Today, and the following three days, are Bayram, days of celebration, in Islam. The Turkish name for these celebrations is "Kurban Bayramı", meaning the sacrifice celebration. From the name of it, I think you get gist of what goes on around the world in Muslim countries in these four days. Just so you get the full picture, let me make it clear: the followers of Islam, slaughter lambs and cattles all over the cities, on the roads and in their backyards, and then people eat the meat of the lamb which they have just slaughtered two-three hours ago with their own hands, and claim that the blood that has been shed shows their worship, and they donate some of the meat to poor people. So, undoubtedly, a question comes to mind: if the whole point was to help poor people, why not just donate money or clothes, or do charity work, rather than cutting the throats of lambs in the middle of the streets?
Here's the origin story of Kurban Bayramı:
Abraham wants to show his dedication to his religion, so he asks God what he can do. In return, God tells him to sacrifice his oldest son. Abraham takes his son to the edge of a cliff, and just when he is about to cut his son's throat, his son in his grip gets replaced by a lamb, and Abraham sacrifices that.
Come to think of it, besides all the blood bath, Kurban Bayramı is actually a nice holiday. During Kurban Bayramı, the younger members of the families visit their elders, the poor people receive money and meat, distant relatives meet, and most importantly, there is no school :) . But really, if all the blood bath and the sacrifices could be done in more hygienic and civilized ways, or not done at all, Kurban Bayramı could really mean very nice things.
Every single Kurban Bayramı, in Turkey, at the end of the first day of bayram (which is like the most important day), in the news, we see the streets of less developed cities covered in blood, cattles, cows and lambs roaming on highways, escaping from captivity, inexperienced butcher wanna-be people who cut their hands off trying to cut the animals they just bought after long and tiresome negotiations. Even though Kurban Bayramı is an opportunity for people to do some charity and to reunite with their family members, and is driven by religion, what people do to animals just to show their devotion to their religion is not acceptable. I mean, I'm not a vegetarian, but there are surely way more hygienic and less painful ways, for the animals, to show your dedication to your beliefs and donate meat or money to non-governmental organizations. Kurban Bayramı is a happy, happy day for us, but a sad, sad day for sheep...
Thursday, October 25, 2012
What Went Wrong?
Only a couple thousand years ago, the Arab world was populated with alchemists, mathematicians, and philosophers who have had huge contributions to our current bank of knowledge in science, math or philosophy. Al-Farabi was recognized as The Second Teacher, Aristotle being The First Teacher. Al-Khwarizmi created and started using the "zero" for the first time. Jabir Ibn-Hayyan discovered the hydrochloric acid. Ibn-Sina identified the nerve cells and what they do to transmit pain, among many other discoveries. All of these important men lived in the same era; approximately around the years 800-1200. So, what went wrong? What turned the Arab world into being recognized as " a very rich public with lots of oil"? The answer to these questions is the same for every question which seeks the reason behind a stop in development, a misunderstanding, or any war; it is religion.
But blaming it strictly on religion isn't fair. Religion, if used in certain ways, could unite people instead of pitting them against each other. Dogmatism and strict religion was what caused these advancements by the Arabic scientists to stop, because Islam was already there when these discoveries took place; what wasn't there was dogmatism.
And we shouldn't be putting the whole load on Islam. Unfortunately, Islam is recognized as a very strict religion with no means or what-so-ever with science and logical thinking, and is related with violence. If you were to take an objective stance in the case, however, you would see that all religions can be bent, stretched, understood or portrayed differently, and it is very easy to manipulate people using religion.
So, I guess it is safe to say that what caused the "knowledge spring" of the Arab world to stop one thousand years ago, was not specifically Islam or religion, but that it was dogmatism and inside-the-box thinking or not thinking at all, which has, and will continue to, ruin and stop many nations and civilizations from reaching freedom or enlightenment.
But blaming it strictly on religion isn't fair. Religion, if used in certain ways, could unite people instead of pitting them against each other. Dogmatism and strict religion was what caused these advancements by the Arabic scientists to stop, because Islam was already there when these discoveries took place; what wasn't there was dogmatism.
And we shouldn't be putting the whole load on Islam. Unfortunately, Islam is recognized as a very strict religion with no means or what-so-ever with science and logical thinking, and is related with violence. If you were to take an objective stance in the case, however, you would see that all religions can be bent, stretched, understood or portrayed differently, and it is very easy to manipulate people using religion.
So, I guess it is safe to say that what caused the "knowledge spring" of the Arab world to stop one thousand years ago, was not specifically Islam or religion, but that it was dogmatism and inside-the-box thinking or not thinking at all, which has, and will continue to, ruin and stop many nations and civilizations from reaching freedom or enlightenment.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The Cure: Music.
Bob Marley said that "one good thing about music (is) when it hits you, you feel no pain." Plus, I believe that music is that healer of the human soul. Not everyone has to be able to play an instrument or know the history of Western music to be able to appreciate and "love" music; but it goes without saying that if you do know these things, you surely will appreciate and enjoy it more.
Today, we had an awfully hard math quiz, and I wasn't feeling very well when I got on the bus. The first thing I did was to start listening to music, (Savior, by Rise Against-great song, by the way), cranked up the volume and tried not to think about anything else. I decided that when I got home, I would play my new pieces on the piano.
The magical thing about playing an instrument is that, whether you like it or not, you become absorbed in it and when you play something, all you can think about is the music. As you get more experience and learn the piece you're playing very well, you will realize that you are able to think other things while playing the instruments-and you will also find out that you don't want to think about other things. So, when I got home and sat by the piano, played the first few notes of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, even though I can only play it at one tenth the original speed right now, my day started to get much, much better...
"Music heals and feeds the soul" -Turkish Proverb
Today, we had an awfully hard math quiz, and I wasn't feeling very well when I got on the bus. The first thing I did was to start listening to music, (Savior, by Rise Against-great song, by the way), cranked up the volume and tried not to think about anything else. I decided that when I got home, I would play my new pieces on the piano.
The magical thing about playing an instrument is that, whether you like it or not, you become absorbed in it and when you play something, all you can think about is the music. As you get more experience and learn the piece you're playing very well, you will realize that you are able to think other things while playing the instruments-and you will also find out that you don't want to think about other things. So, when I got home and sat by the piano, played the first few notes of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, even though I can only play it at one tenth the original speed right now, my day started to get much, much better...
"Music heals and feeds the soul" -Turkish Proverb
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The Intelligent Animal
HUMAN
Dictionary Definition: A human being, esp. a person as distinguished from an animal or (in science fiction) an alien.
Religious Definition: God's most elaborate creation.
Matrix Definition: A virus.
So, what are we? Are we animals? Are we the most superior species? I believe that only one of the previous definitions are correct. Humans, are indeed very much like viruses, as it was stated in the movie The Matrix, by an Agent. He said, "Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus." Humans, arrogant little beings which dominate the world and effectively destroy it, is what we are.
What differentiates us from animals is our arrogance and our vulnerability. We don't have tails to restore our balance, we can't run as fast as a cheetah, we don't have sharp claws like a lion to protect ourselves. Without our technological widgets -and by technological widgets I don't only mean things which run on electricity, but any of our inventions from the wheel to the F16 planes- we would be completely vulnerable. Our only tool is our brains and that is what we use in order to survive. We build houses, barracks, tanks, guns, nuclear power stations, spaceships, all with one single and main resource: our brain, therefore our intelligence.
Humans, who have made it a habit to compete in everything, have found a way to measure who is smart and who is not; by an I.Q. test. But what can be said about the reliability of these I.Q. tests? Is intelligence made up of only solving math problems and completing patterns and finding the missing piece? I don't think so. As far as I'm concerned, people may be "intelligent" in different areas; some may be intelligent in music, like Bach, some may be intelligent in math, like Pythagoras, while some may be intelligent in the visual arts, like Monet. I believe that you can't measure intelligence, not in a way that it is a 100 % reliable and true. So, my suggestion is to forget about who is smarter and who can divide a polynomial equation faster and just to go on with our lives.
Humans are complicated machines. They feel emotions, they feel sadness, they feel pity, they feel (or at least some do) empathy, yet at the same time they keep on killing each other over matters of surreal things, over the belief of beings we don't know that exist. As smart as we may seem, I can assure you, we're also that much stupid. Lions kill each other to get the prey or the food, we kill each other to prove that a certain way of thought is true and all others are false.
Humans have created and invented all they have invented to be able to make up for their vulnerability. We invented electricity because before its invention, at night, we could be left at dark by a gust of wind with a tiger spying on us, who can see much, much better than us in the dark. Then came bulbs and electricty, then came night vision goggles; and this invention process will go on, until nothing natural is left on earth. Humans, the "intelligent" animals, will continue to destroy their habitat and each other until the end of time; now, where's the intelligence in that?
Dictionary Definition: A human being, esp. a person as distinguished from an animal or (in science fiction) an alien.
Religious Definition: God's most elaborate creation.
Matrix Definition: A virus.
So, what are we? Are we animals? Are we the most superior species? I believe that only one of the previous definitions are correct. Humans, are indeed very much like viruses, as it was stated in the movie The Matrix, by an Agent. He said, "Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus." Humans, arrogant little beings which dominate the world and effectively destroy it, is what we are.
What differentiates us from animals is our arrogance and our vulnerability. We don't have tails to restore our balance, we can't run as fast as a cheetah, we don't have sharp claws like a lion to protect ourselves. Without our technological widgets -and by technological widgets I don't only mean things which run on electricity, but any of our inventions from the wheel to the F16 planes- we would be completely vulnerable. Our only tool is our brains and that is what we use in order to survive. We build houses, barracks, tanks, guns, nuclear power stations, spaceships, all with one single and main resource: our brain, therefore our intelligence.
Humans, who have made it a habit to compete in everything, have found a way to measure who is smart and who is not; by an I.Q. test. But what can be said about the reliability of these I.Q. tests? Is intelligence made up of only solving math problems and completing patterns and finding the missing piece? I don't think so. As far as I'm concerned, people may be "intelligent" in different areas; some may be intelligent in music, like Bach, some may be intelligent in math, like Pythagoras, while some may be intelligent in the visual arts, like Monet. I believe that you can't measure intelligence, not in a way that it is a 100 % reliable and true. So, my suggestion is to forget about who is smarter and who can divide a polynomial equation faster and just to go on with our lives.
Humans are complicated machines. They feel emotions, they feel sadness, they feel pity, they feel (or at least some do) empathy, yet at the same time they keep on killing each other over matters of surreal things, over the belief of beings we don't know that exist. As smart as we may seem, I can assure you, we're also that much stupid. Lions kill each other to get the prey or the food, we kill each other to prove that a certain way of thought is true and all others are false.
Humans have created and invented all they have invented to be able to make up for their vulnerability. We invented electricity because before its invention, at night, we could be left at dark by a gust of wind with a tiger spying on us, who can see much, much better than us in the dark. Then came bulbs and electricty, then came night vision goggles; and this invention process will go on, until nothing natural is left on earth. Humans, the "intelligent" animals, will continue to destroy their habitat and each other until the end of time; now, where's the intelligence in that?
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