In terms of an overview I think wikipedia can do a better job than I can.

For me religion was rules and restrictions, and just something I had to do when I was a kid/teenager. I mean there were times when I enjoyed religion but as I grew up I sort of stopped believing that there was a god and so I had no reason to keep being religious.

I do respect certain aspects, like fasting and giving to the poor. But I think Islam has been abused too much by cultural influences, such as the treatment of women/homophobia etc...

If I did believe in god there, I think I would practice my own version of Islam. But really the faith isn't there.

and yeah, it's pretty factured. I grew up Shia (about 10% of muslims) and it sucks for my relatives who live in areas predominately Sunni.

You gave it up bc the Members Afternoon coincides with call to prayer.

yeah fuck that

Going back lack 100 posts. If anything the big bang theory supports the existence of a supernatural force. Otherwise all of existence is already predetermined by the laws of particle physics. Ie when all of matter exploded out from this infinatly small space, every particle had a velocity and amount of energy. This would mean that there would be only one possible outcome for every single particle. (I know some of you might be smart or educated enough to bring up the randomness of decay, and how that would lend itself to an infinite amount of possible outcomes. However A lot of physicists agree that decay is not random, that we just don't know what causes it it to occur or not occur.) This would in turn make the notion of conscious thought absurd and blah blah blah i need to go to class. Ill post later and be more thourough. This will give you something to think about though.

That's some massive leaps:

a) There's nothing incompatible with conscious thought and predestinatined universe

b) Assuming there was an issue, it still wouldn't point to a supernatural force

c) What's this decay you speak of? Are you referring to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle that says the speed and position of atomic particles isn't predictable?

C). I am referring to the natural decay of unstable particles. (radioactive decay)

conscious thought implies free will. Free will would mean the lack of predestination.

B). If something cannot not be explained by physics (both what we already know and what we don't know yet), then there must be some force that extends beyond those natural laws (ie some sort of supernatural).

also the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that one cannot simultaneously measure both the velocity and position of a particle, because to measure one requires the manipulation of the other. So everything would still be predetermined because every particle would have at
time=t(0+n) an exact position and velocity

Who or what created God? (since we are having the chicken/egg convo)