The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

What does Allah (God) gain of the hunger of people in Ramadan?

What are the benefits that alleged Allah (God) gains in Ramadan of getting hunger of millions and millions of people (his slaves according to him) especially children, and aged people? Scientifically approved that preventing children from food for a long periods will cause tragic consequences against their health and psyches. Doesn’t he know that?? Is that sense?? Is that reasonable?? Is there a God likes his slaves “according to him” to get hungry and be harmed?? Is that a God or a devil?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on August 27, 2010 at 11:26am

I have never really understood the whole starving yourself for god thing so many religions favor. It's a very bad idea for some people to do without food even for a single meal - for example, diabetics. I know a number of people who are alarmingly thin because they starve themselves. They believe starving makes them better (read more virtuous) than other people which I think is just stupid.

Personally, I think it is just stone aged stupidity held over. I'm sure at some point when there wasn't enough food to go around, some priest came up with the dumb idea this was some message from god that would allow him or her to eat plenty while the rest went without.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on September 2, 2010 at 6:40am

Oh, but it is far more clever than that.

What you do by starving (and usually also dehydrating) yourself is basically numbing your senses, reducing your mental capacity, and making yourself much more prone to hallucinations, visions and 'experiences' of various kinds.

So it's easy enough to see why virtually all regions think starving yourself brings you closer to God. It does. By weakening your body and your mind you're likely to see all kinds of crazy stuff. That's how you get things like the miracle at Fatima: (i) get yourself a bunch of gullible pilgrims (ii) have them weaken themselves by fasting and (iii) stare into the friggin' sun! They'll see all kinds of stuff.

It's probably much as you say: fasting is an ancient ritual, but I think it originated when people realised that fasting somehow made you more keen to see the Gods, thus: the Gods must like fasting. They don't seem to have made the connection that this might have more to do with their own mental weakness than the God's existence...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Keith Brian Johnson on August 27, 2010 at 11:37am

My sister and brother-in-law, who are Moslem, tell me that the purpose of the fast is to give one a sense of what it's like for impoverished people who do not have adequate food and drink and who have to live with hunger every day, thereby encouraging empathy for them and encouraging one to give generously to the poor (which Moslems are supposed to do anyway). My twelve-year-old nephew is only this year starting to fast, and only every other day; my fifteen-year-old nephew, who has summer football practice, isn't required to forego liquids on those days. Exceptions are built in for pregnant women, for children, for people who work at physical labor, for the sick, and so on. Two meals are eaten during Ramadan, one before sunrise and the other after sunset (which means an early breakfast and a late dinner).

Whether this is the real reason or a rationalization, I don't know. But my sister is very well-read on the history of Islam, so my inclination is to suppose her to know what she's talking about, especially since my brother-in-law, who is originally from Pakistan, says the same thing.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by muhab samer on August 27, 2010 at 12:32pm

But allah promises severe tourture in Hell for those who don't fast. Why? what does he gain of their fasting?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pat on August 27, 2010 at 1:46pm

"What does he gain for their fasting?" Allah gets the same benefits that Yahweh gets when he has Jews fast for 25 hours on Yom Kippur, and the same benefits Jesus gets when he has Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! However, the imams, rabbis, and priests get lots of benefits by being able to control their followers. I've always felt that if you can convince a person to suppress normal biological urges (eating what you want and having sex with whom you want, and all when you want it) in the name of an invisible sky god, convincing that same person to give away his hard earned income, and follow whatever other nonsense the religious leaders hand out is a down hill slide.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Rogers on August 27, 2010 at 1:52pm

I've said before:

Fools without charlatans are still fools.
Charlatans without fools are nothing.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Nicole on September 1, 2010 at 11:04pm

Congratulations, you've discovered some of the key characteristics of brainwashing.

Add in determining who you can interact with and when you can sleep, and you can recreate Stockholm Syndrome in anyone. =D

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Rogers on August 27, 2010 at 12:53pm

Seeing that something that doesn't exist can gain from anything, Ramadan was started by a megalomaniac named Mohamed and his followers for the sole purpose of control over an ancient (relatively) ignorant and superstitious populace. The only thing different today is it's not ancient times anymore.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nic on August 28, 2010 at 8:30pm

In the words of the late, great, George Carlin: "If this is the best god can do, I am not impressed. War, Disease, Poverty, and Natural Disasters! This is the work of an office temp with a bad attitude! If this was a decent run universe, he would have been out on his all powerful ass a LONG time ago!"

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on September 2, 2010 at 6:18am

Indeed. The correct way to phrase the question is: what does Joe Pesci have to gain from the ramadan?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by EdwardNortonFan on October 4, 2010 at 12:09pm

George Carlin, what a genius! So intelligent.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angela Jean on August 30, 2010 at 1:21pm

I don't think in and of itself "fasting" is necessarily "bad." I think that if done for the right reasons and if it is not forced and health concerns are kept in mind, it can be an eye opening thing...not in a religious sense, but in the sense that it is not a bad thing to experience at least on a smaller scale what so many people in the world experience on a daily basis. BUT it should not be forced upon someone with the threat of hell if they choose not to. I have seen college students spend a weekend sleeping in cardboard boxes on a cold winter's night to raise awareness about homelessness. As a teacher, I know that children and adults all learn best when they experience things instead of just being told about it. Some people are able to imagine things without experiencing them and still have enough understanding to have empathy, but others have to actually experience or feel something to "get it." So if you divorce "fasting" from religion and use it short term as a tool to at least get the idea of what so many go through in this world, I think it could be a good thing, but used as a religious tool to control others would definitely not be a good thing. Like so many things, I think it is in and of itself a neutral act, it is the reason one does it that makes it good or bad.