In plain words, the basic beliefs of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are as follows:
- God is just, kind, perfect - This life is our first and last life - God is testing us here - Based on the marks we obtain in this test, we will go to either Heaven or Hell.
The differences between the three Abrahamic cults lie only in - the testing criteria and the descriptions of Heaven and Hell - the level of blind faith required for passing this Test.
But the basic premise remains exactly the same - One Life which is first and final Test, God is best examiner, and Result is Pass (Heaven) or Fail (Hell) .
Let us evaluate this basic construct critically through a series of illustrations, and decide whether it is logically plausible.
1. Many children die in the wombs. Now where would they go as per this theory of Heaven or Hell? Most religious scholars say they go to Heaven because they never did anything wrong in their lives.
But the question is "Did they even have an option to do anything wrong?"
Is God not being partial by clearing one candidate even without starting his examination, and another one has to keep giving test after test continuously for 100 years!
2. Many children die young before they reach maturity. Even the wrong acts they do are not out of willful desire to do something wrong but out of innocence. Would they reach Heaven or Hell?
If they reach Heaven, then why does God not kill everyone in their childhood and ensure a seat in Heaven for them? Is God not being unjust and imperfect?
And if they are destined for Hell, what was their fault?
Let us say twins were born on earth. Both lived same innocent life for first 3 years. Then one died in an accident. He would go straight to Heaven as per religious scholars. The other remained innocent for next few years, then got distracted, became an Apostate/Kafir and died at age of 60. Now he should go to Hell, as per the Books.
Is this not God's crime that he made him live for 60 years and not his brother? Had he killed both at same age of 3 years, both would have gone to Heaven!
So one life and permanent Heaven/Hell thereafter proves God is unjust.
3. A person is born mentally disabled due to a birth defect. His mental faculties do not develop beyond age of five. But he lives a long life. Will he go to Hell or Heaven?
Again the same questions as above rise. And result in either God being unjust or concept of one life as test to enter Heaven/Hell being wrong.
4. One person is born in Hindu family, another in an atheist society like China, one as a Muslim and another as a Christian. Based on what they imbibe from their respective societies, they become a devout Hindu, Atheist, Muslim and Christian respectively.
But as per Islam, only those who believe in Quran and Muhammad unconditionally alone can go to Heaven. As per Christians, only those who surrender to Jesus totally without doubts alone can go to Heaven.
So who will go where?
Definitely the Hindu and Atheist are bound to go to Hell. Now my question is "Was God not unjust by not giving everyone birth in family of Muslim or Christian, whosoever is correct?"
What is my fault if I was born and brought up in a Hindu family and never got any reason to be convinced by Quran or Bible? Why has God planned my stay in Hell from advance?
5. A devout follower of Islam believes that children go to Heaven if they die. So as a charitable mission, he starts killing children. His logic is that, even if he has to burn in Hell forever, he should kill innocent children so that they get confirmed reservation for Paradise!
Thus he is doing a selfless philanthropic service. Will he go to Heaven or Hell?
If he goes to Heaven, then Allah or God is setting a wrong example for people to follow.
If he goes to Hell, then selflessness is bad.
Further, since no one will actually know who will go where until doomsday comes, it means God has already spread enough confusion to motivate many innocent selfless social workers to follow the path of infanticide and killing!
6. An unbiased testing environment will demand that - first the subject be taught to everyone with same facilities, - then they should be evaluated under same testing environment.
Accordingly, God should have first imbibed Quran or Bible, whichever is true, in hearts of all people, then given them birth in same types of family, allowed them to grow up in same place and in same conditions, and only then should have conducted the test.
But in this world, we find the testing environment to be as diverse as one can possibly imagine. And yet God is claimed to be perfect, just and kind!
Most religious scholars answer this paradox by saying that God or Allah knows how to decide the fate by whatever acts people have done in their respective lives based on whatever environment they had to live in. This seems to be like God having something like the Duckworth-Lewis formula which is used to decide winner of an interrupted cricket match.
Now this raises few doubts:
One, if indeed God is perfect and He has such a great scoring formula, why did he create the entire drama and wasted so many years? He should have used the formula in the very beginning and directly sent everyone to either Heaven or Hell!
Two, If the formula works on a stillborn child or a fetus, why did he unnecessarily bias against certain folks and had them face troubles of long lives? After all He had created everyone equal to start with!
Three, The test seems to have discrete results. As per Quran, all Heaven-goers would get 72 virgins each. There seems to be no concept of variation of results as per deeds. Some books do talk of several varieties of Heaven, but these merely increase a binary solution to a finite number solution (Instead of one Heaven and one Hell, there are now say 10 Heavens and 10 Hells). But still there is no continuous gradation. It is like a continuous function equation is giving a non-zero discrete answer, which is mathematically improbable.
7. People seem to be retaining their youthful bodies in Heaven. Now will they be able to change their looks if they want to? What about children and fetus who go to Heaven? Will they go as adults? Will they receive a training in Hebrew or Arabic which is supposed to be the language of Heaven? If indeed so, why did God not make only one single language in earth also?
8. What about animals - reptiles, insects, mammals and other creatures? Will they go to Heaven or Hell? The earlier belief was that animals do not have souls. But now that it has been amply proved that at least the higher animals feel pain and pleasure like humans, the opinion is divided.
Some claim that they will also go to Heaven. Others say that Allah knows the best!
In case they go to Heaven, why did God or Allah bias against others and not gave them birth as cockroaches and goats? That way they too would have got straight passport to Heaven!
In case they go to Hell, what was their fault?
Also, will they live like cockroaches and goats, or will they get human body? Will their intelligence be enhanced? Or they remain equally dumb as in earth?
9. Heaven and Hell seem to be permanent. It will continue forever, as per these religions. Now if that be so, God's injustice becomes even more prominent in light of above points.
Based on one single test, God put certain people directly in Heaven without testing them at all! Others he tested for so many years. Some he gave birth in homes of Apostates, some as children of Prophet himself.
Is this not gravest cheating?
God is the most unjust and biggest cheater of these stories of there being one single exam and Heaven/Hell forever be true.
A corollary: What would happen if people start fighting or cheating or adultery in Heaven? Will they be shifted to Hell? Or will they be permitted to do whatever they want and yet remain in Heaven?
The Holy Books seem to be silent on this!
10. Recently there was news that a 2 month old baby was raped.
Now who is being tested? The victim or the rapist?
If its test of victim, is it in a position to respond?
If its test of the rapist, why the hell did God make the poor little baby as a scapegoat?
God seems nothing more than a crazy, stupid, psychopathic dictator if these stories be true.
11. Almost all books of Eastern philosophies refute the concept of one birth. They believe in life being a continuous cycle not interrupted by death. Its broadly termed the Theory of Karma.
Now if this were not true, why did God act like a Kafir/ Apostate and confuse minds of people who were born in Eastern part of the globe, from very childhood.
As per Bible and Quran, God has done great miracles in past including burning entire towns and villages, and giving birth to prophets like Jesus without need of a human father. If He can do so much, why did he not burn these books of East forever? After all He himself laid the criteria that those who refuse to believe in Jesus or Muhammad will go to Hell! Ideally he should have stopped the creation of these books in the first place!
12. In Muslim texts, Muhammad has foretold that he sees Heaven full of men and Hell full of women. This means that there is already reservations made on basis of gender. Is this not match-fixing by the whimsical dictator named God or Allah?(Refer KITAB AL-RIQAQ, Chapter 1, Sahih Bukhari Book 36, Number 6596, Book 36, Number 6597, Book 36, Number 6600)
13. Also, as per Islam, each male will get 4 faithful wives in Heaven. But if Heaven if full of only men, as per previous claim of Muhammad, does it not mean that Heaven would be a homosexual paradise? Because with majority being males, it is mathematically impossible for everyone to get 4 female wives each. And if homosexuality is the only way in Paradise, why condemn it on earth? Perhaps the only women who go to Paradise may be the lesbians (because straight women cannot enjoy 72 virgins that would be allotted to them!)
14. What about terrorists who were brainwashed from very childhood to do Jehad? Will people like Kasab who killed many in Mumbai attack go to Heaven or Hell? They were simply brainwashed by fanatics to take up arms to seek Allah!
15. If indeed there is only life, why did God create so much of confusion about His original message.
The original Bible is simply not available. Quran was compiled after death of Prophet. And those who compiled were fighting each other to death. How can only rely on such blood-thirsty people to have had the capability to reproduce the original message of God? Further certain verses seem to have been added in Quran out of Satanic influences on Prophet.
If Allah or God is so just, and is giving only one life to compete, why did he create such confusions which no human being can decipher. And then he lays the criteria that unless you are out of this confusion, you will burn in Hell! Not satisfied with this, he further went to condemn certain people to remain away forever from his message!
16. Both Islam and Christianity believe that God forgives the sins of one who agrees to accept the respective religion! This means that regardless of whatever you have done, if finally you say sorry, you will go scot-free in Heaven! And if you have been a devout believer but at last moment you say, "I refuse to believe", he will give you ticket to Hell.
This raises further doubts:
One, Does it not render the entire life and all its multi-dimensionality and complexity wasteful? The entire life, its efforts, its studies all go for a toss, and what remains is a final yes or no. Is this not against nature?
We all know anger is bad. But still we succumb to anger at times, due to limits of our understanding and our neural programming.
So if someone has been a believer throughout but out of confusion, in last few days of his life, became an apostate, why should he be punished so severely?
And another one, who was apostate forever, why should he be rewarded Heaven despite all the nonsense he thought and did for decades?
No decision is without confusion. The only way to take a right decision without confusion is to know everything and be able to analyze everything. This is impossible for any human. Thus no decision of human can be considered reliable and final.
Thus regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with Quran/ Bible, the decision is full of confusion and based on extremely limited knowledge.
Is God not crazy then to curse one to Hell and another one to Heaven forever, based on a momentary decision which was taken out of ignorance?
Is God not stupid to have designed such a faulty testing mechanism that relies on ignorance of people which will decide the fate of all souls forever?
Two, Does it not provide an inbuilt motivation mechanism in the system to keep doing all sorts of nonsense throughout the life and say sorry at the end?
We thus, see many becoming saint-like as old age comes to say sorry and go to Heaven. More careful ones do the nonsense, and then confess the same, and go scot-free!
Three, Why does nature work opposite to God's method then? Was nature designed by God when he was imperfect, or what is a joint-venture with Satan?
Because in nature, if you commit a mistake, you cannot go scot-free without paying the price.
If you eat lots of sugars and get diabetic, you do not get cured by saying Sorry! You need to undergo the entire treatment process and even then perfect cure is not guaranteed. We do not get strong by saying, Sorry! We do not get back our teeth by saying, Sorry! We do not become scholars by saying, Sorry! We do not master skills by saying, Sorry!
On contrary, in nature, everything happens in a continuous process as per definite laws. There is simply no escape from it. Why does God suddenly become so dismally and so confusingly discrete then! God must be crazy!
17. If God is just and kind, why does He demand belief in things we can neither see, hear, analyze or feel, for booking our permanent future?
Neither we see God, nor see Him doing the kind of miracles we read in Bible or Quran, nor we witness any Prophets or messengers around, nor we have ever seen any Holy Spirit or Angel, nor we ever see any virgin giving birth to any baby, nor we have seen even trailer of Heaven/ Hell, nor we ever saw the Garden of Eden, nor did we discover the seven/ four skies etc etc.
Yet belief in each of these is necessary to book a seat in Heaven!
And if we do not, we are doomed to Hell forever!
On top of it, God gave us the intelligence to be able to test what is fraud and what is right. In this world, we respect those people more who have more of this intelligence.
But in God's kingdom, this intelligence is the greatest cause of sin.
Only the blinds will enter the Heaven. Rest shall burn in Hell!
The God's world is indeed very confusing.
God must be crazy!
(For a critical evaluation of these beliefs, please review Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 of Satyarth Prakash (Light of Truth)
- God is just, kind, perfect - This life is our first and last life - God is testing us here - Based on the marks we obtain in this test, we will go to either Heaven or Hell.
The differences between the three Abrahamic cults lie only in - the testing criteria and the descriptions of Heaven and Hell - the level of blind faith required for passing this Test.
But the basic premise remains exactly the same - One Life which is first and final Test, God is best examiner, and Result is Pass (Heaven) or Fail (Hell) .
Let us evaluate this basic construct critically through a series of illustrations, and decide whether it is logically plausible.
1. Many children die in the wombs. Now where would they go as per this theory of Heaven or Hell? Most religious scholars say they go to Heaven because they never did anything wrong in their lives.
But the question is "Did they even have an option to do anything wrong?"
Is God not being partial by clearing one candidate even without starting his examination, and another one has to keep giving test after test continuously for 100 years!
2. Many children die young before they reach maturity. Even the wrong acts they do are not out of willful desire to do something wrong but out of innocence. Would they reach Heaven or Hell?
If they reach Heaven, then why does God not kill everyone in their childhood and ensure a seat in Heaven for them? Is God not being unjust and imperfect?
And if they are destined for Hell, what was their fault?
Let us say twins were born on earth. Both lived same innocent life for first 3 years. Then one died in an accident. He would go straight to Heaven as per religious scholars. The other remained innocent for next few years, then got distracted, became an Apostate/Kafir and died at age of 60. Now he should go to Hell, as per the Books.
Is this not God's crime that he made him live for 60 years and not his brother? Had he killed both at same age of 3 years, both would have gone to Heaven!
So one life and permanent Heaven/Hell thereafter proves God is unjust.
3. A person is born mentally disabled due to a birth defect. His mental faculties do not develop beyond age of five. But he lives a long life. Will he go to Hell or Heaven?
Again the same questions as above rise. And result in either God being unjust or concept of one life as test to enter Heaven/Hell being wrong.
4. One person is born in Hindu family, another in an atheist society like China, one as a Muslim and another as a Christian. Based on what they imbibe from their respective societies, they become a devout Hindu, Atheist, Muslim and Christian respectively.
But as per Islam, only those who believe in Quran and Muhammad unconditionally alone can go to Heaven. As per Christians, only those who surrender to Jesus totally without doubts alone can go to Heaven.
So who will go where?
Definitely the Hindu and Atheist are bound to go to Hell. Now my question is "Was God not unjust by not giving everyone birth in family of Muslim or Christian, whosoever is correct?"
What is my fault if I was born and brought up in a Hindu family and never got any reason to be convinced by Quran or Bible? Why has God planned my stay in Hell from advance?
5. A devout follower of Islam believes that children go to Heaven if they die. So as a charitable mission, he starts killing children. His logic is that, even if he has to burn in Hell forever, he should kill innocent children so that they get confirmed reservation for Paradise!
Thus he is doing a selfless philanthropic service. Will he go to Heaven or Hell?
If he goes to Heaven, then Allah or God is setting a wrong example for people to follow.
If he goes to Hell, then selflessness is bad.
Further, since no one will actually know who will go where until doomsday comes, it means God has already spread enough confusion to motivate many innocent selfless social workers to follow the path of infanticide and killing!
6. An unbiased testing environment will demand that - first the subject be taught to everyone with same facilities, - then they should be evaluated under same testing environment.
Accordingly, God should have first imbibed Quran or Bible, whichever is true, in hearts of all people, then given them birth in same types of family, allowed them to grow up in same place and in same conditions, and only then should have conducted the test.
But in this world, we find the testing environment to be as diverse as one can possibly imagine. And yet God is claimed to be perfect, just and kind!
Most religious scholars answer this paradox by saying that God or Allah knows how to decide the fate by whatever acts people have done in their respective lives based on whatever environment they had to live in. This seems to be like God having something like the Duckworth-Lewis formula which is used to decide winner of an interrupted cricket match.
Now this raises few doubts:
One, if indeed God is perfect and He has such a great scoring formula, why did he create the entire drama and wasted so many years? He should have used the formula in the very beginning and directly sent everyone to either Heaven or Hell!
Two, If the formula works on a stillborn child or a fetus, why did he unnecessarily bias against certain folks and had them face troubles of long lives? After all He had created everyone equal to start with!
Three, The test seems to have discrete results. As per Quran, all Heaven-goers would get 72 virgins each. There seems to be no concept of variation of results as per deeds. Some books do talk of several varieties of Heaven, but these merely increase a binary solution to a finite number solution (Instead of one Heaven and one Hell, there are now say 10 Heavens and 10 Hells). But still there is no continuous gradation. It is like a continuous function equation is giving a non-zero discrete answer, which is mathematically improbable.
7. People seem to be retaining their youthful bodies in Heaven. Now will they be able to change their looks if they want to? What about children and fetus who go to Heaven? Will they go as adults? Will they receive a training in Hebrew or Arabic which is supposed to be the language of Heaven? If indeed so, why did God not make only one single language in earth also?
8. What about animals - reptiles, insects, mammals and other creatures? Will they go to Heaven or Hell? The earlier belief was that animals do not have souls. But now that it has been amply proved that at least the higher animals feel pain and pleasure like humans, the opinion is divided.
Some claim that they will also go to Heaven. Others say that Allah knows the best!
In case they go to Heaven, why did God or Allah bias against others and not gave them birth as cockroaches and goats? That way they too would have got straight passport to Heaven!
In case they go to Hell, what was their fault?
Also, will they live like cockroaches and goats, or will they get human body? Will their intelligence be enhanced? Or they remain equally dumb as in earth?
9. Heaven and Hell seem to be permanent. It will continue forever, as per these religions. Now if that be so, God's injustice becomes even more prominent in light of above points.
Based on one single test, God put certain people directly in Heaven without testing them at all! Others he tested for so many years. Some he gave birth in homes of Apostates, some as children of Prophet himself.
Is this not gravest cheating?
God is the most unjust and biggest cheater of these stories of there being one single exam and Heaven/Hell forever be true.
A corollary: What would happen if people start fighting or cheating or adultery in Heaven? Will they be shifted to Hell? Or will they be permitted to do whatever they want and yet remain in Heaven?
The Holy Books seem to be silent on this!
10. Recently there was news that a 2 month old baby was raped.
Now who is being tested? The victim or the rapist?
If its test of victim, is it in a position to respond?
If its test of the rapist, why the hell did God make the poor little baby as a scapegoat?
God seems nothing more than a crazy, stupid, psychopathic dictator if these stories be true.
11. Almost all books of Eastern philosophies refute the concept of one birth. They believe in life being a continuous cycle not interrupted by death. Its broadly termed the Theory of Karma.
Now if this were not true, why did God act like a Kafir/ Apostate and confuse minds of people who were born in Eastern part of the globe, from very childhood.
As per Bible and Quran, God has done great miracles in past including burning entire towns and villages, and giving birth to prophets like Jesus without need of a human father. If He can do so much, why did he not burn these books of East forever? After all He himself laid the criteria that those who refuse to believe in Jesus or Muhammad will go to Hell! Ideally he should have stopped the creation of these books in the first place!
12. In Muslim texts, Muhammad has foretold that he sees Heaven full of men and Hell full of women. This means that there is already reservations made on basis of gender. Is this not match-fixing by the whimsical dictator named God or Allah?(Refer KITAB AL-RIQAQ, Chapter 1, Sahih Bukhari Book 36, Number 6596, Book 36, Number 6597, Book 36, Number 6600)
13. Also, as per Islam, each male will get 4 faithful wives in Heaven. But if Heaven if full of only men, as per previous claim of Muhammad, does it not mean that Heaven would be a homosexual paradise? Because with majority being males, it is mathematically impossible for everyone to get 4 female wives each. And if homosexuality is the only way in Paradise, why condemn it on earth? Perhaps the only women who go to Paradise may be the lesbians (because straight women cannot enjoy 72 virgins that would be allotted to them!)
14. What about terrorists who were brainwashed from very childhood to do Jehad? Will people like Kasab who killed many in Mumbai attack go to Heaven or Hell? They were simply brainwashed by fanatics to take up arms to seek Allah!
15. If indeed there is only life, why did God create so much of confusion about His original message.
The original Bible is simply not available. Quran was compiled after death of Prophet. And those who compiled were fighting each other to death. How can only rely on such blood-thirsty people to have had the capability to reproduce the original message of God? Further certain verses seem to have been added in Quran out of Satanic influences on Prophet.
If Allah or God is so just, and is giving only one life to compete, why did he create such confusions which no human being can decipher. And then he lays the criteria that unless you are out of this confusion, you will burn in Hell! Not satisfied with this, he further went to condemn certain people to remain away forever from his message!
16. Both Islam and Christianity believe that God forgives the sins of one who agrees to accept the respective religion! This means that regardless of whatever you have done, if finally you say sorry, you will go scot-free in Heaven! And if you have been a devout believer but at last moment you say, "I refuse to believe", he will give you ticket to Hell.
This raises further doubts:
One, Does it not render the entire life and all its multi-dimensionality and complexity wasteful? The entire life, its efforts, its studies all go for a toss, and what remains is a final yes or no. Is this not against nature?
We all know anger is bad. But still we succumb to anger at times, due to limits of our understanding and our neural programming.
So if someone has been a believer throughout but out of confusion, in last few days of his life, became an apostate, why should he be punished so severely?
And another one, who was apostate forever, why should he be rewarded Heaven despite all the nonsense he thought and did for decades?
No decision is without confusion. The only way to take a right decision without confusion is to know everything and be able to analyze everything. This is impossible for any human. Thus no decision of human can be considered reliable and final.
Thus regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with Quran/ Bible, the decision is full of confusion and based on extremely limited knowledge.
Is God not crazy then to curse one to Hell and another one to Heaven forever, based on a momentary decision which was taken out of ignorance?
Is God not stupid to have designed such a faulty testing mechanism that relies on ignorance of people which will decide the fate of all souls forever?
Two, Does it not provide an inbuilt motivation mechanism in the system to keep doing all sorts of nonsense throughout the life and say sorry at the end?
We thus, see many becoming saint-like as old age comes to say sorry and go to Heaven. More careful ones do the nonsense, and then confess the same, and go scot-free!
Three, Why does nature work opposite to God's method then? Was nature designed by God when he was imperfect, or what is a joint-venture with Satan?
Because in nature, if you commit a mistake, you cannot go scot-free without paying the price.
If you eat lots of sugars and get diabetic, you do not get cured by saying Sorry! You need to undergo the entire treatment process and even then perfect cure is not guaranteed. We do not get strong by saying, Sorry! We do not get back our teeth by saying, Sorry! We do not become scholars by saying, Sorry! We do not master skills by saying, Sorry!
On contrary, in nature, everything happens in a continuous process as per definite laws. There is simply no escape from it. Why does God suddenly become so dismally and so confusingly discrete then! God must be crazy!
17. If God is just and kind, why does He demand belief in things we can neither see, hear, analyze or feel, for booking our permanent future?
Neither we see God, nor see Him doing the kind of miracles we read in Bible or Quran, nor we witness any Prophets or messengers around, nor we have ever seen any Holy Spirit or Angel, nor we ever see any virgin giving birth to any baby, nor we have seen even trailer of Heaven/ Hell, nor we ever saw the Garden of Eden, nor did we discover the seven/ four skies etc etc.
Yet belief in each of these is necessary to book a seat in Heaven!
And if we do not, we are doomed to Hell forever!
On top of it, God gave us the intelligence to be able to test what is fraud and what is right. In this world, we respect those people more who have more of this intelligence.
But in God's kingdom, this intelligence is the greatest cause of sin.
Only the blinds will enter the Heaven. Rest shall burn in Hell!
The God's world is indeed very confusing.
God must be crazy!
(For a critical evaluation of these beliefs, please review Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 of Satyarth Prakash (Light of Truth)
