Nihilism of major LIFE STANCES versus Opposing Views
1. Hinduism: ALL that comes about in the cosmos was and is and will be is CAUSED by Brahman.
2. Buddhism: Many different views, some totally deterministic, some emphasizing human creativity and hopeful choice.
2. Greek and some Middle-eastern religions: FATE causes all that happens.
That’s why Oedipus must murder his father even though he doesn’t want to, tries to avoid doing so.
3. Orthodox Judaism: Divided views, depending which version of Judaism is asked.
“The Pharisees held that not all things are divinely predestined, but that some are dependent on the will of man; the Sadducees denied any interference of God in human affairs; while the Essenes ascribed everything to divine predestination ("B. J." ii. 8, § 14; "Ant." xiii. 5, § 9).”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/.../12338-predestination.
“In an essay entitled "Iggeret ha-Gezerah," Abner of Burgos propounds the Ash'ariya doctrine of predestination, according to which every human act, both in the material and the spiritual life, is predestined. This doctrine, however, was combated by all Jewish thinkers, and especially by Maimonides, who pointed out all the absurdities to which the Ash'ariya were compelled to have recourse in order to sustain their views ("Moreh Nebukim," iii., ch. xvii.).”
“Talmud…asked…God how long he would suffer from his poverty.” [God[ answers “Eleazar's poverty could not be helped, he having been predestined to be poor.”
“…saying of Ḥanina's is, "A man does not hurt his finger in this world unless it has been decreed above" (Ḥul. 7b). https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/.../12338-predestination
4. Islam: Allah causes all /wills all—predestines all (Qadar).
(Like some versions of Judaism, and most versions of creedal Christianity, IF SOMETHING HAPPENS and EVERYTHING THAT HUMANS DO—all is predetermined by God.
However, there are a minority of Muslim leaders such as in some Shia branches of Islam in history and now who reject this total
determinism.
“Naser Makarem Shirazi gives a similar example:
They say, “Does God know that so and so at such and such an hour on such and such a day will kill someone or will drink an alcoholic beverage?” If we say, “He does not know,” we have denied God's knowledge. And if we say, “Yes, that person must do this, otherwise God's knowledge will be imperfect,” then, in order to preserve God's knowledge, a person is obliged to sin and obey God!”
Shirazi, Naser Makarem (12 May 2015). "The Issue of Predestination and Free Will. God's Knowledge". The Justice of God. Al-Islam.org.
-
5. Augustinian Roman Catholicism, Reformed, Lutheran, Calvinistic, etc. (most creedal Christians):
They claim as a central doctrine of the Creeds and most theologians based in Augustine/Calvin/Luther that the Trinity predestined/foreordained/willed/caused all that happens.
For example,this is extremely claimed in Luther’s The Bondage of the Will. Luther had first been an Augustinian monk.
6. In contrast, Wesleyan, Quaker, Anabaptist, etc., and Eastern Orthodox Christianity take a very different view: They OPPOSE the hard DETERMINISM of the Augustinian West (Roman Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, etc.)
Eastern Orthodox--
“…these two principles can be at odds one with another. God may always will the salvation of man, but man may not always accept it. Such was the case in the Gospels, when it was said of the Pharisees and the lawyers that “they rejected the will of God for themselves.”
https://saintgeorgekearney.com/load.php?pageid=55
-
7. Most of Atheism-Naturalism-Materialism very strangely strongly agrees with creedal Western Christianity such as famous leader R.C. Sproul who claimed that Not a single molecule moves in the cosmos but that God planned/willed/ caused it.
The HUGE difference, of course
is atheists claim, NOT that any god caused all of history going back over 14 billion years, But Nature-Cosmos COMPLETELY DETERMINED
ALL at the beginning of the Cosmos,
determined at the microsecond of the Big Bang or the Laws of Physics.
For instance, the famous scientist and atheist Sam Harris claims that all actions of all humans, etc. even if the universe repeats a “trillion” times will happen exactly the same.
All humans are “puppets”--our sense of "I" is an illusion--according to Harris, that Reality is like gigantic “tumors all the way down” that force everything to happen in the past, present, and future, at least until the cosmos ceases to exist. Harris states that just like a guy in Texas was forced to commit mass murder from a university tower, so ALL humans are forced by the Cosmos/Big Bang to do what happens.
--
IN CONTRAST, some life stances OPPOSE DETERMINISM; INSTEAD they STATE that the Cosmos is OPEN to Hope, Creativity, etc.
While there are givens in the Cosmos, in nature and history, such as the Laws of Physics, and that one human can’t be everywhere at once, so is finite and limited, YET
Individual humans can creatively (and hopefully reasonably) make one choice out of many possible ones.
All humans do have moral responsibility and by their moral choices and discoveries can give new creative directions to themselves, and to a finite extent, even nature!
NO GOD, NO FATE, NO COSMOS HAS DERTERMINED EVERYTHING.
Despite all of the suffering, havoc, disasters, diseases, and destruction in the Cosmos, and many immoral and unjust choices of humans,
There is YET HOPE to counter the horrific tragedies.
--Dan Wilcox
6/4/23
For FB and Blog
Showing posts with label fate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fate. Show all posts
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Monday, September 5, 2022
Resigned in LOSS, without security, in old age, fading away...HOWEVER
Now that I am restricted to a sedentary, post-stroke in-house life, I have far more time to spend on the Great Questions, the conundrums of reality, the bizare misbehavior and fallacious beliefs of billions of smart highly educated humans, etc.
For instance, I am baffled how multi-millions of smart Americans can be deceived by extremism of the left and the right!
However, these absurd tragedies do help me now understand now how in the 20th century, the 19th, and many hundreds of centuries before, billions of smart homo sapiens could become totally deceived by massive untruths.
More and more, I realize now, that no human can be totally objective because he is born at a certain time in a certain place, with a certain temperament, certain sexuality, certain environment,certain family, culture, religion or lack, etc.
HOWEVER, contrary to the determinists, that doesn’t mean that each human has no choice, that he is only a puppet, only a bungle/bundle of atoms jostling about in meaningless matter and energy, determined from the Big Bang.
Each human within his limited situation, does have moral responsibility, moral capability, the ability to create and to invent, to choose among alternative choices, to promise, effect changes in his environment. Even in the worst situation that happens in life such as barely existing in a Nazi Concentration Camp like Victor Frankl did.
The thinker Frankl emphasizes, each human can choose various ways to act, between the stimulus and response of even horrific events. Each individual human can choose creatively choose his attitude.
That is Free Will! Though that word is a misnamed term since no human is totally free of any influence; rather the usual definition of f.w. is that each human does have moral ability, and creativity, the ability to make choices among a limited number of options. Each human isn’t a puppet, yanked hither and thither by cosmic fate, god, or the cosmos.
No, there is no life form in reality that is totally free of its place and time; so we don’t have free will in the unlimited definition of free will that many atheists and creedal Christians define Free Will as. No species is totally free (without any constraints or physical or social limitations); no one has the ability to act from nowhere, independent of where he lives, in any way he chooses among millions of choices.
HOWEVER, within limitations, we can choose among different options, using our reflection and reason and creativity each day.
For instance, while I probably was not likely to become a worshiper of Thor or to avidly enjoy torturing people or believe the earth is flat! there are some humans much smarter than me who did and still do choose such actions. So at some point in my life, if I had given into temptations or propaganda, I suppose I could have even made those highly unlikely choices.
Strangely, there are humans similar to me in many ways who I know personally who did choose to turn to pagan superstition even though they are brilliant, highly educated individuals living in a scientific secular society! Baffling.
Contrary to the determinists, I did have a choice of whether or not to tease my sister, tell a minor lie, whether or not to drive the speed limit, etc. Years ago, I did have the choice whether or not to wait until I was 16 or to get my learner’s permit at 15. I had the ability to reject or accept temptations of such as some teens to drive recklessly, etc.
I did have the ability to finally to accept that Christianity is delusion based upon all of the evidence, though it took many years of study, reflection, discussion, to give up my deeply heartfelt, so loved hope in the Good News.
There are millions of much smarter, more highly educated humans who still choose Christianity, though there is plenty of evidence that it can’t be true. The amazing, powerful thinker Randal Rauser is one of them.
It appears that he has gone through, suffered through many of the same tragic evidences that many others have, but in the end he still chooses to perform a ‘hail mary’ pass of improbable meticulous providence and holds to belief in a strange definition of inerrancy--that God wanted errors, untruths, immoral commands, etc. in the Bible, therefore the Bible is "inerrant" from God's point of view!
The vast majority of humans don’t mean that at all by the term "inerrancy." Instead, they use the common dictionary definition of the term--that the Bible is without a single scientific, historical, grammatical, textural error!
Multi-millions of creedal Christians sincerely believe this, even though a quick glance at historic texts of the Bible will show that the manuscripts even have thousands of textural errors! And an objective study of Scripture shows that it has many errors in science and history.
The most infamous one is that Joshua in the Hebrew Bible commanded the sun to stop still in the sky while he slew his enemies, and God stopped the sun!
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
For instance, I am baffled how multi-millions of smart Americans can be deceived by extremism of the left and the right!
However, these absurd tragedies do help me now understand now how in the 20th century, the 19th, and many hundreds of centuries before, billions of smart homo sapiens could become totally deceived by massive untruths.
More and more, I realize now, that no human can be totally objective because he is born at a certain time in a certain place, with a certain temperament, certain sexuality, certain environment,certain family, culture, religion or lack, etc.
HOWEVER, contrary to the determinists, that doesn’t mean that each human has no choice, that he is only a puppet, only a bungle/bundle of atoms jostling about in meaningless matter and energy, determined from the Big Bang.
Each human within his limited situation, does have moral responsibility, moral capability, the ability to create and to invent, to choose among alternative choices, to promise, effect changes in his environment. Even in the worst situation that happens in life such as barely existing in a Nazi Concentration Camp like Victor Frankl did.
The thinker Frankl emphasizes, each human can choose various ways to act, between the stimulus and response of even horrific events. Each individual human can choose creatively choose his attitude.
That is Free Will! Though that word is a misnamed term since no human is totally free of any influence; rather the usual definition of f.w. is that each human does have moral ability, and creativity, the ability to make choices among a limited number of options. Each human isn’t a puppet, yanked hither and thither by cosmic fate, god, or the cosmos.
No, there is no life form in reality that is totally free of its place and time; so we don’t have free will in the unlimited definition of free will that many atheists and creedal Christians define Free Will as. No species is totally free (without any constraints or physical or social limitations); no one has the ability to act from nowhere, independent of where he lives, in any way he chooses among millions of choices.
HOWEVER, within limitations, we can choose among different options, using our reflection and reason and creativity each day.
For instance, while I probably was not likely to become a worshiper of Thor or to avidly enjoy torturing people or believe the earth is flat! there are some humans much smarter than me who did and still do choose such actions. So at some point in my life, if I had given into temptations or propaganda, I suppose I could have even made those highly unlikely choices.
Strangely, there are humans similar to me in many ways who I know personally who did choose to turn to pagan superstition even though they are brilliant, highly educated individuals living in a scientific secular society! Baffling.
Contrary to the determinists, I did have a choice of whether or not to tease my sister, tell a minor lie, whether or not to drive the speed limit, etc. Years ago, I did have the choice whether or not to wait until I was 16 or to get my learner’s permit at 15. I had the ability to reject or accept temptations of such as some teens to drive recklessly, etc.
I did have the ability to finally to accept that Christianity is delusion based upon all of the evidence, though it took many years of study, reflection, discussion, to give up my deeply heartfelt, so loved hope in the Good News.
There are millions of much smarter, more highly educated humans who still choose Christianity, though there is plenty of evidence that it can’t be true. The amazing, powerful thinker Randal Rauser is one of them.
It appears that he has gone through, suffered through many of the same tragic evidences that many others have, but in the end he still chooses to perform a ‘hail mary’ pass of improbable meticulous providence and holds to belief in a strange definition of inerrancy--that God wanted errors, untruths, immoral commands, etc. in the Bible, therefore the Bible is "inerrant" from God's point of view!
The vast majority of humans don’t mean that at all by the term "inerrancy." Instead, they use the common dictionary definition of the term--that the Bible is without a single scientific, historical, grammatical, textural error!
Multi-millions of creedal Christians sincerely believe this, even though a quick glance at historic texts of the Bible will show that the manuscripts even have thousands of textural errors! And an objective study of Scripture shows that it has many errors in science and history.
The most infamous one is that Joshua in the Hebrew Bible commanded the sun to stop still in the sky while he slew his enemies, and God stopped the sun!
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Look at Facts versus Truth, AGAIN
From an Introduction to Literature book [with my own responding commentary and reflections in brackets]:
"Water boils at 212° F." True or false? It depends. In Denver, a mile high, the statement is false; at sea level, it is true, provided we all agree what F stands for, what the superscript means, and what the rest of the words in the statement denote.
“But facts - a kind of truth-are slippery. The fact that water flows downhill can be verified to most people's satisfaction by pouring water down a number of hills, but what practical test is there to verify that the square root of nine is three?
--
[Or that induction is to be trusted?
The philosopher David Hume stated that there is no proof for induction.
Or perception is real?
Or that all of existence is real, not illusion as Asian religions and some philosophers claim?]
--
“It is a truth about human life -has been and no doubt always will be - that a young man [or young woman] of great gifts must sooner or later make a choice, and in doing so he [she] closes the door on alternative choices.
“He may devote all his talent to becoming, say, a great soldier, and with diligence he may enjoy success. Or he may devote his talent to becoming a politician, and assuming he is willing to make the necessary sacrifices of time and energy, he may very well succeed there.
“Or he may concentrate all his gifts on becoming a playboy and bon vivant, and no doubt he will have success there too, always of course at the cost of realizing his potential in other areas of endeavor. Most of us can do only so much in one lifetime, and to do anything extremely well takes something close to total commitment.
“Insight into this truth is expressed in one of the great myths of classical antiquity. At a feast of the gods on Mount Olympus, the uninvited goddess of discord, Eris, mischievously threw onto the table an apple labeled "For the Fairest."
“Three feminine hands reached for it...To decide, the handsomest of mortals, Paris, was brought to the feast, where each of the three goddesses promised rewards to him if he would give the apple to her.
“...Paris...gave the apple to Aphrodite, and from that choice reaped the reward of Helen, most beautiful of women, with all the consequences-including the fall of Troy and the destruction of his family...
“Whether or not there was ever a man named Paris, there is truth in the myth that is as valid as fact, and more affecting.
“Myth, then, collects the diverse experience of the race of man and fashions it into memorable and enduring form.
--
[But is the literature textbook correct, that non-factual stories are as valid as facts?
Since the term, myth, has come to almost always mean falsehood, delusion, etc., a better word would be “life-stance story.” In such stories, there may be ethical truth, philosophical observation, even a lucid understanding of one aspect of Life or the Cosmos.
BUT on the other hand, there may be only illusion and dysfunction.
Because of his deep sense of fate, and his belief in the belief of an inseparable Union, Lincoln caused the death of almost 1 million humans, untold wounding of millions more, the destruction of cities and farms, and an ambivalent legacy that is still with us, etc.]
--
“...Is it not true that men often do evil with the best of intentions?”
--
[For Lincoln’s nemesis—strangely the very military leader who before Lincoln’s war attack into the Confederacy, he had asked to lead all Union troops!--
Robert E. Lee, also, had life-changing beliefs, a strong Christian belief in predestination (not significantly different from Lincoln’s belief in fate), but which led to a completely opposite response in life—which also was involved in causing much of the death and destruction that President Lincoln instituted.
Strangely, Lee as a dedicated Christian said that we ought to love our enemies, but that didn't stop him from causing the death of hundreds of thousands of humans, some of whom he used to work with! Lee killed them in duty, honor, and justice:-(
Indeed, most of the 20th century, and now the 21st century has seen political and religious leaders, with the “best of intentions”
cause more untold evil—the slaughter of millions of civilians, hundreds of millions of humans--beginning with the Great War down to the current slaughters in the Middle East and invasion by the United States who currently fights in at least 7 separate wars among the many on-going Islamic fratricides.]
--
Or consider the famous life-stance story of Jews, Christians, and Muslims:
“the Garden of Eden and the events we are told took place there...
“Some people read the account in Genesis as factual truth, but it is hardly necessary to insist on literal accuracy to appreciate the profound…truths of the story told simply in Genesis…
“The temptation to rise above one's place in the universe…is a universal human experience...their effort to convince themselves that what they have done is right despite all evidence to the contrary. We can recognize these and other truths in the story, although we have never known a world literally like that of Adam and Eve.
“Perhaps the most profound aspect of the story lies in God's commandment that man not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge and man's breaking of that commandment. We assume the value of knowledge, but many of the most able observers of man's progress wonder, as they ponder the future, whether what lies before us is ultimately good or evil.”
--
[The famous psychologist and professor Steven Pinker has written 2 lucid, heavily fact-based books, Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now, showing that despite nearly constant gloomy media news, tremendous moral and flourishing life progress has actually been made by humans in the last 50 years.]
--
Contrarily,
“Has our knowledge outgrown our ability to use it wisely? As we learn how to destroy the inhabitants of the earth, and as we hover on the brink of discovering how to create life itself, we might find more significance in the ancient story of the fall of man than we had realized.”
--
[Many nations, currently, are turning to ‘strongmen’ to lead their nations. The U.S.—which already has many thousands of nuclear bombs, enough to destroy the world many times—is committed to building new ones and the current president, too, now wants to militarize Space!
Plus, President Trump has taken thousands of children away from refugee parents and claims that Americans ought to be “first” yet at the same time is strongly supported by over 81% of conservative Christians who claim he is “pro-life"!]
--
"I only have time for facts," the innocent often say. "No time for make-believe." But fiction-the best of it-isn't make-believe.
It is often the more enduring reality, and because it contains truth, it goes beyond personal and national boundaries. Thus, one need not be a Greek to recognize truth in Oedipus the King, or a Roman Catholic to be astonished by the accuracy of vision in The Divine Comedy.
“Nor does one have to insist on a literal interpretation of Christian doctrine in order to find profound truths about man and his fate in, Paradise Lost.
“1. Although facts are not the only form of truth, they are extremely important.
What is a fact?
What is the importance of facts in your everyday life?
What is the relationship between facts and ideas?
Between facts and opinions?
"2. Is man essentially good?
“Or is he essentially evil?
--from a literature textbook
--
[OR is the human primate not capable of good or evil?
IS the human species ONLY--
“You, your joys and your sorrow, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.”
-Francis Crick, the famous Scientist and Atheistic Naturalist
OR HOW can any of the life-stance stories possibly be true in the sense that the literary author means (ethically and philosophically, not factually)
since so many contradict each other.
To be continued—
In the Light,
Daniel Eugene Wilcox
Monday, August 29, 2016
Part #3: REALITY--CREATIVITY and the OPENNESS of the FUTURE
SUBPOINT C: CREATIVITY AND THE OPENNESS OF THE FUTURE
Previously:
Part #1: Monads, Quarks..."I," and God
Part #2: Ultimate Becoming, Divine Process
Point #1: Bottom Up
Subpoint A: Choices
Subpoint B: Ethics and Human Rights
Remember, we left off last time delving into the extremely complex controversies of determinism versus ethics.
A large number of religionists (in history some Jews, the vast majority of Muslims, many Christians, nearly all Hindus) and lots of atheists think that everything is fated, that humans have no choice.
If everything that will ever happen in the future, down to the slightest movement of the smallest quark and atom was totally fated--completely determined at the moment of the Big Bang about 13.4 billion years ago—then we conscious primates exist
in a gigantic many trillion-zillion-kilometered
petrified swirl of amber.
All conscious entities in the whole cosmos including us homo sapiens (in the multiverse, if it exists) are but momentary infinitesimal aware specks in solid ‘granite’
—lock, stock, and barrel.
As so many determinists give the analogy--We humans are but only "shot bullets" headed toward whatever target. locked in, without any choice.
Everything is freeze-framed forever.
If so, then there are no ethics, no choices (the ability to choose between good and bad, rights or not), no creativity, no future as commonly meant, as defined by dictionaries.
Then, life is, indeed, absurd.
HOWEVER, don’t lose hope, don’t despair.
There are plenty of other scientists, philosophers, and deep thinkers who reflect,
that while, it is true, that we do exist within a physical matter
and energy system, within that very complex existence, there is openness,
uncertainty, some chance, and even creativity at play.
Form and freedom both exist!
It is true that our lives are situated within certain parameters of our physical nature,
our temperament, our background, culture and society, family, etc.,
BUT
within that complex system, we as finite conscious entities can make creative choices,
can make a difference in the real world.
Within existence, to a certain limited degree, there is openness to the future, at every moment.
Form and creativity interplay.
First, let’s take care of the “within a limited degree,” before we launch into the wonder of creative openness.
Many cosmologists speculate based on very real world facts that Existence--all of the cosmos--will expand forever, creating space as it spirals out and out.
By NASA / WMAP Science Team - http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/121238/ilc_9yr_moll4096.png, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23285693
The astronomy professor Chris Impey, of the University of Arizona, Tucson has written a number of science books on cosmology and astronomy including How It Began,
How It Ends,
and The Living Cosmos.
Impey makes a number of excellent points:
How It Ends: From You to the Universe by Chris Impey (W.W. Norton)
"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms," said poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser. I agree. One of the greatest myths of science is that is consists of nothing more than dull, obdurate facts. The myth dissolves in the face of the powerful narrative that science has created to help us organize and understand the world.
We have a story of how the universe grew from a jot of space-time to the splendor of 50 billion galaxies. We have a story of how a broth of molecules on the primeval Earth turned into flesh and blood. And we have a story of how one of the millions of species evolved to hold those 50 billion galaxies inside its head.
This is a book about endings. Science mostly answers the question of how things got to be the way they are. Yet if we stop at the present day, the job is only half done, as every good story needs an ending....As a result, the material in this book is rooted in fact but it extends into conjecture. Scientists steer toward the boundary between what they know and what they don't know because that's where the excitement is."
"The material moves outward in scale from the human to the cosmic, and outward in time span from the familiar to the nearly eternal...As feisty apes with more piss and vinegar than wisdom we may not survive troubled adolescence, but visionaries are imagining ways we could transcend the limits of biology."
"Time is the ruler for these stories. We follow it on scales from a heartbeat to the 1080 years it takes for the galaxy to dissipate. Physicist John Wheeler reminded us that we take it for granted when he said, 'Time is what keeps things from happening all at once.'"
"Everyone likes a good ending...[but]this book is factual and it talks about the actual death of our planet, our star, our galaxy, us. It's not a cue to be glum, however, because the universe is filled with such magnificent possibility."
How It Ends by Chris Impey, pages 11-13, Norton & Company
--
AH, there it is--a word I as a freethinker and free-willer, love--"possibility."
That is the key point of this 3rd subpoint, that we conscious entities DO have possibilities in our very brief finite lives.
We can make a difference in our own life, in the lives of other people, even in the future of our planet!
Qualifier:
All of this does show my own intellectual bias, I admit. I earned my university degree in Creative Writing, taught creative writing to high school students, have spent my life in creative pursuits, am an avid poet and novelist, and an active science enthusiast. Therefore, from the get start, I take a dim view of closed systems, rote determinism.
Form without freedom is slavery, and philosophical determinism is the worst form of enslavement.
Form without creativity isn't even death, because that presupposes life.
Becoming is the opposite of determinism. It is openness to this next moment.
Go to that website for some excellent methods to enhance your creativity.
Reach for the gold--what could be.
To be continued--
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Friday, August 12, 2016
The Day of Doom and the Holy Quran
Another chapter from the suspense novel, An Eye for the Beheading:
Chapter 4: Day of Doom and the Holy Quran
Preface Quotations:
Bangladesh Hindu priest beheaded by Islamic State
BBC News
The Itamar massacre which included the beheading of a baby...[in Israel/Palestine]
Calgary Herald
Israeli News: “a little child’s head [3-month-old Haddas Fogel] was decapitated” by Muslims Amjad Awad and Hakim Awad...
proudly admit they knifed to death five members of the Jewish Fogel family in the West Bank Settler village of Itamar on Shabbat."
Later, Palestinian TV aired an interview in which the mother of Hakim and his aunt said
they were proud of him for the attack which included the beheading.
His aunt described him as a “hero and a legend.”
The Jerusalem Post, Israel
Quran 5:33: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution (by beheading), or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;
Palestinian school textbook:
--Muslims Martyrs who kill Jews: "God will not send away their works...and (will) admit them into paradise.”
Martyrs “will be given the highest place in paradise with the prophets and messengers.”
News: Palestinian militants...began gathering up the Israeli body parts, and at one point were seen playing soccer with the severed head of one Israeli soldier.
"People were running after me and we were kicking the head," he said. "We were spitting on it."
When we heard a helicopter we started running. I carried the head of the Jew and ran away from the area and I took it to the people in the resistance."
Telegraph Report, United Kingdom
Hours earlier, an Israeli shell aimed at a group of Gaza militants slammed into a nearby house and decapitated a 6-year-old Palestinian girl.
Associated Press
UN staff were beheaded as Afghans rage against pastor who burnt Quran
The Independent News
Photo: Gazan Muslim Leader Calling for the Killing of Jews
Quran 8:12: I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off.
Quran 47:4: Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), strike off their heads; at length; then when you have made wide Slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives
Quran 9:123: Oh ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you.
Quran 2:191: Kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from wherever they drove you out.
Quran 8:17: It is not ye who Slew them; it is God; when thou threwest a handful of dust, it was not Thy act, but God’s...
“When Banu Qurayza Jewish tribe was surrendered (627 A.D.) unconditionally, the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches tying theirs both hands with their necks.
This beheading went on until the apostle made an end of them. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900. Apparently Muhammad himself worked on the digging of the trench into which the massacred Jews were to be thrown. But he (Muhammad) did not only take part in those preparations, the formulation of the text states but also participated himself in beading of at least two of the leading Jews.
Sahi Buchari Hadiths #143, page-700 : Sulaiman Ibne Harb…Aannas Ibne Malek (ra) narrated, “in the war of Khaiber after the inhabitants of Banu Qurayza was surrendered, Allah’s apostle killed all the able/adult men, and he (prophet) took all women and children as captives (Ghani mateer maal).. Among the captives Rayhana a beautiful young Jewish girl was taken by Allah’s Apostle as booty whom He married after freeing her and her freedom was her Mohr.”
According to the biography of Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, Prophet Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe mercilessly. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad’s order to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in attendance."
--
Chapter 4
Two weeks later, Afifah walked hesitantly toward her biology class on the lower campus. The stitched wound in her side still pained her, but other than that, and a constant glancing around where ever she walked, she felt almost back to normal, if Allah wills.
A guy student standing by an oasis of palms in the middle of the concrete, glanced at her. Afifah pulled her scarf lower on her forehead and looked away.
Her best friend Dalia paced beside her, a ready-helper if she needed anything. Dalia, was a political science major, an Egyptian from Cairo, who had come to take courses at Orange Coast and then transfer to UCI, the science and humanities ‘mecca.’
Well, neither of them used that term; it sounded blasphemous, but they heard the word so often from other students in Orange County, that it stuck.
“Have you heard anything from the police yet?” asked Dalia as she silenced her cell phone which was buzzing. “Probably my political theory study group asking, ‘Dalia! where are you?’”
Afifah glanced at her friend, and shook her head, her insides tumbling back into that horror—their chanting “Down with Israel!” then that sudden savage pain in her side and reverberating gun noise, and her collapsing into blackness.
She paused and then said, “I can’t understand why anyone would shoot at us, though it was Allah’s will, of course. It must have been.”
“Of course, Allah’s will, but, oh come on, these Americans are so two-faced; they talk big and give out scholarships—we got ones didn’t we? But they’re so pro-Zionist, they’d shoot their own mother if that protected Jews.”
“Dalia, I think that’s a bit harsh. Don’t believe all our own talk.” Afifah looked over at her friend again, and then around them, instinctively, as they approached the biological sciences building.
Her friend glared at her, but then broke into a smile and laughed and gave her a hug. “Yeah, maybe I am sounding too political for my own good. I’ve gotta run to study group, but remember just take it slow, since this is your first day back.”
“And phone me if you need help. Now I need to get movin’ if I ever plan to switch to UCI. Catch you later.” Dalia smiled and hurried away as she punched her cell, her robe swishing around her hurrying feet.
___________________________
Afifah rubbed her moist eyes and stared at the wall frustrated and sad. Why’d she have to read this old depressing text—The Day of Doom about babies being cast into hell by the Christian god! How is this old poem possibly going to help me become a doctor?!
Infants damned because of Original Sin, according to their professor. Because all infants were born sinners, born evil!
More depressing than last week’s study of Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” where God denies humans any free will and then tortures them forever for doing what he has already decreed!
Christianity's very weird. How depressing. It was sick, this American literature. And not even like most Americans she knew. Why do we have to study this depressing stuff?
How’s this preparing me for medical school? I’d rather study for our cell biology test. Or read my Holy Quran.
She looked over at her precious Quran placed carefully and reverently on top of her other texts and warmly touched its lucidly clean cover.
Insha’Allah, how she would like to read Muhammed’s encouraging verses instead of these gross Puritan ones. Of course, the Prophet (peace be upon him) spoke of the fires of hell, too, but only for unbelievers, heretics like the Shia; and infidels were sent there, but not precious infants!
What sense did Wigglesworth mean in this horrible verse?
“Reprobate Infants plead for themselves.”
Oh, she understood the English text fine, but what rubbish!
Original Sin. Such Christian doctrines were so weird. She reached for her cell phone, pushed back her blue hijab, and thumbed Dalia’s number. No answer. Great. Afifah frowned and picked at her lip.
Dalia was probably arguing some point of Palestinian history with contrary members in her class. What a chatterbowl! But if she would only pick up, she’d help me get through this trash.
Okay, who else could she call for moral support and encouragement?
She looked down at the damning verses again, about how supposedly God had predestined babies to Hell…
CLXVI.
1321: Then to the Bar all they drew near Reprobate Infants plead for themselves. Rev. 20:12,15, compared with Rom. 5:12,14 and 9:11,13. Ezek. 18:2.
1322: Who died in infancy,
1323: And never had or good or bad
1324: effected pers'nally;
1325: But from the womb unto the tomb
1326: were straightway carriéd,
1327: (Or at the least ere they transgress'd)
1328: who thus began to plead
Because they were to be cast into Hell…God petulantly responded back to the babies’ pleading..
1429: Will you demand Grace at my hand,
1430: and challenge what is mine?
1431: Will you teach me whom to set free,
1432: and thus my Grace confine?
CLXXX.
1433: "You sinners are, and such a share Psal. 58:8. Rom. 6:23. Gal. 3:10. Rom. 8:29,30 and 11:7. Rev. 21:27. Luke 12:14,8. Mat. 11:22.
1434: as sinners may expect,
1435: Such you shall have, for I do save
1436: none but mine own Elect.
1437: Yet to compare your sin with their
1438: who liv'd a longer time,
1439: I do confess yours is much less,
1440: though every sin's a crime.
CLXXXI.
1441: "A crime it is, therefore in bliss The wicked all convinced and put to silence. Rom. 3:19. Mat. 22:12.
1442: you may not hope to dwell;
1443: But unto you I shall allow
1444: the easiest room in Hell."
Afifah grimaced and shoved back the text.
Predestined to eternal torment, but they get the easiest room! Sick. Twisted!
Instead she thought of her youngest brother, only an infant when she had left Nablus, Palestine for the United States last year.
She grabbed her cell phone and fingered up one of her pictures of him. Only a few weeks old. What a cutie! And she got to hold him—before she left on the plane--sitting by her father while her mother washed dishes and cleaned.
That perfect nose! Those eyes moving about in the dusky room, her following his gaze trying to figure out what he was looking at. Was he thinking at all or only in-taking images like a scanner?
And those little hands waving around like a band leader--
But then that perfect moment had been shattered.
Her father had suddenly hit the palm of his hand dramatically on his leg—her nephew had startled and cried.
And Walidy had cursed at the TV. And she prayed forgiveness for her father, and sat silently, while mother walked the crying infant back and forth.
In Arabic, the TV's words were being shouted out by a angry commentator: “Israeli planes have bombed Gaza City! Again! The Zionists have murdered a 12-year-old girl and her little brother. And three martyrs were killed!” Angrily, the rose-colored, but modestly covered commentator on Al Jazeera shook her fist.
Their father stood up and slammed his fist into the wall, cursing again.
I don’t want to think on that. Afifah closed the vivid memory of last year and looked at the screen of her phone. How she wished she could be in Nablus right now!
But she knew why not. I’ll call Hatim. He loves to hear himself talk about all things religious. She hid a smile from herself and punched in his number.
Fifteen minutes later she met him along with his older sister, Naheeda, also chubby like Hatim, a sweet but dingy girl. A little flighty. They sat in the college café and sipped expresso--well she did and his sister, but Hatim was too busy ranting about America’s current sins and its despicable pride.
“That Jew-lover Obama should stop funding Israel’s new tank!”
All political stuff Afifah and everyone knew by rote. But her friend always had to give this opening political statement to everyone before he warmed up and got intellectual about college studies.
She knew several of his professors had called Hatim aside and told him he could no longer participate in discussions if he didn’t shutter this opening political rants.
His sister, Naheeda, partially hid her gawky grin to Afifah.
More rushed words. Then finally, Hamid slowed down and started explaining on what she needed help with. "So you see Wigglesworth is partially correct."
She choked on a sip of coffee and brought her hands to her face in shock. "What?!"
Naheeda looked somber and confused too, no grin now, but handed Afifah an napkin to wipe off the coffee dripping on her chin.
“What!" she said again, agigtated, her side hurting where she had been shot by the unknown sniper days earlier.
"What do mean, Hatim?” She put her coffee cup down. “You know the Quran emphasizes Allah is all merciful and compassionate, not vindictive and cruel! ‘In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful.’”
“Yes, yes, Afifah, chapter one, verse one. But,” Hatim pushed the American lit text into the center of their table, avoiding the girls’ two espressos and reached for his Quran, carefully placing the sacred text on a spread napkin.
“you must remember Puritan Christianity and Islam are actually very similar in their philosophical view—
Afifah butted in, “What?! No way!”
She who normally hardly spoke in class, and only got vocal when in demonstrations, apologized. “Sorry, for sounding so angry, but Hamid, we don’t’ believe in Original Sin like these Christians--that babies go to Hell because of Adam’s sin! That’s infidel talk, horrible lies.”
“True, but that doesn’t solve the problem. Look at chapter verse in the Quran. ‘Those whom Allah wills to guide, He opens their breast to Islam; Those whom He wills to leave straying, - he makes their breast close and constricted, as if they had to climb up to the skies…’
S. 6:125”
“And ‘Whomsoever Allah guides, he is the one who follows the right way; and whomsoever He causes to err, these are the losers. Many are the Jinns and men we have made for Hell.’
S. 7:178-179 That sounds like Wigglesworth doesn't it?"
Afifah sat confused and very angry. Her side ached.
“And Afifah, look here.” Hatim tried not to look too triumph in his presenting of hard evidence for this ignorant Muslim, friend of his sister.
"He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no protecting friend after Him. And thou (Muhammad) wilt see the evil-doers when they see the doom, (how) they say: Is there any way of return?”
“ … And they will have no protecting friends to help them instead of Allah. He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no road.’
S. 42:44, 46”
“Clearly, Muhammed (Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), clearly, emphasizes our fate in is Allah’s hand, whether to Heaven or Hell. And that includes all infants.”
Afifah sat quiet, utterly bereft.
She started to cry despite herself. No doubt I’ve read those verses many times, but--
But she had never thought about the verses alone, and certainly not in regard to infants like her baby brother.
Hatim noticed the tears, but continued, “To finish, I studied this in depth when I had the same course last spring. Christians turned against free will under the powerful guidance of the theologian Augustine--who was influenced by Eastern thinkers--and, again, in the European Reformation.”
She listened but refused to accept it. Why couldn’t Hatim understand her point?!
He kept talking, “Scholars Martin Luther and John Calvin attacked the views of moderate Catholics such as Erasmus who believed humans have choice.”
Now Hatim talked more softly, “Calvin and most after him emphasized Allah’s total sovereignty. Wigglesworth is just following the Calvinist way of thinking. Calvin spoke of reprobate infants, too.”
“And surely you remember Erasmus’s name, even if you are studying only biological sciences.” He grinned, chuckled in a friendly way, as he saw from her expression that his powerful point was having its effect.
“Yes,” Afifah wiped her face and agreed. She tried to smile, and appear thankful, but she wasn’t. I need to take a pain pill soon.
He failed to notice and added, "So you see, in a strange sort of way, Wigglesworth is very Quranic. Of course, he lacks the understanding that Muhammad, (peace be upon him) could give him if he turned to the true religion.”
Afifah listened. At least, bless his heart, Hatim had taken her questions seriously, and he had gently laughed, which eased her tension and frustration.
Then she spoke, “But, Hatim, we don’t believe Allah condemns babies do we? I don’t remember any verse that says that in the Quran.”
She wiped her face again with her napkin. Her side burnt. She needed to those pain killers in a few moments. “I need some water, Hatim.”
He took her empty coffee cup and walked over to the water cooler.
His sister Naheeda still had not said a single word, but her gawky grin was missing, and she stared toward her brother and then back at Afifah uncertainly. Finally, she took a sip of her coffee and looked around to see if she saw any of her infidel friends.
Hatim came back and handed the water to Afifah. But he wasn’t done and considered how to deliver his final proof with a little tenderness toward his sister’s friend. She was learning. Thank you, Allah!
“Well, listen," he stood and leaned forward, "some Muslim thinkers did believe in free will like Erasmus but al-Ash’ari in the the 10th century and al-Ghazali in the 12th century defeated them!”
“And ever since, we Sunnis have been predestinarians like the Reformed writers such as Wigglesworth and Edwards, though we don’t phrase it like such infidel Christians. Didn’t you study the central Islamic doctrine of qadar in your Nablus school?!”
“And, remember, Afifah, ‘insha Allah’ literally means ‘if Allah wills’ in English, so when people go to hell it is Allah’s will as much as when they go to Heaven.”
He sat down again. “Study what the Asharites said; they claim even in their teaching of “kasab” that all comes from Allah by decree including evil and Hell.”
Afifah hiccupped, then coughed, and couldn’t drink the water. She didn’t look at Hatim or his sister, but stared down at the swirled carpet below their table, stricken with inner agony, and physical pain.
But Hatim didn;t even notice. “Here’s the creed of al-Ash’ari: ‘We hold that there is no creator except Allah, and that the acts of human beings are created and decreed by Allah, as He said, 'Allah has created you and what you do' 37.96”
“And al-Ghazali: ‘…everything is due to the creation of Allah, for the choice itself is also due to the creation of Allah and man is forced into the choice which he makes.’”
Hatim caught a breath and changed direction.
“As for infants, there is a divided opinion as to whether they go to hell or not. Consider this hadith:
‘The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Four (kinds of people) will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection: the infant, the insane, the one who died during the Fatrah (the period between two prophets) and the very old man.”
“All of them will speak in their own defense, then the Lord, may He be blessed and exalted, will say to a neck of Hell, ‘Come forth!’ and He will say to them, ‘I used to send Messengers to My slaves from amongst themselves. Now I am the Messenger of Myself to you. Enter this (i.e., the Fire).’”
“Those who are decreed to be among the doomed will say, ‘O Lord, how could we enter it when we are trying to escape it?’ And those who are decreed to be among the blessed will rush to enter it. And Allah will say: ‘You would have been more disobedient towards My Messengers.’ So those will enter Paradise and those will enter Hell.’ Abu Ya’laa.”
He sat back in his chair, satisfied with his proofs. And for his conclusive clincher, he said, “Notice, how similar the hadith is to Wigglesworth’s poem stanza, how the hadith speaks of decrees like the Reformed doctrine of damnation does.”
Finally, he looked at Afifah, triumph, waiting for her to show appreciation for his scholarship, and admit defeat.
He reminded himself that Allah had given him his scholarship and excellent mental recall; he would be gentle with this dear Muslim sister.
But Afifah didn't respond or act like he expected.
She avoided his gaze and didn’t speak, but picked at a worn spot on her chair’s fabric. Why did Hatim have to have so many hadiths memorized! Why did my Walidly make me come to America? Why have my last two years been so bad? Why Allah? But she knew.
Silent moments passed in the noisy cafe around them. Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Hatim regretted his triumphal win this time. Usually in class when he had trumped someone’s skepticism or disbelief or contrary position, the budding scholar couldn’t help gloating and immersing himself in the win for hours.
But now sensing how deeply Afifah was devastated, he said, “Of course, there are, also, contrary opinions, Afifah.” He paused.
“The Quran doesn’t speak to this condition, and remember, unlike false Christianity, our faith is the absolute truth, and thus we know infants are born pure, not with Original Sin.”
Leaning forward now emphasizing each word, “And we know the Quran is perfect and eternal come down from Heaven. So even hadith must bow and worship it. So please don’t take my every comment to heart.”
He felt the urge to touch her arm, to console her, but, of course, refrained.
“Okay, thank you Hatim.” Afifah didn’t look his way, but stood, and walked off in search of her friend Dhalia, not even remembering to say goodbye to Naheeda.
As she hurried down the corridor, the stress and despair of her last two years came back and drowned her. She hurried into the restroom and swallowed a double doze of her pain medication.
__________________________
Later, bleary eyed and sniffling, Afifah leaned in against her study desk, her stomach cramping.
Dalia surrounded her with her arms and consoled her. “Look, Hatim, is such a braggart. Don’t listen to a thing he says. Remember, I’ve studied hadith, too”—she paused—“at Cairo University last year before coming to America.”
“My prof was a renowned Islamic scholar. He showed us how many hadiths aren’t even necessarily true.”
Afifah blew her nose and listened.
“Lots of stories, including false ones were told in the years after the Prophet’s death. Don’t let these quotes of Hatim bother you.” Dhalia observed her friend, trying to see if anything she was saying was helping.
“Trust the holy Quran. It alone is perfect. Remember, I’m studying this Christian trash like you. NO babies are condemned to Hell! Allah is most merciful, most just.”
Still, Afifah said nothing, but started crying again.
Dalia, suddenly leaned back, took her arms and pulled Afifah around to face her. “Why this huge over-reaction? You haven’t sinned…my sister, have you?!”
Her roommate jumped up and shook her head. “No, I am pure. No boy has touched me! Thanks for such trust!” Afifah gathered up her things.
“Sorry, dear one; I shouldn’t have said that. But you seem so upset over a long infidel poem, a weird Christian one... But why are you letting your studies get to you?”
“Everything is wrong in my life!”
“But, it’s Allah’s will, you know that.”
“Yes,” said Afifah, bowed and mumbled, “I know.”
“Think, Afifah, Allah has blessed you. You are studying to become a doctor. You have the second highest grade point average at Orange Coast College; you probably won’t even need to go to UCI after all, though it’s a fine school for pre-med.”
“I think you’ll get a full scholarship to UCLA! And you live here in rich Orange County. From what you’ve said, you lived in considerable poverty in Nablus, right?”
Afifah didn’t answer.
“And think, you don’t have to go through all those Zionist checkpoints just to get to your relatives in Bethlehem…What is really bothering you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Okay, dear friend.” Dalia hugged her and went back to studying.
--
To be continued--
--Daniel Wilcox
Chapter 4: Day of Doom and the Holy Quran
Preface Quotations:
Bangladesh Hindu priest beheaded by Islamic State
BBC News
The Itamar massacre which included the beheading of a baby...[in Israel/Palestine]
Calgary Herald
Israeli News: “a little child’s head [3-month-old Haddas Fogel] was decapitated” by Muslims Amjad Awad and Hakim Awad...
proudly admit they knifed to death five members of the Jewish Fogel family in the West Bank Settler village of Itamar on Shabbat."
Later, Palestinian TV aired an interview in which the mother of Hakim and his aunt said
they were proud of him for the attack which included the beheading.
His aunt described him as a “hero and a legend.”
The Jerusalem Post, Israel
Quran 5:33: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution (by beheading), or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;
Palestinian school textbook:
--Muslims Martyrs who kill Jews: "God will not send away their works...and (will) admit them into paradise.”
Martyrs “will be given the highest place in paradise with the prophets and messengers.”
News: Palestinian militants...began gathering up the Israeli body parts, and at one point were seen playing soccer with the severed head of one Israeli soldier.
"People were running after me and we were kicking the head," he said. "We were spitting on it."
When we heard a helicopter we started running. I carried the head of the Jew and ran away from the area and I took it to the people in the resistance."
Telegraph Report, United Kingdom
Hours earlier, an Israeli shell aimed at a group of Gaza militants slammed into a nearby house and decapitated a 6-year-old Palestinian girl.
Associated Press
UN staff were beheaded as Afghans rage against pastor who burnt Quran
The Independent News
Quran 8:12: I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off.
Quran 47:4: Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), strike off their heads; at length; then when you have made wide Slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives
Quran 9:123: Oh ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you.
Quran 2:191: Kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from wherever they drove you out.
Quran 8:17: It is not ye who Slew them; it is God; when thou threwest a handful of dust, it was not Thy act, but God’s...
“When Banu Qurayza Jewish tribe was surrendered (627 A.D.) unconditionally, the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches tying theirs both hands with their necks.
This beheading went on until the apostle made an end of them. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900. Apparently Muhammad himself worked on the digging of the trench into which the massacred Jews were to be thrown. But he (Muhammad) did not only take part in those preparations, the formulation of the text states but also participated himself in beading of at least two of the leading Jews.
Sahi Buchari Hadiths #143, page-700 : Sulaiman Ibne Harb…Aannas Ibne Malek (ra) narrated, “in the war of Khaiber after the inhabitants of Banu Qurayza was surrendered, Allah’s apostle killed all the able/adult men, and he (prophet) took all women and children as captives (Ghani mateer maal).. Among the captives Rayhana a beautiful young Jewish girl was taken by Allah’s Apostle as booty whom He married after freeing her and her freedom was her Mohr.”
According to the biography of Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, Prophet Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe mercilessly. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad’s order to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in attendance."
--
Chapter 4
Two weeks later, Afifah walked hesitantly toward her biology class on the lower campus. The stitched wound in her side still pained her, but other than that, and a constant glancing around where ever she walked, she felt almost back to normal, if Allah wills.
A guy student standing by an oasis of palms in the middle of the concrete, glanced at her. Afifah pulled her scarf lower on her forehead and looked away.
Her best friend Dalia paced beside her, a ready-helper if she needed anything. Dalia, was a political science major, an Egyptian from Cairo, who had come to take courses at Orange Coast and then transfer to UCI, the science and humanities ‘mecca.’
Well, neither of them used that term; it sounded blasphemous, but they heard the word so often from other students in Orange County, that it stuck.
“Have you heard anything from the police yet?” asked Dalia as she silenced her cell phone which was buzzing. “Probably my political theory study group asking, ‘Dalia! where are you?’”
Afifah glanced at her friend, and shook her head, her insides tumbling back into that horror—their chanting “Down with Israel!” then that sudden savage pain in her side and reverberating gun noise, and her collapsing into blackness.
She paused and then said, “I can’t understand why anyone would shoot at us, though it was Allah’s will, of course. It must have been.”
“Of course, Allah’s will, but, oh come on, these Americans are so two-faced; they talk big and give out scholarships—we got ones didn’t we? But they’re so pro-Zionist, they’d shoot their own mother if that protected Jews.”
“Dalia, I think that’s a bit harsh. Don’t believe all our own talk.” Afifah looked over at her friend again, and then around them, instinctively, as they approached the biological sciences building.
Her friend glared at her, but then broke into a smile and laughed and gave her a hug. “Yeah, maybe I am sounding too political for my own good. I’ve gotta run to study group, but remember just take it slow, since this is your first day back.”
“And phone me if you need help. Now I need to get movin’ if I ever plan to switch to UCI. Catch you later.” Dalia smiled and hurried away as she punched her cell, her robe swishing around her hurrying feet.
___________________________
Afifah rubbed her moist eyes and stared at the wall frustrated and sad. Why’d she have to read this old depressing text—The Day of Doom about babies being cast into hell by the Christian god! How is this old poem possibly going to help me become a doctor?!
Infants damned because of Original Sin, according to their professor. Because all infants were born sinners, born evil!
More depressing than last week’s study of Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” where God denies humans any free will and then tortures them forever for doing what he has already decreed!
Christianity's very weird. How depressing. It was sick, this American literature. And not even like most Americans she knew. Why do we have to study this depressing stuff?
How’s this preparing me for medical school? I’d rather study for our cell biology test. Or read my Holy Quran.
Insha’Allah, how she would like to read Muhammed’s encouraging verses instead of these gross Puritan ones. Of course, the Prophet (peace be upon him) spoke of the fires of hell, too, but only for unbelievers, heretics like the Shia; and infidels were sent there, but not precious infants!
What sense did Wigglesworth mean in this horrible verse?
“Reprobate Infants plead for themselves.”
Oh, she understood the English text fine, but what rubbish!
Original Sin. Such Christian doctrines were so weird. She reached for her cell phone, pushed back her blue hijab, and thumbed Dalia’s number. No answer. Great. Afifah frowned and picked at her lip.
Dalia was probably arguing some point of Palestinian history with contrary members in her class. What a chatterbowl! But if she would only pick up, she’d help me get through this trash.
Okay, who else could she call for moral support and encouragement?
She looked down at the damning verses again, about how supposedly God had predestined babies to Hell…
CLXVI.
1321: Then to the Bar all they drew near Reprobate Infants plead for themselves. Rev. 20:12,15, compared with Rom. 5:12,14 and 9:11,13. Ezek. 18:2.
1322: Who died in infancy,
1323: And never had or good or bad
1324: effected pers'nally;
1325: But from the womb unto the tomb
1326: were straightway carriéd,
1327: (Or at the least ere they transgress'd)
1328: who thus began to plead
Because they were to be cast into Hell…God petulantly responded back to the babies’ pleading..
1429: Will you demand Grace at my hand,
1430: and challenge what is mine?
1431: Will you teach me whom to set free,
1432: and thus my Grace confine?
CLXXX.
1433: "You sinners are, and such a share Psal. 58:8. Rom. 6:23. Gal. 3:10. Rom. 8:29,30 and 11:7. Rev. 21:27. Luke 12:14,8. Mat. 11:22.
1434: as sinners may expect,
1435: Such you shall have, for I do save
1436: none but mine own Elect.
1437: Yet to compare your sin with their
1438: who liv'd a longer time,
1439: I do confess yours is much less,
1440: though every sin's a crime.
CLXXXI.
1441: "A crime it is, therefore in bliss The wicked all convinced and put to silence. Rom. 3:19. Mat. 22:12.
1442: you may not hope to dwell;
1443: But unto you I shall allow
1444: the easiest room in Hell."
Afifah grimaced and shoved back the text.
Predestined to eternal torment, but they get the easiest room! Sick. Twisted!
Instead she thought of her youngest brother, only an infant when she had left Nablus, Palestine for the United States last year.
She grabbed her cell phone and fingered up one of her pictures of him. Only a few weeks old. What a cutie! And she got to hold him—before she left on the plane--sitting by her father while her mother washed dishes and cleaned.
That perfect nose! Those eyes moving about in the dusky room, her following his gaze trying to figure out what he was looking at. Was he thinking at all or only in-taking images like a scanner?
And those little hands waving around like a band leader--
But then that perfect moment had been shattered.
Her father had suddenly hit the palm of his hand dramatically on his leg—her nephew had startled and cried.
And Walidy had cursed at the TV. And she prayed forgiveness for her father, and sat silently, while mother walked the crying infant back and forth.
In Arabic, the TV's words were being shouted out by a angry commentator: “Israeli planes have bombed Gaza City! Again! The Zionists have murdered a 12-year-old girl and her little brother. And three martyrs were killed!” Angrily, the rose-colored, but modestly covered commentator on Al Jazeera shook her fist.
Their father stood up and slammed his fist into the wall, cursing again.
I don’t want to think on that. Afifah closed the vivid memory of last year and looked at the screen of her phone. How she wished she could be in Nablus right now!
But she knew why not. I’ll call Hatim. He loves to hear himself talk about all things religious. She hid a smile from herself and punched in his number.
Fifteen minutes later she met him along with his older sister, Naheeda, also chubby like Hatim, a sweet but dingy girl. A little flighty. They sat in the college café and sipped expresso--well she did and his sister, but Hatim was too busy ranting about America’s current sins and its despicable pride.
“That Jew-lover Obama should stop funding Israel’s new tank!”
All political stuff Afifah and everyone knew by rote. But her friend always had to give this opening political statement to everyone before he warmed up and got intellectual about college studies.
She knew several of his professors had called Hatim aside and told him he could no longer participate in discussions if he didn’t shutter this opening political rants.
His sister, Naheeda, partially hid her gawky grin to Afifah.
More rushed words. Then finally, Hamid slowed down and started explaining on what she needed help with. "So you see Wigglesworth is partially correct."
She choked on a sip of coffee and brought her hands to her face in shock. "What?!"
Naheeda looked somber and confused too, no grin now, but handed Afifah an napkin to wipe off the coffee dripping on her chin.
“What!" she said again, agigtated, her side hurting where she had been shot by the unknown sniper days earlier.
"What do mean, Hatim?” She put her coffee cup down. “You know the Quran emphasizes Allah is all merciful and compassionate, not vindictive and cruel! ‘In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful.’”
“Yes, yes, Afifah, chapter one, verse one. But,” Hatim pushed the American lit text into the center of their table, avoiding the girls’ two espressos and reached for his Quran, carefully placing the sacred text on a spread napkin.
“you must remember Puritan Christianity and Islam are actually very similar in their philosophical view—
Afifah butted in, “What?! No way!”
She who normally hardly spoke in class, and only got vocal when in demonstrations, apologized. “Sorry, for sounding so angry, but Hamid, we don’t’ believe in Original Sin like these Christians--that babies go to Hell because of Adam’s sin! That’s infidel talk, horrible lies.”
“True, but that doesn’t solve the problem. Look at chapter verse in the Quran. ‘Those whom Allah wills to guide, He opens their breast to Islam; Those whom He wills to leave straying, - he makes their breast close and constricted, as if they had to climb up to the skies…’
S. 6:125”
“And ‘Whomsoever Allah guides, he is the one who follows the right way; and whomsoever He causes to err, these are the losers. Many are the Jinns and men we have made for Hell.’
S. 7:178-179 That sounds like Wigglesworth doesn't it?"
Afifah sat confused and very angry. Her side ached.
“And Afifah, look here.” Hatim tried not to look too triumph in his presenting of hard evidence for this ignorant Muslim, friend of his sister.
"He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no protecting friend after Him. And thou (Muhammad) wilt see the evil-doers when they see the doom, (how) they say: Is there any way of return?”
“ … And they will have no protecting friends to help them instead of Allah. He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no road.’
S. 42:44, 46”
“Clearly, Muhammed (Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), clearly, emphasizes our fate in is Allah’s hand, whether to Heaven or Hell. And that includes all infants.”
Afifah sat quiet, utterly bereft.
She started to cry despite herself. No doubt I’ve read those verses many times, but--
But she had never thought about the verses alone, and certainly not in regard to infants like her baby brother.
Hatim noticed the tears, but continued, “To finish, I studied this in depth when I had the same course last spring. Christians turned against free will under the powerful guidance of the theologian Augustine--who was influenced by Eastern thinkers--and, again, in the European Reformation.”
She listened but refused to accept it. Why couldn’t Hatim understand her point?!
He kept talking, “Scholars Martin Luther and John Calvin attacked the views of moderate Catholics such as Erasmus who believed humans have choice.”
Now Hatim talked more softly, “Calvin and most after him emphasized Allah’s total sovereignty. Wigglesworth is just following the Calvinist way of thinking. Calvin spoke of reprobate infants, too.”
“And surely you remember Erasmus’s name, even if you are studying only biological sciences.” He grinned, chuckled in a friendly way, as he saw from her expression that his powerful point was having its effect.
“Yes,” Afifah wiped her face and agreed. She tried to smile, and appear thankful, but she wasn’t. I need to take a pain pill soon.
He failed to notice and added, "So you see, in a strange sort of way, Wigglesworth is very Quranic. Of course, he lacks the understanding that Muhammad, (peace be upon him) could give him if he turned to the true religion.”
Afifah listened. At least, bless his heart, Hatim had taken her questions seriously, and he had gently laughed, which eased her tension and frustration.
Then she spoke, “But, Hatim, we don’t believe Allah condemns babies do we? I don’t remember any verse that says that in the Quran.”
She wiped her face again with her napkin. Her side burnt. She needed to those pain killers in a few moments. “I need some water, Hatim.”
He took her empty coffee cup and walked over to the water cooler.
His sister Naheeda still had not said a single word, but her gawky grin was missing, and she stared toward her brother and then back at Afifah uncertainly. Finally, she took a sip of her coffee and looked around to see if she saw any of her infidel friends.
Hatim came back and handed the water to Afifah. But he wasn’t done and considered how to deliver his final proof with a little tenderness toward his sister’s friend. She was learning. Thank you, Allah!
“Well, listen," he stood and leaned forward, "some Muslim thinkers did believe in free will like Erasmus but al-Ash’ari in the the 10th century and al-Ghazali in the 12th century defeated them!”
“And ever since, we Sunnis have been predestinarians like the Reformed writers such as Wigglesworth and Edwards, though we don’t phrase it like such infidel Christians. Didn’t you study the central Islamic doctrine of qadar in your Nablus school?!”
“And, remember, Afifah, ‘insha Allah’ literally means ‘if Allah wills’ in English, so when people go to hell it is Allah’s will as much as when they go to Heaven.”
He sat down again. “Study what the Asharites said; they claim even in their teaching of “kasab” that all comes from Allah by decree including evil and Hell.”
Afifah hiccupped, then coughed, and couldn’t drink the water. She didn’t look at Hatim or his sister, but stared down at the swirled carpet below their table, stricken with inner agony, and physical pain.
But Hatim didn;t even notice. “Here’s the creed of al-Ash’ari: ‘We hold that there is no creator except Allah, and that the acts of human beings are created and decreed by Allah, as He said, 'Allah has created you and what you do' 37.96”
“And al-Ghazali: ‘…everything is due to the creation of Allah, for the choice itself is also due to the creation of Allah and man is forced into the choice which he makes.’”
Hatim caught a breath and changed direction.
“As for infants, there is a divided opinion as to whether they go to hell or not. Consider this hadith:
‘The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Four (kinds of people) will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection: the infant, the insane, the one who died during the Fatrah (the period between two prophets) and the very old man.”
“All of them will speak in their own defense, then the Lord, may He be blessed and exalted, will say to a neck of Hell, ‘Come forth!’ and He will say to them, ‘I used to send Messengers to My slaves from amongst themselves. Now I am the Messenger of Myself to you. Enter this (i.e., the Fire).’”
“Those who are decreed to be among the doomed will say, ‘O Lord, how could we enter it when we are trying to escape it?’ And those who are decreed to be among the blessed will rush to enter it. And Allah will say: ‘You would have been more disobedient towards My Messengers.’ So those will enter Paradise and those will enter Hell.’ Abu Ya’laa.”
He sat back in his chair, satisfied with his proofs. And for his conclusive clincher, he said, “Notice, how similar the hadith is to Wigglesworth’s poem stanza, how the hadith speaks of decrees like the Reformed doctrine of damnation does.”
Finally, he looked at Afifah, triumph, waiting for her to show appreciation for his scholarship, and admit defeat.
He reminded himself that Allah had given him his scholarship and excellent mental recall; he would be gentle with this dear Muslim sister.
But Afifah didn't respond or act like he expected.
She avoided his gaze and didn’t speak, but picked at a worn spot on her chair’s fabric. Why did Hatim have to have so many hadiths memorized! Why did my Walidly make me come to America? Why have my last two years been so bad? Why Allah? But she knew.
Silent moments passed in the noisy cafe around them. Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Hatim regretted his triumphal win this time. Usually in class when he had trumped someone’s skepticism or disbelief or contrary position, the budding scholar couldn’t help gloating and immersing himself in the win for hours.
But now sensing how deeply Afifah was devastated, he said, “Of course, there are, also, contrary opinions, Afifah.” He paused.
“The Quran doesn’t speak to this condition, and remember, unlike false Christianity, our faith is the absolute truth, and thus we know infants are born pure, not with Original Sin.”
Leaning forward now emphasizing each word, “And we know the Quran is perfect and eternal come down from Heaven. So even hadith must bow and worship it. So please don’t take my every comment to heart.”
He felt the urge to touch her arm, to console her, but, of course, refrained.
“Okay, thank you Hatim.” Afifah didn’t look his way, but stood, and walked off in search of her friend Dhalia, not even remembering to say goodbye to Naheeda.
As she hurried down the corridor, the stress and despair of her last two years came back and drowned her. She hurried into the restroom and swallowed a double doze of her pain medication.
__________________________
Later, bleary eyed and sniffling, Afifah leaned in against her study desk, her stomach cramping.
Dalia surrounded her with her arms and consoled her. “Look, Hatim, is such a braggart. Don’t listen to a thing he says. Remember, I’ve studied hadith, too”—she paused—“at Cairo University last year before coming to America.”
“My prof was a renowned Islamic scholar. He showed us how many hadiths aren’t even necessarily true.”
Afifah blew her nose and listened.
“Lots of stories, including false ones were told in the years after the Prophet’s death. Don’t let these quotes of Hatim bother you.” Dhalia observed her friend, trying to see if anything she was saying was helping.
“Trust the holy Quran. It alone is perfect. Remember, I’m studying this Christian trash like you. NO babies are condemned to Hell! Allah is most merciful, most just.”
Still, Afifah said nothing, but started crying again.
Dalia, suddenly leaned back, took her arms and pulled Afifah around to face her. “Why this huge over-reaction? You haven’t sinned…my sister, have you?!”
Her roommate jumped up and shook her head. “No, I am pure. No boy has touched me! Thanks for such trust!” Afifah gathered up her things.
“Sorry, dear one; I shouldn’t have said that. But you seem so upset over a long infidel poem, a weird Christian one... But why are you letting your studies get to you?”
“Everything is wrong in my life!”
“But, it’s Allah’s will, you know that.”
“Yes,” said Afifah, bowed and mumbled, “I know.”
“Think, Afifah, Allah has blessed you. You are studying to become a doctor. You have the second highest grade point average at Orange Coast College; you probably won’t even need to go to UCI after all, though it’s a fine school for pre-med.”
“I think you’ll get a full scholarship to UCLA! And you live here in rich Orange County. From what you’ve said, you lived in considerable poverty in Nablus, right?”
Afifah didn’t answer.
“And think, you don’t have to go through all those Zionist checkpoints just to get to your relatives in Bethlehem…What is really bothering you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Okay, dear friend.” Dalia hugged her and went back to studying.
--
To be continued--
--Daniel Wilcox
Monday, August 1, 2016
How Would You Answer Jerry Coyne?
The atheist, biologist, and hard determinist Jerry Coyne asked this question today on his website:
Jerry Coyne: "If you were asked to explain to someone, say an open-minded person you’d just met, why you’re an atheist,
and were limited to at most three sentences,
what would you say?"
Wouldn't the most reasonable answer be--if one is a determinist:
"I had no choice
because it was determined by the cosmos, the laws of physics, etc. that I must be an atheist,
exactly like it was determined by the cosmos that some humans must be theists."
According to biologist Jerry Coyne, God doesn't exist because
#1 of "lack of evidence"
#2 of "evidence against the idea of God...existence of undeserved evil..."
--
For free will theists out there--those who think all human do have a choice--what would you say to Jerry Coyne
as to why you think God is real?
What would you tell Jerry Coyne, Sam Harris, and other determinists,
why you think that all humans
do have moral choice and creative ability?
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Ironing History
"Call me Ismael...And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago.
"It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:
[1851]
"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States.
"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL."
"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN."
"Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces—though I cannot tell why this was exactly...besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgments."
from Chapter One: Loomings, Moby Dick by Herman Melville
What an irony of history and literature, an ironing of reality, that we come round similar events and similar actions and similar beliefs now, 165 years later, today in July, 2016.
The first 3 ironies and history-repeaters speak for themselves. Are in the news, have been in the news for days.
But what of fate, of determinism, of qadar, of predestination?
Yes, that Medusa,
that Kali,
that Hydra
of philosophy and religion is making a huge return of late, too--
#1 In the take-over by Augustinian Reformed leaders of much of American Christianity in the last 30 years.
#2 In the huge popularity around the globe of Islam and "qadar," (which, strangely, is even defended by many secular leftists and "liberals" in the United States and Britain).
#3 By the massive support for and by most atheist leaders of determinism and the denial of human choice.
Famous determinists include neuroscientist Sam Harris ("Tumors All the Way Down"), biologist Jerry Coyne (no "moral responsibility," murderers and rapists have no choice), and biologist Anthony Cashmore (humans have no more choice than a "bowl of sugar").
And there is daily in the news, the horrific attacks by modern Ismael of innocent civilians such as the stabbing death of the 13-year-old young girl by a Muslim Palestinian youth this month.
How deep is the abyss of darkness overwhelming humanity,
Daniel Wilcox
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Freedom to Choose
At tragic times like the present when destruction, heartbreak,
debacle, and slaughter 'reign' down--
when the ocean of darkness
seems endless and abyss'd,
remember the gravely etched truth
of the psychologist Victor Frankl who lived at Auschwitz:
The wonder of being human, of being consciously aware, of experiencing
and living in the transcendent, of seeking the good,
of sensing the 'ought' of every ethical truth
is that each of us understands
(except for determinists of course)
that every human, everyone of us, all of us--
no matter how difficult our troubled life path,
no matter what our difficult circumstances,
no matter our weeping heartache,
no matter how chasmic deep our tragedy--
we are free to choose alternatives in the very midst of the evils,
to reject the horrific wrongs,
to song hope and justice,
to turn toward the Light,
to reach out to others and empathize,
to act compassionate,
and
to care
hell
down
and
out.
"I am not...my circumstances, I am...my decisions."
Educator Stephen Covey
"Any person, regardless of the circumstances, can decide what shall become of them--mentally and spiritually.
Victor Frankl
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl G. Jung
Let us choose each moment.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
debacle, and slaughter 'reign' down--
when the ocean of darkness
seems endless and abyss'd,
of the psychologist Victor Frankl who lived at Auschwitz:
The wonder of being human, of being consciously aware, of experiencing
and living in the transcendent, of seeking the good,
of sensing the 'ought' of every ethical truth
is that each of us understands
(except for determinists of course)
that every human, everyone of us, all of us--
no matter how difficult our troubled life path,
no matter what our difficult circumstances,
no matter our weeping heartache,
no matter how chasmic deep our tragedy--
we are free to choose alternatives in the very midst of the evils,
to reject the horrific wrongs,
to song hope and justice,
to turn toward the Light,
to reach out to others and empathize,
to act compassionate,
and
to care
hell
down
and
out.
"I am not...my circumstances, I am...my decisions."
Educator Stephen Covey
"Any person, regardless of the circumstances, can decide what shall become of them--mentally and spiritually.
Victor Frankl
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl G. Jung
Let us choose each moment.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Monday, November 30, 2015
Part #4: Life after Death?
Philosopher Hartshorne’s View of Reality: Death and the Question of After Life
For most of us humans, death comes all too soon, to millions of persons even before they even reach 10 years of age.
Of what worth is a tiny brief finite primate life in comparison to the vastness of the universe which is billions of years across?
Charles Hartshorne sought to deal with this deep quandary.
(Recall his complex Process Philosophy, panentheism, which we discussed and reflected on in the first 3 parts of this study.)
Here are 2 key graphics:
“To Hartshorne, a person's life was like a beautiful painting or a poem. It has a beginning and an end, but it exists forever in that those who live on can observe it and benefit from it.”
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Charles_Hartshorne
--
Beautiful painting? Deep poem?
Or how about the exquisite beauty of the extremely brief life of a Monarch butterfly?
Quality of life doesn’t have to equal length.
Besides the seemingly impossibility of mind surviving its grounding in the brain seems nigh impossible to defy. If the movie projector stops, the very real Academy Award winning film stops. A human “I” is a living process, not a thing. Does not my “I” stop when the billions of my neurons quit?*
And too often the childish literal concepts of the afterlife were an embarrassment to scientists and philosophers who were theists, who wrestled with the great question. Plus, the eternal damnation into Hell for unbelievers in creedal Christianity and Islam was deeply troubling ethically to many.
Probably most of the readers of this blog have heard about the Christian Heaven and Hell most of their lives, so I will only cite a Muslim view:
“Islam teaches that Hell is a real place prepared by God for those who do not believe in Him, rebel against His laws, and reject His messengers. Hell is an actual place, not a mere state of mind or a spiritual entity. The horrors, pain, anguish, and punishment are all real, but different in nature than their earthly counterparts. Hell is the ultimate humiliation and loss, and nothing is worse than it:
“Our Lord! Surely, whom You admit to the Fire, indeed You have disgraced him, and never will the wrongdoers find any helpers.” (Quran 3:192)
“Surely, God has cursed the disbelievers, and has prepared for them a flaming Fire wherein they will abide for ever.” (Quran 33:64)
Also, since everything happens according to the foreordination of God (called “fate” or “predestination” in Islam), the Muslim afterlife seems as damned horrific as the Augustinian-Reformed one of Christianity. In both cases, before humans are even born, before the universe is created, all humans are predestined to Hell, or in some cases to Heaven:-(
So when Process Philosophers offer a different more scientifically possible hypothesis for life after death, this is accepted by some people avidly.
At first, glance, the idea of being remembered by God for the everlasting future appeals to many of people grasping for hope. They find these metaphysical speculations so much more positive than hellfire or singing praises to God like he is some insecure petty medieval monarch. And the panentheism view is definitely much better than the literal crassness of Muslim men getting 72 virgins and Christians entering through pearly gates.
For my own part, even when I reached an age of critical thinking and abstraction, as much as I hoped for eternal life, the specifics always seemed very vague, and hard to imagine. It was a general hope, not a highly imaged dogmatic belief.
And I certainly rejected the literal description of Hell and Heaven of most Christian leaders. For instance, the brilliant Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas claimed only a limited number of afterlife-humans would look down from Heaven upon the billions of damned humans being tortured in eternal flames including their loved ones and friends, and give God all the praise and glory!
Sick, sick, sick ethically, a horrifically evil doctrine.
Process Philosophy completely rejects such a horrid outlook.
What a wonderfully different hypothesis, that Ultimate Reality remembers us, every detail of our lives forever.
So the theistic philosopher Charles Hartshorne and the brilliant mathematician and thinker Alfred Lord Whitehead
explained in their writings that there isn’t any "subject" aware afterlife,
but rather an objective afterlife. We former conscious ethical entities reside as permanent memories within God’s everlasting process life.
But every philosophical solution, usually has its own problems, right?
This alternative to the traditional understanding of the Heaven and Hell has its own negative aspect.
In the traditional religious view of the afterlife, all wrong will be righted, and justice and mercy and compassion will come to those tragic billions who lived tragic, all too short lives, such as the 3-year-old toddler who is suffering from malnutrition or leukemia.
Think of the billions who suffered in the countless slaughters, plagues, famines, or daily abuse of history, of their all too brief moment under the crushing boot heel of history, under the ruthless indifference of natural selection.
In the new sincere proposal by Hartshorne, Whitehead, and other thinkers of Process Philosophy,
NONE
of those who have suffered horrifically
will ever escape the horrors, their suffering. Nothing will be redeemed, only remembered:-(
While all sentient lives will be a permanent memory within God, is that a state to be valued if all the injustices and horrors and sufferings are never rectified!?
Remember, Hartshorne also wrote, “It has a beginning and an end, but it exists forever in that those who live on can observe it and benefit from it.”
As nice as Hartshorne’s image of a person existing like a brief poem sounds, to be remembered, the horrific problem with such a view
is that the vast majority of billions of humans
in the last 100,000 years
don’t get remembered by others even in the present life, not by anyone ever.:-(
As far as the billions of humans living now are concerned or aware, the billions of humans and countless sentient animals of the past NEVER existed. My family members don’t even know anything about our ancestors 3 or 4 generations back, let alone be able to “observe and benefit”!
They didn’t exist so that we "can observe [those past humans] and benefit from [their lives]” (Hartshorne’s phrase).
Once or twice in a generation, an anthropologist (or archaeologist or historian) finds skeletal remains, but even then, no one knows the inner life of that human who existed 60,000 years ago.
On the contrary—think of it--there are millions of recent humans who no one remembers now. For instance, millions of individuals who only lived a hundred or two hundred years ago are erased from human memory already.
There are plenty of faded Brady photographs of soldiers from over 150 years ago in the U.S. War Between the States. The still images are available to us in museums and books, but in many of the pictures the individuals are unknown. No one knows who they were, let alone knowing their deep inner lives. Heck, we don’t even know basic details. Their staring faces look down to us, but no stories are there for us to understand those men and women.
Historians haven't even been able to identify them. On some battlefields in Virginia, unknown corpses lay on the ground unburied even 3 years later:-(
Except for a fading image, all the beauty, poetic or scientific skill and inner life of each person is gone. As well as all the terror, sorrow, and loss.
Let’s say that God does record and remember. Of what help is that to us who live, or to those who are permanently gone?
I realize that Charles Hartshorne was trying to deal with the huge difficulty of how a human’s mind can survive beyond his human brain’s end.
But, as much as one can find keen insights in some of Hartshorne’s philosophical views, his answer that individual humans have no conscious future, that there is no life after death--except as God's permanent memory--seems weak and fraught with sorrow and unredeemable loss.
What do you think?
--
*A new Danish scientific study in “shows that astrocytes, which are also present in the brain, have responses that are almost as quick as those of the neurons. This, argue the researchers (such as Barbara Lykke Lind of the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen), means that the astrocytes may also play a part in thinking and feeling.”
http://sciencenordic.com/do-neurons-alone-cause-consciousness
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)