Question - For Atheists/Agnostics

['Abd al-Baari]

Assalamu Alaykum / Peace be upon those who follow guidance,

This question just came to my head yesterday, and got me thinking

As an atheist/agnostic if you were in a life or death situation [i hope that you never will be] but if you were would you pray?

Thank you for taking part..any comments are appreciated!

WaAlaykumus Salaam/Peace

[Gator]

I voted no, but then again I'm not in a life or death situation currently. I've been in pretty desperate situations and was more concentrated on dealing with the events at hand.

Thanks.

Your question reminded me of something I saw recently.



http://www.stripes.com/02/nov02/maul...s/_maul31.html

['Abd al-Baari]

Peace,

That link isn't working Gator,

Thanks for taking part in the poll

Peace

[snakelegs]

voted yes. i'm an agnostic who believes in god. so i often pray - mainly to give thanks.

['Abd al-Baari]

Greetings snakelegs,

Thanks for answering

i'm an agnostic who believes in god.

Thats quite interesting, so although you believe in God you do not follow any certain religion? sorry for being rude

Peace

[Na7lah]

sowy but can some1 tell me wat's da difference between
agnostic and athiest?

Jazakallah

[snakelegs]

you're not rude. no, i follow no religion. i've been agnostic all my life, but only came to believe in god about 10 years ago.
muslimah - atheists don't believe in god
agnostics - believe that there is much that is unknowable. some of us believe in god, some do not.

['Abd al-Baari]

An atheist is someone who does not believe in God, as opposed to theist [someone who does believe in God]

An agnostic is someone who is unsure of whether a God exists or not..thats what we learn in RE here

[Na7lah]

thnks

[snakelegs]

An atheist is someone who does not believe in God, as opposed to theist [someone who does believe in God]

An agnostic is someone who is unsure of whether a God exists or not..thats what we learn in RE here

yes, you are partially correct and many fit that description. but some agnostics do believe in god.
i believe that ultimately, these things are unknowable. but i believe god exists.
there is much that remains unknown and beyond our knowledge.

[Science101]

I'm like snakelegs. I believe there is a Creator but do not follow a single religious doctrine. That is more or less what an Agnostic is. Someone who believes there is a Creator of some sort but does not think that religion can explain it all or that such an entity is unknowable (but may still exist).

Some who are unsure can be an Atheist on a day they feel certain there in no Creator, then be Agnostic on another day when they think there might be one. Only an Atheist is 100% convinced there is no Creator.

[barney]

Heck yeah I'd pray!
I sometimes pray anyway just for a chat. It's a bit one sided, well a lot one sided, but these days where lots of peeps have mobile phone earplugs, it's fairly safe to chat away to yourself in public without ending up in the asylum.
It cant do any harm, if God is listening, then I'm sure he knows all about me anyway.
I assume im not racking him off too much or he would have dropped a whale on my head or at least given me some nasty disease.
If he cant hear then , i'm still having a nice discussion with myself, and while that looks a bit awkward, I'm secure enough in myself to do it.

I think that the old saying there are no atheists in foxholes is fairly true.We would all like to cling to some hope of life continuing and it even being really really supermagic after death.
Even if we have spent the whole of a very long life vehmently and painstakingly logically opposing a God.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

lol nice replies, God is listening to everyone and is even well aware of this thread

[Ali.]

This is really quite an interesting thread!

['Abd al-Baari]

JazakAllah Khayr akhee ^

I have to say the most interesting thing that i have learnt from this thread, that there are people that belive in God, but do not follow a religion..i find that quite confusing..

Peace,

[Ali.]

JazakAllah Khayr akhee ^

I have to say the most interesting thing that i have learnt from this thread, that there are people that belive in God, but do not follow a religion..i find that quite confusing..

Peace,

Yeah and me! No offense to those people .

[barney]

Yeah and me! No offense to those people .

It's simply that, following Logic, all things must have an origin. this origin in many agnostics systems is the creative energy or force. This is effectively the same force that Muslim's Christians, Hindu's and every other Theist follows. Agnostics are almost certainly always theists.

The point of departure many come from early on, in that not all agnostics will beleive that this force is sentinent or still in existance.
Just because something did exist dosnt mean it still does.

Further down the line is the consideration wether this force can interact with us humans on a speck of a planet on the speck of a solar system in a speck of a galaxy in the back end of the universe.

Assuming that it is sentinent, is still in existance and can communicate or at least at some point did communicate, then we have to ask, out of all the people who claimed to have had communed with it, who was in actuallity communing and who was simply mentally ill or manipulating people for power wealth and fame.

To figure out that, we have to look at the known histories, the known facts and tangible evidence. Without all these, I myself could simply claim I was in communion and if enough people were daft enough to beleive me, then hey presto...a new religion is born.
Religions tend to be self feeding. The longer they last, the more credibility they have, so they last even longer. Scientology is a example; as the decades roll by, it is turning from a science fiction authors powertrip into a sizable and even in this PC climate , respected religion. (you cant mock scientology, because thats disrespecting peoples beleifs...and they'll come and sue you in court, or intimidate you)

Regards

[Uthman]

Very interesting post barney.

Another factor could be that agnostics might believe in a sentient God, but they don't necessarily believe that he is benevolent. Is that correct?

['Abd al-Baari]

Greetings,

Thank you for the post barney, an interesting read, but forgive me i didn't completely understand it

Just because something did exist dosnt mean it still does.

By this, do you mean that the 'creator' that created the Universe?

Peace.

['Abd al-Baari]

Greetings,

Thank you for your post barney, an interesting read, but i didn't understand it completly

Just because something did exist dosnt mean it still does.

By this do you mean the creator of the Universe?

Peace,