# The is no god but God. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 27, 2011, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790 "2011-02-27T10:20:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/21 "2011-02-28T04:21:08Z")
So is your question “if people believe in a benevolent god, then why does shitty stuff happen?” I think you will find two major answers. 1. God works in mysterious ways. What seems shitty from your limited perspective may ultimately be good in ways you can’t comprehend. 2. Death isn’t necessarily that bad. You’lll miss your loved one, but presumably they are in paradise. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/23 "2011-02-28T04:31:09Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Not true. Shinto is \*intimately \*concerned with day-to-day well-being, especially as relates to spiritual purity. Yeah, but you fix your purity by washing your body, not by behaving well. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/25 "2011-02-28T04:55:03Z")
> [@Allah](#): > > Go say 3 hail Mary’s Good point. I may well have been wrong. ---
**Author:** ![beartato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@beartato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beartato)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/26 "2011-02-28T05:36:10Z")
> [@Sablicious](#): > > Getting caught up in the ‘Muhummah Vs _[insert any derivative fictitious prophet/martyr/evangelist]_’ argument, I see… :rolleyes: You’re more or less saying this is a Muslim thing. So we’re showing you it’s not. It’s a religion thing. > [@](#): > > Does this not seem a tad incongruous to you for a people who pride their particular delusion of choice on being superior to all other? Again, that’s common to religion. “I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me”. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/27 "2011-02-28T11:47:57Z")
Even better, when a Jewish person hears of someone’s death we traditionally say “Blessed are you God, who is the true judge” (or the judge of truth), which I’ve always found particularly problematic. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/28 "2011-02-28T12:11:32Z")
The phrase you are quoting is part of the Islamic creed, the first pillar of Islam. Loosely translated, the entire creed is: أشهد أن لا إله إلاَّ الله و أشهد أن محمد رسول الله “There is no God but God (Allah), and Mohammed is His prophet (messenger).” Since recitation of this creed is at the core of being Muslim (indeed, some believe the sincere recitation of the creed is the entire requisite for becoming Muslim), I wouldn’t think it’s surprising that a Muslim might say this in an extenuating circumstance. It’s essentially a recitation of one’s belief, which is fairly common in any trying circumstance. See [here, for example.](http://www.islamworld.net/docs/become.html) \*The Shahada can be declared as follows: “ASH-HADU ANLA ELAHA ILLA-ALLAH WA ASH-HADU ANNA MOHAMMADAN RASUL-ALLAH”. The English translation is: “I bear witness that there is no deity (none truely to be worshipped) but, Allah, and I bear witness that Mohammad is the messenger of Allah”\* ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/29 "2011-02-28T14:10:19Z")
> [@Sablicious](#): > > The point I was _trying_ to make was; how can a people give thanks – because what I quoted was in fact the phrase used, I double checked it – to an all-seeing, all-knowing, omni-present entity when ‘He’ clearly, **a)** doesn’t give a whit, and/or **b)** is ‘Himself’ as culpable through inaction as the first-person-shooter-trained, ‘Semper Fidelis’ brainwashed grunt who fired the 30mm rounds at those stretchering the injured!? :dubious: First of all, I concur with everyone who has docked you points for the silly use of the phrase “evolutionary stagnation” in your OP. More importantly, you are demonstrating here that you don’t know what Islam is all about. In Islamic theology there is no human free will, no randomness, and no action that is determined or caused by any person, animal, or thing. Instead, God (Allah) has determined everything that ever occurs in the entire cosmos, past, present, and future. Hence in the Muslim view there is no purpose in railing against God or fate or complaining about anything that God has willed. The idea that the Muslim God “doesn’t give a whit” or “is culpable through inaction” is precisely the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Sablicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Sablicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sablicious)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/30 "2011-03-23T13:10:39Z")
^ So, [true] Muslims are effectively automatons (of their ‘god’) without free will or, thus, responsibility for their actions? Wow. Some ‘life’ that! :smack: Well, I guess this theory could go some way to explaining how they can inexplicably fly in the face of very humanity and martyr themselves (and others) in ‘His’ name – _i.e._, they’re zombies! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/31 "2011-03-23T13:15:32Z")
Have you ever heard of a religion called Christianity? Lots of Christians believe that all things are accomplished according to the will of God. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/32 "2011-03-23T14:39:43Z")
Hell, go look up Calvinism and get back to us on what a fun freewheeling belief system that is. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/33 "2011-03-25T04:32:55Z")
> [@beartato](#): > > But I would like to know what personal definition of “evolution” Sablicious operates with. The one that mean “a tendency to become as much like me as possible.” Tris ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/34 "2011-03-25T09:54:49Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > The phrase you are quoting is part of the Islamic creed, the first pillar of Islam. > > Loosely translated, the entire creed is: > أشهد أن لا إله إلاَّ الله و أشهد أن محمد رسول الله > “There is no God but God (Allah), and Mohammed is His prophet (messenger).” > \* Another topic already covered by _[the Family Circus](http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/3601/335h.jpg)_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790/35 "2011-03-25T22:11:31Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > I don’t even think it is dumb. Death is a traumatic thing to process. The human mind is narrative in nature, and fitting a difficult event in to a narrative is how we get along with our lives. Picking from the standard set of narratives (he’s in a better place, etc.) isn’t that much dumber than whatever you are likely to come up with on your own. Leaving aside the word “dumb” I can hardly think anything I would come up with would be less pointless than “god willed it”. Maybe I can go through the stages of grief without the side trip through irrationality. To elaborate: a rational approach to a tragedy, if it affects you personally, would be to feel your grief. Not feeling your grief causes all kinds of psychological problems. Using religion to mask your grief is no better, in my mind, than turning to excessive amounts of sex or work (as people have also done for the same purpose). Those activities are not necessarily bad for you except insofar as they serve to stuff your feelings. An anomaly that comes to mind, as I write this, is that it seems like it is in the most religious cultures where the weeping and wailing is most public and pronounced. This is not a scientific observation, and may well be the result of instant confirmation bias, but if religion is such a comfort, why might this be true? Roddy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-is-no-god-but-god/572790.md?page=1)