Abdulgaffar22:
There are some people who claim to have an absolute belief in the existence of God but have a very great abhorrence for religion . The sole reason for this very aversion towards religion is the assertion that religion has allegedly caused more harm to humanity than good. But what these people has overlooked is the fact that there is nothing in this world that doesn't come with its merit and demerits. However, enumerating the pros and cons of religion is not what is intended to be addressed.


The question needed to be addressed is the possibility of accepting God while rejecting religion . In other words, is it even logically possible to believe in God and yet disbelieve in religion ?


To answer this very question, a concise definition of religion must firstly be known and understood.


According to one dictionary, religion is a set of organized beliefs, practices, and systems that most often (not always) relate to the worship of a controlling force, such as a personal God or any supernatural entity.


There's absolutely no way in which we can talk about religion without talking about belief. In fact, the two ( religion and belief) can be used interchangeably and they cannot be divorced from each other. Even our belief in a Personal God who controls the affairs of the world constitute what is known as religion because there are some people who disbelieve or doubt the existence of such a Personal God (like atheists and agnostics).

Hence, religion is simply a world view adopted by a particular set of people. So there's no any matured and intelligent human being that is not an adherent of one religion or the other. Therefore, proclaiming that you love God but hate religion is nothing but sheer ignorance about the concept of God and religion on the part of the person who made such a baseless and superficial claim.


The fact that some people execute their evil acts under the pretext of religion doesn't make religion to be a bad entity. Both the Bible and the Qur'an made mention of religion in a positive way. For example, James, an apostle and a brother of Jesus Christ (pbuh) recorded to have said in the Bible as follows ;


Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this : to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27)

Similarly, in the Qur'an, God Almighty says as follows ;


"This day, those who disbelieved have given up all hope of your religion, so fear them not, but fear Me. This day, I have perfected your religion for you and I completed My Favour upon you, and I have chosen for you Islam as your religion (Qur'an 5:3)


See how both the Bible and the Qur'an made mention of religion in a positive manner !


If religion is only an evil idea invented by some people in the past without being endorsed by God, then why divine scriptures would made mention of the word "religion" in such a positive way ?
Or are we to believe that both Qur'an and the Bible are not truly inspired by God since the two scriptures made mention of the word religion in a positive manner ?


Have you now seen that it is completely illogical and radically incompatible to say that "I believe in God but I disbelieve in religion" or "I love God but I hate religion" ?


But if you want to go extreme by costly believe that neither Qur'an nor Bible is truly inspired by God simply because they made mention of religion, then your belief in a personal God would be seriously questioned. Do you know the reason why ? Please take your time and continue the reading.


If you disbelieve in both the Bible and Qur'an as the word of God, then you have to believe in a God who can allow a liar to impersonate Him and assume His identity. This is because both the Bible and the Qur'an contains many verses which appear to be coming directly from God's mouth. For example see the biblical and Qur'anic verses cited below ;


"I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself" (Isaiah 44:24).


"I made them not to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth, and not even their own creation ; and neither do I have any need to take as helpers those that lead people astray" (Qur'an 18:51)

God is unmistakenly declaring to us in these two verses that He was all alone during the creation of the Heavens and the Earth


Hence, anybody who denies these two verses as the word of God must compulsorily believe their author to be a great impersonator of God. In other words, if you reject these Biblical and Qur'anic verses as the word of God, then you have to assume that the person speaking to us here was a great deceiver who pretended to be God.
This is the first point that I want all reasonable people to admit. It is either you believe in these two verses found in the Bible and the Qur'an as the word of God or you believe in them as the word of a great impersonator that assumed the identity of God. There is no third alternative.


But if you as a truthful person can never allow a liar to impersonate you or assume your identity to deceive some innocent people, why do you think God Almighty, who is more truthful than you, would allow such a thing ?

Why would most truthful God allow a liar to speak in His name or assume His identity ?

Of course, if you would never allow such a thing, then God Almighty is in a better position than you to disallow such a thing.

There is no any instance in the history when God Almighty allow a liar to impersonate Him, or allow a liar to assume His identity or allow a liar to speak in His name for a long period of time.

In fact, through His dealing with Hananiah ( the false prophet who spoke in the name of God in the Bible ), God Almighty demonstrated to us that He would never allow such a thing to happen ;


"Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, ‘Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this what the Lord says: I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord. In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died (Jeremiah 28:15-17).


It's very clear that the sole reason why God allowed Hananiah, the false prophet, to meet his untimely death is because he spoke a lie in the name of God.


Hence, if God says in the Qur'an as follows ;

"this day, I have perfected your religion for you and I have completed My Favour upon you, and I have chosen for you Islam as your religion (Qur'an 5:3)

then you have to sincerely believe that God has really spoken to us since He would never allow a liar to speak in His name, impersonate Him or assume His identity as demonstrated by logical and scriptural evidence cited just above.

Therefore, if God has realIy spoken to us in Qur'an 5:3 cited above , then how can you logically say "I love God but I hate religion" ?

The concept of God and religion is intertwined and can never be separated from each other. Even if you deny the existence of God, you are still subscribing to one religion because in one way or the other you must believe in something that controlled the shaping and development of all the organs in your body from a single zygotic cell when you were in the womb of your mother. It is now left for you to decide whether this very something is intelligent God or an evolutionary process of chance.

Abdulgaffar22:
There are some people who claim to have an absolute belief in the existence of God but have a very great abhorrence for religion . The sole reason for this very aversion towards religion is the assertion that religion has allegedly caused more harm to humanity than good. But what these people has overlooked is the fact that there is nothing in this world that doesn't come with its merit and demerits. However, enumerating the pros and cons of religion is not what is intended to be addressed.
The question needed to be addressed is the possibility of accepting God while rejecting religion . In other words, is it even logically possible to believe in God and yet disbelieve in religion ?
To answer this very question, a concise definition of religion must firstly be known and understood. According to one dictionary, religion is a set of organized beliefs, practices, and systems that most often (not always) relate to the worship of a controlling force, such as a personal God or any supernatural entity.
There's absolutely no way in which we can talk about religion without talking about belief. In fact, the two ( religion and belief) can be used interchangeably and they cannot be divorced from each other. Even our belief in a Personal God who controls the affairs of the world constitute what is known as religion because there are some people who disbelieve or doubt the existence of such a Personal God (like atheists and agnostics).
Hence, religion is simply a world view adopted by a particular set of people. So there's no any matured and intelligent human being that is not an adherent of one religion or the other. Therefore, proclaiming that you love God but hate religion is nothing but sheer ignorance about the concept of God and religion on the part of the person who made such a baseless and superficial claim.

Abdulgaffar22:
?
To answer this very question, a concise definition of religion must firstly be known and understood.


According to one dictionary, religion is a set of organized beliefs practices,