The Fear that once was

As I started typing this very post, I couldn't help but notice a tiny twinge of fear, in the very back of my head, in some dark alley that I rarely visit. That fear has grown old and weak, very unlike what it was in the first 2 decades of my life ... It has taken almost a decade of critical thought, intelligent conversation, and hours upon hours of introspective soul-searching to finally beat that monster into a harmless twinge.

What is fear exactly? When it comes down to it, fear is the mind's way of anticipating potentially harmful events in the future and warning itself about them. The classical physical and mental response to fear is the well-known fight-or-flight scenario: The brain prepares itself and the body to either face the potential threat head-on, or to flee the situation as quickly as possible. This is obviously useful for survival, as you wouldn't want to encounter a lion in your cave and start analyzing the situation calming and logically. You want to be able to run away as fast as possible, or perhaps face the lion with your spear or boulder or M16. Evolution works really well when it comes to imminent life-or-death predicaments.

What we tend to forget in contemporary society is that evolution is a pretty good solution for the problem of survival and gene propagation, yet it can be far less than optimal in other scenarios; i.e. evolution has side effects.

What is meant to keep us alive and safe, can also make us miserable for no reason. Consider all the fears that infest the contemporary human mind: claustrophobia, agoraphobia, all sorts of social phobias, fear of spiders/insects/moths/, fear of failure, fear of being alone, fear of the after-life, and one of the most interesting fears of all: the meta-fear: fear of being afraid, or fear of fear itself! (Thanks, Roosevelt).

It seems obvious, yet this harsh survival mechanism can go unnoticed in many of us. Many people experience fear and it's nasty physical manifestations without actually stopping to think about this it or analyzing whether it's appropriate given the current context. What's even worse, is that a lot of fear is learned, not biologically intrinsic.

Parents have the ability to instill a lot of fear in their children, often without either party noticing. I myself have definitely been the victim of such an insidious crime. The fears and paranoias are often formed and bred while life ticks away at it's usual pace; there needn't be any trauma or major catastrophic events for this to happen.

So take 20 minutes, sit down, and think about what fears invade your mind on a regular basis. Are they rational fears? Are they warranted? Most of the time, the answer will be "no" to those questions. Fortunately, most of the time you can get rid of those fears as well. It's not easy, but it's definitely possible. More on that in later posts.

Until next time,

--Shafik

The Religion of Peace

Hello again, fellow thinkers.

Let's make this post direct and to the point: Islam is not a religion of peace like many people claim it is. To the contrary, Islam promotes a certain type of racism and elitism, albeit in a somewhat subtle way.

Whoever claims that Islam is a "religion of peace", is usually trying to appeal to whatever non-Islamic environment surrounds him or her, such as a Muslim living in the United States, or a lecturer in an academic environment. Whoever and whatever they are, they are either ignorant, or lying.

Islam makes it very clear that non-Muslims are simply not as good of people as Muslims are. The Koran seems to clump humanity into 4 general categories:

• Muslims: Allah's favorite people.
  
• Christians: Believers in Isa (Jesus) and in God, which is the same as Allah.
  
• Jews: Believers in God as well (with guidance from the Old Testament and especially the Torat).
  
• Unbelievers / Polytheists: Generic non-believers in Allah.

Though there is mention in the Koran of other lesser-known denominations, such as the Sabaeans, not nearly as much attention was given to those groups of people.

Let's take a look at each of the following categories: Christians, Jews, and Unbelievers.


Christians

Christians seem to occupy a gray area on the hatred scale. The most negative Aya in the Koran against the Christians is this one:

[5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.


Jews

Jews, on the other hand, are clearly hated:

[5.82] Certainly you will find the most violent of people in enmity for those who believe (to be) the Jews and those who are polytheists, and you will certainly find the nearest in friendship to those who believe (to be) those who say: We are Christians; this is because there are priests and monks among them and because they do not behave proudly.

[62.6] Say: O you who are Jews, if you think that you are the favorites of Allah to the exclusion of other people, then invoke death If you are truthful.


Unbelievers

What about these guys? Well ... it very clearly sucks for them:

[9.73] O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination.

[9.123] O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).

[3.28] Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.

[2.24] But if you do (it) not and never shall you do (it), then be on your guard against the fire of which men and stones are the fuel; it is prepared for the unbelievers.

[4.144] O you who believe! do not take the unbelievers for friends rather than the believers; do you desire that you should give to Allah a manifest proof against yourselves?

[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.


These Aya's are straight out of the Koran. I wanted to elaborate more on each one, but I decided it is more effective to have you think about them yourself ... there isn't any ambiguity in any of them, and they are quite clear.

Until next time ... keep that critical-thinking hat on.
--Shafik

Science: It's all about the questions, not the answers.

This is a direct quote from my friend Craig Brandenburg (check out his blog here):

"That theism is built upon faith is something that continues to puzzle
many non-believers. That science is built upon questions (rather than
answers) is something that continues to puzzle the unscientific.

Science is primarily concerned with the methodologies employed to
explore questions regarding the observable universe. Seemingly
paradoxically, science is carried out by scientists who individually
are usually more concerned with the answers. Let's conflate science
with the scientists no more than we shall conflate theism with
sinners.

The important point about this -- science focusing on methodology
rather than answers -- is that, by definition, science can never
accept the supernatural. The supernatural is exactly that which cannot
be explained or proved and that bars further probing and testing. To
answer a question with "God" is to say: "Ask no further questions."
Science cannot do this. "God" may very well be the correct answer, but
science, if you'll pardon my anthropomorphism, doesn't care; it will
relentlessly attempt to qualify what can be qualified and to quantify
what can be quantified.

This is why in areas in which little is known, science serves up some
rather crackpot-seeming theories. They're the best ones available.
Eventually better theories will come around and enhance or replace the
weaker, less-substantiated ones. History is full of examples of the
progression from theory to better theory. Two of the biggest and
best-known cases are evolution supplanting spontaneous generation
(among other ideas) and relativity improving upon Newtonian physics.
Newtonian physics was even considered unbreakable law, not just
theory. Nope, it turned out to be wrong in special cases. (And
relativity is itself an inadequate explanation in other special
cases.) Science isn't concerned with having been "wrong" once before
and being "wrong" once again; it merely offers the best-fit
explanation at the time and continues onward. The theists then go off
and ponder frantically about the nature of Truth and of validity and
what it means for a theory to be a fact.

Who cares. It's all about the questions, not the answers."

The Return of Wired Thoughts ...

It seems like this blog went through the same thing that a lot of blogs go through ... a lull characterized by lack of activity, for a long time. This usually comes after a "honey-moon" phase of initial blogging.

I've realized, though, that this blog had some hidden merits for it's author. I noticed that my typing speed improved when I was blogging, I spent less time surfing reddit and other such time-guzzling sites, my vocabulary improved, and most importantly, I felt a better sense of "thinking" throughout the day.

In a way, this blog was my way of meditating. I'm going to start meditating again.

Out of curiosity, how many of you loyal readers check for new posts often? Google Reader says that I have 12 subscribers. If you have read this post, can you post a quick, anonymous comment so I can see if I have any "ghost" stalkers?

As such, I recommend you start blogging if you haven't already done so, and do it regularly. The benefits, though hidden, are well worth the effort.

Cheers,
--Shafik