"I have said it before that this wise man could not even interpret the Kazi Nazrul quotation he cited."
Note the operative phrase is "I have said it." Did it occur to you that if you said something, that does not guarantee its truth?
"Religions came from God, and then later weredistorted by human beings! That establishes the theory behind concept of messiahs. If this is the analytical ability of a physicist holding a Ph.D., how can we blame the mullahs?"
I said a religion can move forward and turn backward depending on what human beings do with it. The word distort does not capture what I meant and I did not use that word.
The implication of what I said is that the core of religion comes from God and then is shaped by humans, and religion is mostly what human beings make it. If you wanted to dismiss my view of religion, all you needed to say was that you did not believe God exists, and that you supported the anthropological theory of how religions emerged and evolved, and the argument ends there. Contrary to your gratutious presumptious, many people who believe in religion and God are also familiar with the anthropological explanation of religion and reject it, just like you reject the theistic explanation. So the lynchpin of the whole disagreement is the existence of God. Rest of the stuff is peripheral.
Now, if you are as well-read in philosophy and the social sciences as you are so fond of announcing, you know that the belief in the existence of God is not the end-point of some analytical discourse. It is an existential leap of faith or a Faustian choice. Also, the social sciences such as anthropology, sociology or political science are not "exact sciences," to use a popular cliche, in the same as sense that the physical sciences are exact sciences. Therefore, the anthroplogical explanation of social evolution does not have the same legitimacy as say, the Darwinian explanation of biological evolution. As a side note, the Marxian model, which has similarities with anthropology, is also not an exact science, or for that matter any kind of science at all, in spite of the claims made by Marx and Engels. All of the observations above are true even if one assumes that God does not exist. Even in this case, the anthropological explanation has limited validity.
You also know that some outstanding scientists (although they are relatively small in number) believed in traditional religions, which include a belief in God and revelation, in spite of their extra-ordinary analytical abilities. You know that Isaac Newton, arguably the greatest scientific mind of all times, believed not only in religion but also in a lot of things which would be considered superstitions today, such as astrology and other "occult sciences."
Please note that I am not saying that the above makes religion true (it does not) but that analytical ability has nothing to do with one's belief in religion. People with either high or low analytical ability may decide that the choice involved in religious faith falls outside his/her scientific exploration.
So, please go ahead and blame Isaac Newton, Physics Ph.D.s with *low* analytical abilities and Mullahs to your heart's content for subscribing to the same flawed beliefs! If you want, please add Vivekananda and Tagore to your list of people with low analytical abilities. By the way, did you know that Tagore actually knew quantum physics which means that he probably had some analytical abilities after all?
Best wishes.
M. Harun uz Zaman
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
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