THIS TOPIC IS NOT A TOPIC THAT RIDICULES RELIGIONS OR PEOPLE OF ANY FAITH/BELIEF, THIS TOPIC IS NOT HERE FOR DEBATE, THIS TOPIC IS NOT HERE TO OFFEND ANYONE, THIS TOPIC IS NOT A RELIGIOUS TOPIC. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY, AND DON'T GO OFF-TOPIC!
AS AN AGNOSTIC, I DON'T CONSIDER MYSELF SUPERIOR TO PEOPLE OF ANY RELIGION OR THINK I'M BETTER THAN THEM.
I'M NOT ENDORSING AGNOSTICISM OR ATHEISM, THIS TOPIC IS HERE SO PEOPLE CAN SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE.
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Purpose: The purpose of this thread is to share how I or any other PakDefence members became an agnostic/atheist, and also so other people of other faiths can understand how/why it happened. It's important for people of other faiths to understand each other. I respect people of all religions regardless of whether they're Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Jains, etc. The problem is that agnostics/atheists are so misunderstood by people, and here is a chance for people of faith to understand why they are the way they are. We can't discuss this in Pakistan for fear of death penalty from either Blasphemy law or Sahih al-Bukhari, 9:84:57 Hadith.
How I Became an Agnostic: I was born in USA to two Pakistani parents, who believe in Islam but don't practice it. The only thing I knew about Islam was that I wasn't allowed to eat pork and I wasn't allowed to drink alcohol. When I was in high school, my older brother started getting religious and following Islam after he met this Muslim girl at work (who later became his wife).
My older brother started teaching me how to pray, and I even started fasting as well. I prayed 5 times a day, and fasted, went to the Masjid, did my Sunnah prayers, etc. It was just like a spiritual exercise for me as I never really thought much about the religion because I had a busy life when I was in high school. I worked 12 hour shifts, and overtime so I just never really thought about religion. After graduating high school I started college. My older brother died in an accident during Ramadan, and I still had faith in Islam regardless of that.
After graduating high school I got my dream job, started going to college, and I also started studying Islam more. I realized that I must be skeptical of my own religion and question it in order to know whether or not it really is true, and that I'm not just following the religion because I'm a Pakistani or because my parents follow it. Because lets be honest, most of us trust our parents and we just follow whatever they tell us if at a young age they tell us that we belong to a certain religion and it's the right way, we believe it. Being.
I started reading the Quran in English, as I had never read it before despite fasting/praying/going to the Masjid (I just recited Arabic verses during prayer without knowing the meanings). When I started reading the Quran I was even more confused about Islam. I went to the Masjid and had the Imam explain things that I did not understand. I read the whole Quran, and after reading it and studying how it was created I became an unbeliever. I saw too many contradictions inside there. I did some research on the history of Islam, and also found out some disturbing facts (won't post here so no one is offended). I started studying Science more and found out about evolution. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence for Evolution out there. There were too many things in the Quran that I found were against my beliefs.
I still had the fear of hell, after I stopped believing in Islam. I reminded myself the reasons why I don't believe in Islam, and I also reminded myself that even if hell exists there is no way I will be in hell just for not believing in a certain religion if the God is merciful. I searched on the Internet and saw stories by other people and noticed that many people who told their parents about leaving their religion were disowned by their parents, or their parents were emotionally hurt. I decided to keep my agnosticism private, and pretend to believe in Islam in front of my parents because I don't want anything like that to happen to me. My parents would feel sorry for me and think I'm going to hell, and they'll have feelings of guilt if they knew I was not Muslim.
Despite not being Muslim, I don't eat pork and will never drink alcohol or do any drugs. I respect people of all religions and no religion equally. I'm still the same person I always was, but I'm just not superstitious anymore. Well, except for the fact that I do still believe in a higher power (which I guess I can call God) but don't claim that it's really there because there is no evidence. I hope that there is an afterlife, but no one really knows whether or not there will be. I believe it is highly likely that this is the only life we have, and I'll try to make the best of it. To me religion or no religion is not something I care about, but I feel that people need to be tolerant of people of all faiths and sects (e.g. Ahmadi, Shiite, Orthodox, Evangelical, etc.). In the end of the day we are all human, and should think about people as humans, and not think about religion or no religion. Everyone should educate themselves, follow what they believe is right, and be tolerant of others.