Science and Religion

Last Tuesday, we talked about the pre-modern, modern, and post-modern views of religion.  I thought the post-modern view was most interesting.  It said that we are shifting our focus away from religion and basing our views on facts.  Science gives us these facts based on the belief of evolution.  But I believe what was best said was that religion gives us value.  This is what I believe is religion’s role in life.  Religion is what we turn to when nothing or no one else can help us.  We turn to religion for guidance and assurance.  We hope that there is a greater power looking down on us to help us in time of need.  This is the value that religion gives us.

Lings – Zayd

In Ling’s chapter 13 “The Household” we learn of Muhammad’s slave (which was a gift from his wife) and how his background was actually quite substantial, yet the village he had stayed in was raided by horsemen and they had sold him into slavery. Once he finally saw some of his own people in Mecca, he had them pass on word to his family so that they would know what happened to him. His father and uncle came to ask Muhammad to “allow them to ransom Zayd”, and Muhammad simply decided to let Zayd choose what he wanted to do: stay with him or go with his real family. Zaid chose to stay with Muhammad over his own family and on top of that,  to be a slave instead of a freeman. However once Zayd made this choice Muhammad made Zayd his son and heir. 

I found this part of the reading so interesting that someone who came from what sounded to be a “normal” and quite decent ancestry, to give that up for a man that “owned” him. Family ties seem to be important throughout the book so far, and yet Zayd broke his right to his father’s face. Beyond that he was willing to stay a slave rather than go back to being a free man if that meant to stay with Muhammad. This illustrates to me how impressive and amazing Muhammad must have been.

What I’m interested in…

I know that this is getting a little ahead of myself, but one of the reasons I took this class was to become better aware of the teachings of Islam. I am thoroughly fascinated with ‘radical’ Islamic groups, and am wondering what makes them so different from other Islamic persons, or is there really a difference? I am not talking about practice, but belief. Do ‘radical’ Muslims believe different things than other Muslims, or do they merely act what others might just believe? This is obviously an area that some are uncomfortable with questioning, but for me it is one of the pressing issues I hope is addressed in this class.

Israel and Palestine…Is Peace Possible?

I was just sitting here in my room tonight since there’s nothing going on around campus and for some reason the discussion we had about Israel and Palestine popped into my head.  Just as the title of my post reads, would peace ever be possible between these two countries?  I know a lot of turmoil and violence between these countries have resulted in many attempts to find a peace agreement between the two, but most have failed. In my opinion, I don’t think we could come to a full resolution between these two states because both sides cannot cooperate with each other.  Especially with Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist group, in place in Palestine it would be much harder for peace to come about because they deny Israel’s existence.  What are you’re thoughts and opinions on this? I know we have to make new posts just to reply to this post, but I think this is a good place to get all our thoughts out since we couldn’t finish the discussion in class.