Pre-Lesson Mudhakara Sunday 24-May-09

Just before Sheikh arrived, a few of us brothers roughly went over questions and comments we had regarding the Five Points of Belief.

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A comment was made on a statement I made, that to be a sincere atheist, you have to believe nothing has any real value or meaning, as atheism means a believe in no God, a believe that we came out of nothing and we shall go back into non-existence.

Obviously the atheists believe in value and meaning, however they can only have value and meaning according to their own selves; i.e. relative value and relative meaning; or apparent value and apparent meaning. They can see that they are alive and can attribute meaning and value as they wish. Whatever value or meaning that they attribute can only be based upon their own selves.

When people meet, there is no trust and thus only exploitation of each other. This is Game Theory as shown in Adam Curtis' "The Trap".
[view here >>> http://www.rewtube.com/the-trap-episode-1/ ]

Atheists will ask why does there have to be reason for all things?
How does one answer this? Yes mathematically, reasons, cause and effect must be! Except for something like God, which is defined as something in Islam as being completely independent of all things and all things are dependent upon God.

Mad Max movies show future if human nature truly is as Freud and John Nash believed it to be.

Discussion arose of an experiment on a group of friends, who are split into two groups, prisoners and guards, then observed. What occurred has been called "The Lucifer Effect"
[View Philip Zimbardo's talk on Lucifer Effect ->>> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html]

Further reading...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

Relating to 3rd Point, the captain of our ship is our Sheikh, so trust in Sheikh, when he says trust in the ship that Allah has created for you, but observe the rules whilst on-board the ship.