"The unexamined life is not worth living"

Well howdy nairaland am guessing most of you are at sleep (Which I should be doing myself, I have no business being awake this time) But I had to get this off my chest before I forget, as you can tell from the title this will be more of philosophical discussion/question so if your not interested STOP reading now and save yourself the time, I was having a heated argument actually a debate with a friend earlier this morning he is a philosophy major hence the subject anyways I try not to get into this sort of debates but sometimes you just can't help it well anyhow we were chatting about Basing beliefs on reason and evidence vs Basing them on faith, superstition, and tradition, the key words being religion vs science as you can already tell you know where he is going with this just to summarize his long speech about how basing them on evidence brought us more enlightenment than basing them on believes here is what he said the scientific knowledge that the galaxy is filled with billions of suns, new suns and dying suns, planets forming and planets formed long ago, black holes, , ,,,,,,, and wonders beyond counting, and all of these things in a galaxy that is like a grain of sand among a hundred and twenty five billion others, is far more awe inspiring than the idea that Earth was created by a mysterious God and that the stars are unknown light sources spinning around it on perfect crystalline spheres. of course there was more to the discussion than this but this part caught my attention the most, I have seen my share non believers and I usually just stay away from having any sort of debate about faith but as my luck would have it I was stuck debating with this friend for at least 2 hours about this subject of course at the end we had to disagree to agree.

Which brings me to my title what’s your stand on that? I had professor last semester that over used this quote

Navi613:

"The unexamined life is not worth living"

Well howdy nairaland am guessing most of you are at sleep (Which I should be doing myself, I have no business being awake this time) But I had to get this off my chest before I forget,  as you can tell from the title this will be more of philosophical discussion/question so if your not interested STOP reading now and save yourself the time, I was having a heated argument actually a debate with a friend earlier this morning he is a philosophy major hence the subject anyways I try not to get into this sort of debates but sometimes you just can't help it well anyhow we were chatting about Basing beliefs on reason and evidence vs Basing them on faith, superstition, and tradition, the key words being religion vs science as you can already tell you know where he is going with this just to summarize his long speech about how basing them on evidence brought us more enlightenment than basing them on believes here is what he said the scientific knowledge that the galaxy is filled with billions of suns, new suns and dying suns, planets forming and planets formed long ago, black holes, , ,,,,,,, and wonders beyond counting, and all of these things in a galaxy that is like a grain of sand among a hundred and twenty five billion others, is far more awe inspiring than the idea that Earth was created by a mysterious God and that the stars are unknown light sources spinning around it on perfect crystalline spheres. of course there was more to the discussion than this but this part caught my attention the most, I have seen my share non believers and I usually just stay away from having any sort of debate about faith but as my luck would have it I was stuck debating with this friend for at least 2 hours about this subject of course at the end we had to disagree to agree.

Which brings me to my title what’s your stand on that? I had professor last semester that over used this quote

I can only offer the islamic perspective,  (sorry)

For muslims, there has never been a conflict between religion and science or faith and logic. Faith in islam is based on reason. The Quran, time and time again asks the rhetorical question., Would you not reason? The concept of blind faith does not exist in Islam. 
It asks the Question to those who reject faith, Do you think it came from nothing?

Common sense tells you that nothing comes from nothing.

Allah says in the Quran that everything in the universe is finely balanced. It is easy to see this balance when we examine our galaxy for instance, the fact that life exists on the earth is a question of balance,  If the earth was a little bit closer to the sun , the world would be too hot for existence, if it was a little bit father away, Too cold. 

If the earth was too large, too much gravity,  too small, too little gravity,  If it spun too slow, one part of the earth would be cold for too long, the other hot,

Well, is it all a coincidence that the earth is at the size, the distance from the sun, the speed conducive for human life?? I beg to differ

Again, Did it all come from Nothing?

This is what I think,  Faith must have proof. An all-powerful God that created the heavens and the earth must show me a sign he exists, 

The miracle of the Quran is that inspite of the fact that it emerged from the desert over 1400 years ago, it contains accurate scientific facts that were not available to the people that existed at it's time. it talks of the Big bang and the fact that living things are made out of water. It talks of reproduction, geology and so many other things, most of which were only discovered in the current century.

Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were of one piece, then We parted them, and
We made every living thing of water? Will they not then believe? (21:30)

It describes Allah as the lord of the worlds,  It doesn't eliminate the prospects of life outside the earth. It talks of heavens and the earth,  And of the orbits of sun and moon in accurate detail,  In a time where the earth believed that the world was flat, The Quran describes it as resembling the egg of an ostrich,

God shows me his existence in His words ,

Would those who reject faith not reason??

Now let's talk a bit philosophically,  Through out history, civilizations believed in the existence of a supreme being. I would argue that it is innate in everyone to believe in God. I believe it is a natural instinct.

If you touch a hot object, you don't think of removing your hands, it is a natural instinct,

People in dire need even atheists pray when it seems hopeleess,

The Quran offers a simple analogy, when it says:
Surah 10. Yunus

22. He it is Who maketh you to go on the land and the sea till, when ye are in the ships and they sail with them with a
fair breeze and they are glad therein, a storm wind reacheth them and the wave cometh unto them from every side and
they deem that they are overwhelmed therein; (then) they cry unto Allah, making their faith pure for Him only; If Thou
deliver us from this, we truly will be of the thankful.

23. Yet when He hath delivered them, behold! they rebel in the earth wrongfully. O mankind! Your rebellion is only
against yourselves. (Ye have) enjoyment of the life of the world; then unto Us is your return and We shall proclaim
unto you what ye used to do.

When they seem overwhelmed, they call on God,  It is a normal human instinct. But like ayat 23 says we r too distracted by the world.

The truth is the earth as an entity is a tiny spec in a tiny spec that is our galaxy in a spec that is the universe in the sight of God. Everything maintaining a fine balance,

The Prophet(SAW) said 'The Universe compared to the kursi (loosely translated as footstool/throne) of God is like a ring thrown into the desert'

My faith in God is a logical conclusion based on facts. The world is too finely balanced for there not to be a creator.

I hope this helps,

Religion vs science. Lol!
Such a thing does not exist. Why? Because science is a part of Religion. Consider Religion as a big circle and science would be a small dot inside that circle.
What is Religion? It is following what Allah has commanded us.
What is science? It is studying Allah's creations,from something as small as a subatomic particle to something as large as a galaxy.

There is no 'vs' or fight between the two. But we see a lot of scientists rejecting religion or ridiculing faith in Allah. Well i cannot help laughing at them. Its sheer arrogance on their part, lol. Just because they found some theories regarding the creation of Allah they think they are superior beings. They will indeed realize the truth on the day of resurrection, the day when Allah will give life to the dead.

Allahuakbar.

tbaba1234:

For muslims, there has never been a conflict between religion and science or faith and logic.

@tbaba
exactly the same thing i had in mind. SubhanAllah.!

tbaba1234:

I can only offer the islamic perspective,  (sorry)

For muslims, there has never been a conflict between religion and science or faith and logic. Faith in islam is based on reason. The Quran, time and time again asks the rhetorical question., Would you not reason? The concept of blind faith does not exist in Islam. 
It asks the Question to those who reject faith, Do you think it came from nothing?

Common sense tells you that nothing comes from nothing.

Allah says in the Quran that everything in the universe is finely balanced. It is easy to see this balance when we examine our galaxy for instance, the fact that life exists on the earth is a question of balance,  If the earth was a little bit closer to the sun , the world would be too hot for existence, if it was a little bit father away, Too cold. 

If the earth was too large, too much gravity,  too small, too little gravity,  If it spun too slow, one part of the earth would be cold for too long, the other hot,

Well, is it all a coincidence that the earth is at the size, the distance from the sun, the speed conducive for human life?? I beg to differ

Again, Did it all come from Nothing?

This is what I think,  Faith must have proof. An all-powerful God that created the heavens and the earth must show me a sign he exists, 

The miracle of the Quran is that inspite of the fact that it emerged from the desert over 1400 years ago, it contains accurate scientific facts that were not available to the people that existed at it's time. it talks of the Big bang and the fact that living things are made out of water. It talks of reproduction, geology and so many other things, most of which were only discovered in the current century.

Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were of one piece, then We parted them, and
We made every living thing of water? Will they not then believe? (21:30)

It describes Allah as the lord of the worlds,  It doesn't eliminate the prospects of life outside the earth. It talks of heavens and the earth,  And of the orbits of sun and moon in accurate detail,  In a time where the earth believed that the world was flat, The Quran describes it as resembling the egg of an ostrich,

God shows me his existence in His words ,

Would those who reject faith not reason??

Now let's talk a bit philosophically,  Through out history, civilizations believed in the existence of a supreme being. I would argue that it is innate in everyone to believe in God. I believe it is a natural instinct.

If you touch a hot object, you don't think of removing your hands, it is a natural instinct,

People in dire need even atheists pray when it seems hopeleess,

The Quran offers a simple analogy, when it says:
Surah 10. Yunus

22. He it is Who maketh you to go on the land and the sea till, when ye are in the ships and they sail with them with a
fair breeze and they are glad therein, a storm wind reacheth them and the wave cometh unto them from every side and
they deem that they are overwhelmed therein; (then) they cry unto Allah, making their faith pure for Him only; If Thou
deliver us from this, we truly will be of the thankful.

23. Yet when He hath delivered them, behold! they rebel in the earth wrongfully. O mankind! Your rebellion is only
against yourselves. (Ye have) enjoyment of the life of the world; then unto Us is your return and We shall proclaim
unto you what ye used to do.

When they seem overwhelmed, they call on God,  It is a normal human instinct. But like ayat 23 says we r too distracted by the world.

The truth is the earth as an entity is a tiny spec in a tiny spec that is our galaxy in a spec that is the universe in the sight of God. Everything maintaining a fine balance,

The Prophet(SAW) said 'The Universe compared to the kursi (loosely translated as footstool/throne) of God is like a ring thrown into the desert'

My faith in God is a logical conclusion based on facts. The world is too finely balanced for there not to be a creator.

I hope this helps,

First of all thank you for taking the time to fully reply to my question I do understand where your coming from as am believer just like you but I would never presume to believe that God would want any human being to forgo knowledge about the whole of the universe and to not use reason and the scientific method to further and perfect that knowledge. On the contrary, I see human endeavor, science, math, art, music, poetry, etc., to be a beautiful thing, not as reflections of God but because they are meaningful. I don't limit my reading/viewing to religious journals/books/films, etc., or my vision to what I learn from the Quran. I take it all in, the stars, the mountains, the oceans, etc

And I know that There isn't a belief among scientist that reason is "all mighty"--or that it could reveal all there is to know about the universe. Some potential knowledge may simply be unobtainable. It is simply that reason and reason combined with experience are the ONLY ways of acquiring knowledge. Justification REQUIRES reason, and knowledge is, at the very least, a true justified belief. Even that isn't sufficient, but that alone makes the point. Nonetheless at the end of the day there are some things even science can't prove

azharuddin:

Religion vs science. Lol!
Such a thing does not exist. Why? Because science is a part of Religion. Consider Religion as a big circle and science would be a small dot inside that circle.
What is Religion? It is following what Allah has commanded us.
What is science? It is studying Allah's creations,from something as small as a subatomic particle to something as large as a galaxy.

There is no 'vs' or fight between the two. But we see a lot of scientists rejecting religion or ridiculing faith in Allah. Well i cannot help laughing at them. Its sheer arrogance on their part, lol. Just because they found some theories regarding the creation of Allah they think they are superior beings. They will indeed realize the truth on the day of resurrection, the day when Allah will give life to the dead.

Allahuakbar.

Masha allah
Allahuakbar!