Saturday, October 21, 2006

Dialogue 2. The Joy of Anxt

Ismaeel wrote, in the comment cited below:


I do not wrestle with my beliefs, I am very happy and secure in them and the discussion of the MfFE did not cause me any anxt although it may have caused others some.
This encapsulates a profound difference between some religious thinking, and the secular world. Of course, many religious people (including, according to the Bible, Jesus) have wrestled with doubt; this why the word "faith" has such importance and does not, for everybody, just mean blind acceptance.

But for secularists, doubt is everything. Doubt informs us, makes us question, makes us learn. This is why it is good practice in scientific papers for the writer(s) actually to point out real and potential problems in their work. They are seeking the truth, not trying to impose their findings on the world (I repeat, this is good, rather than invariable, practice).

Only by doubting the accepted wisdom do we investigate and learn new things. Without doubt, we would not be able to communicate like this, because computers would not exist.

Some religious people try to capitalise on this, dishonestly. In a previous post, I quoted from the ask the imam website:
It is our belief that Allah is the creator of the universe and all its contents. The concept of evolution is un Islamic. The animals, humans, etc all were created by the command of Allah and will be created by His command. The ever changing conclusions of the scientists is sufficient of their false research.
Note the last sentence. Their "false research" into this area has sequenced a full human genome. Genetic engineering - the direct manipulation of one part of the mechanism of evolution - holds out the promise of cures for cancers, Altzheimer's disease and will revolutionise human life this coming century.

We need the contribution of the Islamic world, of the brains, inventiveness and inquiry the world saw in the past. Don't get left behind.

Ismaeel, you should wrestle with your beliefs. You'd be stronger for it.

1 comment:

Peter Risdon said...

Ismaeel's response 2:

I do not wrestle with my beliefs, I am very happy and secure in them and the discussion of the MfFE did not cause me any anxt although it may have caused others some.

This encapsulates a profound difference between some religious thinking, and the secular world. Of course, many religious people (including, according to the Bible, Jesus) have wrestled with doubt; this why the word "faith" has such importance and does not, for everybody, just mean blind acceptance.


Peter, you seem to forget that i converted to Islam, i was brought up Roman Catholic and investigated various other faith traditions and non-faith worldviews before accepting Islam, I did my doubt and had my anxt and happy with the decision I made.

But for secularists, doubt is everything. Doubt informs us, makes us question, makes us learn. This is why it is good practice in scientific papers for the writer(s) actually to point out real and potential problems in their work. They are seeking the truth, not trying to impose their findings on the world (I repeat, this is good, rather than invariable, practice).Only by doubting the accepted wisdom do we investigate and learn new things. Without doubt, we would not be able to communicate like this, because computers would not exist.

This is not unique to secularists and as you know full well Muslim scientists pioneered and laid the foundations for most of modern science. The fact that the Qur'aan tells it's reader to go out and test and find out what if what it says is true is an example of how the revelation gave impetus to empirical testing and gave an example of a falsification test.

Some religious people try to capitalise on this, dishonestly. In a previous post, I quoted from the ask the imam website:
It is our belief that Allah is the creator of the universe and all its contents. The concept of evolution is un Islamic. The animals, humans, etc all were created by the command of Allah and will be created by His command. The ever changing conclusions of the scientists is sufficient of their false research.Note the last sentence. Their "false research" into this area has sequenced a full human genome. Genetic engineering - the direct manipulation of one part of the mechanism of evolution - holds out the promise of cures for cancers, Altzheimer's disease and will revolutionise human life this coming century.We need the contribution of the Islamic world, of the brains, inventiveness and inquiry the world saw in the past. Don't get left behind.Ismaeel, you should wrestle with your beliefs. You'd be stronger for it.

I'm not a great fan of ask the Imam website, he gets too many questions and he answers far too briefly, i suggest you use www.sunnipath.com. Briefly as to the question of evolution, we believe that it is possible to have evolution within species but not evolution of one species into another.