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Are We Hard-Wired to Believe in God? Jamie Turner on Fitra
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Modernity brings with it the promise that ultimate truth can come through reason – a reason that often excludes believers as outside the realm of thinking. Liberalism places religion in a ‘non-reasoned’ bucket, which should be tolerated like all other irrational but ultimately comforting lifestyle choices. This is primarily why there is general animus against anyone who displays an over-exuberance towards belief systems. Such people are described as fundamentalists, unthinking and unable to make their own rational choices.
Our guest this week, Jamie Turner is no stranger to these arguments. He is currently pursuing his doctoral research at the University of Birmingham, looking at Ibn Taymiyyah and natural theology.
As always, you can comment your thoughts below.
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The Thinking Muslim Podcast Episode 109
00:00 Introduction
02:11 The idea of fitra
04:47 Fitra from a cognitive pov
05:19 Theistic disposition as natural
12:25 Nature of theistic faculty
13:30 The Mu'tazilite view
14:43 The Hadith about fitra
18:00 Role of environment
20:36 Our role as agents
22:05 The limits of fitra
24:00 Role of revelation
25:41 Convert vs. revert
28:42 Moral intuition
30:35 Journey to Islam
33:38 The role of reason
38:48 Obligation to use reason
45:33 Too much thinking?
47:52 Learning to reason well
49:27 Studying philosophy
51:50 Fitra and moral judgements
53:42 Dawah
55:37 Evidence for God
57:28 Signs in nature and humans
1:00:57 Responding to Stephen Fry
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