Reply to a Muslim (1)

I’m currently enjoying a correspondence with a muslim lady who is a doctor. I won’t post her e-mails, but here’s my latest reply, responding to her points:

Good morning,

Thanks for this, I’m pleased to see some references in your mails and I think you make a few clear points here, even though I don’t agree with many of them.

The second article draws a distinction between “spirituality” and “religion” but I think both are wrong and I remain unconvinced that “spirit” is even really a meaningful term. “God” is not clearly meaningful either, when you think about it. Nonetheless, if there are improvements for patients who are “spiritual” this would be down to psychosomatic reasons.

Re. prayer, if you are saying it is a waste of time, I totally agree with you. It’s disgraceful how much time people spend passively praying (which has been proven to have no effect) when they should be doing something constructive to help. It’s absurd.

The trouble with religious people is that they tend to start out with a premise which they already believe (for irrational reasons) then try to find evidence to support it, and often bend evidence when it doesn’t fit, instead of suspending all belief until there is a good reason for it.

Re. truth and things being obvious. I’d say it’s true that I am sitting in my bedroom now. It’s obvious that 1+1=2. I’m sure if you were asked whether it is true that you went out and committed a robbery last night, you’d have no problem answering in the negative. I am aware that there can be a great deal of nit-picking over such concepts (I have a first class degree in philosophy from Durham) but for our uses as human beings the concept of truth is satisfactory.

Prior to the 3rd Century B.C. people did believe the earth was flat. This was an incorrect assumption proved wrong by evidence (scientific method) largely by Aristotle. Nothing wrong with that – we should believe what most evidence supports (and follow Occam’s Razor) but retain an open mind, ready to update should new evidence come along. We should not believe things which are counter to current evidence.

We are still looking for answers to many questions. Only the scientific method can provide them. If it doesn’t destroy itself because of its conflicting mystical beliefs, mankind is on an exciting journey of discovery in this wonderful universe…!

Gavin