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Our beliefs become our
destiny
Dear Family of the Heart,
Feroz Karmally
(posts 24, 25 & 27) and Khalid Sohail (post 26) have infused some
traditional ideas into this discussion which deserve our attention.
Apropros Sohail's
"God is a metaphor" we need to understand what we mean by the
term metaphor to ensure that we are all looking at the same thing at the
same time.
Metaphor is the application of a
descriptive phrase or term to a phenomenon to which it does not literally
apply. In sociology and the sciences, for instance, the role of metaphor is
generally considerable (e.g., the notion of light waves as 'particles') and
is arguably indispensable.
The value of metaphor is in
suggesting new relationships or new explanatory mechanisms. However, its
use can be problematic if metaphors are taken literally (as Feroz Karmally appears to be
doing) and their applicability is not confirmed by independent evidence.
Even at this late stage of this
particular discussion regarding the physics of metaphysics and what have
you, started by our mutual friend Ziauddin Ahmed,
it behooves us to arrive at a common understanding that metaphysics is,
first and foremost, the branch of philosophy that deals with first
principles, e.g., questions of 'existence', 'being' and 'knowing', and,
secondly, that metaphysics is merely speculative doctrines and aempirical (i.e., nonscientific) theories.
Which brings us to a new term, metatheory, which concerns all or any second-order
accounts of theories or second-order theories of theories, such as Karmally's
claims that he knows the mind of God (as in his statement, "There is
enough rubbish going around and no one needs more"), yet he voices his
own strong prejudice by saying: "Anyone [who wishes] to know the
purpose of our life and why we are here -- please feel free to email me. I
will not give you my opinion but real answers."
Karmally's argument is a demonstration of
paradoxical opinions and biases in which he is trapped, as witnessed by his
statement to Sohail: "God is a reality whether we want to accept that
or not. Our inability to comprehend God is irrelevant. All we can do as
intelligent human being[s] is accept the reality and discard our erroneous
conclusions of the past."
Karmally doesn't see that this and other
similar opinions concerning God and all of humankind's beliefs about God
are a carryover of the past! Millions of years of it.
If, as he says, "Time is the
only resource that is limited," then why is he stretching the past
into the present?
I wish to put it on record that the
validity of his opinions (or beliefs) rests on the belief that God did
indeed write the history of Adam and Eve all the way up to the Day of
Judgment that is yet to come.
Again, Karmally
voices his opinion by claiming that "all religions are corrupted"
because they "have deviated [. . .] from the true religion" --
supposing, I feel certain, that that true religion is none other than the
one he follows.
Karmally, as I said before, appears to know
the mind of God, for he writes: "Organized religion today has very
little to do with God, and something that God would have nothing to do
with."
It's amazing how he knows all this.
Perhaps Mahatma Gandhi explained it
best: "Our beliefs become our destiny."
Rashid Mughal
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