grateful,

I don’t understand what was supposed to be so profound about your quote or the links you provided. Perhaps you could summarise it for others?

Personally, I find the following resonates with me a lot more:

“As one believes, one enters into an infinite truth that transcends understanding. You will soon be aligned by a power deep within yourself - a power that is both transcendent and unique. Truth may be the solution to what’s holding you back from a staggering metamorphosis of joy. Potential requires exploration, and to embark on a quest of vision is to become one with it. When we resonate with the universe, we dream and we are reborn.

Consciousness is the growth of synchronicity, and of us. The goal of chaos-driven reactions is to plant the seeds of beauty rather than illusion. The galaxy is electrified with supercharged waveforms. Thus the complexity of the present time seems to demand a deepening of our lives if we are going to survive. Dogma is born in the gap where transcendence has been excluded. Yes, it is possible to extinguish the things that can eradicate us, but not without truth on our side. We are all pilgrims of the multiverse. Consciousness consists of a resonance of quantum energy. “Quantum” means a condensing of the higher. By ennobling, we exist.”

I’d be interested to hear both yours and Yuyutsu’s thoughts on the above.

AJ: Consciousness is the growth of synchronicity, and of us. The goal of chaos-driven reactions is to plant the seeds of beauty rather than illusion. Etc,.

I shudder with the beauty of those words. their exquisiteness doth hover about me like moonlight on a lake at midnight.

Dear Grateful,

Thank you. I watched a few clips of Al Ghazali and I intend to watch more. Clearly, this is a true teacher of religion and I recommend those clips wholeheartedly for anyone who likes to find what religion is about, especially those illustrated clips labelled "#SpiritualPsychologist" that present the basic concepts of religion in a light and easy manner.

For the purpose of this particular discussion, let me quote from one of those clips: "Imam Al Ghazali on the Secrets of the Heart", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TQSI3Km9NU :

"Acquired knowledge deals either with the present world such as the arts and sciences or the next world such as knowledge of the heart, God and His attributes. The power of the intellect cannot master the knowledge of both worlds, causing tension."

Yutsie: I watched a few clips of Al Ghazali.

The flaw I see with Al Ghazali is that he assumes there is a God.

Dear Jay,

<<Yutsie: I watched a few clips of Al Ghazali.>>

Excellent.

<<The flaw I see with Al Ghazali is that he assumes there is a God.>>

When I listen to Ghazali, it makes me reflect on my own flaws of character. Surely this is more useful than looking for flaws in someone else, how more so in one who is long dead.

H I Matar in “Islam for Beginners” wrote about Al Ghazali and ijtihad. Ijtihad means a spirit of inquiry, This was prominent in early Islam. In contrast to Christian universities which allowed only Christians Islamic universities had Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and other non-Islamic scholars. Our language is replete with words of Arabic origin inspired by the contributions of early Islam - algorithm, algebra and zero in mathematics – apogee, perigee, azimuth, Deneb and Aldebaran in astronomy, alembic, antimony, alcohol, aniline and camphor in chemistry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Arabic_origin points to the many words in English of Arabic origin which includes the above and many others. Most of these words come from early Islam.

Al Ghazali wanted to restrict ijtihad to questions of religion. Those who opposed him wanted to keep a broader definition of ijtihad. In the fourteenth century Al Ghazali’s followers won out, and Islam entered its Dark Ages. The glorious universities became schools of theology, and Islam turned its past on its open-minded past.

In contrast the Christian world rediscovered the writings of Lucretius, a Roman poet inspired by Epicurus, who believed natural events had natural causes and questioned the existence of any supernatural.Stephen Greenblatt’s “The Swerve, How the Renaissance Began” tells of that discovery which eventually led to the Enlightenment which questioned religious belief itself.

As Christendom left the Dark Ages which were largely the result of Christian dominance Islam entered its Dark Ages which were largely the result of the dominance of the followers of Al Ghazali.

Science and inquiry are only compatible with religious belief if religious belief does not deny the findings of science and whatever conclusions evidence and logic lead us to.