Yup, I know what the passionately religious amongst you are probably thinking. “How dare he! Blasphemy! Arrogance! Somebody should teach this damn heretic a lesson.”
Well, not so fast.
Because my statement doesn’t necessarily deny the existence of God or belief in Him.
Have a glass of cold water, hear me out first, and I’d be more than happy to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
Holy Books: Awww Verses Vs Yikes Verses
Holy books and sacred texts like the Bible, the Hadith collections and even the Quran contain commandments and stories that can either make you go Awww, or Yikes!
That is if you read those verses and sections literally.
Now, I’m not going to get into examples in details. You can explore different verses on your own if you like. The resources are plentiful and online.
Still, let’s get into this matter briefly.
Taking the Quran for instance, you have many, many beautiful verses encouraging good deeds such as being kind to orphans, giving charity, and so on aka, Awww verses.
You also have a number of verses that can be morally repulsive and scientifically retarded when read and understood literally.
“Don’t read those verses literally you dumbass! You need to interpret them correctly!”
Ok, fair enough.
In fact, that’s exactly the type of thinking I held on to and valued, and from a functional perspective, it’s actually a good thing, but it doesn’t mean it leads to truth, and in many cases, it needs some serious mental gymnastics.
Interpretation and Cherry Picking
Anyone who’s actually read the Bible or the Quran knows that there are plenty of verses that will make any sane or moral person today go yikes!
Ah, well here comes the “beauty” of interpretation and cherry picking.
Demonstrating the Problem With
the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Let’s take an imaginary character and call him Ahmad.
Ahmad is a Palestinian Muslim kid whose parents got killed in an Israeli bombing raid on Gaza. He grows up with rage in his heart and contempt for Jews.
As time passes, Ahmad finds himself influenced by Quranic verses and stories in Islam that characterize Jews as infidels, and Islam’s sworn-enemies.
At the age of 28, Ahmad ends his life by blowing up himself at an Israeli checkpoint.
On the other hand, you have another imaginary character called Muhammad.
Muhammad is a Palestinian father who lost his children in an Israeli bombing raid on Gaza. He continues living his life still believing in peace and brotherhood with his Jewish neighbors.
As time passes, Muhammad finds strength and inspiration from the Quran, and continues to focus on the verses which encourage kindness and tolerance towards Jews and Christians, referred to in the Quran numerous times as “the people of the book.”
Now…
The truth is obvious from the examples above which aren’t really all that imaginary.
In both cases, Ahmad and Muhammad did not derive their morality from the Quran.
Their ethical intuitions came from within themselves.
Their ethical intutions directed their attention to verses they chose to focus on and be inspired by, whether knowingly or uknowingly.
Their ethical intuitions influenced their choice of interpretation.
And hence, their morals did not come from the Quran itself.
Their morals ultimately came from within themselves thanks to their own ethical intuitions about what’s right and wrong, and were influenced by their near social context.
And in case you’re still clinging on to the idea that our morality comes from Holy Books, here’s another example that demonstrates otherwise.
Demonstrating the Problem With Wife
“Beating” as “Instructed” In the Quran
This one requires no writing.
Just watch this fun, hilarious video that clearly shows a serious heinous problem in some parts of the Muslim world.
Observe how Mr. Chauvinist appeals to the authority of the Quran and his traditionalist (andsadlywidespread) understanding of the “wife beating” verse.
Ah, interpretation, interpretation.
I mean seriously, on whose authority does one decide which verses to take literally, and which to take as metaphor?
Like I said, morality does not come from Holy Books themselves.
Metaphorical interpretation becomes a necessity and the process of choosing the morally right interpretation comes down to the individual’s ethical intuitions on which interpretation seems right, and which one seems wrong.
Wife beating? Yikes! That’s just wrong. Probably metaphorical. God is loving and merciful. He can’t support this type of lunacy.
Wife beating? Yeah, beat the crap out of her. Some women need discipline, and discipline is important. Without it, you will just have immoral anarchy and disobedience. God doesn’t like disobedience.
Oh, and guess what?
I didn’t make up those two responses to the wife beating question.
Those are roughly the responses I got from two pious Muslim friends I personally know, who both appeal to the interpretation of the Quran they believe is right… out of their own ethical intuitions.
See what I mean?
Now, If Morality Comes from Within Us
and Our Own Ethical Intuitions…
… then that begs the question… where did we come from?
Jesus? The Big Bang? Allah? Evolution?
Baba Ganoush?
Zeus? Osiris?
Xenu?
Leave your answer in the comments section below now.
Gosh, where do I even start. Lots of fun stuff happened in the last few recent days and weeks. Work, while still enjoyable, has piled up, and updates have slowed down. But that aside though, let’s look at the real fun that took place recently.
1. Sudanese Women Flogged for So-Called Indecent Clothing
Lubna Hussein, a journalist and a public information officer at the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) was one of nine girls taken by the Public Order Police (POP) on Sunday from a ballroom in an area east of Khartoum.
Poor Lubna. The POP idiots won’t leave her alone.
… The arrests took place under the Criminal Penal Code which states that anyone wearing “grossly clothing” shall be punished with no more than 40 lashes or a fine or both.
Grossly clothing? What the hell is that even supposed to mean? What qualifies as grossly? Because seriously, those POP boys can probably get erections merely by looking at goats! That Penal Code needs to get revised, yesterday.
The Sudanese journalist said that the application of this section of the criminal penal code is damaging to a girl’s reputation in the Sudanese society.
Maybe it’s about time we cut the bullshit obsession with honor, reputation, and gossip.
Unfortunately, it is mostly true. A lot of things about life in Sudan are centered around honor and reputation, as if they’re holier than Islam itself.
Anyways, moving on, before those medieval horny POP monkeys make my head pop.
2. Stabbed 18 Times for Being Muslim Inside… a Courtroom
I can’t believe I missed this one. I only found out about it from a Facebook Group invite.
Stabbed 18 times inside a damn courtroom, can you believe that?
CAIRO — Thousands of Egyptian mourners marched behind the coffin of the “martyr of the head scarf” on Monday _ a pregnant Muslim woman who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom as her young son watched.
… Her husband was critically wounded in the attack Wednesday in Dresden when he tried to intervene and was stabbed by the attacker and accidentally shot by court security.
Nice work, court security. Maybe you should all get fired. Incompetent retards.
… Al-Sherbini, who was about four months pregnant and wore the Islamic head scarf, was involved in a court case against her neighbor for calling her a terrorist and was set to testify against him when he stabbed her 18 times inside the courtroom in front of her 3-year-old son.
I hope that poor kid grows up to be normal and recovers from this deeply tragic event. Nobody should ever have to go through stuff like this.
Oh, and I think this part is spot on.
… Egyptian commentators said the incident was an example of how hate crimes against Muslims are overlooked in comparison to those committed by Muslims against Westerners. Many commentators pointed to the uproar that followed the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-born Islamic fundamentalist angry over one of his films criticizing the treatment of Muslim women.
Very true. Where on earth is the outrage over this on CNN? Where are the typical repeated reports with the big headlines?
This is beyond sickening.
But at least this part is positive:
Officials from a German Muslim group and the country’s main Jewish group made a joint visit Monday to the Dresden hospital where the victim’s husband is being treated.
“You don’t have to be a Muslim to act against anti-Muslim behavior, and you don’t have to be a Jew to act against anti-Semitism,” said Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council of Jews.
Oh well, RIP.
3. Jakarta Bombings
Here we go again. I thought Obama is president now and he’s pulling US troops out of Iraq? Right, like that’s going to work. Eh, this is probably about local Indonesian politics.
Guess it’s time for me to watch a comedy movie or something. Maybe a Reason Vs Faith YouTube debate.
Say hello to today’s vomit-inducing video. Watching this depraved garbage boiled my blood, because I know firsthand the serious damage it can do.
I still remember singing similar crap during my primary school days in Qatar. Only years later did I come to realize the negative effects it had on my thinking.
The video has over a million views on YouTube, and the show is apparently becoming very popular in the Arab world.
For all of you non-Arabic speakers, the girl is singing:
When we seek martyrdom, we go to heaven.
You tell us we’re small, but from this way of life we have become big.
Without Palestine, what does childhood mean?
I’m glad many Arab writers have written articles condemning the sickening dangerous nature of this show.
The people responsible for producing it and broadcasting it should be exposed and condemned. Shame on them. Shame on all of them.
It’s disgusting.
And it reinforces the notion that the Palestinian issue (while an important and worthy cause) is somehow the main source of the many problems of the Muslim world, when it’s clearly not.
I mean seriously, how the hell are we supposed to build healthy functioning societies, when we teach our children to value death more than life? Heck, why study? Why become entrepreneurs and create employment? Why engage in something constructive?
Naaa, too hard. It’s too much work. Might as well just blow up ourselves, skip judgment day, and go straight to heaven. Lots of candy. So much of it there in paradise, it’s actually better than Disney Land.
Yours truly will update this post shortly with his reaction to the speech. Let’s just say I was pleased it didn’t excessively venture into La La Land territory, which is nice. Plus, many parts of it were surprisingly candid and straight forward.
Anyways, me will be back with more.
Meanwhile, you can dive in and drop your reaction. Good thing Mr. President mentioned Darfur once.
UPDATE: Been crazy busy, but had time to drop a quick comment here. If you’re curious about where Obama got some of his ideas for the speech especially in regards to which Quranic veses to use, then find out here. Meanwhile, me is keeping track of the situation in Iran.
Virtually all my Iranian friends (at least those who are not apathetic and who voted, the majority), are pretty pissed off at what happened, and rightly so. If one word can describe their fight both online and offline at protests, then it’s this.
Inspiring.
According to them, this time it’s different, and unlike any unrest before since the revolution took place. So, let’s see what happens, and how Obama will respond.
Here’s to hoping that filthy bitch called Ahmadinejad gets kicked out. While the lovely Mullahs and supreme leader will remain, it will still be a positive outcome.
Growing up, I’ve never really watched the Star Trek series. I remember seeing it sometimes on the Qatari English TV channel during my childhood days in Qatar.
The Star Trek Movie Trailer
The show seemed silly to me. Weird looking people and space monkeys, wearing weird looking costumes, firing around weird looking lazers. The spaceships were cool though, that’s for sure.
At the time, I didn’t understand or speak English. And given the techie english language of the show, its Arabic subtitles were awkward and hilarious to read
So basically, when the movie came out recently, I wasn’t too excited to see it, but my friends insisted.
Hence, I went, and damn was it awesome!
Not the greatst movie I’ve watched. It didn’t enter my favorite top 10 list, but nonetheless it was pretty entertaining.
However, besides all the cool action and special effects, what caught my attention was the dominant theme of attempting to reconcile “Logic Vs Emotion, Reason Vs Faith” throughout the movie.
Logic being the Vulcans, Emotions being the Human race, and the struggle to reconcile both being symbolized by Spock, the deeply conflicted child of two worlds, born of a Vulcan father and a Human mother.
It got me thinking about the ongoing fun debate on Islam and faith in my head. It also reminded me of the super cool Foundation book series by Isaac Asimov.
Where does the balance lie in the reconciliation and use of both logic and emotions in our daily lives? How much of each is too much, and how does the answer depend on context?
Too much logic, and you risk being an emotionless computer-like Vulcan. Too much emotion, and you risk becoming an irrational, angry, or even pacifist, dysfunctional “Human.”
Is and can love ever be logical?
What is consciousness?
Are emotions merely the product of electrochemicals released and interpreted by our brains? Such would be a materialist reductionist, and also scientifically incorrect view.
Th movie certainly re-triggered questions that I placed on the shelf and brought them back to the forefront again. It left me wondering about which Star Trek movie character I’d like to be if I had a choice.
I’m thinking the humanized Spock at the very end of the movie after he gave in to feelings and got “emotionally compromised.”
Drima just got back from Istanbul and is officially blown away by the city. Gosh, what an amazing vibrant place. I loved every second of every minute I spent there.
I don’t think I’ve ever been in any city that felt so comfortable and homey for me in such a short span of time. It is such a rare occasion of the best of East meeting the best of West, and the two merging together so peacefully, you sometimes can’t even tell them apart.
Prayer in the Blue Mosque was certainly the highlight of the trip for me. It was a deeply mystical experience being inside under the large dome listening to the beautiful and echoing recitation of the Quran by the imam.
Alright, so let me get this straight. Whenever bad shit happens to the Muslim world, it’s supposed to be God’s test, because he loves us. But whenever bad shit happens to the infidels, especially Western and Jewish ones, it’s a Divine punishment.
Hilarious.
Seriously, I couldn’t agree more with the awesome Sudanese writer Nesrine Malik in her latest article at The Guardian’s CiF about Muslim reactions to the swine flu.
Yay to retarded, simplistic, delusional, self-serving politicized faith. Boo to good non-rational faith.
But, here’s where it all gets even more hilarious. The swine flu has reached Israel, home of the sons of swines and apes.
Irony anyone?
On a related note, dear Californians reading this blog, if you don’t want another 9/11, continue the fight against gay marriage in your state.
When I was 14, I spent close to six months in a Wahhabi-influenced Islamic school. During my time there I was exposed to all kinds of life-changing religious experiences.
One of the most memorable ones started when some interesting ideas were fed to me and my classmates by a God-fearing pious Jordanian teacher.
He sat before us for one entire week, and talked to us about the importance of piety and reciting the Quran.
We listened attentively. Even I myself, listened attentively too, and why not? After all, I wanted to be pious. I wanted to be closer to God. I wanted to be a better Muslim, and so I paid attention and kept an open mind.
But the result was nothing but a disgusting fear that shook me for over 30 days.
One of the things the so-called “teacher” emphasized was the importance of reading Surat Al-Mulk every night before going to bed.
According to him, if anyone of us died during sleep without reading it before going to bed, we would have to endure the horrific pains of “The Tortureof the Grave.”
Belief in “the torture of the grave” indeed stretches way back in history. It appears in eighth-century epitaphs and in early Islamic traditions, which elevated this belief to the status of dogma.
But pious Muslims today continue to adhere to this belief. In invocations, funeral prayers, sermons, and popular literature, Muslims are frequently reminded to heed this punishment.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of them take it seriously. The psychologist Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, who has studied anxieties about death among Arab youth, has found that preoccupation with the torture of the grave remains acute.
The Egyptians and Kuwaitis he polled worried about this torture more than they feared losing a dear relative or succumbing to a serious, fatal disease.
For over a month, I read the required chapter from the Quran before going to bed. But on some nights, I’d forget, only to jump out of bed later in the middle of the night rather terrified at the possibility of dying in my sleep and going through the Torture of the Grave.
Initially, nobody in my family noticed something different about me, but my mom eventually did.
I still remember her walking into my room one night and seeing me frantically reading the Quran. “Boy, since when do you read the Quran before going to bed? I thought you preferred those science magazines of yours,” and so I told my mom the entire story.
She was furious at what my teacher had done, and thankfully told me the comforting words I desired to hear.
I believed her because she was pious, prayed five times a day and spoke of a loving God rather than a terrifying one who enjoys dipping our asses into BBQ sauce and roasting them in eternal infernos.
Plus, she was much older than I am, so surely she must have known some things about the nature of God, Islam, and faith that I was probably missing.
And it worked.
The next day my fear-induced habit of reading the Quran before going to bed vanished, and I told my teacher that he was wrong because God was loving and merciful, to which he replied “so, are you denying the existence of hell?”
My teacher had a point, but so did my mom. What they said simply represented different sides of the same coin, which is the reality of how most people practice religion - cherry picking.
My mom focused (and continues to focus) on all the nice things in Islam by conveniently interpreting the harsh aspects away, while my lunatic teacher, I believe, did take religion all as a whole and recognized even the harsh aspects but placed an extra focus on them.
As for me, I realize today that one of the the main reasons I accepted the garbage preached by my old genius teacher was because I did not require evidence for such claims. On top of that I was gullible, and bought into his definition of open-mindedness.
His was a horrendous one and required people to accept what he preached as the “truth” without demanding evidence. It is the same kind of destructive so-called “open-mindedness” encouraged by too many religious preachers today, and it stinks.
This is how I believe open-mindedness ought to be defined.
Defining Open-Mindedness
The video is also relevant to an important question that came up during “The Crocodile-Infested River of Blasphemy” debate on verifying Mr. Y’s “inspirational capacity” and whether knowledge derived from it is reliable or not.
It’s something I’ll leave you to think about.
Meanwhile, I had a dream last night about a flying hippopotamus with large butterfly wings. Singer Celine Dion spoke through him to me and told me that I need to go out to buy and distribute massive amounts of cotton candy to the world’s children.
She said I had to hurry and that if I don’t do as she says, aliens in UFO’s will kidnap me, throw me into a dark dungeon on Planet Booga Ooga 69, where I’ll be chained in front of Britney Spears as she sings to me all her top hits on loop for all eternity.
Millions of people already believe this and are already implementing the important cotton candy instructions in their lives. Oh, but here’s the best part.
If you don’t start doing the same soon, go and buy some really good ear plugs. You’re going to need them.
Listen carefully, if you don’t appreciate the awesome quote below, I’m going to issue a fatwa encouraging any pious person who sees you on the street to pinch your butt really hard until your eyeballs pop out.
Seriously, you better do as I say, or else expect that bad-ass fatwa to be issued first thing in the morning tomorrow. And if I’m too lazy to issue it, I’ll just pay someone to do it.
After all, it’s not like many of those cute fatwa issuers - including those in al-Azhar - aren’t on the payroll of their governments anyways. So hey, I’m sure they’ll have no problems accepting money from me in return for some awesome fatwa fun.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now read…
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, the super cool Sufi mystic lover.
The following post will not fulfill its purpose or make full sense, unless the entire series of posts it’s a part of is read in order. You are therefore encouraged to start with the introduction.
Category #2 - “Good” Non-Rational Faith
There are truths in this world that are universal, and when it comes to moral ones, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the best document we have so far that espouses them on a global level.
However, there are moral “truths” which are relativist.
Despite the fact that I find the idea of moral relativism difficult to accept, I realize such a thing does exist, which brings me to “good” non-rational faith.
“Good” non-rational faith is belief perceived to be good in matters that are difficult to rationalize or back up with sufficient rational evidence. Its “goodness” is that of a relativist subjective kind and depends on the social construct you grew up in.
To one community, something can be “good” but to “others” it’s “bad” and hence the relativism. It also tends to fall within matters of morality, both religious and cultural.
Faith-based dress code modesty and sexuality are good examples that involve lots of moral relativism.
The Muslim Zaynab who covers her hair with a hijab because she believes Allah instructs her to do so. The Afghani woman who goes one big step further and veils her entire face because she believes that’s what Allah truly wants. Or the liberal Fatemah who wears jeans with a T-shirt and doesn’t cover her hair at all because she believes Allah’s definition of modesty is a dominantly spiritual one.
All three’s moral dimension of their dress-code and their idea of modesty is relativist. It’s not universal. It can be challenging to paint into a straight forward black and white picture.
Through mainstream Muslim eyes, Zaynab will seem like the most faithfully moral of all three. Fatemah will come across as inadequately pious, and the Afghani woman’s faith in the morality of her dress-code will be perceived as too culturally contaminated.
But ultimately and generally speaking, the three Muslim females’ dress-code will be tolerated and accepted by the global population of Muslims as normative.
On the other hand though, a Muslim girl wearing tiny jeans shorts and a bikini who’s walking during summer down a street populated by mainstream Muslims will easily find herself labeled immoral and highly lacking in faith.
Personally speaking, I find Fatemah’s choice of clothing normative. The hijabi Zaynab… well, I’m not a fan of the hijab and I would never encourage any future daughters I may have to wear it.
Yup, I don’t like the hijab, although I respect a Muslim woman’s right to wear it out of choice, as many in my extended family do… similarly to how Christian nuns and religious Jewish women cover their hair too.
As for the face veil, I’m staunchly against it and find it heinous.
Hence, from a personal perspective, I wouldn’t place the hijab and face veil under “Good” Non-Rational Faith. I don’t find anything about them good from a universal perspective, or even “good” from a relativist one.
However, a Muslim community in general will, and this post is written from its perspective, in order to keep the example simplified.
Ultimately though, the point I’m trying to make is that all of us have beliefs we see as clearly good, and they are indeed universally good.
For instance, how often do you find people arguing over whether or not rape is a good or bad thing? See my point?
However, then you have those faith-based beliefs which to you or your community are good, but to many others, are not necessarily so. For example, the hijab or face veil, and the big debates surrounding them.
The following post will not fulfill its purpose or make full sense, unless the entire series of posts it’s a part of is read in order. You are therefore encouraged to start with the introduction.
Category #1 - Good Non-Rational Faith
Good non-rational faith is the beneficial belief in matters that are difficult to rationalize or back up with sufficient rational and empirical evidence. Its goodness is the nearest thing we have to that of a universal kind (if such a thing even does exist in the absolute sense of the word).
Given that it’s non-rational and non-empirical, it does not clash with reason or contradict it. It is also essentially based on feelings and intuitions.
The ability to sense it is inherent in all of us, but the way we manifest what we sense and the language we use to describe it is learned.
Below are some examples of good non-rational faith in action.
The unconditional love a mother has for her child.
Aicha’s son is addicted to cocaine. She’s worried about him. She’s distressed with pain. She’s disappointed and at times uncertain about what the future holds for him.
Yet, Aicha believes he’ll get better. Yet, she showers him with unconditional love and maintains her faith in him.
And as Aicha believes all of this, she can’t provide any sufficient rational evidence to support this unfounded belief of hers. The truth of the matter is that she does not know what will happen to her son.
Nobody does.
Rationally speaking, her belief’s validity is neither provable nor disprovable. We’re all agnostic to it. We don’t know if it’s true or false. It’s just faith, an intangible uplifting and empowering faith.
Indeed, Aicha’s son could very well end up fully recovering… or also dying from an overdose. But it doesn’t matter. Aicha remains faithfully optimistic.
That’s good faith. It is the kind worthy of respect and reverence. It is necessary for basic survival, let alone making our world a better place. Even atheists have it whether knowingly or not.
We need more of it.
The Ethiopian runner who’s determined to break the Olympic record and has a deep conviction he will do so successfully thanks to his faith in Allah Almighty
Sure, the Ethiopian Omar trained with professionals for hundreds of hours, but that doesn’t mean he’ll break the record. It doesn’t even mean he’ll end up in the top three for sure. It also doesn’t mean he’ll be able to donate his prize money for charity as he sincerely intends.
He might get a cramp in his leg during his big day. A bird might fly out of nowhere and poop on his head. You never know, but despite the uncertainties, Omar has faith that Allah is watching over him and will give him the power and determination to win.
After all, Allah loves those who help the poor and needy. Allah blesses those who seek to alleviate the suffering of orphans, something which is neither rationally and empirically provable nor disprovable, simply because Allah’s existence isn’t.
Yet, Omar believes. Yet, he has faith inspired by what Allah instructs in Meccan verses from the Quran, and while this specific spiritual component of his faith in the unseen may admittedly be attached to troubling aspects like religious dogmatism and separation theology, it still is nonetheless in itself good faith.
It is beautiful, uplifting and something I consider sacred.
Every day, all around me, I see it being a powerful force for good in the lives of many.
Sure, that doesn’t make it necessarily true, and it shouldn’t be believed with dogmatic delusional certainty, but we must admit that it’s beneficial in such cases.
Atheists may wrongly oppose it because of its metaphysical dimension and religious nature, but it is in essence and definition no different from Aicha’s non-metaphysical faith.
It is also no different from Javier’s, a Christian runner from Brazil who wants to win in the Olympics and donate his prize money for charity too.
This is because while Omar’s natural intrinsic desire for certainty and a sense of purpose (inherent in all of us) manifested itself in the form of faith in Allah, for Javier, it manifested in the form of faith in Jesus thanks to a Christian upbringing and verses from the Bible that encourage charity.
On the other hand, for the Californian runner John, an ardent student of the New Age movement, it manifested in the form of faith in a Conscience Universe and the Law of Attraction.
In all cases, the faith of Aicha, Omar, Javier and John is the same in essence, and when they disagree about it amongst themselves, it’s all really just semantics.
None of them can back up the validity and truth of their beliefs and nobody can disprove them either, yet they still believe what they individually believe.
Ever since I’ve started voicing my views on faith more openly online and in real-life, I’ve received mixed reactions from readers, friends and family.
Many are concerned, a few are offended, and others are cheering me on. But ultimately, many of these reactions have been misguided, because of the semantics and hermeneutics in regards to the word faith.
No, I’m most certainly not an atheist and never will be. No, I did not descend into a nihilistic empty existence. No, I haven’t dismissed all aspects of religion. No, I don’t wish to see religion’s complete eradication from the face of the earth. And hell no, I’m not going to “re-embrace” traditionalist Islam “back again” - ever.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I never really did embrace it to begin with anyway. In fact, the overwhelming vast majority of Muslims never have either and never will. Like me, they were just born into it. They were indoctrinated into it.
Worse, most of them simply go on with their lives without any deep second-thoughts about a belief system that isn’t really theirs, but one which was constructed for them by their parents, the schools they studied in and the houses of worship they revere.
It is the dangerous booby-trap. It is the easy unexamined life dominated by unexamined faith. It is apathy. It is the blue pill of The Matrix.
It. Is. Bliss.
(The Blue Pill of The Matrix)
Defining Faith
It is now abundantly clear to me that faith is a word which holds radically different meanings in different minds.
It is something with dynamic multiple dimensions, and one that has taken me years of mental torture, and psychological misery to better understand and decipher.
We bicker passionately and contest the other’s views about it even though we’re often essentially talking about the same thing.
We react aggressively and feel provoked because we falsely assume its definition is the same on all sides involved.
We waste time and energy debating it, before we’ve even attempted to epistemologically examine and dissect with the mighty sword of reason just what the heck it entails in the first place.
So what is it? What is faith anyways?
Well, philosophically speaking and simply put, I define faith as the belief in something without the rational and empirical evidence to back it up. Hence, in the presence of evidence, one would not require faith.
Using that definition as my basis, I’ve dissected seven different categories of faith which profoundly impact us all in our everyday life. Some of them are good, and others, horrendous. In the next series of posts I do my best to explain each category with clear examples.
The following speech by Sam Harris is inevitably going to offend some of you. This is not why I’m posting it. You see, while I have some severe disagreements with Sam Harris, his rationalist stance on mysticism and spirituality is unique amongst the major well-known atheists of today, and I believe deserves attention.
Part 1 of 2
(In minute 23 of the above video, Harris begins delving into the subject of mysticism and spirituality)
The man has actually spent years meditating and for a short while was even the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard. Moreover he dedicates an entire chapter in his NY Times best-seller The End of Faith to discussing contemplative traditions in a largely positive light, something he’s received lots of heat from many atheists for.
Editor’s note: The following is a guest blog post by J, a Finnish friend of mine. He’s one of the few people I know in real-life with whom I deeply enjoy discussions about meditation, mysticism and philosophy. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says in this short piece, but thought it relates well to the topics discussed here. (Pic Source).
This is a story about the rise and fall of a great civilization and how its ruin may hold the seed for humanity’s greatest hopes.
The Golden Age
Towards the end of the Umayyad Caliphate the Islamic Empire had established itself as one the largest empires in human history. The Muslim civilization became a cradle of intellectual development with cities like Baghdad and Cordoba as the crown jewels.
Much of the knowledge from ancient civilizations, Greece, India, the Byzantine Empire, and many more, was stored and translated by Muslim scholars. Thinkers such as Ibn Sina , Ibn Rushd, and Al-Ghazali pushed the boundaries of science, philosophy, and spirituality.
This aptly named Golden Age, a renaissance before the Renaissance, lasted for over 500 years. A perfect storm of Mongol hordes and repeated Black Death epidemics left the empire in tatters, and a marginalization of ijtihad cast a further shadow on Baghdad’s role as the world’s intellectual centre.
The European Renaissance
Throughout this period Europe had lain in relative obscurity with constant warring taking its toll and religious fundamentalism rooting out most freethinkers. However, all of this was about to change as classical texts and Muslim scholars started pouring in, seeking shelter from the vicissitudes facing the Muslim civilization.
It is with this background that we must look at great men like Leonardo, Copernicus, Galileo, and Martin Luther, who forever changed the course of history. The European Renaissance had become the heir of the Golden Age of Islam.
The Tragedy of Modernity
At first the newly unshackled human creativity and reason engaged curiously with religion, art, and science. But soon science started eating its way into the other cultural spheres, pushing true mystics such as Meister Eckhart out from the mainstream discourse.
And herein lies the true tragedy of modernity. Spiritual rapture and transcendent realization were placed into the same category as religious dogma, which then inevitably led to the disenchantment of our world and the crisis of meaning we face today.
A Second Chance?
Sadly, the Western civilization is unlikely to ever have a second chance at Renaissance. The baby has been thrown out with the bath water and the culture now faces the arduous task of recovering or, more often than not, importing, the wisdom and practice of mysticism.
Yet there is a glimmer of hope in this story. Many Muslim countries are now coming to terms with a clash of the religious and scientific cultural spheres. A second chance at Renaissance? How will you answer the call?
Location: Deep, Deep Down the Orgasmic Rabbit Hole of Epistemology.
Bio of Awesomeness: Traditionalist Muslim, Turned Free Thinking Sufi Lover. Social Media Consultant to NY Times Best-Selling Authors. Author of Upcoming Memoir. Belief Systems Junkie. Afro-Arab Libertarian Music Freak. Vehemently Anti-Islamist. Loud and Drop Dead Gorgeous. The High Priest of Mischievous "Blasphemy." Read on and Have Your Brain Spun. You've Been Warned!
"If I don't have the freedom to disbelieve, I cannot believe."
— Abdullahi An-Na'im
"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear."
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
