As an agnostic person, I have so many questions that I'd like to put forward to Muslims on this site. Hopefully we can learn something from this discussion. I have so many causes of doubt in islam but at the same time I still believe in one God, I'll try to touch on them all.
Your problems are not intellectual at all but at the core it's a spiritual disease deep within you that has it's roots in arrogance, vanity, narcissism and pride.
1) If Allah has said that he has perfected this religion, why is there so many different interpretations. Isn't it meant to be a clear cut divine answer which can be applied in the 21st , surely God woudve forseen this (it a test is not a sufficient answer for me)
Why are there so many conflicting researches, theories, conclusions within the fields science itself as well as all other fields ? I can pick up a research study that tells me "GMO" foods are good for me and another that tells me it causes cancer/infertility.
Each of these bring forth their own evidences, many of them are sponsored by conglomerate industries that want favourable studies so they could profit, a company like Monsanto sets aside 100 million on studies promoting their line of toxic GMO products as do many other industries.
The humans whims/desires and conflict of interests knows no bounds and this is no different when it comes to religious matters, Allah states in the Quran the reason they differed is out of an urge "dominate one another" which is something that happens outside the realms of religion, it's a common human trait to try to control one another, we see this with empires/imperialists/colonialists and even to a lesser extend in family homes.
However this is not to be confused with minor differences which even the companions had in which both sides are right, there is no single fixed way towards the straight path! intentions is what really matters here, we are complex beings that see and interpret things differently, we are not robotic clones that act/think the same way.
2) qadr and free will seem to contradict, generally speaking it's this confusion again. If God says that some hearts are Black and with doubt, there's no saving them (something along those lines) then where's the free will. there's also multiple contradictions in the quran which is too lengthy to delve in to.
The position of virtually all scientific materialists (Atheists) is that there is no free will or choice and that all our actions/behaviours etc. are determined based on the reactions of our atoms and molecules which are hardwired and driven by biological evolution, the atoms and molecules can never have their own independent free-will or choice, it's absurd to belief so.
I have posted a thread on here before on this topic quoting many of these scientific materialists as well as many expert neurologists/brain surgeons that are in unison agreement etc. This why my opening statement was that your problem is not 'intellectual' because if it was you would see this contradiction.
You see the toughest thing for a human to overcome is addiction, it requires first the right intentions, then the necessary discipline and will power to power through, it's the same concept with those becoming wealthy, they had the intentions then went out and worked for it.
Nothing in life comes to you without those basic ingredients of (sincere intentions) followed through by the necessary (actions) that will take you to your desired goal.
This concept is even easier in Islam, because you just have to sincerely want the guidance alone (make the intention) and it will come to you without you having to do any kinds of actions as is the case with everything else, this is why you see so many reverts embrace Islam without having ever done any actions before and when you listen to their stories the underlying theme was they made the intention in their heart first! This is why I see your problems are spiritual not intellectual.
Those dead hearts or black hearts described in the Quran are describing those that don't even have an inkling desire for guidance, those that are content upon the worst forms of corruption/evil/disbelief despite being in the company of the Prophet.
The contradictions you speak about are all in your head, as a scientific materialists you should never talk about the topics of free-will or free-choice because the evolutionary world view is that our molecules and atoms are determined.
3) I have seen many Muslim speakers on YouTube state that the religion shouldn't be sugar coated, it's not a pacifist religion. I understand when you put it into the context the prophet Muhammed was initially abused but he then went on to conquer other lands. There's inherent violence and it's evident with some verses of the quran.
In the 23 years of Prophet-hood, 13 of those years were spent in mecca as a pacifists with no violence or retaliatory self-defence violence despite the perpetual violence against them from the pagans.
There is not a single group of people/nation/civilisation that has ever done this, it was the first in recorded history, every nation or people have the rights to self defence which had been forbidden during that period of time.
It's interesting that you as a Diaspora kid raise the issue of violence when the very civilisation your so fond off, whose culture/religion you have embraced blindly are the most violent people this earth has ever seen and have killed more people then everyone combined, again the hypocrisy here is yet again exposing your issue to not be intellectual or moral at all.
4) what happens to all the good righteous men that follows Christianity/Buddhism. Is he sentenced to hell for committing shirk. I know that for Muslims they can be sent to hell momentarily and then taken to jannah does that apply to other righteous people or are they condemned to hell for eternity. To me it doesn't feel 'good' what is morality/goodness ? A strict set of instructions that must be robotically followed. The fact that there's a corrupt evil Saudi that potentially will go heaven and a miskeen phillipino Christian farmer will be dammed in hell doesn't sit right with me.
This is the typical argument about a peasant poor farmer somewhere in the world and his 'supposed' suffering, the people who pose these questions are the same people that don't give a shit about them in their daily life and in fact look down upon them regularly.
The same people that don't pay any kind of charity to them and unwilling to sacrifice anything to help them out are the same ones that point this out as a means of their disbelief (spiritual disease), like the famous philosopher said " I was going to ask God why he allows suffering/hardship/injustice to happen but then I was afraid he would ask me the same question"
