Islam and science - Ghazali Flashcards
What did Usama Hasan say were Ghazali’s views?
It was always God who mediates what we think is cause and effect
The idea that nature had its own, internally-consistent laws and ways of operating - this was heretical because only God is truly independent and nature must be dependent on God.
What did Usama Hasan say were Rushd’s views?
Believed fully in the harmony of religion and philosophy
Argued that God creates things with innate qualities e.g. water is created to quench thirst
God would create the universe so that it was self-sustaining.
What did Usama Hasan say about Ghazali’s contribution to the decline in studying science?
Ghazali’s theology didn’t include science - and it was his that became popular.
What were the consequences of Al-Ghazali’s first spiritual crisis?
Reasoned that knowledge through the senses can be doubted e.g. the sun looks small and yet it is bigger than the earth.
What was Ghazali’s example of dreaming?
He says to consider dreaming. When you wake up, you know that it was false. How do you know that your waking beliefs are true? You might “wake up” from these, just as you do when you have been dreaming. Life in this world could be a dream and the afterlife could be real. This led to doubting the intellect too.
How did Muhammad support Ghazali’s example of dreaming?
“The people are dreaming, when they die, they become awake”.
What did Ghazali conclude from his first spiritual crisis?
He believed at this point, God intervened and allowed him to accept necessary truths from the intellect. Muhammad said “god created his creatures in darkness and then sprinkled upon them some of his light”. The first principles are not sought, they are from God.
What book did Ghazali write?
The incoherence of the philosophers
What did Ghazali say about maths?
This study is very precise and so the students of maths believed that this must be the case with the philosopher because Math has come from the Philosophers.
How do philosophers affect mathematicians?
As the Philosophers deny God’s attributes and revealed truths, so does the student of Maths - “If religion were true, it would not have escaped the notice of these men since they are so precise in Science”
What are the consequences of when the Mathematicians speak in public?
Others hear the Mathematicians speak and they want to remain true to Islam. This then leads to them rejecting every Science e.g. they reject planetary motion. When others hear that they are rejecting science, they then believe that Islam is based on ignorance and so go off it. Yet the Qur’an supports scientific truths.
What does Ghazali say about logic?
Those who follow logic try to apply the same conditions of logic to belief in God. However, this can’t be done. Consequently, they have to relax their standard of proof and this leads to unbelieve
What does Ghazali say about Natural Science/Physics?
Those who study these have to realise that all of this comes from God. Planets cannot proceed by their own essence. They must be caused and moved by God.
What does Ghazali say about theology/metaphysics?
They deny: physical resurrection - they only affirm a spiritual resurrection. God knowing particulars, only universals - Ghazali says this goes against the Qur’an. They deny the beginning of the world - they say the world is eternal. They deny the attributes of God - God knows by his own essence
What does Ghazali say about politics?
Discussions of this are to do with governmental advantage and come from the prophets of old.
