Worldview - Attempting to be rational
Bashir Goth, in his polemic on Muslims and fundamentalists, has chosen his words carefully. Carefully crafting his article in order to try and claim the high ground of 'rationality'. Ultimately though, his own perceptions are no less grounded in the assumptions of his worldview than anyone elses. From his article

No wonder humble people of my ilk remain clueless to understand their logic. There is a huge vault between us. It is a divide between people consumed by religious thinking and who see everything through a religious prism and people of humble common sense who see things as they are. A gulf between what I may call people of common sense and people of text sense.

Notice how he views the problem as one versus religious thinking and rationality. You might be tempted to ask why his 'common' sense is any more valid than anyone elses.

You see, the real issue is that there is a vast difference in morality between competing worldviews. Trying to call your own view 'rational' and taking nice sounding phrases such as 'common sense' may make it seem like you are objective, but in reality, all that it really does is try to sucker people who may sympathise with your position into accepting that you are the 'rational' one.

Bashir seems to be relying on the vast number of people who dislike terrorism (as I also don't like it) to recast the issue as between 'rationality' and religion, thus attempting to exempt his own worldview from the spotlight. Yet history quite clearly shows, that 'common sense' is relative to the worldview of the society/culture. So several centuries ago, it was common sense that a person could own slaves and beat them if they chose. It was common sense that women shouldn't vote. That Bashir is unwilling to see this is just another case of irrationality.

The issue is not rationality versus religion, but culture/worldview versus culture/worldview.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Tuesday, July 26, 2005