Reflection II
A post I would like to dedicate to Professor Richard Dawkins
One of these days, I watched a video where Richard Dawkins debated with Mehdi Hasan, a British-American broadcaster, about whether religion is good or evil. The video lasts for over 40 minutes; I will not summarize the discussion in this post. Still, I would like to focus on one question that Richard Dawkins asked Mehdi Hasan about how he, as a professional broadcaster, could believe that Mohamed stepped on a winged horse, called Buraq, to which Mehdi Hasan proudly said he believes in it. The winged Buraq horse served Mohamed to fly from Mekka to Jerusalem, where he ascended to the seven heavens and met other prophets, like Adam and Jesus, all during one night, according to Islamic sources. The focus point of this post will be to reflect on how miracles in religion are things that their believers are not open to question. Instead of questioning what can neither be studied nor examined for a Muslim to form an opinion about his belief, I will defend the idea of discussing what can be checked, like inconsistencies or controversies found in the Quran and Hadith (the traditions).
Miracles: why are they so powerful?
Miracles hold a broad spectrum of interpretations humans have given to unusual occurrences or events. For example, if one person misses a flight that later crashes into a mountain, they might consider their weak timing a miracle, which is why the person is not part of the tragedy. Changing from perspective, the flight crash is a disaster for all the passengers who died and for their families and friends. Believers in a deity usually interpret this occurrence of one person staying alive as God saving them, but the reflection of why He did not save the 170 other passengers is not to be questioned.
There are also miracles in the form of stories and scriptures for which it is expected to believe in them, like believing that Jesus raised the dead or Mohamed rode the winged Buraq horse. People who grow up in an environment with an image of God that is merciful but also cold in his justice in a very mysterious way, tend to be scared to question religious sources. Being surrounded by the idea of an inconsistent God is why good things are understood as a gift from God, like a student graduating, and bad things as a form of punishment, like falling from the stairs. Not being able to see the cause-effect approach of things, but always covering it with the idea of God giving or taking away something, is why there is always an emotional approach to events.
Someone who has been fed for years with this mentality will not be open to questioning God's work and his most beloved human, Mohamed, for whom He created the universe. A believer questioning miracles also means questioning God and His power to perform miracles, which is the highest form of disrespect towards Him. This also means they should fear falling from stairs with the possibility of being paralyzed for the rest of their life, having a car crash, or having a health condition as a result of God's curse for questioning Him. This might be another important reason why many people believe in the scriptures instead of choosing to question them. The events as they are, have their natural cause and, if you ever fall from your bed at 5 AM, it is because you had a poor position when turning around, but for a Muslim, it might be a sign and a gift from God so that you would wake up at the same time for the morning prayer. This is just an example of the approach I discussed above.
Occasionalism
The approach of not seeing what is, but always placing God's interference to give a theological meaning, is shared throughout the Muslim community daily, more so since occasionalism has taken dominance for understanding the world around us. This approach attributes every causal event to God, and to link this approach with the topic of this post, I can say that God is so present in every aspect of life that questioning his power to cause miracles means He's also present to punish that thought instantly. Any unlucky event that occurs, whether the person questioned God or not, will be attributed as a punishment if the person would effectively question God. This position is mentally even more exhausting than a vicious circle, where in the vicious circle one always takes steps that constantly affect each other without being able to break the process. In such a mentally draining position, the individual stays in a vicious circle, but this time with an awareness that the exit is just there by choosing not to use it for existential and survival reasons.
Questioning miracles is questioning God: the wrong order of discussion
With this being said, asking a question about the irrationality of miracles has the same effect on a believer as asking how they can believe in God. Both are uncontrollable, unverifiable, and based on their faith. In my opinion, miracles are a topic that should be questioned lastly in a discussion between an atheist and a believer. It is unproductive and not open to do some research to form an opinion, unlike Mohamed's traditions and the Quran, which can be a more productive discussion.
This order of questioning can be the beginning for a believer to approach the Islamic sources with an unbiased position, to which the belief in miracles will, depending on the believer's choice, crumble when other topics in the belief system no longer give satisfactory answers.
Conclusion
Discussing with someone who does not have the same belief system as you can be complicated, as there is little intersection where ideas of both sides cross each other. However, we can find on both sides the possibility of research, even though the approaches differ a lot. Based on the fact that many Muslims who leave Islam do so when they do proper research on the traditions of Mohamed and the Quran, which they have not been taught in their traditional Islamic upbringing, shows us the importance of questioning step by step. A discussion, starting from certain moral questions and traditional controversies, can bring a believer and an atheist closer than when miracles are questioned. At least, there is space and possibility to form an opinion for both sides, even though they will differ.
Thank you
Feel free to support my blog by sharing this post with someone you like. Don't forget to subscribe to my blog on the Home-page to stay updated on my future posts. Thank you very much!
Link discussion
Dawkins on religion: is religion good or evil? | Head to head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Xn60Zw03A
Comments