The Rational Believer

The Rational Believer
Author: Masooda Bano
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0801464331

Islamic schools, or madrasas, have been accused of radicalizing Muslims and participating, either actively or passively, in terrorist networks since the events of 9/11. In Pakistan, the 2007 siege by government forces of Islamabad’s Red Mosque and its madrasa complex, whose imam and students staged an armed resistance against the state for its support of the "war on terror," reinforced concerns about madrasas’ role in regional and global jihad. By 2006 madrasas registered with Pakistan’s five regulatory boards for religious schools enrolled over one million male and 200,000 female students. In The Rational Believer, Masooda Bano draws on rich interview, ethnographic, and survey data, as well as fieldwork conducted in madrasas throughout the country to explore the network of Pakistani madrasas. She maps the choices and decisions confronted by students, teachers, parents, and clerics and explains why available choices make participation in jihad appear at times a viable course of action. Bano's work shows that beliefs are rational and that religious believers look to maximize utility in ways not captured by classical rational choice. She applies analytical tools from the New Institutional Economics to explain apparent contradictions in the madrasa system—for example, how thousands of young Pakistani women now demand the national adoption of traditional sharia law, despite its highly restrictive limits on female agency, and do so from their location in Islamic schools for girls that were founded only a generation ago.

The Rational Believer

The Rational Believer
Author: Masooda Bano
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2012-04-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0801463866

Islamic schools, or madrasas, have been accused of radicalizing Muslims and participating, either actively or passively, in terrorist networks since the events of 9/11. In Pakistan, the 2007 siege by government forces of Islamabad's Red Mosque and its madrasa complex, whose imam and students staged an armed resistance against the state for its support of the "war on terror," reinforced concerns about madrasas' role in regional and global jihad. By 2006 madrasas registered with Pakistan's five regulatory boards for religious schools enrolled over one million male and 200,000 female students. In The Rational Believer, Masooda Bano draws on rich interview, ethnographic, and survey data, as well as fieldwork conducted in madrasas throughout the country to explore the network of Pakistani madrasas. She maps the choices and decisions confronted by students, teachers, parents, and clerics and explains why available choices make participation in jihad appear at times a viable course of action. Bano works shows that beliefs are rational and that religious believers look to maximize utility in ways not captured by classical rational choice. She applies analytical tools from the New Institutional Economics to explain apparent contradictions in the madrasa system-for example, how thousands of young Pakistani women now demand the national adoption of traditional sharia law, despite its highly restrictive limits on female agency, and do so from their location in Islamic schools for girls that were founded only a generation ago.

It Was All In My Head

It Was All In My Head
Author: Ed Taylor
Publisher: Ed Taylor
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2010-02
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0615353827

Cognitivity of Religion

Cognitivity of Religion
Author: J. Kellenberger
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 223
Release: 1985-06-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1349078921

Chance or Purpose?

Chance or Purpose?
Author: Christoph Schoenborn
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2009-09-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1681490854

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's article on evolution and creation in The New York Times launched an international controversy. Critics charged him with biblical literalism and 'creationism'. In this book, Cardinal Schönborn responds to his critics by tackling the hard questions with a carefully reasoned "theology of creation". Can we still speak intelligently of the world as 'creation' and affirm the existence of the Creator, or is God a 'delusion'? How should an informed believer read Genesis? If God exists, why is there so much injustice and suffering? Are human beings a part of nature or elevated above it? What is man's destiny? Is everything a matter of chance or can we discern purpose in human existence? In his treatment of evolution, Cardinal Schönborn distinguishes the biological theory from 'evolutionism', the ideology that tries to reduce all of reality to mindless, meaningless processes. He argues that science and a rationally grounded faith are not at odds and that what many people represent as 'science' is really a set of philosophical positions that will not withstand critical scrutiny. Chance or Purpose? directly raises the philosophical and theological issues many scientists today overlook or ignore. The result is a vigorous, frank dialogue that acknowledges the respective insights of the philosopher, the theologian and the scientist, but which calls on them to listen and to learn from each another.

Rationality and Belief

Rationality and Belief
Author: Ralph Wedgwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2023-05-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198874510

This book gives a general theory of rational belief. Although it can be read by itself, is a sequel to the author's previous book The Value of Rationality (Oxford, 2017). It takes the general conception of rationality that was defended in that earlier book, and combines it with an account of the varieties of belief, and of what it is for these beliefs to count as “correct”, to develop an account of what it is for beliefs to count as rational. According to this account, rationality comes in degrees: the degree to which one's beliefs counts as rational is determined by their distance from a corresponding probability function - where this distance is measured by those beliefs' “expected degree of incorrectness” according to the probability function; the account also involves an explanation of what determines exactly which probability function plays this role in each case, and of why this probability function should play this role. In developing and defending this account, new light is shed on several central epistemological issues. These issues include: the distinction between propositional and doxastic justification; the debates between internalism and externalism, and between foundationalism and coherentism; the significance - or lack of it - of the notion of 'evidence'; the relationship between credences, full belief, inference, and suspension of judgment; the nature of the kind of possibility that is presupposed by the relevant sort of probability; and whether rationality is “diachronic” - so that the beliefs that it is rational for us to have now depend, in part, on the beliefs that we held in the past. Finally, some suggestions are made about how this theory bears on a range of further topics, including the defeasibility of inference, scepticism, and the analysis of knowledge.

The Rational Bible: Exodus

The Rational Bible: Exodus
Author: Dennis Prager
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2018-04-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621577996

A national bestseller! Why do so many people think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is outdated? Why do our friends and neighbors – and sometimes we ourselves – dismiss the Bible as irrelevant, irrational, immoral, or all of these things? This explanation of the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, will demonstrate that the Bible is not only powerfully relevant to today’s issues, but completely consistent with rational thought. Do you think the Bible permitted the trans-Atlantic slave trade? You won’t after reading this book. Do you struggle to love your parents? If you do, you need this book. Do you doubt the existence of God because belief in God is “irrational?” This book will give you reason after reason to rethink your doubts. The title of this commentary is, “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. As Prager says, “If something I write does not make rational sense, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager’s forty years of teaching the Bible to people of every faith, and no faith. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world and to your life. His goal: to change your mind – and then change your life.

Radical Neo-Enlightenment

Radical Neo-Enlightenment
Author: Mark Manolopoulos
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2018-11-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1527522121

Radical Neo-Enlightenment is a spirited response to the multiple and accelerating crises we face today. The provocative and ambitious work contends that we require a “radical neo-Enlightenment” to counter these systemic crises. The driving idea is that Reason must now be reclaimed as a powerful force for positive social change. Along the way, the book criticizes philosophy’s failings and restores its noble compulsion to change the world. Radical Neo-Enlightenment then criticizes conventional religion and advances a reconstructed faith that would be an ally of socially-transformative Reason. It then marks out practical core steps that would lead to rational global transformation. While the book is introductory and accessible in scope and style, it confronts and develops the thought of some of the most important subversive thinkers of the past and present.

Female Madrasas in Pakistan

Female Madrasas in Pakistan
Author: Faiza Muhammad Din
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2023-06-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 180207435X

This study sets out to explain and understand the worldview of students at Female madrasas (FeM) in Pakistan. Beginning as an indigenous informal institute for female education at home, FeM has evolved to country-wide formal theological seminaries that award women graduate degrees in Islamic studies. Since the 1970s, state intervention and social engagement have influenced not only the structure of FeMs but their locations. Attendance is from all socio-economic strata of society. A recent development, especially in urban centers, is the teaching of the state curriculum to enable young students to access mainstream education. Public opinion is divided about the role of FeMs in society. Some believe that FeMs confine women into the domestic realm; others view FeMs as a move forward into modernity, as they educate the least educated sectors of society. The author uses the lens of language and gender to explore why such divergent views exist about FeMs. Specifically, language and vocabulary has served as a powerful factor for restricting women to their traditional roles. Madrasas have a profound effect on Pakistani society at large, as they respond to the immediate socio-political and economic needs of the community. In the last two decades many books were produced about male madrasas in Pakistan. However, one focusing on women's madrasas exclusively was needed, because currently the number of female students enrolled in madrasas is higher than the male students. This unique book is rooted in the authors experience of studying at an FeM. She entered a madrasa with a yearning to be closer to God, to know the book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and to learn what he said and did. A constant throughout her studies was the recognition that acquiring knowledge is one of the highest acts of righteousness according to the Prophet Muhammad.