I was born and brought up into a loving Muslim family and whilst not orthodox, I maintained a fairly strong faith in an All-Powerful and All-Loving creator until about the age of 42 (July 2019). I can't say that it was one particular event that encouraged me to look at myself from outside my personal "Fish-bowl", and certainly not a negative experience within religion - at present, I am at peace with the notion that it was just a slow realization of the possibility of the very idea of a creator that threatens cruel eternal punishment for not acknowledging said creator. Mind you, I still consider this a very personal opinion and a choice that I have made for myself, and do not wish to debate the issue or hurt anyone's feelings.
If you are a believer and reading this - these words are in no way intended to offend you - if anything, I admire people who can hold onto a particular set of beliefs in a deity and indeed, there are many beautiful people who dedicate their entire lives to the service of their fellow human beings, inspired by these very beliefs.
This is about my personal journey, where I will try to explain and as a consequence, hopefully explore at the same time by putting my thoughts and doubts into words, why I could no longer hold onto my faith in a benevolent sentient being in control of everything. If you find that we have anything in common, I would be delighted to get in touch as well; a common religious belief system also plays an important role in the formation of community and I have a feeling that outside of sites such as these (of which there aren't many to start off with), there is very little for people such as myself, who have relinquished their belief system.
A little bit about me:
I am a scientist and live in Sydney, Australia. I have a wife and son, and my wife still considers herself a Muslim, but is aware of my doubts and misgivings in the faith (or any faith, for that matter).
One slight difference in the way I was brought up, compared to most of my friends was the heavy emphasis my father placed on the superiority of Reason, even in faith - and maybe more so in faith. Dad was a highly learned scholar having studied comparative religion and often taught us to always take the holistic view in life. Getting caught up in the little things is where the average human being gets trapped, and most religions are structured around these very "little things". While I am not here to criticize any belief system, consider this:
If your faith gives you peace and makes you a better human being, one who cares about others, regardless of what their personal beliefs maybe, then, all well and good, but if it creates the tiniest bit of prejudice in your mind, gives you the smallest fraction of a superiority complex, and encourages you to consider yourself, better in any way to someone else who may not have the same belief system as you, then it is my humble opinion, that you may have either completely missed the mark in understanding your religion, or (and this might offend), your belief system my be centered around prejudice in the first place.
I will try to talk about the above statement at length in a future post, among other views that I have about the exclusivity of belief systems, but my personal experience with other human beings has taught me that a good person, is usually that, regardless of their faith (or lack of it) and vice-versa.
I will continue this forum topic very soon, but for now, hopefully I have made a gentle start to what I hope will be a helpful narration to someone in a similar situation.