Ultimate Questions in Philosophy of Religion

www.alhassanain.org/english

Ultimate Questions in Philosophy of Religion

Author(s): Shaykh Mansour Leghaei

www.alhassanain.org/english

Shaykh Mansour Leghaei, in this book delves into the philosophy behind several intrinsic faith matters such as belief in God, free-will or predeterminism, the question of evil and much more.

Notice:

This version is published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

The composing errors are not corrected.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Sleepwalkers! 10

The Sleepwalkers 10

Ancient Sophism 10

Skepticism 10

Examples of Illusion & Delusion 11

The Simile of the Cave (First Part) 12

Chapter 2: Living Awake 13

The Inner Intuition 14

Avicenna Vs Descartes 14

Axiom (Self-evident knowledge) 15

Philosophy Vs Sophism 16

Types of Human Perception 16

Rebuking the Sophists 17

Instinctive Knowledge 17

Answers to Dreams and Illusions 17

Answers to Logical fallacies 18

The Simile of the Cave (Last Part) 18

Notes 20

Chapter 3: Tools of Knowledge 1 21

Types of Knowledge 21

Definition of Knowledge 21

Differences between Mind and Mirror 21

Ignorance and its types 22

Tools for Acquiring Knowledge 22

Sense experience 22

Characteristics of Sensory Perception 23

Comments on Empiricism 24

Rational perception 24

Sign 25

Note 25

Chapter 4: Tools of Knowledge 2 26

Self Purification 26

Definition 26

The Spectrum of Self Purification 26

1) Intuition 26

a. The Natural World: 27

b. The Kingdom of Animals: 27

c. Human beings 28

Types of Humane Instinct 28

Example 1: Knowledge Lovers 28

Example 2: Virtue Lovers 28

Example 3: Beauty Lovers 29

Example 4: Love Lovers 29

2) Inspiration 29

3) Revelation 29

The Spectrum of Revelation 30

Chapter 5: Plagues of Knowledge 31

Plagues of the Mind 31

1) Personal Interest 31

2) Pride 32

4) Hypocrisy 32

5) Prejudice & Stubbornness 33

6) Blind Following 33

7) Superficial Observation 34

8) Statesmen's Influence 34

9) Propaganda 34

10) Indulging in Sins 34

Two Tips for Researchers for Truth 35

1) Make No Assumptions 35

2) Do Not Justify 35

Chapter 6: Do Things Exist Only When Perceived?! 36

The Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant 36

Historical Background 36

Chapter 7: God's Eye Point of View! 37

Who goes to heaven Dad? 37

Religious Pluralism 37

The Central Core of Religious Pluralism 37

Fundamentals of Religious Pluralism 37

Major problems of Pluralism 38

Problems that lead to religious pluralism 38

Chapter 8: Religious Pluralism 39

Islamic Perspective 39

Argument 39

Islam and Religious Coexistence 39

Islamic principles to Achieve Religious Coexistence 40

1. No compulsion in religion 40

2. Logical debate and discussion 41

3. Divine Religions, grades of one school 41

4. The Principle of righteousness and Justice 42

Religious Coexistence and the Prophetic Traditions 42

Historical Cases 43

1. The Time of the Prophet Muhammad (saww) 43

2. After the Prophet Mohammad 43

Notes 45

Chapter 9: The Blueprint of Life 46

Evolution or/and Creation 46

Historical background 46

The Roots of the Theory of Evolution 47

1. Paleontology (the study of fossils) 47

2. Distribution of Species 47

3. Anatomical Similarities 47

4. Molecular Similarities 47

5. Direct Observation 47

6. Determining Life's Origins 47

Comments on the roots of the theory of evolution 47

Conclusions to be drawn from this discussion 48

Notes 48

Chapter 10: Dad! But...Who Made God?! 50

Who Has Made God?! 51

1. Questioning is an innovation (Just have faith) 51

2. Denial 51

3. Answer 51

The Fallacy of the Question 52

Every possible being needs a cause 52

Does the World Have any Beginning?! 53

Does the world need a Creator because it is timely finite? 54

Historical Background 54

Chapter 11: The Fingerprints of God 56

Introduction 56

His Fingerprint on Atom 56

His Fingerprint on Insects 57

His Fingerprint on Earth 57

Atmosphere 58

Water 58

His Fingerprint on Sun 59

Sun: the main supporter of life on earth 59

His Fingerprint on Heavens 59

Expanding Universe 60

Prominent Scientists Find the Fingerprints of God 61

Why some scientists do not believe in God? 61

References for further study 62

Notes 62

Chapter 12: Einstein's Paradox 63

God’s Omniscience and Man’s Freedom 63

Introduction 63

Definition 64

Scope 64

Psychology 64

Ethics 65

Law 65

Fallacy of Darrow’s argument 65

Religion 66

1) Christianity 66

2) Islam 66

Philosophical Justification 66

Paradoxes of Freedom in a logical argument 67

There is No Moral Responsibility 67

Norman Swartz 67

Epistemic Determinism (The problem of foreknowledge) 67

Conclusion 68

Discovering the Fallacy 68

Descriptive Laws & Prescriptive Laws 68

Fallacy Discovered 69

Conclusion 69

Compatibility of Determinism & Free Will 69

For Further Study 70

Note 70

Chapter 13: Monotheism, the Common Word 71

Proofs of unity of God 71

1) Infinite Being 71

Why God is necessarily infinite? 71

2) Universal Unity 71

3) Mathematical distinction 73

4) Unique invitation 73

Trinity 73

The Council of Nicea 74

Do Christians really believe Jesus is God? 75

A mystery called Trinity 76

Trinity Vs Unity 76

1) Monotheism, the Chief Commandment 76

2) Trinity was blasphemy for the early Christians 76

3) Trinity is plurality of gods! 76

4) Trinity is illogical 77

Does Trinity have a biblical proof? 77

Who did Jesus worship? 78

All gods died! 78

Notes 78

Chapter 14: The Alphabets of Religion 79

The Head of Knowledge 79

Teaching Monotheism during the war 79

Aspects of Monotheism 80

1) Unity of God in His Essence 80

Numeral Unity or Unique Unity (Al-wahdatul-Adadiya or Al-wahdataul-Ahadiya) 80

The Most Perfect Description of Unity of God 80

The Evident and the Hidden 81

2) Unity of God in His Attributes 82

Proofs for the Unity of God in His Attributes 82

The Meaning of Allahu-Akbar 82

The Attribute of Knowledge 82

Proofs of His Knowledge 83

2) God is with me 83

Notes 83

Chapter 15: The Paradox of “I or WE” 84

1) Creation 84

2) Who answers the call? 84

3) Who sends the revelation? 84

4) Who save(s)? 84

5) Who chooses? 84

6) Whom shall we worship? 84

Chapter 16: Who does it? God Or Me! 85

Monotheism in the Work of Allah 85

Note 85

Chapter 17: God, & the Problem of Evil 86

Historical Background 87

God and the problem of evil 87

Definition 88

Initial Evil & Real Evil 88

Types of Evil 88

The Sleepwalkers

Khalid Gibran, the well known Lebanese poet and artist of the early twentieth century, says in prose poetry named“The Sleepwalkers” :

“In the town where I was born lived a woman and her daughter, who walked in their sleep.

One night, while silence enfolded the world, the woman and her daughter, walking, yet asleep, met in their mist-veiled garden. And the mother spoke, and she said: "At last, at last, my enemy! You by whom my youth was destroyed -- who have built up your life upon the ruins of mine! Would I could kill you!"

And the daughter spoke, and she said: “O hateful woman, selfish and old! Who stand between my freer self and me! Who would have my life an echo of your own faded life! Would you were dead!" At that moment a cock crew, and both women awoke. The mother said gently, "Is that you, darling?" And the daughter answered gently, “Yes, dear.” !

How can we really prove we are not sleepwalkers in our so-called life?

Let me share a personal experience with you. Some years ago, I left my hometown to live in Sydney where I still live today. As I had been missing my parents and relatives, I would often dream of being with them. However, I would wake up realizing that it was all just a dream.

During one particular dream, I said to myself“I know it's a dream again” ; but in an attempt to dispute this, I decided to wash my face, thoroughly.“It is real this time,” I said to myself.

Guess what? When I suddenly woke up, I realized, yes, this was also just a dream!

My purpose in this chapter is to make you aware of how important the question of existence is. Let me therefore share with you the brief historical background of this ultimate question.

Ancient Sophism

As far as western philosophy is concerned, Sophism is perhaps the most ancient Greek belief, being born there over 2400 years ago. Sophists believe that nothing actually exists and if it does, it is incomprehensible to man. As such, man has no ability to access it and even if it were comprehensible to him, he would be unable to communicate it and explain it to others.

Amongst the ancient Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle's crushing criticism seriously wounded these roving teachers of rhetoric. In fact, philosophy and logic were founded as a response to sophism.

Skepticism

After the demise of Aristotle, Skepticism was founded by a Greek philosopher called Pyrrho. His philosophy was that every object of human knowledge involves uncertainty; therefore, he argued, it is impossible ever to arrive at the knowledge of truth. According to Skepticism we only know how things appear to us, but are ignorant of their inner substance.

The diversity of opinion amongst the wise, as well as the ignorant proves this. Therefore, we ought never to make any positive statements on any subject.

It is related that Pyrrho acted on his own principles to such an extreme, that his friends were obliged to accompany him wherever he went, in case he might be run over by a carriage or fall down from a cliff.

Pyrrhonists suggest that we should never say,“it is so” . Rather we should say,“ it seems so” , or“ it appears so” .

Examples of Illusion & Delusion

Pyrrhonists sometimes supported their argument with numerous examples of various optical illusions such as: mirage, looming, seeing sparkling stars around when you all of the sudden stand up from a sitting position, as well as other types of illusions of length, shape, touch, temperature, etc. on the one hand, and numbers of false reasoning and arguments on the other.

The only conclusion we can arrive at from this is that all so-called human opinions are delusions caused by illusions. The followings are just some examples of many false reasoning:

Example One

Statement One: Water is fluid (flowing).

Statement Two: Ice is from water

Summation: Ice is fluid!

The conclusion is invalid, though the premises are valid.

Example Two

Statement One: That dog is a father.

Statement Two: That dog is his.

Summation: That dog is his father!

Again, the conclusion is obviously invalid, in spite of the validity of the premises.

Example Three

Statement One: All dogs are mammals.

Statement Two: All cats are mammals.

Summation: All dogs are cats!

Throughout the history of mankind we have learned about many people who faced these questions and failed to find a satisfactory answer. As a result, they were drawn into the whirlpool of uncertainty and doubt.

Schopenhauer, Sadegh Hedayat and Abul-Ala Ma'ari are just a few examples of many such people. Unfortunately committing suicide appeared to them as the only solution to end all uncertainty.

I would like to end this chapter with the first part of“The Simile of the Cave” presented by Plato. It is a very good example of those involved in the divided line of this world and the hereafter. In his simile we are asked to picture a group of people sitting inside a dark cave, their hands and feet are bound in such a way that they can only look at the back walk of the cave.

Behind them is a wall, and beyond that wall pass human-line creatures carrying equipment and the like. Due to the fact that there is a fire behind them they cause flickering shadows on he back wall of the cave.

The only thing that these cave dwellers can perceive is this shadow-play. Their knowledge is based solely on the shadows, which form their world. They have been sitting in this position since they were bon so they believe that all they can see is all that there is.

Please read this simile carefully and, if necessary, more than once, trying to imagine yourself as one of the prisoners. Then, see how you could assure yourself that the world you are living in is not a mere illusion. Make sure you have thought enough about the issues raised in this chapter before you proceed to the next.

The Simile of the Cave (First Part)

‘I want you to go on to picture the enlightenment or ignorance of our human conditions somewhat as follows. Imagine an underground chamber, like a cave with an entrance open to the daylight and running a long way underground.

In this chamber are men who have been prisoners there since they were children, their legs and necks being so fastened that they can only look straight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads.

Behind them and above them a fire is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners runs a road, in front of which a curtain-wall has been built, like the screen on puppet shows between the operators and their audience, above which they show the puppets'.

‘I see.'

‘Imagine further that there are men carrying all sorts of gear along behind the curtain-wall, including figures of men and animals made of wood and stone and other materials, and that some of these men, as is natural, are talking and some not.'

‘An odd picture and an odd sort of prisoner.'

‘They are drawn from life,' I replied. ‘For, tell me, do you think our prisoners could see anything of themselves or their fellows except the shadows thrown by the fire on the wall of the cave opposite them?'

‘How could they see anything else if they were prevented from moving their heads all their lives?'

‘And would they see anything more of the objects carried along the road?'

‘Of course not.'

‘Then if they were able to talk to each other, would they not assume that the shadows they saw were real things?'

‘Inevitably'.

‘And if the wall of their prison opposite them reflected sound, don't you think that they would suppose, whenever one of the passers-by on the road spoke, that the voice belonged to the shadow passing before them?'

‘They would be bound to think so.'

‘And so they would believe that the shadows of the objects we mentioned were in all respects real?'

‘Yes, inevitably.'

Further reading: http://www.secretbeyondmatter.com

Are you inside the universe? Or is the universe inside you? Browse on the above website.

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