God is Dead
Sep 12th, 2008, in News, by Patung
Indonesian students of Islam encountering western anti-orthodox religion philosophy.
In an article from August 2008, Ahmad Sahidin, a former student of the Aqidah & Filsafat (Islam & Philosophy) faculty at IAIN (Institut Agama Islam Negeri) Sunan Gunung Djati (SGD) Bandung and now a teacher of the same discipline at IAIN, makes some reference to controversies at IAIN in 2004, where some students were recorded making provocative statements such as
God is dead
Achmad says that in studying Akidah & Filsafat students are taught about famous “western” objections to religious faith, such as those by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He says many pupils come from state schools and have little firm understanding of their Islamic faith, and are easily influenced by this new, secular, knowledge and like to show it off and appear cultured and clever.
Further, the critiques of European philosophers, he says, were often directed against the hypocrisy of middle class people in Europe who affected religious belief but whose lives and actions ran against the principles of their religion. Today in Indonesia students can see parallels with this, with many people who acknowledge themselves as Muslim being corrupt, or in the existence of an extremely wide gap between poor and rich – hence the fondness for the expression “God is dead”, meaning something like “God is not in our lives (anymore)”.
He defends IAIN Bandung against charges that it churns out atheists because of the contents of the Aqidah & Filsafat curriculum, instead he says most students’ Islamic faith is strengthened by encountering the objections of western philosophy. However he has gone to some lengths to ensure that the teaching of western ideas is firmly balanced by instruction in Islam.
Finally he says the Cipadung area of Bandung, where IAIN is located, was once a “red” zone, there were no mosques, except on the campus. Now every neighbourhood unit (RT) has at least one mosque, and these mosques, and their attached kindergartens and study groups, are by and large run by IAIN graduates, he says, proof that the university is doing its job. ahmadsahidin.wordpress.com
Anjinghu Akbar
The “Anjinghu Akbar” video from IAIN, which Ahmad makes some reference to, was recorded on 27 August 2004, but has been here produced, edited and interpreted by a fundamentalist group. It shows some of the leaders of the faculty’s student association, Himpunan Mahasiswa Jurusan (HMJ) Akidah Filsafat, making speeches at an orientation session for 2,000 freshmen, whether as some kind of prankish introduction to the course, or otherwise.
At the time police investigated the case tempo but as far as your scribe knows no prosecutions ensued.
43 Comments on “God is Dead”
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schmerly says:
janma.. Thanks for the little ditty.
God and religion as far as I’m concerned are MAN made, I think the world would have been a great place to live in before man arrived! you work it out!
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oigal says:
God is not only dead. He is demonstrably incompetent and negligent as well 🙂 which is worse than being dead for a supposedly onimpotent and omniscient god…
No one has said it better so far
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budi machribie says:
How could GOD be dead if GOD was never born….?
In fact GOD is just a word uttered by man
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ET says:
God is dead
The ‘God is Dead’ theory could make perfect sense.
I believe that god – or the omnipotent and omniscient being we generally consider to be god – is something that is in the making, that takes part in evolution. Something like the general principle of Being, without qualities – nirguna brahman according to the Hindu Samkhya philosophy – which at the moment of creation (= emanation or self-realisation) has taken on basic qualities and becomes saguna brahman to further and develop these qualities until it becomes the omnipotent and omniscient essence which in the end will pervade and control the universe in a process of self-fulfillment. At this ultimate stage Mind and Matter should be in complete symbiosis and we humans, in our search for knowledge and discovery, are probably a step on the evolutionary ladder towards this goal.
But if god is still in the making then it could possibly also be aborted or abort itself as a vainless attempt to become what it is supposed to be. That will be the end of it and god will be dead.
My two rupiah.
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OMG so cheap….?
Something in the making…? Who made GOD
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BacKStbrZ says:
Yeah yeah they say God is dead while they creating their own vision of god…
just the same plate, different meal…
I believe in god
I dont believe in god = i believe there is no god
cant prove anything…. just “IMAN” “Believe”, gladly they actually believe in something… that god doesnt exist…..hahah
What do you believe???
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Astrajingga says:
That there’s no God.
And God beyond existence, it’s not exist or it’s exist, God doesn’t care, and I don’t care either.
God is dead. The sculptor God is dead. The creator God is dead for some, may be many, but I think not most of, peoples.
But if you need hope, like for justice you can’t get–especially in Indonesia with court mafia domination where money & power talks, and you don’t have either one them–you can put it on God’s justice. If you need to believe that Soeharto is now burnt in hell–since Indonesian let him slipped away with impunity–then, you need to believe in God. God must be exist, so is hell, so Soeharto is in it right now. It’s cool to imagine that old smiley general boiled in melting tin neck-deep, while he’s forced to drink melted iron for every lies he had spoken.
God is created by human as a concept, as a hope, as a friend to talk to. The meme (another replicator; sort of gene for idea) of God develops, evolutes, and survives through human civilization because it’s functional and because it’s needed by many, probably most of human being throughout history.
God is dead when no one need God. But if there’s even only one person still talk to God, still put his highest hope on God’s justice, then, God has not been dead.
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What do you believe???
One less God than you apparently and shedload less than the Romans..
God is dead when no one need God. But if there’s even only one person still talk to God,God is dead when no one need God. But if there’s even only one person still talk to God,
Isn’t this the Peter Pan can fly theory? if you believe you can?
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Isn’t this the Peter Pan can fly theory? if you believe you can?
Nope. God is a concept inside human mind. That’s where God exists. It’s an idea. God is a meme.
The creator God, or God as a punisher, God as a teacher is dead. The universe doesn’t need a creator, that’s what physicist concludes. And since Sodom and Gomorrah, God doesn’t destroy cities anymore, either God is dead… or if you prefer God is not as tempramental as She was, but I prefer to believe the first. And if nowadays someone hears God whispering to his/her ear, we call him/her lunatic instead of prophet. But as part of freedom of expression, s/he may spread his/her teaching, and peoples may pray to his/her God. So the meme of this (new) God will be developed, evolved, and will survive–though we can’t tell for how long.
As an idea, God is not easy to kill.
Even as a word, it’s not easy to wipe it out from dictionary, or define it as “the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority in the old belief-system, which is not functional anymore so She is dead now“. Even ‘atheism’ still bring ‘God’ or ‘theo’ in the very word.
In the 2009 porn film, almost reaches climax, the star still murmurs, “Oh my God, oh my God!”
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tomaculum says:
Anyone of you read “Die fröhliche Wissenschaft” in the original language (german) and anyone of you knows the cultural, political and religious background in which era this book was written by Friedrich Nietsche? 🙂
In this book you can read also this sentence:
“Gott bleibt tot: Und wir haben ihn getötet! Wie trösten wir uns, die Mörder aller Mörder? Das Heiligste und Mächtigste, was die Welt bisher besaĂź, es ist unter unsern Messern verblutet – wer wischt dies Blut von uns ab?”
(God is still dead and we have murdered Him. How can we console/solace ourselves, murderers of all murderers? The most sacred and mightiest, the world has ever owned, It is bled beyond our blades – who will wipe away this blood from us?)
I think he didn’t mean the sentence literally. It is a philosophical statement. Maybe it was Nietsches exclamation of exasperation? -
Okay stop talkin bout God….. Its called philosophy, while studying philosophy you only use logic…. (even though i think that lecturer is too extreme in how he is implementing it on Little kids like me on cooledge)
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dejavu says:
Marx said that religion is the opiate of mass. I agree on him….How about God? I watched a play titled “Waiting for Godot” (Samuel Beckett), and I have learned that God=hope…in that play…the two main actors were waiting for Godot who never turn up. They kept waiting…but then they almost lost heart…one almost committed suicide….However…in the depth of despair…these two guys did not abandon hope…In other words, Godot has been a hope for them. Can you imagine these guys finally keep waiting for something doesn’t exist. They never see or meet Godot before. They do not know Godot’s look. But, hese guys want still to wait Godot. Imao, the story might reflect the real world where many people believe in God without doubting its existence. Even these people put hope on Godot..I mean God.
PS: sssssssssssstt…my roomate just whispered..God is not dead…God is just silent..um….
Comment on “God is Dead”.
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It’s funny reading those comments about “GOD”
Before fighting about “GOD” that nobody knows for sure, just answer this question first “WHO am I”
Even the ancient Egyptian refers GOD as something beyond comprehension
Amon = hidden
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