David, Australian science teacher converts to Islam from Atheism 2/2

What is Australia?

Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia. It is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.

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What is Atheism?

Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.

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What is Convert?

Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliating with another. People convert to a different religion for various reasons, including active conversion by free choice due to a change in beliefs, secondary conversion, deathbed conversion, conversion for convenience, marital conversion, and forced conversion.

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What is Science?

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. The earliest roots of science can be traced to the works of Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, whose contributions entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek science deteriorated in Western Europe during the Middle Ages but flourished in the Islamic Golden Age. Modern science is typically divided into three major branches that consist of the natural sciences (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics), which study nature in the broadest sense; the social sciences (e.g. psychology, sociology, economics), which study individuals and societies; and the formal sciences (e.g. mathematics, logic, theoretical computer science), which study abstract concepts.

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What is Islam?

One of the major religions of the world, Islam literally translates to "submission," as a follower of Islam (Muslims) devotes their life to that of their God. The religion began with the teachings of Muhammad in the 7th century. The theology of Islam is based on the Qur'an, which was given to Muhammad by God. Some of the major fundamental principles of Islam include the Five Pillars, which hope to unite all Muslims into a community. Two different factions of Muslims exist - the majority are known as Sunni, with a small percentage known as Shi'a - both predominantly reside throughout the Middle East.<br><br> <i class="fa fa-calendar"></i> Muhammad died in 632 AD and the religion of Islam formally started after his death. The Quran was formally compiled and finalised in 650 AD, prior to which it was 'memorised' and written across many parchments.

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