And there's Salman Rushdie!
Muslims are fascistic, right?
Tell me more...
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/portraits_rushdie.html
About S. Rushdie, his latest book, Shalimar the Clown... Have you read it? It is a wonderful book, an appealing story and you will fall in love with the characters!
10 comments:
I have to say that I bought the book because I liked the cover! ;) It is beautiful! But also because the story seems very appealing. I haven't read it yet; but it's on my "must read" list!
About the link, I just want to say that, to me, faith and reason don't agree! It is like passion and reason. Passion and faith aren't racional, they can be expalined, but what's the point?
What's the point?
What is "faith" for you? Faith in god? What about faith in your culture's values?
Faith is the foundation of reason. Reason builds on faith! (Common-sense's reason...)
To me, faith is a belief. In god, in culture's values... It is not based on facts. Therefore, there is no need in explaining it. Like passion. But perhaps you're right, faith could be based in common sense. But then how would you explain that people believe in something without evidence that it really exists? They believe without facts...
I said that common-sense's reason is based on faith...
Let me ask you something: why do we consider the Holocaust an abomination?
It's not based on facts! It's based on our faith in our values. Values such as "every human has the right to live" or "you shall not kill"... We find the Holocaust dreadful because it insulted everything we believe in. But there is no absolute fact against it. If Germany's leaders defined as a value that minorities should be killed (Just for the sake of the argument. We all know there's more to it), you can debate the idea but you're up for a hard job if you want to refute it. You won't have the same standards!
I too find the Holocaust dreadful but that's because I believe/have faith in our culture's values. Not because I can reasonably demonstrate its wrongness or righteousness (what is "wrong" and "righteous"? is that definable out of a cultural context? well... After thousands of years of human philosophy we're still trying to get to some conclusion about that...)
That's why it might be useful to explain where faith comes from and what led us to have faith in a religion (which imposes you a set of values) or in tradition (which imposes another/the same set of values). At least we might get to know something else about its context!
This was just to show you that people (and you too! and me!) believe in many groundless things (wow! is that we call a "prejudice"?). Only if you explain faith can you understand where that belief stands (well... you can hope to understand...).
(Take another example: Us, Portuguese, we have killed thousands of Jews and Muslims throughout our history for the sake of religion and for their soul's sake too. Was it wrong? Nope... It was founded in our morals and values back then. An abomination? If we face it with today's standards, it most certainly is!)
Of course that if you stretch this point of view to the limit everything will collapse... But I believe in debating ideas, sharing thoughts and overcoming prejudices. That is not an absolute value, it's perhaps based on some trifle but it is MY VALUE and I shall fight for it...
How's that?
Well, dear Lourencinho, dear Little Red Hood...
You know, you made your point. Congratulations, to both of you.
Lourencinho, or Litle Red Hood, could you figure it out to compare the number of murders under the name of Hitler and under the name of the Holly Church?
And so i doubt... Faith...Reason... I'm thinking about that question about the Holocaust... Maybe I feel strong and later I'll comment on that!;)
Oh!
Little Red Hood, since I know you must have a lot to read this semester I suggest you read that book in July;)
And Lourencinho... A comment on this book?
We will never know the number of murders under the name of The Holly See... But the number of murders perpetrated by Catholics is impressive and definitively much higher that those by Hitler. Anyway how is this relevant to the discussion?
Now that you mention the book I would like you to say something more about it. Is it engaging as in "mind-stretching engaging" or as in "entertaining engaging"?
And have you read any other of his books?
Cheers Mare :)
This book, dear Lourencinho, is as "mind-stretching engaging" as one could wish!
I have bought 2 other books from Salman Rushdie, I hust haven't found the time to read them yet. And then I read a book called "Harun and the See of Stories", but that's a rather "childish" one.
About Hitler and the Catholics, the point is that "faith" as we face it is a religious matter, and that did never change. Even the faith of a society, my dear, even if it is a non-religious-ruled society, is entirely based on religious principles... And the prejudices were overwhelmingly conceived and explored by R-E-L-I-G-I-O-N. So I do understand the Holocaust as being an entirely new conception of life and prejudice since the beginning of the Modern Era. And that was, indeed, a "subtile" tête-a-tête with the power of the Catholic Church.
There's another book... A book explaining, supposing one could do that, the growing of the Nazi Leader, Adolf Hitler. Life is cruel in Shalimar the Clown, but also it is in "Les Tentatrices de Hitler", aka "as mulheres de Hitler", François Delpla.
Where there is a man, there is an explanation; where there is a community, there is no explanation, there is a union of man exploring their most cruel thoughts and attempting to reach the power among all the others...
Do you reach MY thoughts?
Cheers cheers!
See you 'round!
Yes! But you see I used the Holocaust's example just to show some moral relativism. I did not want to analyse it or compare it with anything... It was just for the sake of the argument.
You've convinced me. I shall read the book :)
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