“The work of God”?

Those dangers and obstacles are what helps us to fully utilize our potentials and capabilities. Life on earth is a test, and God wants us to earn His kingdom rather than being gifted to us. It's our innate nature to appreciate hardwork, toil and struggle than "winning the lottery".


No idea. Maybe humans are not capable of taming dinosaurs.


Things that are precious are not found everywhere. We have to dig deep to find the treasure. Prophethood is not for everyone. Imagine telling to your family and friends that you receive revelation from God and you should be listened to, and that disobeying you is tantamount to disobeying God Himself. Not just once, day after day after day to the same audience (who will turn hostile in a few days) explaining matters of the Unseen, this is not an average person's cup of tea. It's not just a couple of people in the desert. Prophets have been sent to all nations as per Qur'an, but like in the case of Noah(as), most people didn't accept them.


They'll be judged on their own sense of right and wrong. Qur'an 17:15 "We never punish until we have sent a messenger."


They can make their case on Judgement Day.


Prophet's come to tell us about God and our relationship with Him and our responsibilities. Knowledge of science changes with time, unlike the metaphysical truths.


Scriptures talk about them as signs of the Creator. The objective is not to illustrate and detail a scientific fact.

Perhaps this verse points to the origin of universe and origin of life.
Qur'an 21:30 "Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were joined together as one united piece, then We parted them And We have made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?"



There are other linguistic nuances that interests me like for example whenever sun light is mentioned, the word used is "siraj" or "diya" meaning a source of light and whenever moonlight is mentioned it is always "nur" or "muneer" meaning simply light or reflected light.



Well, he also gave us the institution of marriage to cater to that, along with rules of dressing and modesty and guarding the gaze. The prophet taught that we get blessings for the intimate acts between the spouses.


Feeding the poor is a responsibility of the rich countries. The obligatory charity is specifically for this purpose.


Why not? God breathed His spirit into us and gave us intellect, free will and divine guidance. We don't have to act like the primates.


Well, existence is better than non-existence.


Humans don't value or appreciate something until they know what it is like to lose it.


1. It is supposed to be violent and disgusting, the very thought of it works as deterrent for most people. India hanged 4 rapists a few days back. America hanged Saddam. The British did it. I find hanging as equally violent and disgusting like beheading.
2. To show the severity of the crime.
3. The person gets absolved of the sin and won't get punished in the Hereafter.


Have you heard of the conquest of Mecca, when not a drop of blood was shed and the opposition surrendered without a fight. The "war lord" and his followers could have taken full revenge on their enemies for 15 years of oppression and driving them out from their homes to Medina. Instead, the prophet forgave them all and asked the followers to do the same. Many accepted the faith and they were welcomed wholeheartedly. That is the height of forgiveness. But, now this is the 'parting of the sea' moment and the take over of the Temple signalled the proofs of prophethood have been established. There is no more questioning after this and God's judgement will be meted out. It's the same what happened to the Israelites who worshipped the golden calf in Moses'(as) absence. They've no excuses after witnessing the sea parting moment.

Do you know the prophet first married at the age of 25, a twice divorced women who was 15 years older to him? They lived together for 25 years, and he did not marry anyone during the time. He married many after that, some for social and political reasons too. The society didn't have issues with age differences at the time. Puberty was considered the minimum age of marriage consummation. Until the 19th century, this was the same throughout the world.


They've also given meaning and hope to the lives of millions of others and continue to do so.
David Ike says high.
 
A couple of utter crack pots on here. How can people still actually believe this utter shit nowadays with all the scientific facts proving what bullshit all religion is. I understand people wanting to be part of something for certain reasons eg belonging, safety etc but what's the difference between what these people believe and what David Ike said? Dangerous, money grabbing, abuse ridden rubbish
 
How can people still actually believe this utter shit nowadays with all the scientific facts proving what bullshit all religion is.

There's a raft of research indicating that practising a form of Buddhist meditation might be actually pretty good for you. Some of it is mentioned here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_cognitive_therapy#Evaluation_of_effectiveness

The last time I checked, some of the most basic Buddhist claims about reality also seem to be accurate, namely, that reality is ever changing (and so are we) which makes suffering inevitable.

As the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki once stated, 'Life is like stepping into a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink.'

I'm not a Buddhist, by the way and don't believe in reincarnation. But I find some of its other teachings plausible.

There is also no agreed on definition of the word ‘religion’ and no precise equivalent of the word in many languages and cultures. For example, in Sanskrit (the language in which Hindu and many Buddhist texts are written), the nearest we get is a word like ‘darsana’, which can be translated as ‘a way of seeing’ [reality], and some Indian religious ‘ways of seeing’ are atheistic and deny the existence of a God with qualities like the ones the Christian, Jewish and Muslim God is meant to have.

Ditto China and its variant ways of construing the term 'Tao'. To the best of my knowledge, none of them come close to a conception of ultimate reality that approximates to theism.
 
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If you've some insights from the "mystical writings" on the problem of evil, please do share.

I actually Googled 'mysticism' and 'the problem of evil' to see what I could find and could only unearth one academic study.

So there isn't much out there.

From within the Islamic tradition, I'm also not sure if Sufism has anything to say about this. It must be an issue because predestination is so foregrounded in Islamic teaching, as encapsulated by the phrase 'Inshallah'.

Maybe one of the more prolific mystic philosophers like Ibn Arabi might have written on the subject but I really don't know.
 
It's the accompanying metaphysical claims that are the issue.

I would definitely agree with that.

I also have another problem: suppose that there is a God with all the qualities that the monotheistic traditions ascribe to Him.

Wouldn't it still then be reasonable to ask why there is a God that is all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, eternal, infinite etc. that gets His knickers in a twist about what we do down here?
 

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