In the 21st. century, we do we need Religion?

In this talk, brother Nouman Ali Khan starts answering this question with a background on the history of religion, with focus on God, the Afterlife and the soul.

In post-modern society, there is a shift of focus from God to studying the universe and the material sciences.

That shift which started with the French Revolution is so powerful, that if you decide to study something that is immaterial, like history for example, parents tell their sons or daughters to study to get a real job instead.

The second shift was instead of focusing on the next life, lets focus on this life, to make this world a better world, so forget about Heaven and Hell.

The third shift was related to the soul. Who needs the soul? they argue. Lets study medicine and the human body, and lets replace spirituality with psychology.

So a world which used to emphasize the spiritual truth (God, the Afterlife and the soul), now it focuses on the universe instead of God, this life instead of the next and the human body rather than the soul.

In the pre-modern society which was based on faith, you had a set of values revealed by Allah, and therefore they were not subject to change because they are timeless.

If you live by these values, you will make God happy, then you will live your Afterlife and you will be able to keep your soul pure.

But when the emphasis shifted, there was no longer a need for God’s Law, because the things you will get as a result of following His advise are no longer emphasized.

So morality itself became relative.

What is good to you, if it feels good do it, and if it does not feel good don’t do it.

Is the moral compass of the world constantly shifting?

What was wrong 30 years ago is OK now.

What is wrong today might be OK in 5 years.

The conversation about marijuana went super-fast.

And so many other social issues changed very fast…

Don’t miss this excellent 20 minute thought-provoking talk by Nouman Ali Khan on why we need religion.