Transcription
All right. So, what's the power of Islam? And I want you guys to remember this. Islam is the power and beauty comes from how Islam is able to unite two major intellectual traditions in the world. The first is paganism, right? Remember the Vikings? The Vikings told stories. They acted out rituals. And therefore there was an intimacy, concreteness and interconnectedness to paganism that made us feel happy and good. Okay? It made us understand the world. It made us feel as though we could influence the world. That's the power of paganism.
But Islam is doing the same thing by making God concrete. Okay? You can feel God. God is everywhere. He knows everything. But what Islam is also doing is he's seeing the simplicity, clarity and absoluteness of montheism. Okay, montheism is nice because with montheism everything becomes clear to you, right? Okay, there's one god. Therefore, I just have to follow him. I just have to believe in him. There's like a million gods in paganism. And so, it's unclear what you should do or how you should relate to this million gods. But here in my leism, the relationship between God and you it's very very clear. Okay.
So in other words, Islam is a major intellectual revolution in human history and we have forgotten this because Islam the idea has embedded itself into modernity itself. Okay? Does that make sense? All right. So, um what I will show you the net o over the course of this semester is that Islam really is the proto modernity. When we say that modernity began in Europe, uh we forget that Islam really built the basis for modernity. Okay. All right. So fulfillment of the law and prophets. It's completing the story in the Bible. It's bringing God to the people. You can now touch God. You can now know God. That's the beginning of the idea of Protestantism. Okay? And create heaven on earth. And this is the idea of science. Why do we use science? To make the world better. Because God wants us to make the world better. All right? So a lot of the ideas that will underpin modernity that God can be in us and that God expects expects us to make the world better it's already there in the beginnings of Islam and that's why we will have the Islamic golden age because they are propelled by their devoteness to the one true God.
All right now now that we've done the three mysteries let's go back to the three original questions. First question is why did Islam enter its golden age and Christian Europe enter its dark age? Second question is why the Islamic golden age end. Third question is how did Christian Europe overtake the Muslim world? Okay to answer these three questions all we have to do is compare and contrast these three major religions together. Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All right. There are both strengths and weaknesses to all religions. So let's very quickly compare contrast these three major religions to see why they thrive in a certain historical context.
So Judaism, the Bible, uh it's a wonderful piece of literature. It has a very rich history going back thousand years, right? So the Jews were the first to have a complete history of themselves. There are beautiful stories in the Bible that still inspire today. The stories of Adam and Eve, the stories of the patriarchs, the story of Moses, they still inspire us today and they inspire us to create great literature. And then you have a literary culture. So um the Jews were expected to be people of the book. They were expected to be literate in order to practice their religion. Okay. And this helps help helps helps us understand uh why Jews are so dominant in uh academia, universities, in the media and in culture and in the legal profession. Okay, because these are people of the book. They have a tremendous respect for learning and for literacy. Okay, that said, there are certain problems with the tradition. The first is um it's contradictory. When you read the Bible, it's always contradicting itself. Okay? Um it's almost schizophrenic. You you could say it's very hard to pick out a a definite message from the Bible. And that's why the old tradition uh called a Torah is actually much more important. Okay? And so Jews have to go um to the synagogue uh all the time where the rabbi will explain to them the meaning of the Bible because like you read it by yourself, it's almost impossible to understand. Okay. Second problem is their God. Yahweh, he's he's very problematic. He's extremely problematic as we know from last semester when when we looked at the Bible. He doesn't seem to know what he's doing and he's very very um violent. Okay? He he often commands the Israelites to go kill all their enemies. Okay? So, he's a very problematic god. The third major problem in the tradition is um faith versus history. If you believe that you're the chosen people, if you believe that Yahweh is only true God, then why are you being persecuted all the time? Okay? Why why were the Romans able to kick you out of Jerusalem and burn down your temple, which is the house of God? Why are you homeless? Why do you lack a homeland? Okay? And this has been going on for thousands of years. And there are no easy explanation to any of these problems. Okay. So within the Jewish faith, there's a lot of conflict and debate and doubt.
So the Christian faith was created in many ways to try to resolve a lot of the issues within the Jewish tradition. The first major advantage of the Christian faith is it's the pre precipation and perfection of divinity. Right? Remember how we said that Yahweh is problematic. Well, now we have Jesus who we can understand and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. Therefore, we know him to be the ultimate good. Okay? Second advantage is okay now that there's a person we can for him deliver a consistent message of being kind, being merciful, being loving. Okay. The third advantage is the idea of progress of history. Everything is leading to the return of Jesus the second coming. Okay? So you may suffer now but don't worry because Jesus is is returning and that will end history for us. All right? So these are the advantages of Christianity.
But when you do that, when you have Jesus personified God, you create a lot of issues. Okay. The first issue is it's a really confusing story. Why would God come down to earth, manifest himself as a human, and then sacrifice himself? That's really, really confusing. Like I know there's a lot of really good explanations as to why this is the case. Still, if you're just a normal person, you can't understand the story. It makes no sense to you. Okay? Second is that it's counterintuitive. A lot of the ideas in Christianity, it's just counterintuitive. The Holy Trinity must be the strangest idea in religion where God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus are separate but equal. It makes no intuitive sense to anyone. The third is distant divinity. Okay, God is out there somewhere. You don't know where. You can't talk to him. You can't see him. You have no idea where he is. Okay, it's a very distant divinity. And so these are the disadvantages of Christianity.
And so Islam now makes sense because it's trying to remedy and rectify these failings of Christianity. Okay. The first is that it takes the Jewish tradition and the Christian tradition and makes it part of itself. Okay. So it is really the continuation and the perfection of the Jewish Christian tradition. Second is the absence of God. Okay. This is now true montheism where God is everywhere and you can see him. But if God is everywhere, then what's amazing is that you can now that God can come inside you through your faith, through your devotion, and for your practice. All right? And so what this means is you now know how to behave in the world. There's a clarity of purpose and action. You know that as long as you do those five things, those five pillars of Islam, your life will be good. God is in you. And that gives you strength and purpose and power. Okay? And this is these these ideas is what will start Islamic golden age and allow Islam to propel itself past everyone. Okay.
The problem though is it's too simple and clear. The advantage of being contradictory is you allow for different belief systems which come into conflict with each other. And with this contradiction and conflict, it allows for innovation. That's why Cath Cathism will eventually will eventually give way to Protestantism. Okay? Which is a reinterpretation of the Bible. But it's because the Bible is so contradictory that this innovation is allowed to happen. The Bible was extremely clear. The Quran is extremely clear. But if that's the case, then you cannot allow for a radical rejection of the past, an embrace of the future. Okay? Second problem then is it it's inflexible. It can't be as innovative as Christianity and Judaism. The third problem is it Islam purports to stand outside of history. Okay, Judaism is to be inside of history. Christianity is inside of history as well. But Islam is eternal. When you read the Quran, it's meant to be the eternal words. These words are always true. But then the problem then is how do you go about and interpret your actions through the lens of history and how do you improve your society based on this interpretation. All right. So in the beginning the very aspects the very strengths of of Islam will give rise to a tremendous period of creativity. But over time um you will have um the these innovations will become dogma and they will oify and they will prevent further growth in your society. All right. So does that make sense to you guys?
All right. So, let me reframe what I just said in a different way. All right. So let's just compare and sorry um let's sorry so I'm going to compare and contrast Christianity with um Islam. So so and and and then and then this will be a bit more clear to you, right? But are any questions before I continue? Is this clear to you guys? So I apologize I'm making a lot of generalizations, but again this is a macro view of of history. All right.
So let's look at let's look at Christianity and compare it with Islam. All right. So as I have said u in previous classes, Christianity was developed by the Roman Empire in order to co-opt first the Jews and eventually um these barbarian invaders. And therefore the religion is one of empire and power. Okay? It's really about how to control people. But Islam, as I just mentioned, it is a revolutionary religion that must be open and inclusive and tolerant in order to attract as many followers as possible. All right. Now, the main mechanism of control uh for an empire is the idea of orthodoxy. Orthodoxy just means the correct thinking. Okay? But if you orthodoxy then you have the idea of heresy. Orthodoxy is with God. Heresy is against God. If you agree that the sky is red because I say the sky is red then you are orthodox. But if you insist the sky is blue then it is heretical. Okay? And that constrains or limits the imagination. Right? And the philosopher that you base your society on is Plato. So the idea of the bishop, the idea of the pope, it's really the idea of Plato's philosopher king. All right? So I'll explain uh Plato's philosophy in a bit in a second. Okay? But but let's look at Islam. So, it's a revolutionary religion and therefore you must activate the energy of all your followers. You must get them to believe and you must get them to fight. Therefore, it's a religion based on intuition. God is with you. You know God. God is inside you. Okay? And the idea of intuition is what allows for science. You can discover the truth by just observing through empirical observation through your own analysis through your own belief. Okay? And the person who argues this is of course Aristotle. So this is the argument I'm making you to you. Okay?
A lot of scholars believe um the Islamic golden age happened because the Islamic golden this the Islams had books they had wealth but the bisantines also had access to all these major thinkers Plato and Aristotle they all bison had a lot of wealth right what I'm arguing is that a culture needs to have have a attitude a perspective ive a worldview and orientation for the bisonantines and the Europeans they chose Plato but the Muslims chose Aristotle and that is the major difference okay so let's go over um let's summarize Plato and Aristotle how were the philosophies different okay for Plato the true god is called the form of the Good. The formula good is the beginning of everything. It is what is immutable that cannot be changed. It is perfect and is eternal. Eternal means it's always it was always there and it will always be there. The formula good, this god, he thinks and he emanates new concepts called ideals like justice, uh, reason, beauty, power. Okay? And these ideals will manifest themselves into perfect forms. Okay? Like a horse, like the perfect horse, the perfect woman. Okay? This we can say is just heaven. We live in something called a shadow world which is just an imitation of heaven but it's a bad imitation. So everything sucks. Okay. So for example uh if you fall down and you break your leg it hurts because we live in a shadow world. So in this conception of the universe what we're trying to do is return to uh the form of the good. And for Plato he argues that you can do this through mathematics and geometry because mathematics is what is most like the form of the good. It is it is immutable, perfect and eternal. So by studying mathematics and geometry, you are able to ascend back into the uh form of the good. But guess what? Augustine will take Plato and he will adapt it to the Christian faith. Right? Because how do you leave this world? By not sinning. By having faith. If you do that, then you are allowed to go to heaven. Okay? So in the Platonic Augustinine understanding, we in this world just we all we have to do is not make a mistake. So do nothing. Okay? Do nothing and you'll be good.
Aristotle has a different conception of the universe. He believes the formula of good is called a prime mover. All right? God is a prime mover. So God is the first thing that acts and moves things. Okay? And when he does that, when he creates motion, other things start to happen as well. Okay? So we're constantly moving about. Where we're going is we are seeking truth and it's called talos. Talos means purpose. So each of us by our nature has a purpose. If you're if you're a soldier, your purpose is to be the best warrior. If you're a mathematician, your purpose is to be the best mathematician. Okay? And that is the idea of truth. To fulfill your purpose and therefore you must be constantly acting. Okay? Now the the beauty of this idea of motion is you can now study it through empirical observation. You can observe things and then start to understand their nature. And this gives rise to the idea of science. Okay. Right.
So the Muslim world had a decidedly aristo totalian perspective whereas the European world had a platonic perspective. Now the great thing about history, the great thing about civilization is that what will happen is the Europeans will learn from the Muslims. They'll copy the Muslims, right? They'll bring back Aristotle. They'll bring back science. Uh and they'll bring back intuition. All right? And they will do so through three major events. The first is the Renaissance where they bring back Aristotle. The second is the Protestant Reformation where they will bring back God. Remember the Catholic religion, God is aloof. God can only be understood through the pope or the priest. Okay? But the Protestant religion is no. God is with us. God is in us. Through your actions, you can um you can win God's favor. Okay? The last is science, right? The scientific revolution. And these are the three major events that will give us modernity. Okay? But guess what? The Europeans are just emulating the Muslims. But and this is really important. They will improve on the Muslims. Okay. So the problem with science is yes in the beginning you will have this all this discovery but this in innovation will eventually lead to something called dogma right and so what you need to do is create institutions to destroy dogma and that's what the Europeans will do which will and this idea that dogma can be destroyed through discussion and debate and analysis is what will become the basis of the Revolution which will create the modern world that we live in today. Okay. So we will go through all of these three major uh movements in future classes. But please remember that it's the Islamic golden age which will inspire the Europeans to do all three of these things which in turn will create the modern world that we live in today. Okay. And that's why I believe that the Islamic Golden Age is really the idea is really the protomodernity of human history. All right. That is my argument to you.