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Muhammad did not come floating off the mountain as though walking on air. He did not run down shouting, “Hallelujah!” and “Bless the Lord!” He did not radiate light and joy. There were no choirs of angels, no music of the spheres, no elation, no ecstasy, no golden aura surrounding him, no sense of an absolute, fore-ordained role as the messenger of God. That is, he did none of the things that might make it easy to cry foul, to put down the whole story as a pious fable. Quite the contrary. In his own reported words, he was convinced at first that what had happened couldn’t have been real. At best, he thought, it had to have been a hallucination — a trick of the eye or the ear, perhaps, or his own mind working against him.…
Yet whether you’re a rationalist or a mystic, whether you think the words Muhammad heard that night came from inside himself or from outside, what’s clear is that he did experience them, and that he did so with a force that would shatter his sense of himself and his world and transform this otherwise modest man into a radical advocate for social and economic justice. Fear was the only sane response, the only human response.
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Abolish all doubt, and what’s left is not faith, but absolute, heartless conviction. You’re certain that you possess the Truth — inevitably offered with an implied uppercase T — and this certainty quickly devolves into dogmatism and righteousness, by which I mean a demonstrative, overweening pride in being so very right, in short, the arrogance of fundamentalism. …
This isn’t faith. It’s fanaticism, and we have to stop confusing the two.
We have to recognize that real faith has no easy answers. It’s difficult and stubborn. It involves an ongoing struggle, a continual questioning of what we think we know, a wrestling with issues and ideas. It goes hand in hand with doubt, in a never-ending conversation with it, and sometimes in conscious defiance of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ORDQFh0Byw&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.ted.com/talks/lesley_hazleton_the_doubt_essential_to_faith.html love it! thanks! :thumbup: Love it to. I have been really enjoying a lot of Ted talks lately after a few lds scientist near me and a few physiologist recommended certain episodes. In relation to this topic there is also a episode with a former “moonie” and a episode with a successful escape from North Korea and their testimonies about their former testimonies and how they were able to believe as well as others in the absolutness of their former beliefs and testimonies. A strong parallel to us and our testimonies.
They go on to say roughly the same thing, numerous repetition, living in a small world tent, and believing in absolute conviction of what they were told as well as beating testimonies to each other strongly led to their absolute beliefs.
The short end is that the very center of our brain is what drives strong belief and emotions and also has no rational thought or language, it can’t communicate to you your thought, just pure raw unfiltered emotions.
The outer brain double checks and allows doubt to put those raw emotion, beliefs and testimonies in check. Because if left unchecked… Well you end up believing and pursuing whatever without doubt and it will take it naturally to its furthest extreme without the rational outbrain allowing doubt to work on conjunction.
We need both parts to drive us to action but also to put that thought in check so it doesn’t become absolute conviction with no rational thought about what if that pure base belief of raw emotion is wrong.
This to me is why even the “holy ghost” which is useful and has its place must be allowed to put in check with our rational brain thought.
In short, when things, even out own thought are left unchecked, it will take it automatically progressing to its furthest extreme.
I want to start some positive and uplifting threads using some brain scientist and psychologist about positive emotions and life using some Ted talks episodes. I know some of them helped me with understanding how I and the brain work.
I like that description of Muhammad’s experience. I have actually been thinking about him recently, because of the similarities of his story and Joseph Smith. I would assume most Mormons believe that Muhammad is not a true prophet, and yet, if we can accept Joseph Smith’s story, why not his? Or my own thinking, that they both have some right and some wrong. That they did have some experience, but I can’t know whether it was in their minds as visions or from their minds as delusions. Either way, they both had the charisma and faith to move forward with what happened to them and accumulated followers. I think if God did communicate with Joseph Smith than he did also with Muhammad. But then I also think they individually made many mistakes and inserted their own ideas as well. And of course, their followers also took what those leaders presented and made it their own thing too. I would be interested to read the Koran some day to see just what it really contains, to find the truth that I believe is probably in there, in some form or other. Thanks. I have no problem accepting Muhhamad as a prophet – or even, in his time and place, a prophet of a restoration.
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