15AR20-29

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AR 20:29 - Muslim 'reformers' believe shariah fits our modern world

Apologia Report 20:29 (1,258)

August 19, 2015

In this issue:

ATHEISM - recognizing "a reasoning process that responds to moral arguments more than scientific ones"

ISLAM - identifying its real reformers?

MARRIAGE - "achieving the coveted Good Divorce" begs the question, "Has our culture given up on 'the Good Marriage'?"

+ while marriage rates plunge, so does financial security for elderly women

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ATHEISM

In her New York Times op-ed piece, "Faith vs. Facts," Stanford professor of anthropology, T. M. Luhrmann, has it all figured out. She postulates that "a broad group of scholars is beginning to demonstrate that religious belief and factual belief are indeed different kinds of mental creatures. ... On what grounds do scholars make such claims?

"First of all, they have noticed that the very language people use changes when they talk about religious beings, and the changes mean that they think about their realness differently. ... [To] say, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is alive' signals that you know that other people might not think so. It also asserts reverence and piety. We seem to regard religious beliefs and factual beliefs with what the philosopher Neil Van Leeuwen calls different 'cognitive attitudes.'

"Second, these scholars have remarked that when people consider the truth of a religious belief, what the belief does for their lives matters more than, well, the facts. ... One study found that over 70 percent of people who left a religious cult did so because of a conflict of values. They did not complain that the leader's views were mistaken. They believed that he was a bad person.

"Third, these scholars have found that religious and factual beliefs play different roles in interpreting the same events. Religious beliefs explain why, rather than how. ... The psychologist Cristine H. Legare and her colleagues recently demonstrated that people use both natural and supernatural explanations in this interdependent way across many cultures. ...

"Moreover, people's reliance on supernatural explanations increases as they age. It may be tempting to think that children are more likely than adults to reach out to magic to explain something, and that they increasingly put that mind­set to the side as they grow up, but the reverse is true. ...

"Finally, scholars have determined that people don't use rational, instrumental reasoning when they deal with religious beliefs. ...

"The danger point seems to be when people feel themselves to be completely fused with a group defined by its sacred value. ...

"One of the interesting things about sacred values, however, is that they are both general ('I am a true Christian') and particular ('I believe that abortion is murder'). ...

"People aren't dumb in not recognizing the facts. They are using a reasoning process that responds to moral arguments more than scientific ones, and we should understand that when we engage." New York Times, Apr 18 '15, pSR4. <www.goo.gl/QGTMJ6>

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ISLAM

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali Is Not the Reformer Islam Needs. Here Are the Real Reformers" by Rhonda Roumani, guest contributor with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture -- makes the legitimate complaint that Hirsi Ali wants not the reform, but instead the rejection of Islam by all Muslims. Consequently, "Hirsi Ali's language and preconditions will stall a debate about reformation from the get-go. ...

"Her argument has evolved. ... [S]he has said that theological reform must come from within the religion itself (something that seems to run counter to her [earlier] argument ...) and that the West must align themselves with the reformers and those that respect democratic change, rather than despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia, which exports a harmful version of Islam.

"But her requirements ask Muslims to denounce a religion they love, and in essence, declare themselves atheists." Instead, Roumani appeals to the idea that "'reformers' include people who believe that shariah can be a part of our modern world, if interpreted correctly. They are people who believe that Islam can flourish under secular governments, that Islam can be a source of justice and peace simultaneously." She then describes a substantial number of people who fit her description of "reformer." USC-CRCC blog, Apr 9 '15, <www.goo.gl/len5hA>

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MARRIAGE

"The Rise of the 'Good Divorce' by Susanna Schrobsdorff -- notes a trend in seeking "a way for divorcing parents 'to be partners in each other's spiritual progress,' for the kids' sake as well as their own." Here "the pressure is on to succeed at breaking up, to achieve the coveted Good Divorce.

"Not coincidentally, there's a growing cottage industry of advisers, mediators, 'certified divorce coaches' and even specialized real estate agents standing by to help. And this fall, Harmony Books will release Conscious Uncoupling [1], a comprehensive guide to, as author Katherine Woodward Thomas puts it, 'living happily even after.'"

Schrobsdorff refers to "'nesting,' which is when kids stay in one home and parents switch in and out.

"This new collaborative vibe isn't just a fad. Larger demographic and legal trends are at the heart of it. Jim McLaren, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, says that because most states now require couples to go through some form of mediation, 'people are taking it more seriously, and we're seeing more settlements' vs. court battles over the past five years. In his Columbia, S.C., practice, only about 5% of all cases are contested."

Schrobsdorff also notes "a study published recently in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health [which] suggests that kids do better if they spend time with both parents and that they are not more stressed by the back-and-forth, as previously thought." Time, Aug 3 '15, p27-8.

There are ominous reasons to reconsider the claim "good" above. In "The Next Social Security Crisis," Haley Sweetland Edwards reports for Time magazine on "Why American women are bearing the brunt of the retirement crunch." She finds that "for the past 50 years, marriage rates have been dropping precipitously. In 1960, 72% of American adults were married; in 2012, just over 50% were, according to the Pew Research Center." At the same time, fully "Half of all elderly women depend on [Social Security] as their only source of income, whereas fewer than a fourth of married couples do."

It has taken too long for the real question to come up. "If getting hitched is so good for women in the long run, why are marriage rates on the skids?"

In response, Edwards calls attention to the disconnect in our culture by pointing out that "in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls are again heralding marriage as a profound social good, if for different reasons.

"On the left, front runner Hillary Clinton, as well as Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley, has described marriage as a stabilizing building block of society and therefore yet another reason to celebrate the Supreme Court's June decision to allow gay couples into the institution."

On the right, "even as marriage rates decline, the idea that marriage is a cornerstone of social and financial stability remains strong not only among lawmakers but also among Americans themselves. Most young Americans report that they would like to get married one day...." Time, Aug 3 '15, pp48-52.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Conscious Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After, by Katherine Woodward Thomas (Harmony, September 2015, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.goo.gl/fNs1i5>

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