Religion and Modern World

PREFACE - 11
INTRODUCTION - 13
1. WESTERN RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS’ APPROACH - 15
2. THE APPROACH OF MUSLIM RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS - 19
2.1. The social need for law - 19
Farabi’s exposition - 19
Avicenna’s exposition - 20
‘Allameh Tabataba’i’s exposition - 22
Evaluation - 23
2.2. Knowing God or Science, and proceeding on the path toward God. - 26
Evaluation - 27
2.3. Assignment of duties leads to human perfection - 27
Evaluation - 28
2.4. Recognition of the path toward perfection - 28
Evaluation - 30
2.5. Select exposition - granting insight and incentive toward perfection - 31
Man, the multi-dimensional being - 31
Capacity for perfection - 31
Desire to achieve perfection - 32
Seek to recognize the path toward perfection - 32
Possess intellect and free choice - 32
Possessor of contradictory passions - 33
Man’s epistemic and psychological shortcomings on the path to guidance - 34
Theology - 34
Conclusion - 34
3. CLAIMING THE ADEQUACY OF SCIENCE AND THE INTELLECT - 37
Evaluation - 39
Shortcomings of science - 40
The first shortcoming - 40
The second shortcoming - 42
The third shortcoming - 43
Shortcomings of the intellect - 44
The first shortcoming - 44
The second shortcoming - 46
The third shortcoming - 48
Shortcomings shared by science and the intellect - 49
The first shortcoming - 49
The second shortcoming - 49
The third shortcoming - 53
The fourth shortcoming - 53
The fifth shortcoming - 55
The sixth shortcoming - 57
The seventh shortcoming - 57
The eighth shortcoming - 59
The ninth shortcoming - 60
The tenth shortcoming - 61
Limitations of collective reason - 62
4. PREVENTING CONTINGENT LOSSES IS ANOTHER ARGUMENT SUPPORTING THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION - 67
5. DR. SOROUSH’S CLAIM: MODERN MAN DOES NOT NEED RELIGION - 69
Exposition of the theory - 69
Description or judgment - 72
Arguments substantiating needlessness of religion. - 73
Evaluation - 75
Presenting a specific standard for needlessness. - 78
Summary of the argument - 80
Evaluation of the first premise - 82
Evaluation of the second premise - 82
The first problem - 85
The second problem - 86
The third problem - 88
The fourth problem - 89
Citation of the Qur’anic verses and traditions - 90
Evaluation - 91
Axiomatic teachings - 93
Evaluation - 94
Specific emphasis on Western countries’ needlessness of religion - 95
6. THE WEST AND THE DAMAGING CONSEQUENCES OF EXTREME SCIENTISM AND RATIONALISM - 101
Nihilism, anxiety, and loneliness - 101
Mental fatigue and the feeling of spiritual and moral emptiness - 105
Metamorphosis of man into a machine - 109
Increase in criminal acts - 110
Inability to solve the complications of modern man - 111
APPENDIX - 115
1. The ever-increasing religious tendencies in the West - 115
The general public in the West - 115
The twenty-first century: the decline of secularism - 126
Western scholars’ ever-increasing religious tendencies - 127
2. Scholars’ religious tendencies at the beginning of the 20th century - 127
3. The Deadlock of excessive scientism - 130
4. Beginning of the collapse of sheer materialism and the increasing efforts to appreciate the reality of religion - 134
5. Confessions of the 20th century standard-bearer of atheism to the existence of God - 136
Dissemination of Islam in the West - 139
Acknowledging the flourishing of political Islam - 139
The Holy Qur’an, the number one bestseller in the West - 139
Recitation of the Qur’an at the sessions of the European Union - 140
Huntington’s theory - 140
Confessions of an archbishop - 141
Obligatory apologies for expressing offensive remarks against Islam - 141
Recognition by academics and the social elite - 142
Specific countries - 143
The United States of America - 143
American officers and privates in Iraq - 145
An American female private at Imam Husayn’s holy shrine - 146
Latin America - 146
Canada - 147
England - 148
Britain - 149
Denmark - 149
Germany - 149
France - 150
Sweden - 151
Hindus - 151
Renaissance in Muslim countries - 151
Reasons for converting to Islam as stated by new converts - 152
The impact of Imam Khomeini’s character - 152
Spread of moral evils, homosexuality, and domestic problems - 152
The 9/11 catastrophe - 153
Islam’s deliberation, moderation and logicality - 153