Last week, we analyzed surah al-Qadr and came to some conclusions about the nature of revelation and predestination. We asked the question: how could it be that in the Islamic tradition, two separate events comprise the 'initial revelation' of the Quran? Our answer was that the commands of the Quran, in the sense of the… Continue reading The Preserved Tablet
Ben Shapiro has become a hugely influential figure in the conservative movement. His online publication The Daily Wire has grown into a considerable outlet after only a few years of his leadership, and his podcast The Ben Shapiro Show offers decisive commentary on the latest political topics to a large and primarily young audience. Shapiro's vocal remarks on social issues… Continue reading What Ben Shapiro gets wrong about gender pronouns
The source: surah al-Qadr Surah al-Qadr is the 97th chapter of the Quran, containing 5 verses: إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِم مِّن كُلِّ أَمْرٍ سَلَامٌ هِيَ حَتَّىٰ مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ Indeed, we sent it down [the Quran] on the… Continue reading The Night of Destiny
Despite the fact that Muslims comprise only 1% of the American population, Islam is a topic we frequently encounter in the public sphere: we hear it in discussions about our foreign policy, about the ongoing European refugee crisis, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and so on. But rarely are we exposed to the religion in an… Continue reading Sufi Sundays: Introduction
Introduction For many, religion is an idea whose time has passed. Science, which has split the atom and traveled to distant planets, has shown us no sign of a 'creator God' worthy of acknowledgement. The technological progress of our era has reduced religious belief to a helpful superstition at best, or a… Continue reading An essay on religious truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUvFeyGxaaU Those who have seen (or in my case, binge-watched) the Comedy Central series Key and Peele may be familiar with this clip. A schoolyard bully's reign of harassment has one curious twist: he describes the deepest personal realities behind his every action and statement. The result of this obscene display is a… Continue reading ‘Key and Peele’ and the existence of meta-language
I sit down with two writers from the Guardian to discuss our impression of the flat earth conference in Denver, Colorado.
Last week I attended a gathering hosted by the Interfaith Youth Core, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing dialogue between members of diverse religious backgrounds. Specifically, the IFYC seeks to encourage religious pluralism in America's college campuses by supporting student groups in navigating the difficult and sometimes treacherous waters of interfaith relations. Their… Continue reading Coercion or conversation? The limits of religious dialogue
As a neuroscience major, I hold the (completely unbiased) view that the brain is the single most remarkable object in the universe. Its structure is the culmination of 4 billion years of unlikely development, beginning with simple biomolecules and exploding into a dynamic, hyperconnected network whose complexity we're still trying to decipher today.… Continue reading Contorting reality: cosmology’s strangest objects
In the second episode of the interfaith dialogues series, Shepherd and Farid are joined by pastor Kyle in a discussion on prophethood, the divine Logos, symbolic language, and the trinity.
Prophemy 