technology & social change
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Happiness: Modernity’s Official Religion
UNTIL THE AMERICAN Declaration of Independence gave us the notion of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, people didn’t believe happiness was something that needed to be made into a specific right that they then had the ‘liberty’ to pursue. Instead, pursuing happiness is hard wired into our DNA. Its pursuit is instictive to Continue reading
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Modernity in Seven Bite Size Pieces & How It Impacts Faith (1/2)
‘Modernity is the transition from fate to choice.’ – Jonathan Sacks ‘Modernity is a deal. The entire contract can be summarised in a single phrase: humans agree to give up meaning in exchange for power.’ – Yuval Noah Harari ‘The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither Continue reading
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Transhumanism, Homo Rapiens & Modern Muslimness
This is another article where I attempt to address some themes and dilemmas of modern Muslimness. Like previous outings, this too is less a coherent article and more a cluster of thoughts or ruminations tied together by the theme of searching for Muslim authenticity in a post-modern, post-monotheistic age. ♦ Our primary legitimation for living Continue reading
contemporary concerns, environment & earth ethics, modernity & muslimness, short read, technology & social changean Islamic response to the environmental catastrophe, Islam and economic degrowth, Islam and futurology, Islam and global climate change, Islamic critique of our current capitalist economy, Muslim inculturation, Muslim intellectual responses to modernity, Muslim theologians must be futurists, technology’s impact on religious faith, transhumanism and Islam -
Intelligent and Informed Faith is Our Only Option
THE LATE GAI EATON PUT his finger on the crux of the matter (as it seems to me), when he wrote three or four decades ago: ‘I think it must have been easy enough in earlier ages in the Christian world, and is still easy in those parts of the Muslim world which remain traditional, Continue reading
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Be a God-Pleaser, Not a Praise-Chaser
Being worried (afraid, even) of what others think is a blank cheque for mental torture or torment. ‘A man’s reputation,’ said John Milton, ‘is what other people think of him; his character is what he really is.’ It’s natural to want acceptance: no one likes being ill thought of. But it is simply not possible to please everyone, Continue reading
being afraid of what others think, being obsessed with what people think, compromising Islam, Facebook likes, Instagram likes, Islam must reform, pleasing others by displeasing God, pressure on Muslim to reform their religion, social media and mental stress, social media likes, the need to be liked, watering down Islam -
The End of Man: Homo Sapiens & Spooky Science
Next year it will be two hundred years since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was first put into print: if not the first science fiction novel to ever be written, it is certainly one of the first. Ever since, we as a society have not only been fascinated with the monsters that the science fiction genre has imagined into being, but Continue reading
biotechnology, bioterror, Brief History of Humankind, dangers of AI, dangers of artificial intelligence, dangers of science and technology, destruction of the earth, doomsday prophecies, End of Man, ethics in science, Grandmaster Flash, hip hop, Martin Rees, nanobots, nanotrechnology, Our Final Century, reggae, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak, stewards of the earth, weird science, will we survive beyond our 21st century?, Yuval Harari -
Our Need to Connect, Anxious When We Don’t!
‘The more we’re connected, the more we seem to be disconnected’ pretty much sums up our growing modern dilemma. Our globalised social media age is one in which selling ourselves, sharing ourselves, expressing ourselves and defending ourselves are now part and parcel of everyday life for millions of people across the world. In such an age, writes Os Guinness, it’s a case of: ‘I Continue reading
compare-and-despair syndrome, connected to God or to Facebook?, connecting with God, Content Creator of creation, FOMO, greatest human need is to connect with God, human need to connect, Islam and social media, JOMO, Muslims and social media, remembrance of God, social media addiction, spiritual harms of social media, tackling anxiety -
Law & Morality: Swinging Sixties to Artificial Intelligence
Ever since Kubric’s 1968 sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the 1983 film War Games, or the desperate attempts to stop Skynet going live in the Terminator franchise, we’ve grown more and more accustomed to machines having the commanding edge when it comes to making logical decisions about space flight or warfare. But for the past few years, scientists in the United Continue reading
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Piety Demands We Think Before We Text, Tweet or Speak!
‘A still tongue makes a wise head’, says one proverb. Another says: ‘The wounds of a sword may heal one day; the wounds of the tongue, they never may.’ And then there is this note of caution: ‘Speak when you’re angry and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.’ While it is certainly true Continue reading
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Are We Amusing Our Hearts to Death?
One hadith states: ‘Laugh not too much; for too much laughter deadens the heart.’1 This isn’t to say that laughter or humour must be avoided altogether; for laughter and light-heartedness, in moderation, are prophetic Sunnahs that helps lighten burdens, ease anxiety and bring about joy to oneself and to others. Indeed, there is little virtue in Continue reading