Breathe
Hostis humani generis
I think he means in the term of 'strange'.Being gay somehow discredits him? Oh this is familiar.
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Can one be an Islamic Atheist?
- Thread starter Sha'irullah
- Start date
paarsurrey
Veteran Member
Being gay somehow discredits him? Oh this is familiar
Neither I hinted that he was a gay nor I intended to say that a gay should be killed . Ali Dashti might have a different opinion; yet atheism and Islam are wide apart.
Regards
That is certainly true. How do you expect Muslim societies to deal with their atheists in the future, Illykitty? Word got me that currently it is usual to attempt to avoid the subject, out of a (IMO misguided) sense of etiquette.
illykitty
RF's pet cat
I don't know, as it is now it doesn't seem to be very tolerated in the Middle East. It wasn't always like this though...
There were atheists in past Islamic societies, one example that pops to mind is Al-Ma'arri. He was a blind philosopher, poet and writer. He heavily critiqued religions and even went as far as saying that the prophets lied. He was also a vegan. Very unusual fellow for his time (973-1058) and place.
And sadly his statue was "beheaded" during the conflict in Syria in 2013. It was there for almost 1000 years... All this time. Only recently it seems to be unacceptable to have an atheist hailed as a great thinker.
It would be nice to see more tolerance of free thought again. After all, if Muslims are confident about their religion, why would they feel threat from critique?
illykitty
RF's pet cat
Not all Wiccans believe in many gods. Some believe there's only one, some believe there's many manifestations of the one, some are polytheists, etc. There's a lot of different views. I imagine Christian Pagans would believe in one god and Jesus, but personally I've never been curious enough to look it up.
I think the issue would most likely be more with magic, but some believe Wiccans do white magic, thus acceptable for some.
First of all, i would like to ask you all what you mean by 'culturally Muslim'. As a Muslim, I know that there are differences between religion and culture. Culture can belong to different nationalities, tribes, regions, etc, but religion can belong to more than one set of people. So do you mean those who are atheist, but originate from Islamic lands?
More specifically, those who were raised in Muslim cultures and more often than not have Islamic values such as hospitality, modesty, family, possibly obedience and diligent participation in society as well - but just turn out to have no belief in God. Odds are that many will end up showing at least an appearance of reverence for the Quran and the Prophet, if for no other reason because (I assume) it can be very rude not to.
Some of them might perhaps want to show divergent values, but it is difficult to tell. I honestly am not certain it is even possible to be eccentric in Muslim society.
Luis explained it rather well. But I have a little more to add.
People raised in an all encompassing culture defined by a religion might well find the god image unbelievable. It happens among all religious cultures. Jews Hindus, I see myself as an atheist Christian, when a religion dominates a culture it is impossible to completely leave it sometimes.
So I am sure that there are atheists that are so inculturated in a Muslim community that they are not going to stop behaving and identifying as Muslims. There are Muslim atheists. Probably far more than can be counted, given the trouble most Muslims will have if they are honest.
Tom
Going by my personal experience, I was shocked and disoriented when I learned that legend had it that Mary expected her son to be divine (from a school song).
I was all like "surely you are messing with me"?
Up until that point, it never occurred to me that someone could believe in such a thing as a Messiah Prophecy. I had simply assumed that this Jesus fella was some kind of sage and ended up admired after the fact. Somewhat like, say, Martin Luther King.
I most certainly never found the idea of a God-given-human-form at all natural. Yet to this day people keep assuming that, being a Brazilian, I must be a Christian somehow, or barring that at least have a good reason not to be one and be ready to present it.
Heck, I was enrolled into Eucharisty course without anyone ever asking me if I would like to go through it; it was simply not a choice.
Christians can be very forceful in their expectations. And honestly, I doubt the pressure is any less overwhelming in Muslim communities.
Why?
If a Muslim woman came to the conclusion that Muhammad and Allah were overrated, but didn't change her lifestyle in any way, and everyone around her thought her a good Muslim, how are those people wrong?
Tom
Indeed. Theism is so over-rated. Just how much of a difference is it possible, let alone expected, a lack of belief to make in the behavior and social integration of a person?
Do people really think realizing that one does not truly believe in God, but just got used to stating that he does out of peer pressure, will cause some sort of major personality shift?
That would be quite rare, folks. At the end of the day, the existence of God is doubtful and of very dubious consequence anyway.
Do people really think realizing that one does not truly believe in God, but just got used to stating that he does out of peer pressure, will cause some sort of major personality shift?
That would be quite rare, folks. At the end of the day, the existence of God is doubtful and of very dubious consequence anyway.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
Al-Ma'arri is my favorite heretic next to Hassan al-Rawandi. For years I loved al-Ma'arri since when I discovered Arab deists and atheists it just shook me. Such a shame that this is never spoken of
paarsurrey
Veteran Member
Kewl story.
