faith. If you look up the word faith in the dictionary, it tells us that it comes from the Latin word "Fidere"--to trust; "believing in something without any proof"! Let us test ourselves.
If someone gives you a bottle, asks you take two sips a day, and says you will be saved and happy, both in this life, and in the hereafter, would you believe him? No, we do not. Yet, when it comes to religion, we close our eyes, and become completely blind !? and it does not matter where you live in this world, almost everyone follow their parents blindly! It is that simple! Most of us on one special day of the week go to a Church, Mosque or Temple and sit down and listen to someone's interpretations and conjectures without any basis. Then we return to our homes happy and think that we did our duty for our religious concerns! Some of us even pay to hear those conjectures! Have you asked yourselves why? But, do you remember when you purchased your computer, how many people you asked for information, like : How much hard drive did it have? How fast was it? How many stores did you check for prices? And so on. With the advent of science and technology today, how can we just sit down and accept someone else's feelings and thoughts as our own? Although some of us no longer follow our parents' example as far as careers, lifestyles, or even clothes, why is it that when it comes to religion, we follow our parents blindly without any questions?
Throughout the years, many people have been unable to question the authority of religion aloud. Those who dared to stand up for something that conflicted with what they had been taught were often persecuted, or even killed. We could not even question the religious leaders. Doing so is not permitted in many societies. Even today, you can not get the correct answers to many of your questions, because they themselves do not know the answers! But, these days when we question police officers, even the President, why not question our religious leaders?
At this time in history, people are realizing a freedom that those before us have never known. At a time when so many of us are free to follow our own paths, why do we continue to feel bound to the paths our parents chose as far as religion is concerns? In this day and age of science and technology, where we send shuttles to space, how can you tell your children about religion, GOD, messengers, and scriptures? What proofs do you have for them? Are you going to relay on faith again?!!...
Moreover, today we are blessed with the Internet. We are very blessed to be able to see what other people like us and unlike us, are doing. The Internet is also bringing freedom and knowledge to all countries around the world. And unlike people, it is very difficult to sensor it. We live in an era where everyone is looking for proof, so why not ask the religious leaders for their proofs?
Through the years, we have called many different religions. Today we call some of them Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and etc... Each and every one of these religions has divided into many different sects. Judaism has split into Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed, and these have split into other sects. Christianity has split from its Catholic roots into Lutheran and onto Protestantism, which has further divided into various denominations such as Methodists, Episcopalian, Baptists, Mormons, to name a few. Islam also has hundreds of different sects. In India there are more than 400 different religions! How many gods do we have? Now, if we invite one person from each of these religions, we would have a big party (with a lot of fights). Each will come proudly in their special individual outfits. Do you think that GOD's people have to wear a uniform or custom? Now if you ask them;
"How do you pray to GOD?,"
"What is the age of responsibility, and maturity for a person in your group?"
Each group will give you a different answer. Then you begin to wonder if these religions actually did come from only One GOD! or did they come from different gods, or simply we made them up?
Each and every one of these religions think that they are the one, and they are absolutely correct and they are the ones who have the truth!
Do you think GOD created different religions in order for us to fight with each other and kill each other because of that? If your answer is "yes", then we must have an unjust god!?...
Of the major scriptures in the world, we have three widely influential documents: the Torah or Old Testament, the Bible, or New Testament, and the Quran (Koran) the final testament. Through the years, these books were copied repeatedly, at first by hand, until they have finally come into our hands, and each one of them has different rules and regulations. If we find out which one of these scriptures are absolutely from GOD our Creator, then we can find out the true religion of GOD.
Now among these books we found out about the Torah or Old Testament of the Jews written about 6000 years ago, then translated into Greek and then further translated from Greek by Catholic monks into Latin. The verses were interpreted by the monks and rewritten. Over the course of centuries, the verses were again reinterpreted and rewritten, and then translated into German and finally into English and other languages.
You have probably heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These are scrolls of ancient scripture, Torah, found in caves around Lebanon. Despite about twenty years of work that went into deciphering them, much of what was found has been concealed. The revelations were feared as they revealed the practices of the Scriptural religions to be severely altered from their original intent.
The New Testament of the Bible is supposed to be the Gospel of Jesus. There are many books of the Bible or works that were rejected by the early Christian leaders. Of the books that were accepted, many have been edited and rewritten over the centuries for unknown reasons that we can only guess at. So there is no proof of the authenticity of these books.
Then there is the Quran. This book was supposedly revealed through Mohammed about 1400 years ago. He wrote the Quran with his own hand as it was revealed to him during a 23-year period. Then after his departure, the Quran was copied by hand until it got to us. How do we know if the Quran has not been altered? Although we have few different Qurans published around the world with different spellings.
Does the Quran contain any proof of its authenticity?