Strange title? Well, read on. It is generally accepted that the universe came to be due to a sudden explosion that was called the big bang. Signs of the big bang are two many to ignore, for example, in 1964, the accidental detection of the Cosmic microwave background radiation was evidence for such a phenomena.

That event signaled the beginning of what we now call the universe. There are a number of subtle observations that many fail to notice. With the universe, time was born, matter, energy. The universe's birth was time 0. Before it (if I may even say that), time ceased to exist, matter ceased to exist, energy ceased to exist.

What is the meaning of existence? To us, for something to exist, it is either matter or energy. So in the literary sense, if God exists, then he is either matter or energy. Yet it is only logical to say that if God was any of these, then he came to be with the beginning of the universe, so he had a beginning. A God who, if we assume matter, can be at one place or the other but not both, who has a size no matter how large. He would be bound by laws that he cannot break, if he were energy, he would have a maximum speed of light. So he would be limited. God can neither be energy or matter, God does not exist in the sense we imagine.

It is safe to assume that if God existed in the sense of matter or energy, he would have to follow the laws of this universe, which he supposedly created. He would be limited. Does that sound omnipotent? It doesn't to me. So the only logical whereabouts of a deity is outside the universe, a parallel world so to speak. If the universe is God's creation, then so is time, and so is logic, they are byproducts of the universe. Those who say miracles are not logical need to ask themselves, if God can only act through logic, then what omnipotence does he possess? He may choose to act logically, but he may choose to defy logic outright. He is not bound by time and doesn't exhibit change. He is neither matter nor energy, and thus infinite in every sense. God cannot reside or exist within this world, neither is the realm of the angels, neither is paradise nor hell.

As an entity not entrapped within the universe, he is not bound by time. People who foolishly ask what was before him try to put him within the context of the universe which had a beginning. Time is defined only within it, outside it, it bears no meaning. Place is defined within the universe, and applies to matter, outside it, is bears no meaning.

What are the repercussions of this? First thing, how can I deny the physical existence of paradise, hell, and God himself. What of the so many verses in the Quran talking about the rivers of heaven and the scorch of hell? I believe these verses simply materialize the immaterial in order to speak to the simple minded. How can you express happiness that surpasses the physical in any way other than putting an idealistic picture of a physical world? The Quran utilizes a technique of saying, the righteous will be in a state of happiness similar to a person sitting in a garden with rivers, maidens, food, etc. The Quran materializes the immaterial so humans could comprehend the incomprehensible.

Perhaps another question of weather what I say could be supported by any verses in the Quran, I think with a careful study we may actually find it alludes to it:

يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَيْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَالسَّمَاوَاتُ وَبَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ ﴿ابراهيم: ٤٨﴾

translated: When the earth is replaced by another earth and the heavens replaced by other heavens and they all appear to God, the one, the omnipotent (14:48). Will we suddenly shift to a parallel universe that was hidden from us where existence is no longer matter or energy, where laws are different and nothing is the same. Where the earth is another earth and the heavens are other heavens.

Another is a saying by the prophet talking about paradise: "It has what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard of and what has not come on the mind of a human". Are gardens beyond imagination, rivers, trees? I think not. Unless this means that we will be in a different world where we exist despite neither being physical nor energy. All verses that talk about the other world, the world we are shielded from, no longer have to seem logical to us as we cannot understand its laws and rules.

What other repercussions are there? One of the most evident is that we would be totally unable to obtain divine knowledge without some kind of revelation. Because we are unable to know anything outside the scope of our universe, outside our senses. That is why revelation was needed, without it, humans would have no way of guidance.

رُّسُلًا مُّبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ لِئَلَّا يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا ﴿١٦٥﴾

Translated: Prophets giving good tidings and warnings so that people will have no alibi against God after the prophets. For God is almighty and wise. (4:165)

I have tried to analyze the nature of any deity worth worship, to emphasize that his existence in any physical sense automatically makes him limited and not worth being called a deity, and definitely not worth worship. And to emphasize the limited thought of existentialists who would like to think that the universe has existed for eternity and aside from it, nothing exists. When it is evident that a force beyond our knowledge had initiated the first spark.