Author: Prafull Goradia
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 4, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/154209/Reason-faith-and-ignorance.html
Pluralism and freedom help individuals acquire
knowledge and embrace that which is logical. Theocratic Islam denies both
pluralism and freedom of choice
Apropos Mr Irfan Husain's article "Imran
Khan vs Darwin", published by The Pioneer on January 21, 2009, Darwin's
theory of evolution, the views expressed by Mr Imran Khan, and the comments
by Mr Husain can be looked at from a third, more accurate angle. The article
focusses on the lack of scientific temper in Muslim societies. In the course
of his argument, Mr Husain admits that "many evangelical Christians reject
Darwinian theory as well, and push creationism as the explanation for the
development of life on the Earth".
At the same time "China, Japan and Korea
have made tremendous progress by accepting reason as the basis of their education
and public discourse." Yet Mr Imran Khan appears to have asserted that
the East sticks to religion and implicitly rejects Darwin. While Mr Khan has
confused Islam with all Eastern religions, Mr Husain first finds Muslims wrong
in damning Darwin and his praising the West and later catches evangelical
Christians with backward thinking.
Christianity, Islam, Marxism as well as Judaism
have a common descent whereas Hindu view and Buddhism are based on entirely
different assumptions. The former are based on 'Deductive Logic', which begins
by unquestioningly accepting a premise and then concluding in sequence what
flows from its contention. All corollaries would be consistent and without
deviation from the premise. The Old Testament contains the 'Ten Commandments',
a central premise of which is "you shall have no other gods before me".
Islam continually asserts with every prayer that there is no god but allah.
Marxism condemned religion as an opium of the masses; the existence of god
is denied. These are fundamental premises.
The assertion that there is god but only 'one'
or there is 'none' (Marxism) are magical assertions and deductive corollaries
flowing there to make life straight and simple for the billions of followers.
Anyone who does not follow the 'magic' is either a gentile or an infidel or
a kafir or bourgeois; all deserving conversion or warranting elimination,
or at best suppression. These disciplines demand acceptance and disapprove
of all questioning, so typical of deductive reasoning.
Hindu and Buddhist approach is based on 'Inductive
Logic', the other face of formal logic, a contrast to 'Deductive reasoning'.
Before we illustrate the difference, an explanation
is necessary as to how most of Christianity escaped the confines of 'one god',
'no god' dicta. Although it took birth in Jerusalem, the Christian ethos blossomed
in Europe. During its first three centuries it was the faith espoused by the
plebeian or the underdog. For burying the dead, early Christians had to surreptitiously
go to the catacombs of Rome. The patricians or the ruling classes in civilised
Europe of the time were pagan. Christianity suffered this adverse equation
until the fourth century when emperor Constantine himself became a Christian.
In other words, religion and state were separate.
In contrast, Islam was given birth by Prophet Mohammed who was himself a ruler
and certainly no plebeian. He wove religion and state together as one fabric.
The Quran and the Sunnah are the all-embracing fountains of rule whether spiritual
or temporal. Inroads, such as made by Darwin's research which contradicted
the canonical theory of creation, could not be allowed by an Islamic state.
On the other hand, a Christian state would be comparatively lenient.
The reason is that European civilisation began
with Greece and it continually carries with it a hallow of Hellenism. The
essence of its spirit was best described by philosopher Protagorus: "Man
is the measure of all things, of things… However orthodox Christians
might be, few of them can easily escape this liberal, rational influence so
friendly to science."
Coming to 'Inductive Logic', four Hindus from
different corners of India once happened to meet and exchange views on the
various colours of rose. They all expressed surprise and disagreed that roses
could have so many colours. Yet they agreed to disagree; their ethos was 'inductive'.
The 'inductive' approach has many pluses in
its favour - intellectual growth, cultural variety, spiritual scope, scientific
development et al. But it also has its disadvantages. Christianity has, over
the centuries, scattered into scores of denominations and has long ceased
to support any socio-political ideology.
The price of 'deductive' insistence is backwardness
such as Mr Husain has described of Muslims. The backwardness of Marxism was
largely economic and cultural; it could not keep pace with time and expired
within eight decades of the Russian revolution.
