Inspiration and the discovery of truth

Dear Friends,

There's a ring of truth and sincerity in Javed I. Chaudry's commentary in post #52.

From where he stands -- hopefully outside the cultural treasure chest teeming with dogmatic crabs -- he says anything is possible by way of inspiration.

He cites the story of the German organic chemist Kekule (better known as August Kekule), who derived his inspiration from a dream in which he saw a snake with its tail in its mouth.

He also cites the story of Einstein and that of Newton's curiosity about why the apple fell down instead of flying off into space, which led him to discover the existence of gravity.

Inspiration, he notes,  may be derived from so many different and least expected sources -- a history book, a discussion, a scripture or scientific work, and so on.

It is therefore "perfectly normal," he says, for a person to be "inspired by Quranic verses on cosmology." His point is well taken.

For the purposes of this wretched discussion, however, it is important to realize that neither Einstein nor Newton, neither Kekule nor any of the rocket scientists of today, ever attributed the simplistic poetry or stories of the Torah or the Bible to be the inspiration for their scientific discoveries and state-of-the-art technology.

Which brings us to a crossroads where we must pause to think seriously and to sincerely ask ourselves where we're headed and why we keep meandering without arriving at the Fountain of Truth.

We must also ponder why all the johnny-come-latelies -- including Dr Javed Jamil -- are jumping onto the bandwagon of a new trend in Islam that attributes all kinds of scientific discoveries with Allah's ambiguous and faint-hearted pseudo-scientific injunctions in the Koran.

It is my contention that all scriptures can absolutely be interpreted any which way one chooses to bend or twist them.

If someone suggested that, first, we need to establish some parameters for this kind of discussion rather than have to deal with something erupting out of some emotional Etna of the Soul, then we should respect that.

That should explain why the Muslim ummah's going nowhere any time soon.

I do not believe Religion and Science have ever celebrated a honeymoon. They are two different kettle of fish and, as such, their marriage is impossible.

They are best left in their separate compartments in the labyrinth of human thought, which is imprisoned in the box of cultural and traditional conditioning.

That should suffice to explain why the masses cannot think outside the box!

Dr Jamil would do well to go beyond the pale of Religion to tell us how Science can impart light to the savants of darkness and give sight to the blind.

Rashid Mughal