Ali Sina vs. Mustafa Basheer  

page 4

Oh sure. Of course I am not going to follow my heart. Heart is very misleading. What do you think of those who follow cults? Do they follow their brain? Of course not! They follow their hearts but heart can be fooled and as the result they are fooled.  

First you have to establish the path that you are taking is the right one and this can be done only by using your brain. 

Even if I choose to follow my heart, why would I want to follow Islam? This is a very ugly faith. It only attracts the criminals. Decent humans are disgusted by it. Are you sure you follow your heart? or is it fear? Are you not appalled by the violence and hate in the Quran? What part of the Quran you think is appealing? Islam is a fear based religion. The ultimate argument that Muslims present is fear of hell. 

Yes there is a limitation in human brain but that is all we have. With an airplane you can’t travel to the moon. There is a limitation to the airplane. Beyond certain altitudes it just can’t go. Would you leave the pain in mid air to go to the moon without it? That would be quite foolish. No, you would try to build a different space ship to propel you to the moon. But still you would follow the same scientific principles and follow the same laws of nature. So yes there is a limitation to logics but it would be foolish to abandon it and embrace irrationality find the truth. Even if we find other means to access the truth, like intuition or similar faculties they cannot be illogical.  

Tell me how do you know that your heart has not betrayed you? It has betrayed many people. The followers of David Koresh were betrayed by their hearts, the followers of Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate or all other cults were/are betrayed by their hearts. How do you know you are not betrayed by your heart?

What do you say about the suicide bombers? Don’t you think they are victims of their faith? Don’t you think their hearts is betraying them? If they used their brain, they would not have done this stupid thing. Killing innocent people to go to heaven? Is there anything more insane than that? They are following their hearts and not their brains.  No matter how flawed our intellect may be, it is the only tool we have and it is far better equipped to see the truth than our feelings. The good news is that intellect and human knowledge are expanding and every day we can learn something new. Look at the product of the intellect. Technology and science are the products of intellect. They are not perfect but every day we invent new things. Would you go and live in a cave just because technology and science are not perfect?  

Intellect can fail also but there is a better chance to correct it. Intellect is corrigible. The more you learn the more you can rely on your intellect. It is not perfect but it is expanding and is far more reliable than feelings. Our senses say the Earth is flat. Our intellect says it is round. Which one is correct? 

Yes of course, but this does not warrant accepting any nonsense just because science has no answers. I don’t know what is in Neptune; does this allow me to believe Neptune is populated by two headed creatures that fly by wiggling their nose? If we don’t know something, it means we don’t know! This is no excuse to invent fairytales and believe in absurdities.  

Yes it may, but who said you should believe in absurdities just because it may have hidden meanings? Until you find that hidden meaning you are better off not to believe in anything. What if that hidden meaning is not the same that you believe. Your faith in absurdity will hinder you from seeing the truth. One must not believe in anything without evidence.

Wait a minute. How do you know Allah alone knows? How do you know that Allah exists and if he exists what proof you have that he is God? These are mere suppositions you are making. It is okay to assume things, but it is not okay to believe in your own assumptions. This is like believing in a figment of your own imagination.

First of all why two?  Polygamy encourages rivalry and makes the cowives jealous of each other. These are not healthy feelings. They grow with low self esteem and raise their children with low self esteem. Low self esteem is the root cause of most human problems. Dysfunctional families give rise to dysfunctional societies.  

But that is another subject. Let us concentrate now on what you said.  “I am content with the knowledge that Allah has seen a reason for this”.  

Fair enough! What about the terrorists who murder innocent people? They can’t explain their actions but they commit this heinous crime because they think this is what God wants from them and it is not up to them to question the wisdom of God. Like you their faith is not based on logic but on their heart. So you can't prove them that they are wrong, because like you they have put aside the logics. How can we reason with the terrorists when you say reason is not good.   

One of Shoko Asahara’s followers was Dr. Ikuo Hayashi, a renowned doctor. Following the orders of Asahara, he planted the toxic sarin gas in the subways of Tokyo causing the death of a dozen of people and life injuries to hundreds. Later he confessed that while sitting in the train, he looked at the woman sitting in front of him and said to himself that if he releases this toxic gas, for sure she will die. For a moment he thought he should not do it, but he fought back the thought and convinced himself that God knows best and he should not question the wisdom of Asahara. How could a brilliant scientist of world fame become so fooled? He wept in his trial and strived to find an answer to that question himself. Yet at the moment, he thought he must do whatever his guru says, that it is not up to him to doubt and question the wisdom of God and his representative on Earth. Isn't this exactly how Muslims think? Dr. Hayashi is not an evil man. He had done discoveries in medicine. He and his wife, also a doctor, were genuinely good persons. They tried to find better ways to heal people and this was the reason they went after holistic medicine and meditation, which eventually led them to Asahara. These smart people fell prey to a con artist, surrendered their will and intelligence to him, lost their sense of right and wrong and committed murder. All Dr. Hayashi wanted to do was to help people. He ended killing people.   

Ikuo Hayashi, a famous doctor who had done so much for medicine, became a terrorist because like you and like all other believers, including the terrorists, he did not dare to question the wisdom of God. What God? He believed Asahara is a messenger of God. Did he have any proof for that? No, he just followed his heart. You my friend are doing the same. What proof is there that Muhammad was a prophet of God? First give me that proof. Once you accept someone blindly you fight back your own commonsense and say “I am content with the knowledge that Allah has seen a reason for this”. Have you established first that this is from God? How? You have fallen into the same trap that Dr. Hayashi fell. You believe without any evidence. If Hayashi was wrong, who guarantees that that you are right? He was a smart man and famous for his work. Are you as smart as him?  

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