You guys seem very smart and may be able to help me with this, its bugged me for a long time.
My boss is a muslim, hes a nice guy, hes also very compitent and intelligent, people dont ever get the better of him, partly down to his confidence though I have to admit.
Even though I put im an athiest, I do have some agnostic there, a little, maybe I should class myself as agnostic in retrospect. Some of his arguments for islam make me go home with this problem of how some of what the quran says reflects life very well.
Such as, drinking is bad, gambling is bad, credit is bad, smoking is bad, sex before marriage is bad⦠I know these arent āfactsā⦠but when you look at people in our western society, all these things can be very problematic to some, which makes me question, is there objective truth to that overall?
Lets take cigarettes, they give people pleasure, but overall they seem bad for society because they harm your body and cause suffering⦠if you were to ban cigarettes, nobody would ever be harmed by them⦠same as the other things.
So this idea that islam presents of banning certain things, (though it really doesnt appeal to me and takes away liberties) you could argue is objectively good because it takes away most of the problems that people have in western society. No more alcoholics, no drug addicts, no gamblers losing their house, no paying crazy interest rates etc etc. āIfā islam were to be followed as per the quran
Its a bit similar to the christian concept of temptation I think, both seem to cover society quite well. I love classic rock, but take for example what could in theory happen if you go to a rock concert? You could end up drinking, smoking, having sex and having a child who has seperated parents, which āmayā (not always) cause that child to not have full opportunities. Yes this is all maybes, but its as if religion makes sure this never happens because there are always those that will make choices that may stop them progressing.
How many people fail college or uni because of the social pressure to drink/party etc⦠yes its up to them, but with no choice they would be more likely to focus on study, which seems to be why muslim children end up becoming doctors/lawyers etc more frequently. Again its this thing that they seem to have stuff covered.
I personally prefer the idea of life and fun, and hate the idea of this ācontrolā, but it stumps me.
I do see how islam, christianity, judaism, hinduism, look at us from the outside and see us making lots of temptational errors (should I say) that are reknowned in life for holding us back.
We are all free ofcourse to not drink, not gamble, not take drugs etc etc. but without rules in place, its obvious that many in society will fall into traps such as alcoholism and gambling, because of their weakness. (I have a weakness for alcohol sometimes, nicotene, and food that is bad for me, lets not pretend I am not one them)
I guess my question is, how do we answer this as athiests, that our athiestic freedom allows many things that can and will cause problems to many people, whereas religion irradicates them as per the scripture?
A good example of what im talking about is the tv show worlds strictest parents, where troubled teens from the uk and australia go and stay with religious families who try to set them on the straight and narrow. This tv show seems to highlight how our casual culture can be problematic, the teens are usually living under very relaxed parenthood, they drink a lot, smoke, take drugs, and end up getting into trouble and going nowhere⦠the religious family always sets them on a better path⦠and this frightens me, because I wonder wow is christianity, islam etc right? And that frightens me because with that comes the heaven hell concept, the control, the idea that this life is just a test etc. All things I dont want to think
If anyone could help me with this id really appreciate it as I do sometimes feel like our free culture is almost laughable to some religious people. It makes me feel uneasy as I love our western culture because its fun, and dont want to feel as if it is the wrong way and that we are somehow proof that religion has been correct all along.
Thankyou