Re: [mukto-mona] Do inquisitive thoughts die in a religious-mind?

It is now well established that the burning of the library in Alexandria, not in Cairo as Dr. Roy wrote, is wrongly attributed to the Muslim conquerors.  In fact, the library was burnt thrice, first by Julius Ceaser, then by Christians, When Amr Ibn Al As, if I remember the name correctly, entered Egypt during the caliphate of Umar, there not much left to be burnt.  Even the devastation carried out by the Assyrians had ruined Egypt.  Later conquests by others did nothing to strengthen it.

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 6:31 AM, Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Dr. Bain,

 

I have defined who I referred to as a religious person in this particular context. The ones you are referring to are rational-believers; they are fine; but - there are many irrational-believers also, who believe that - there is no need for any other books other than religious scriptures. In fact, they do not want to read any other books for fear of going off track in life.

 

See quotes below from the reference of "Burning of Alexandia Library in Cairo by Muslim Conquerors"

 

"To learn its future, we need only go back to the words of Caliph Omar​ who declared that if the contents of the library accord with the Koran then they are redundant, if they contradict the Koran, then they are heretical and must be burned.

 

Ibn Khaldun​, the Berber historiographer, whose statue stands in a Tunis now fallen to Islamic mobs, asked, "Where is the literature of the Persians? Their literature was destroyed by order of Omar when the Arabs conquered the country."

 

Muslim conqueror burned down the world famous Alexandria Library in Ciro right after the conquest, because they did not want people to read anything, but Koran. 

 

Even today, many of the Madrassa educated people in Bangladesh you will find to believe in Omar's principle either by choice or by circumstances. I am sure – many such people can be found among Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. also. They are not at all insignificant in numbers. Many of these individuals could have been brilliant scientists, philosophers, writers, inventors, etc., etc. if they were exposed to a right environment. What did happen to their inquisitive minds, I wonder?

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Jiten Roy

From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 5:37 PM

Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Do inquisitive thoughts die in a religious-mind?

 

I have not posted on this thread. Let me do this first and possibly the last one here.

 

To answer the question in the thread, no, not all inquisitive thoughts die in religious minds. I have seen many doctorate degree holders in science who are doing fine in their professional life, while they keep invoking their religious books and messenger too often. To me, they are religious to the point of being intellectually poor; yet I have to accept that they are successful in their science subject. What they have done is a successful compartmentalization of their profession.

 

I disagree with Mr. Chakrabarty's comment that people who take everything in their religious scriptures literally are rare in the society. They are not rare in Bangladesh and among the Bangladeshis living in the USA . Among the Hindus, they are almost non-existent. Among the Muslims, they are probably in the minority, but they are not rare; they are too many, and quite effective in hindering their own human development and that of their community.

 

Sukhamaya Bain

From: subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Do inquisitive thoughts die in a religious-mind?

Nobody will agree with you on the definition of a religious person offered by you. Probably you are talking about a religious person who takes every thing in the scriptures literally. This kind of people are rare in the society. One can practice this kind of religion only in a very closed environment (probably a small group in a mountain cave.) When one's life is controlled or influenced by so many other factors (inevitability of or unavoidable interactions with other groups, state, tradition, cultures, etc.), one can lead such a religious life only with infinite determination, which simply points to the impossibility of such a practice. In general, a religious person is one who believes in God, gods, goddesses, holy scriptures, prayers, hell, heaven, and so on. Please note that it is a very general definition. In the real world you will see wide variations around you. This means that religious beliefs have many levels.

 

I have Hindu friends who are religious and yet eat beef. I have heard that a Muslim cannot eat in an "infidel's" house after performing Hajj. The owner of my house (an old bearded man with a medium-level education) used to "violate" this religious teaching when we used to invite him. Even if there is any such religious edict at all, I must say that he did not take every thing literally. He reinterpreted it in the light of new realities and obviously his sense of humanity acted as a guide in determining what to do and what not to do. I have seen intensely religious Hindu women eating non-veg food on doctor's advice obviously not without much hesitation and inner struggle to overcome the long religious tradition deeply rooted in their minds. You will hardly be able to show me a person who refers to the scriptures for solving every day-to-day problem. In our childhood we used to raise funds for celebrating Saraswati puja. We used to approach Muslims some of whom did not hesitate to contribute money to the idolators. I am talking about sixties.

 

I thought you made a wild guess about Salam, or, you have a preconceived or steeotyped notion about him. You have discovered the Nobel as the determining factor that turned a "non-religious Salam" into a "bearded religious Salam". Is this discovery of yours based on your assumption that Salam was so overwhelmed with "Allah's rahamat" which helped him in getting the award and he was so grateful to Him that he started acting overreligiously? Please reflect on what you said and give a thought to it twice.   

From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Do inquisitive thoughts die in a religious-mind?

 

To: Subimal Chakraborty

I did not claim that Dr. Salam was an Atheist before receiving the Nobel Prize. What I said is that - he was not a religous person, as per specifications I have cited before. Here it is again:

 

By religious people, I mean those people who seek scriptural prescriptions to find solutions to their day-to-day problems. To them, religious scripture has everything they need in life.

 

Thanks.

Jiten Roy

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