to guide us and perfect our morals. If you choose to travel on your won, you will destroy yourself through your wilful ignorance.

format_quote Originally Posted by SAYA

Peace

this is just reminding me with glo thread about following a religion without believing God which is interesting topic as I see it.

my question is can we apply the concept that said the "good deeds have to be associated with faith" in order to combine both two cases together?

because it looks like we have one group are satisfied by religions teaching without believing the God which that religion approach while the other group are satisfied with the existence of God but prefer to do it on their own way

HA! Prefer to do it their own way. This is an arrogant attitude. They reject truth in favor of their personal desires. They will wander in darkness until they die or their actions give them trouble and a wake up call.

I do not need a religion to believe in God(swt). but I do need Islam because I do believe in God(swt)

format_quote Originally Posted by Woodrow

I do not need a religion to believe in God(swt). but I do need Islam because I do believe in God(swt)

Interesting statement.

If you mean what I understand you to mean, then I have heard Christians say a similar thing.
If you define 'religion' to be a man-made construct of worshipping and serving God, then some Christians will assert that Christianity is not a religion - but a way of following the example of Jesusand being in relationship with God through Jesus.

The 'religious bits' - i.e. traditions and rituals - may have their place and be of benefit, but they are the 'man-made' parts and are therefore only tools.

peace

format_quote Originally Posted by glo

Interesting statement.

If you mean what I understand you to mean, then I have heard Christians say a similar thing.
If you define 'religion' to be a man-made construct of worshipping and serving God, then some Christians will assert that Christianity is not a religion - but a way of following the example of Jesusand being in relationship with God through Jesus.

The 'religious bits' - i.e. traditions and rituals - may have their place and be of benefit, but they are the 'man-made' parts and are therefore only tools.

peace

I believe you understood what I meant. to word it more simply, if a person sincerely believes in a supreme being, they will need a way to worship him. The belief will be the reason to seek the correct form of worship. I find that to be Islam.

But, I can see that a Christian would feel the same, and say they accept Christianity because they believe in God(swt).