Actually it is quite easy to test:
you think this simple calculation comes even close to testing religion? I for one will not trow away my religion because of it. Never the less your example is most welcome because it allows me to illustrate my point perfectly. The problem with paradigms is. when considering a part of someone else's paradigm it seems absurd. You could compare it with a puzzle. If you take a piece of a puzzle from someone else's puzzle, and try and fit that piece in with your pieces, you 'll see it doesn't work. That's because your own puzzle is (as is mine) full of assumptions. So in order to genuinly study that piece, you need to consider the whole puzzle, not just the single piece.
To try and explain it in a lil less abstract way:
You take a single concept (piece of puzzle) like a deity, and try to fit that in with your atheistic paradigm. Of course teh piece won't fit, because you forgot to see all the other pieces it fits with:
Theory: Allah is all powerful
In the last 3 years natural disasters have killed 350,000 people globally and left 100,000 homeless. In the previous 10,000 years many millions were killed too.
This brings what is known as epicurus riddle:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able, then he is not omnipotent. Is he able but not willing, then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing, then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing, then why call him God?
First let me rule out some of those possibilitys; according to Islam God is able (omnipotent). So that leaves out unwilling. Allah allowed these things to happen. And I can see how you would describe these events as bad. And I understand if one of them would hit you personal that you experience it as bad. So I understand if you would think alowing this to happen is malevolent. However when judging this as such, you're forgetting to consider two important parts of the puzzle. First of all, this puzzle is all about people being created by a creator. We’re given an existence and a limited stay on this earth. Holding a grudge against your creator because your stay here is limited doesn’t make sense. Is it malevolent for for producers to make films that have an ending? Is it malevolent for a writer to write a book that has an ending? Can you blame God for alowing you only a limited stay here? Shouldn't you be thankfull you were given a stay at all? Since this limited stay is a test, the end of a person’s stay is covered under the veil of death. Would it not be covered; and people would be snatched away from this world to the next in an obvious way; then it would ruin the “test” for the rest of us. It would make religion an obvious thing rather then a question of believe and faith.
The second thing you missed out is that this puzzle claims that death is a transition, and that everybody will be rewarded according to what they earn after it. That puts the “disaster” into perspective.
What is that perspective worth to you if you don’t believe that? It probably won’t mean a lot. But you cannot claim the concept of an omnipotent God is flawed due to your personal believes.
Theory: Allah is all forgiving.
If people sin they will have eternal damnation!!!!
I never said that. Islam never claimed that. You're confusing Allah with the cristian God. According to Islam not everybody will eb forgiven, some will be punisched for their sins. I said Allah is the most just and the most mercifull.
The most just means that some will be punished and some rewarded. If everybody would be forgiven, would that be just? Are the blind equal to the seeing? Are the deaf equal to the hearing? ? Are the death equal to the living? Can you imagine a heaven where people like hitler are walking around?
The most mercifull means that Allah gives more then he recieves. That his criterion in judging is in our favour, as explained in teh following hadeeth:
The system of recording of deeds is detailed in Hadith Qudsi. Narrated by Abdullah ibn Abbas in which he narrates from his Lord:
Indeed, Allah has defined the good and the evil deeds, and then explained them. So, whoever had the thought to do a good deed, but did not do it, Allah writes it for him as a complete good deed, while if he actually did it. Allah writes it for him as ten good deeds, or up to seven hundred fold, or even many times more. And, if he had a thought to do an evil deed, but dispelled the thought and did not do it. Allah writes it for him as a complete good deed, while if he entertained the thought and acted on it, Allah writes it as a single evil deed.
Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim
Theory: Allah is perfect
10,000 years after Allah placed humans on the earth, He decided to give us a prophet. The Word of God was given to Moses but that Word was imperfect.
God waited 1,000 years to fix the problem. He gave the Word to Jesus but that too was imperfect.
He waited another 600 years to give the True Word of God to Mohammad (pbuh)
In the mean time many have strayed and most still don't know the Word of God. He better do something soon!
First of all there where thousands of prophets so it's not like humanity had to wait all those years for guidance. And in the beginning the words of all the prophets were good, it's only later that peopel corrupted the difrent scriptures. Again you're failing to see the whole picture. If you consider the existance of a perfect God, you need to consider his intentions to or your attempt is vain and futille. Yes people still stray. But is that because God isn't perfect? No, if he wanted he could have made it so that everyone would follow him, but that would defeat the purpose of testing us. Life is a test to see what we do with our freedom of choice. It all hapens for a reason.
Theory: Allah is all loving
He decided to wait 10,000 years after placing humans on the earth, the give humans the secret to combat diseases. For the first 10,000 years he kept the solution secret.
You are again confusing Allah with the christian God. Allah does not love the sinners and evil-doers. He does not love all, but I can imagen you'd feel that doesn't quite answer your argument. Well have no fear, there's more. This argument is also flawed for the same reasons as the previous examples. First of all disease is a part of creation, it is one of the veils of death and created with the purpose of ending our stay here without making the master plan obvious. Second of all, although it seems logical to judge a disease as "bad" it doesn't mean that God is un-loving for creating this disease. Or for that matter for creating bad things all toghether. It is all part of the test. And eventually the more mishabs you have to endure, the better your reward will be inshallah in the next life. And at that point, when living an eternal life, the limited mishabs here on earth won't look that major. Let alone that you judge life here on earth as bad in general, because not everybody shares that opinion either. even peoelp with lots of mishabs can still apreciate and love life, with it's lesser atractive features.
