| quigontcb said: 1) Most people do believe in a creator. Pretty much every culture that I'm aware of believed there is a creator/higher power. It is our nature to think this and wonder, not just live by bodily instints as animals do. Not only this, but many people accept there is a creator/higher power through logic. Science can take us back to the big bang, but what caused the big bang? I heard Stephen Hawking recently said that he no longer thinks God is a part of that equation, that gravity fills the God-part of the puzzle. My question is, what did gravity have around to have an effect on to initiate the big bang? What caused gravity to be? Was gravity around before existence as we know it? As far as why God should "stay away" from non-believers, that is getting more into specific theology. I'm pretty sure Muslims and Christians(what I am) agree on this. God doesn't "stay away" from non-believers, they "stay away" from Him. If there is a God, a bad "character scheme" would be to reject God. 2) I'm not muslim so I cannot really speak about what the Quran says about women. I do know that the Old(some there I know) and New Testamant say that men and women have their own roles in marriage and the church. 3) From a Christian point of view, we all have access to the word of God now. As far as prophecies being told to certain individuals and why should they be revealed to certain individuals...why not? Theoretically, if there is a creator, why should he do things according to our wishes? You said if you were the creator of everything, you would do things your way; if there is a creator, he is certainly doing things his way. That is his perogative, just as it would be yours if you were the one who made it all. And from a Christian point of view, we can all recieve some sort of divine revelation; it doesn't need to be a prophecy pertaining to the salvation of mankind, end times, or anything like that. We do have to come to God on His terms, not our own, which is a problem for most of us. Again, I'm not Muslim, so I cannot really speak from a Muslim point of view, but Islam is an Abrahamic faith, as is Christianity, which I am a part of. So there is some common ground there, but I'm not a Muslim so I cannot really speak for them. |
1: Special pleading. If God can exist before the big bang why can't gravity? Surely an anthropic being that cares about what gender we have sex with and listens to our prayers etc (insert whatever specific claims about God/Gods made by any religion here) is far less likely to exist then gravity. The insertion of God into the problem doesn't solve the issue of the infinite regress anymore then saying gravity existed and everythin came from there.
Also, if time didn't exist before the Big bang then addressing such question in a linear manner may actually be a mistake since if time existed after the big bang then it could be said that the universe has existed forever. I prefer to take a view of suspended judgement in general. But I'm pretty certain that it will be science and not theology that answers this question, given the track record. If a God exists, it'll be a small indifferent more deistic God most likely in my opinion, thats if a God exists at all.
2: The issue of sexism is one that I like to think of in this way. When people say religion is man made I take that sentence literally. Patriarchy is something that I'm pretty sure was prevalent in those times so any Religion created by men in such times would probably serve to reinforce such values most likely.
