Our Author’s Islamophobia Anti-Semitism Anti-Intellectuality

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solutions
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Our Author’s Islamophobia Anti-Semitism Anti-Intellectuality

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Rana Foroohar’s Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism
From: Solutions
Date: Wed, December 7, 2016 7:31 pm - MST
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Attachment:
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Dear John,

I have just finished reading your Suggested Discussion Outline for the December 14 meeting.

It suggests treating 5 topics as “out of bounds” for various reasons.

The second “out of bounds” suggestion was our author’s Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism evidenced by her negative comment on p. 25 “without clarifying whether she is intending to attack SOLELY Christianity AND NOT ALSO Islam and Judaism.”

Are you implying that it is acceptable to attack Christianity, while at the same time it is not acceptable to make precisely the same attack on Islam or Judaism?

Your friend,

Solutions


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: Rana Foroohar’s Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Thu, December 8, 2016 4:10 am - MST
To: Solutions
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Dear Solutions,

Thank you for your e-mail.

Yes, I was implying that in today’s “Politically Correct” Culture, it is acceptable to attack Christianity, while at the same time it is NOT acceptable to make precisely the same attack on Islam. And PROBABLY not acceptable to make precisely the same attack on Judaism.

BTW, our author’s attack was also anti-intellectual for the reasons stated in Q&A-14 of the Second Short Quiz for our 9/14/2016 meeting.

That Q&A-14 is reproduced below for your convenience.

Thank you again for your inquiry.

Your friend,

John K.


From “Suggested Answers to the Second Short Quiz” posted on www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org in the “Participant Comments” section for our 9/14/2016 meeting


Question 14

Is the implied criticism of The Media Elite’s derision for anyone who “clings” to “religion” logically sound from a philosophical/scientific perspective?

Answer 14

Absolutely not!!!

Everyone forgets that “PhD” means a level of proficiency (doctor) OF THE PHILOSOPHY of astrophysics or biochemistry or whatever the Doctor of PHILOSOPHY is in.

Why this universal reference to philosophy???

Because philosophy, in essence, is the study of how we “know” what we think we “know”!!!

And scientific “knowledge” is constantly being revised or discarded!!!

But even more important than philosophy in general, is “existentialism” in particular!!!

Whose most-famous exponent was René Descartes who was famous, in large part, for the statement “I think, therefore I am” which appears in his “Discourse on Method” and in his “Principles of Philosophy.”

But virtually everyone overlooks his next sentence in which he scrupulously argues (and I am paraphrasing since I don’t have his works in front of me at the moment) --

“Even if I am deluded into falsely believing that I am thinking, nonetheless there has to be something that is capable of being deluded, so I still exist.”

Existentialism goes on to teach that the only way you know anything about the rest of the world is through your five senses -- sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

And then Existentialism goes on to ask whether you have ever awakened from a “nightmare” in a cold sweat.

And, if so, whether the “nightmare” seemed real.

And if so, why you now “think” that the “nightmare” was not real.

Existentialism then points out that EVERYTHING you experience could be a dream. And you have only seized upon a subset of your dreams that seems to have some consistency, and labelled them “reality.”

But existentialism points out that you can NOT prove that the subset of your dreams that you have labelled “reality” in fact exists.

You may, in fact, be the only thing that exists.

And you will not know until you have “died”!!!

So all of those things that the scientists have claimed to “know” in the subset of your dreams that you have labelled “reality” may merely be a figment of your imagination.

The same as everything else except you, which is the only thing according to Descartes that you can be certain does exist.

The scientists may be right!!!

Or the scientists may not even exist!!!

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