Since the world is filled with dangers, Attar believes that disciples of the Sufi tradition should experience the world by following the themes of conventional Sufi doctrine. This doctrine can be found in the prologue of the book, “Only God truly exists - all other things are an emanation of Him, or are His ‘shadow’;.. The awakened soul, guided by God’s grace, can progress along a Way which leads to annihilation in God” (Attar, xii). These themes described in this section are prevalent in many of the stories told in Conference of the Birds, and provide us a foundation to which we can look at how Attar would instruct a disciple to look at the physical world. One part in particular stands out which is that “all other things are an emanation of Him, or are His ‘shadow’” since the majority of the stories in Attar’s book contain God as a character, or at least reference some part of Him or what He made.
The main problem of Sufism in an Islamic society is that Sufis seek to experience the love of Allah, which can also be seen as achieving oneness with Allah. While the former is protected in the Qur’an, as several passages refer to feeling the love of Allah and his love of his believers, the latter is undeniably against the traditional Islamic doctrine. Through the shahada and tawhid, profession of any God except for Allah is forbidden. This can be clearly seen through the Sufi poet al-Hallaj who was executed for shouting “I am god” in the streets after he supposedly achieved enlightenment. This is a very fine line which Sufi’s try to stay on the correct side of, since violation carries severe consequences. Still there are those like Faruqi who are vehemently opposed to religions which are not traditional Islam who would seek to discredit Attar’s Sufism through specific passages in his
To live in a world without human connection, is to live an empty and meaningless life. Both Karen Armstrong, and Robert Thurman, highlight the necessity of human contact throughout their essays. In his text “Wisdom,” Robert Thurman shows us the path to discover the selflessness of what we believe is our true and actual self. He claims that no matter how hard one might try to find themselves, they will only find a rigid, fixated self. But when we finally accept our selflessness and turn away from our egos, we can become compassionate and experience the void, which he defines as a free and boundless self. Additionally, Karen Armstrong debates that the universe is driven by concepts such as “Being,” and “Brahman,” which both represent the ultimate
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski uses clever and unique critiques of militant atheism and its devotion to scientism. Ten in depth chapters shed light on the dogmatic stance of many of today’s popular “new atheists.” According to Berlinski new atheism poses itself as the sole holder of truth through science, “And like any militant church, this one places a familiar demand before all others: Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (10). Berlinski (a secular Jew) approaches ideas with his own mixture of intelligence and thought filled logic; exploring the world as well as important philosophical questions pertaining to “new atheism”. Thus providing the information needed to explore the sides for both and existence and nonexistence of God.
Thay teaches us about impermanence and how it expresses in real life. Everything is impermanent. Thay uses the example of the flower and the seeds to explain this idea. When we look at the flower, we see the flower; but it was actually a seed and then became a flower. It is not just disappearing, but transferring into another form .Just like us human, we were made from the minerals; therefore, these are our ancestors. We have to see it this way so that we can protect these things as we protect our ancestors. Thay wants us to practice an idea that when we see everything in life, we have to respect and look deeply into that, not just the outside. People from other religions will have differ...
.... In my opinion it is clear that we do not understand God, but despite that fact, it has not prevented us from trying on his crown through our own magical, mystical and political ways. When these questions are answered in full, in a equnamious and engaged in the nature of a commonality, our need for theology and philosophy will disappear as we will no longer need man to define the undefinable, or to shed the light of God on our minds, as the answers will be clear to all, and our human spirits will commune. Can we say now in retrospect that through singing the praises of 'God' on the battlefields, in the majestic cities built by mankind, or by those who have claimed enlightenment – that any of this bumbling in the night has brought us closer to God? Have we detected the root of our origins through our bids at piety, or have gotten too close and our wings melted away?
The growth of religious ideas is environed with such intrinsic difficulties that it may never receive a perfectly satisfactory exposition. Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such an certain elements of knowledge, the all primitive religions are grotesque to some extent unintelligible. (1877:5)
In his sixth meditation must return to the doubts he raised in his first meditation. In this last section of his sixth meditation he deals mainly with the mind-body problem; and he tries to prove whether material things exist with certainly. In this meditation he develops his Dualist argument; by making a distinction between mind and body; although he also reveals their rather significant relationship.
In the history of concepts, there is no concern that Al-Ghazali’s figure emerges as one of the best Western thinkers. Considered as the prominent Sunni theologian that ever lived, Al-Ghazali’s polemic againstNeoplatonic thinkers, mainly Ibn Sina, dealt a fatal rage to philosophy within Islamic world. Written following his period of private study of philosophy, and completed in 1094 CE, Tahafut al-Falasifa carried the purpose of pursuing the analysis of reason that inspired his stint of cynicism, and was attempting to illustrate that reason is not self-reliant in the sphere of metaphysics and is incapable out of itself to construct an absolute world-view. Whereas, as Goldziher (1981) explains, Al-Ghazali uniquely held certain beliefs which he refuted in Tahafut, he wanted to demonstrate that reason on its own cannot establish that the world has the creator, two gods are unfeasible, God is not an entity or a body, and that he understand both himself and others, that the spirit is a self-resilient body. This paper will analyze Al-Ghazali’s argument on the eternity of the world, as found in his first areas of debate with philosophers and evaluated against Ibn Rushd’s answers.
In this essay I will consider Stewart Guthrie 's paper Spiritual Beings: A Darwinian Cognitive Account. The purpose of this essay is to outline Guthrie 's argument about where animism comes from, and where it fits into religion. I will explain his argument as to why gods and spirits are often depicted as invisible and/or intangible, despite being anthropomorphisms. I will argue that although his argument is compelling it presents two weaknesses. Firstly, the resultant definition of religion seem restrictive. Secondly that his argument fails to take into account atheism.
“In thinking about religion, it is easy to be confused about what it is.” (Smart, 1992) To combat this, Smart uses seven dimensions to define common characteristics of religion. Much of what will be explored will fit his dimensions. The practical and ritual dimension can been seen in all three religions through worship and rituals and patterns of behaviour. The latter are those acts that help the believer develop spiritual awareness or ethical insight, such as yoga or meditation in Buddhism and Hinduism. The experiential and emotional dimension of religion explains that religion feeds on human emotions and key events from history to illustrate this is, the enlightenment of the Buddha, or the visions of Muhammad. A person will not follow something without meaning or emotion driving it. The narrative or mythic dimension of religion refers to the use of story telling in religion. Typically, all faiths use stories to illustrate their beliefs or events in history, whether they might be of things to come, or like in this essay, stories of the Buddha, or Muhammad. The use of story telling is important as the stories are often based on accounts of history or documents that have been found. Story telling can enhance the believers faith and are often integrated into rituals. The doctrinal and philosophical dimension of religion talks about the importance of the holy books/ doctrines. Since the doctrines typically have an account of the leaders life, and the leaders are usually educated, believers read the doctrines to gain an insight into the leaders life; and thus strive to become more like them or abide by their teachings. The ethical and legal
In today’s world, we all have different views of how we observe and see the world. Some people perceive the world through the philosophical eye, and others see the world through their faith and religious positions. The topics that will be discussed in this paper will be an explanation of my epistemological stance and where my roots originated, an exposition of my view and the textbooks view on reality and freedom, a discussion on where God is placed in my world and life, an account on how I make acceptable and appropriate ethical choices, an investigation on my greatest influencers in my life, an expository on how I observe life and my purpose in life, and an overview on how this class has assisted me in life. The basis for this paper is to
Through out history there have been questions of where we come from and how we got here. It all comes down to the question of God’s existence. God’s existence has never been questioned during the times of when Christianity, Judaism and Islam were born. The question of God’s existence comes from our new way of thinking after these religions. Science has made us think of how things work in our world and brings Gods existence into question. There were no scientific studies done during the days of Jesus to prove that God exists, so where did the people in history get this idea of God from? Many philosophers have been questioning and giving their ideas of God and his existence. The ideas that we may have of God is usually connected with religion and our beliefs. One philosopher that touches on this topic is Descartes. Descartes gives his ideas on God’s existence and his out look on our selves compared to God. Most religions believe that there is a God and that he has created everything around us. Everyone has a different answer to this question that they think is the right one. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing God’s existence, while looking at Descartes ideas and through different perspectives of whether or not God exist as well.
Religious explanation is much different than scientific and philosophical explanation and when misunderstood can have a great conflict. Religious explanation does not originate from observation or logical deduction, but from belief of there being knowledge we don’t know of a higher being(s) who make and sometimes control us humans and the universe which we live. Religious explanation is where some of the first philosophical claims originat...
Religion is an important factor in many lives in today’s society. A particular western religion that is taken very seriously by many is known as Islam. Essentially, Islam means “submission”, or in other words a person is to abide by God and peace will follow. In order to comprehend the Islamic religion, it is consequential to view the major themes associated with this religion. By going through the central themes of Islam it could help others comprehend what is involved with this specific religion.