The Death of Meaning: Islam & Nihilism - Session 1 | Yusuf Ponders (2021-04-02) #

0:00:02 [Music]
0:00:09 [Music]
0:00:14 oh
0:00:30 welcome brothers and sisters ladies and
0:00:32 gentlemen
0:00:33 my name is yusuf ponders
0:00:36 and we're going to be going through four
0:00:38 lectures
0:00:40 um today being the first of them so
0:00:43 let us begin uh first of all just by
0:00:47 introducing myself so like i said my
0:00:48 name is yousef ponders i have a youtube
0:00:50 channel
0:00:51 uh which goes by the name of pondering
0:00:53 soul and there's a website related to
0:00:55 that as well ponderingsoul.blog
0:00:57 with regards to myself i'm trained in
0:01:00 philosophy so i have a ba
0:01:02 in philosophy uh with a specific focus
0:01:05 on the subjects of things like nihilism
0:01:07 which was the um the topic of my
0:01:10 dissertation
0:01:12 with other things such as ethics etc uh
0:01:14 i did a lot of work on
0:01:16 philosophers like martin heidenger um a
0:01:18 lot of the other existentialists
0:01:20 albert camus kirkegaard um
0:01:23 and i'm also a big fan of phenomenology
0:01:27 and did work on famous philosophers like
0:01:29 kant as well so
0:01:30 uh the general focus of my
0:01:34 exercise is quite broad and i also did a
0:01:37 series with
0:01:38 sabor ahmed from the channel dao winning
0:01:40 in delusions
0:01:41 on the subjects off my dissertation
0:01:44 basically
0:01:45 i think we did like eight episodes going
0:01:46 through it bit by bit
0:01:48 uh reading it together and giving our
0:01:50 commentary and having a sort of back and
0:01:52 forth
0:01:53 so if you want to watch that there's a
0:01:54 playlist on my youtube channel
0:01:56 uh that was the the dissertation was
0:01:59 part of the
0:01:59 further reading uh i think brother hamza
0:02:02 put
0:02:02 on the sapience institute website for
0:02:05 this
0:02:06 uh set of lectures so if you already
0:02:08 read that then it should help you
0:02:10 i'll give you a bit of background into
0:02:11 what we're going to go into today uh and
0:02:13 in the the
0:02:14 forwarding lessons uh but if you didn't
0:02:17 it's uh not too much of a problem
0:02:19 uh because i'm hoping to kind of cover a
0:02:22 lot with these lectures
0:02:23 independently um inshallah they should
0:02:25 be enough
0:02:27 uh for you if you're watching them
0:02:29 without having to do any of the other
0:02:30 reading
0:02:30 there is also a um a new article that
0:02:34 was published on the sapiens institute
0:02:36 website uh which is again looking at
0:02:38 nihilism but from a different angle
0:02:40 than what the dissertation was
0:02:41 specifically uh the dissertation took
0:02:43 this sort of path
0:02:45 through um what is nihilism and then
0:02:47 looking at like a comparison between
0:02:49 albert camus and kirkegaard on the
0:02:51 subject of the leap of faith
0:02:54 and then moving from there into an
0:02:56 analysis
0:02:57 of a philosopher called victor frankl uh
0:02:59 who was a jewish survivor of the
0:03:01 holocaust
0:03:02 he wrote a book called man's search for
0:03:04 meaning but it's a topic that
0:03:07 very much um interests me
0:03:10 and this is one of the main reasons why
0:03:13 i'm going to be
0:03:14 covering it a lot here so let's say
0:03:16 lecture one we're going to be going into
0:03:18 what is
0:03:18 nihilism and we'll go through the the
0:03:21 separate aims of today
0:03:23 in a moment uh lecture two is going to
0:03:25 cover what are the causes of nihilism
0:03:27 uh which will be next monday lecture
0:03:29 three is going to cover
0:03:31 the consequences of nihilism someone's
0:03:33 nihilism has sort of settled in
0:03:35 or once like a society or a person or
0:03:38 people
0:03:39 are affected by nihilism
0:03:42 what are the kind of outcomes um that
0:03:44 you could expect from that
0:03:46 and then lecture four insha allah is
0:03:48 going to look into
0:03:50 islam as a potential antidote to
0:03:52 nihilism
0:03:53 and we'll kind of go through a number of
0:03:55 things in that
0:03:57 but i'm not going to go into too much
0:03:58 detail about what each of these
0:04:00 future lectures will cover we can do
0:04:02 that obviously when the date arises
0:04:04 with regards to the lecture for today uh
0:04:07 there's a particular aim so the first
0:04:10 aim is to cover what
0:04:11 why nihilism is important the second
0:04:15 is to explore the question what is the
0:04:17 meaning of meaning
0:04:19 and the third what is the meaning of
0:04:21 life and the fourth what is the
0:04:23 definition of nihilism
0:04:24 now i will begin with a quick
0:04:27 exploration of the definition of
0:04:29 um meaning and nihilism but we will go
0:04:32 these into much more detail
0:04:34 uh as we move through the lecture the
0:04:37 reason
0:04:38 i'm leaving what the definition of
0:04:40 nihilism is to last
0:04:42 uh because i feel it's important first
0:04:44 of all to understand
0:04:45 nihilism is the negation of the meaning
0:04:48 of life
0:04:49 and so before we can talk about what
0:04:51 nihilism is negating
0:04:53 um we need to kind of have an
0:04:54 understanding of what meaning is what
0:04:56 you know
0:04:57 what is the meaning of meaning how that
0:04:59 relates to
0:05:00 life in general and then i think only
0:05:02 from there
0:05:04 will it make more sense to explore the
0:05:06 definition of nihilism
0:05:07 or the the concepts of nihilism in a
0:05:09 little bit more detail with reference to
0:05:11 a few quotes
0:05:12 uh from some famous philosophers that
0:05:14 really really honed in on this
0:05:15 particular idea or concept
0:05:17 uh so that's the reason why we're
0:05:19 leaving that bit at last
0:05:21 um i did a little bit of a
0:05:24 practice round beforehand and that was
0:05:25 one of the comments of the feedbacks
0:05:27 that i received
0:05:30 but this should be done first um but
0:05:33 it's just kind of prep you all
0:05:35 for the particular reason as to why i'm
0:05:37 leaving this
0:05:38 till last um so
0:05:41 let me share my screen so for those of
0:05:44 you
0:05:46 who are following uh you should be able
0:05:48 to see the screen now
0:05:50 uh let's have a look
0:05:56 all right so part one why
0:06:00 is nihilism important
0:06:03 so i'll be like i say i'll begin with
0:06:05 two quick definitions we'll just go over
0:06:07 these very briefly
0:06:08 um we will go into these in more detail
0:06:11 in the parts that are going to follow um
0:06:14 but it's just
0:06:14 based on that little bit of feedback i
0:06:16 got i thought i'd give you like a sort
0:06:17 of brief introduction so when we're
0:06:18 talking about meaning
0:06:20 uh we're talking about what is meant by
0:06:23 something uh whether that be a word text
0:06:26 a concept action um you know in in
0:06:29 general
0:06:30 what is implied uh or you know the the
0:06:33 explicit
0:06:34 significance of something um or
0:06:37 another version of this is what is
0:06:39 important or worthwhile
0:06:41 or important or worthwhile quality um
0:06:44 and it's with regards to purpose and
0:06:47 it's intended intended to communicate
0:06:48 something
0:06:49 that is not directly expressed
0:06:52 um so that's a brief definition of
0:06:54 meaning with regard to nihilism
0:06:57 merriam-webster um definition of this is
0:06:59 a viewpoint that traditional values and
0:07:00 beliefs are unfounded
0:07:02 and that existence is senseless and
0:07:05 useless
0:07:06 a doctrine that denies any objective
0:07:09 grounding
0:07:12 um for truth and especially moral truths
0:07:16 and the second definition here that's
0:07:19 given is a doctrine or belief
0:07:21 that conditions in the social
0:07:23 organization are so bad
0:07:24 as to make destruction desirable for its
0:07:26 own sake
0:07:27 independent of any constructive program
0:07:30 or possibility so that second definition
0:07:34 is more related to the uh the joker
0:07:37 archetype
0:07:38 um you know the character from batman
0:07:40 it's uh that isn't to say that every
0:07:43 nihilist is going to end up like a joker
0:07:45 um
0:07:46 but it is one form that it can take
0:07:49 uh although it's it's the the most rare
0:07:51 of them
0:07:52 uh this sort of outwardly destructive
0:07:54 individual
0:07:56 um that just wants to kind of destroy
0:07:57 everything um
0:07:59 for its own for its own sake uh
0:08:01 independent of any constructive program
0:08:03 or possibility
0:08:04 so those are some brief definitions of
0:08:06 these
0:08:07 uh hopefully that should give you a
0:08:09 general and idea
0:08:11 um to sort of help with this whole
0:08:14 question that we're beginning with that
0:08:15 is why is nihilism important
0:08:17 why should we bother looking into it
0:08:20 investing any time
0:08:22 trying to um understand this concept or
0:08:24 understand this particular idea
0:08:26 or problem now with regards to myself
0:08:29 uh it's you know this is anecdotal but
0:08:32 it's something i have
0:08:33 experienced personally and something
0:08:36 that
0:08:36 um in the past and in waves every now
0:08:39 and then is
0:08:40 something i've suffered from greatly uh
0:08:42 because of
0:08:43 so that is the the experience of
0:08:46 nihilism
0:08:47 it sort of hits you like a wave it's not
0:08:49 necessarily something
0:08:51 that people rationalize um and
0:08:54 it can be characterized as a sort of
0:08:56 illness or a sickness
0:08:58 to a certain degree in the you know it
0:09:01 doesn't even necessarily follow us the
0:09:02 conclusion of
0:09:03 a number of reasons uh or premises it
0:09:06 can just
0:09:06 be the the consequence of being
0:09:09 overwhelmed or
0:09:10 um that you know the brain wanting to
0:09:13 shut down because there's too much going
0:09:14 on
0:09:15 in life and you know you you become
0:09:19 pessimistic um and you just sort of
0:09:22 pessimism
0:09:23 as we see when we go through it
0:09:24 pessimism is this uh
0:09:26 looking at the world in a particular way
0:09:29 and
0:09:29 taking the worst possible outcome
0:09:32 um or prediction of the world and
0:09:34 basically having a very
0:09:36 very low expectation and the
0:09:38 consequences of
0:09:39 of all of this is this feeling of
0:09:41 nihilism
0:09:42 i'm not sure like i said this conclusion
0:09:44 but it's
0:09:45 it's an experience uh that can be
0:09:48 related
0:09:48 to depression and suicide although
0:09:52 not all nihilists commit suicide not all
0:09:54 nihilists
0:09:56 um suffer from depression there are some
0:09:58 academics for example
0:09:59 that argue for it in a very positive way
0:10:02 although i think
0:10:03 they are rare um the the people who look
0:10:06 at nihilism in a positive
0:10:07 outlook i would say are as rare as say
0:10:10 the destructive
0:10:11 joker type um you know they that
0:10:16 cartoon character bad guy uh they're as
0:10:19 rare as each other but for the most part
0:10:22 i think people that are suffering from
0:10:23 nihilism uh generally tend to experience
0:10:26 low moods uh depression maybe even going
0:10:29 as far as suicidal thoughts
0:10:31 although like i say it's not necessary
0:10:33 and this is a a problem that is
0:10:34 worldwide
0:10:36 um so it's you know it's not just
0:10:39 atheists that suffer from these feelings
0:10:41 of nihilism especially with the work
0:10:43 that i've done i've had
0:10:44 many theists be they muslim
0:10:47 um christian reach out to me and talk to
0:10:50 me about
0:10:51 their their feelings or their
0:10:52 experiences off nihilism in general
0:10:54 um and they they follow this similar
0:10:57 pattern
0:10:58 it's just it's generally accompanied by
0:10:59 very low moods not really feeling
0:11:02 that there's any purpose to their
0:11:03 particular life although
0:11:05 uh not necessarily always branching out
0:11:06 as far as to say that the universe has
0:11:08 no purpose or
0:11:09 um you know it doesn't follow that from
0:11:12 this they're saying on
0:11:13 trying to negate the existence of god
0:11:14 and in many cases
0:11:17 people are experiencing this uh still
0:11:20 believe in god
0:11:20 even though they're having these
0:11:22 feelings of like a nihilistic tendency
0:11:25 but like i say it is something that um
0:11:27 i'm very motivated to
0:11:29 look into simply because i have
0:11:31 experience to myself
0:11:32 i know how um bad it can feel when
0:11:35 you're sort of
0:11:36 overwhelmed by these kind of feelings
0:11:38 and i do want to contribute insha'allah
0:11:40 to sort of
0:11:40 helping people that have gone through
0:11:44 or are going through or know someone
0:11:45 who's going through similar things
0:11:47 um to be able to overcome them this is
0:11:50 not nice
0:11:50 uh when you're sort of stuck in this
0:11:53 tarpit
0:11:54 of mental thought or attitude so that's
0:11:57 the the main reason
0:11:59 why i think it's important uh personally
0:12:03 um and i think you should also think
0:12:05 it's important
0:12:06 uh for some more reasons which we'll go
0:12:08 into now so
0:12:10 uh i guess one of the questions we may
0:12:12 ask at the beginning is
0:12:13 why is it so important for us to know
0:12:15 whether or not our lives have any
0:12:17 meaning
0:12:18 uh is it really essential in order for
0:12:21 us to go on living that is you know can
0:12:23 someone just not bother even looking
0:12:24 into these subjects
0:12:26 and just plod on uh historically
0:12:30 i think it probably was more possible to
0:12:33 not even have to ask these questions
0:12:35 um you know many people say a few
0:12:37 centuries ago
0:12:39 would simply just be born into a
0:12:41 particular family
0:12:42 and you know there'd be sort of certain
0:12:45 expectations in terms of
0:12:47 what they were going to end up doing in
0:12:48 their lives um you know what kind of job
0:12:51 they were going to
0:12:52 have to work with and and things like
0:12:55 that and
0:12:55 these were generally decided um by the
0:12:57 conditions they weren't born in
0:12:59 uh nowadays uh it's much
0:13:02 more likely that people are going to
0:13:04 have to ask these questions
0:13:06 themselves um because of the fact
0:13:09 that you know there's all these
0:13:11 questions that arise
0:13:12 um you know what am i going to do with
0:13:14 my life et cetera et cetera
0:13:16 so the world isn't necessarily deciding
0:13:19 what you're going to do
0:13:19 as much um we we have more freedom to
0:13:22 sort of pick for ourselves and this is
0:13:24 increasingly so
0:13:25 around the world although again not
0:13:27 necessarily for everyone there are still
0:13:29 many places in the world that
0:13:31 um still don't really have much choice
0:13:34 in terms of what
0:13:34 you know their future outcomes are but
0:13:37 those who are suffering from nihilism i
0:13:39 think generally
0:13:40 are the consequence of a modern
0:13:42 predicament
0:13:44 in so far as these freedoms increase uh
0:13:46 the burden of choice
0:13:48 is um upon them and they've got to
0:13:51 look at the world evaluate it and try to
0:13:53 figure out what they're going to do
0:13:54 and there's a number of problems that
0:13:57 coincide with
0:13:58 these issues or these this phenomena
0:14:01 that is has been
0:14:02 sort of more explicitly
0:14:05 uh a problem of the modern day in say
0:14:08 that you know the
0:14:09 first world countries where these sort
0:14:11 of issues are
0:14:13 more prevalent now there's a particular
0:14:15 philosopher
0:14:16 of great interest these subjects um and
0:14:19 that is martin
0:14:20 heidegger controversial character in his
0:14:21 own right don't need to go too much into
0:14:23 detail
0:14:24 um about him in particular uh but he
0:14:27 wrote a great book called being in time
0:14:29 um
0:14:30 and in this he's basically following on
0:14:32 from his predecessor predecessor edmund
0:14:34 hussell
0:14:35 uh in continuing this uh what he
0:14:39 referred to as phenomenology or the
0:14:40 phenomenological project
0:14:42 and in short phenomenology
0:14:45 is to basically to explore the
0:14:49 what was referred to by the
0:14:50 quote-unquote there's the science of
0:14:52 consciousness
0:14:53 um which i guess in a looser way could
0:14:56 be referred to as the science of
0:14:57 subjectivity
0:14:58 that is to explore the the mechanism of
0:15:01 consciousness of experience itself
0:15:04 and try to get to understand um
0:15:06 consciousness
0:15:08 as its experience in a more systematic
0:15:10 way
0:15:11 now heidegger he asks
0:15:14 a number of questions in in his projects
0:15:17 and
0:15:18 one of them is that what is it that
0:15:19 makes the human being
0:15:21 distinct from all the kinds of being um
0:15:24 and
0:15:24 even weirdly enough he ends up kind of
0:15:27 exploring in
0:15:28 in another term he refers to it as
0:15:29 diazine which is german for being
0:15:32 there um which does reference the the
0:15:35 human being
0:15:36 um but it doesn't limit it to that
0:15:39 it's basically to describe the kind of
0:15:41 being that the human being is
0:15:44 that is that it's uh it's a being where
0:15:46 it's its existence
0:15:48 is a problem for it it must decide how
0:15:52 to be that is you know like how am i
0:15:55 going to exist
0:15:56 what kind of being am i going to be
0:16:01 am i going to be a doctor am i going to
0:16:03 be a philosopher a youtuber an
0:16:05 influencer
0:16:06 am i going to work in the local grocery
0:16:08 store am i going to be a mechanic
0:16:10 all of these questions are questions i'm
0:16:12 going to have to ask
0:16:14 what kind of being am i going to be and
0:16:16 you know it's not just in relation to
0:16:18 the the sort of occupancy that a
0:16:20 particular person might
0:16:23 take on but you know with many things so
0:16:25 for example your political persuasions
0:16:27 you know am i going to be
0:16:28 more left wing or right think right wing
0:16:30 or more central am i going to try to
0:16:32 transcend this
0:16:34 modern paradigm i'm going to make
0:16:35 something new
0:16:37 in terms of religion you know like for
0:16:39 example myself
0:16:41 uh i went through this process what am i
0:16:43 am i an atheist
0:16:44 am i an agnostic am i a buddhist a new
0:16:48 age
0:16:49 you know a hindu or am i a christian
0:16:52 a jew a muslim what what is it that i
0:16:54 wanted to be
0:16:55 was a really really important question
0:16:59 and i think the fundamental thing that i
0:17:01 really wanted to explore
0:17:03 in my younger age and so i you know
0:17:06 i had to reach out i had to look into
0:17:08 all of these different things
0:17:09 and figure this out and that exploration
0:17:12 was a result of these kind of questions
0:17:14 how am i going to exist what kind of
0:17:17 being
0:17:18 am i going to be now this is definitely
0:17:21 distinct from
0:17:21 the the animal kingdom now although you
0:17:23 might be able to hold
0:17:25 a certain attribute of the human and say
0:17:27 well it looks like this particular
0:17:28 species in the animal kingdom
0:17:30 um seems to express that that attribute
0:17:34 or that quality
0:17:35 um like the human does and but i would
0:17:37 always argue
0:17:38 with regards to this that you may find
0:17:40 these in a much lesser quantity or much
0:17:42 lesser
0:17:43 to a lesser extent um but the human
0:17:45 being always
0:17:47 excels in many of these areas so in
0:17:49 terms of like
0:17:51 changing its environment you cannot
0:17:53 compare
0:17:54 what the human being does to its
0:17:57 environment
0:17:58 to everything else in nature you know
0:18:01 you you look at nature you look at how a
0:18:03 beaver may make a dam for example
0:18:06 uh or how the ants may make a
0:18:09 uh a burrow or a hive or whatever it is
0:18:12 you know
0:18:12 how all these little creatures uh shape
0:18:15 or morph their world
0:18:17 um you know they they do change it but
0:18:19 not to the extent that the human being
0:18:20 does
0:18:21 the human being completely levels um
0:18:24 where it lives you look at a city and it
0:18:27 bears
0:18:28 no resemblance to the land that it sits
0:18:31 upon
0:18:31 um and what it used to look like prior
0:18:33 to that city's existence we
0:18:35 we completely reshape uh the world
0:18:38 around us
0:18:40 and in very unique and peculiar ways
0:18:45 and you know that's that's just one
0:18:46 aspect in terms of the human being you
0:18:48 look at the complete
0:18:49 variance in the kind of being that you
0:18:52 can have you know from the different
0:18:54 shapes sizes and you know et cetera the
0:18:57 different ways that a human being
0:18:59 can be presented it's mad how much they
0:19:02 vary
0:19:03 um whereas if you look at like animals
0:19:06 or particular species of animals you
0:19:09 don't see
0:19:10 as much of a variance as you do with
0:19:12 regards to the the human being is you
0:19:14 know the
0:19:15 the extent is mad now with regards to
0:19:18 animals they don't need to see they
0:19:19 don't seem to need to figure out the
0:19:21 meaning of life
0:19:22 um either and this is a peculiar thing
0:19:25 you know the
0:19:26 the fish doesn't have to figure out what
0:19:28 kind of fish it's going to be
0:19:30 it just seems to simply exist same for
0:19:33 the lion
0:19:33 there's it doesn't seem to be too much
0:19:35 thought in terms of
0:19:37 how it's going to exist uh they seem to
0:19:40 be very
0:19:41 enveloped in the moment there doesn't
0:19:43 seem to be too much
0:19:44 future planning going on um and the only
0:19:47 time you really see them really
0:19:49 kind of suffering from extreme
0:19:50 depression is when they've been
0:19:53 um isolated or captured and put into
0:19:56 captivity
0:19:58 and then you see these sort of effects
0:20:00 that you might look at and characterize
0:20:02 as
0:20:03 depression and there's certain studies
0:20:05 going in now into whether or not animals
0:20:07 commit suicide
0:20:10 there's a lot of debate about whether or
0:20:11 not that actually is suicide
0:20:13 and in any case even if it is uh animals
0:20:16 do not commit suicide to the extent
0:20:18 that the human being does so there is a
0:20:20 distinction here
0:20:22 um between the majority of the animal
0:20:24 kingdom
0:20:25 in terms of how they exist what kind of
0:20:27 being they are and the human being
0:20:29 um which you could categorize it
0:20:32 basically as being self-conscious or
0:20:33 self-aware
0:20:35 um to a much higher degree than any
0:20:37 other species that we have
0:20:39 um on record now
0:20:42 i can i can't help but reflect on the
0:20:45 meaning of life
0:20:46 and on my purpose and function in
0:20:49 society
0:20:50 i can't help but reflect on you know the
0:20:53 the meaning of things and i think many
0:20:56 people
0:20:58 like i said in today's society having to
0:21:00 deal with these same issues they can't
0:21:01 help
0:21:02 but reflect on these issues uh some
0:21:05 people might
0:21:05 put this off bury their head in the sand
0:21:08 and try to put it off i would argue
0:21:10 they may not seem to feel like they need
0:21:12 to do it now but at some point these
0:21:13 questions will arise
0:21:15 at some point um maybe when it's too
0:21:17 late maybe
0:21:18 when death is approaching and they're
0:21:19 getting old they might ask what was it
0:21:22 all for what was all of what was the
0:21:23 purpose of all of that why did i bother
0:21:25 doing everything that i did they may
0:21:27 they might question this and be filled
0:21:28 with regret and guilt
0:21:30 um but that questioning is still a
0:21:33 rising
0:21:34 um and obviously if it arises earlier on
0:21:36 in life the better
0:21:37 because there's not as much to be
0:21:39 regretful about and they still have a
0:21:41 future
0:21:41 um for the most part for those who have
0:21:43 a long life ahead of them
0:21:45 uh to look forward to there's a lot of
0:21:47 change that can take place
0:21:48 for those who put it off and put their
0:21:49 head in the sand as they get older that
0:21:52 future
0:21:53 shrinks and you know they're fully aware
0:21:55 that there's only a certain amount of
0:21:56 time
0:21:56 we are finite beings with a finite
0:21:58 amount of life
0:21:59 and but this these questions are always
0:22:01 going to arise um
0:22:03 you know if life is taken away from you
0:22:05 um
0:22:06 before you've had the chance
0:22:09 to to think about it i don't think that
0:22:11 means that you were never going to think
0:22:13 about it
0:22:14 you know for example if you die younger
0:22:16 if you were given the chance to live
0:22:17 longer
0:22:18 i think inevitably these questions would
0:22:20 arise you know if everyone had
0:22:22 a large amount of time to live and
0:22:26 you could see death approaching um but
0:22:28 unfortunately not everyone
0:22:30 sees death uh on its way when it is
0:22:33 and so that is usually the um what's the
0:22:36 word here i'm looking for the
0:22:40 the exception to the to the case
0:22:44 now all of this requires reflection
0:22:46 however this reflection can be
0:22:49 a great source of pain and anxiety
0:22:53 that is when you're exploring these
0:22:56 questions you have to explore yourself
0:22:58 you have to explore the the nature of
0:23:01 yourself
0:23:02 what kind of person am i what kind of
0:23:04 person do i want to be
0:23:05 now a lot of time maybe what you aim at
0:23:08 maybe what you desire
0:23:10 in terms of you know your own progress
0:23:13 um
0:23:13 that may very well seem to be out of
0:23:16 your reach it might
0:23:18 appear to you to be something very
0:23:19 difficult to achieve
0:23:21 you might not feel capable of doing that
0:23:23 you may be aiming too high
0:23:25 or you may just have a very low opinion
0:23:27 of yourself but either way
0:23:29 you know the exploring these thoughts
0:23:30 exploring these things causes a lot of
0:23:32 pain for a lot of people
0:23:34 um you know they will suffer from
0:23:36 anxiety
0:23:37 when they look into this when they
0:23:39 reflect on themselves on their own
0:23:41 condition when they think about death
0:23:42 um you might get the odd person who
0:23:44 doesn't but maybe
0:23:46 you could argue in this case they're not
0:23:47 really thinking about it properly um
0:23:50 you know that is something we could
0:23:51 debate about i guess
0:23:53 as is everything um but i think for the
0:23:56 most part
0:23:56 it's a safe bet to say that upon
0:23:58 reflecting you're going to suffer these
0:24:00 kind of things you're going to suffer
0:24:02 anxiety you're gonna suffer uh guilt
0:24:05 maybe with regards to your past self or
0:24:08 um
0:24:08 shame in regards to uh your lack of will
0:24:12 power um things like that to sort of
0:24:14 achieve the things that you really want
0:24:16 in life um and that also might be
0:24:18 reflective of
0:24:19 fear fear of failure fear of what people
0:24:21 might say about you
0:24:22 fear of many things um but this all
0:24:26 kind of lumps up into this idea of
0:24:28 suffering or pain
0:24:30 and anxiety associated with these issues
0:24:32 um and
0:24:33 one of the problems with this uh is is
0:24:36 the pain itself
0:24:37 can and does lead to suicide
0:24:41 uh that is people that suffer and the
0:24:45 more acutely they
0:24:46 suffer the worse they feel um when they
0:24:48 go through these kind of things
0:24:49 that the door opens for this as a
0:24:51 possibility and and today this is
0:24:54 certainly a huge problem as we can see
0:24:58 here it's um
0:25:00 it's all over the papers
0:25:03 we're very very aware of this being an
0:25:05 issue and
0:25:07 very much an issue even for uh our youth
0:25:09 you know we're hearing the people
0:25:11 committing suicide younger and younger
0:25:12 these days
0:25:13 um i can't remember what the age was
0:25:16 exactly but i remember
0:25:17 hearing or reading about someone who
0:25:20 might not have even been a teenager yet
0:25:22 having committed suicide quite recently
0:25:25 um which is really really sad to hear
0:25:29 in terms of numbers just to put this in
0:25:31 perspective
0:25:32 uh globally nearly 800 000 people
0:25:36 die every year due to suicide there's
0:25:38 800 000 people nearly
0:25:40 committing suicide killing themselves
0:25:43 and you know in more perspective we've
0:25:45 got statistics i don't dwell on these
0:25:47 too long
0:25:48 uh but you're much more likely to kill
0:25:49 yourself than you are to be killed by
0:25:51 someone else
0:25:51 you see homicide there it's nearly half
0:25:54 the rate
0:25:55 of suicide and suicide collectively is
0:25:58 um you know you'd have to add maybe
0:26:01 eight of the ones at the bottom up
0:26:02 together
0:26:03 to even get close to uh the amount of
0:26:05 people dying
0:26:06 because of suicide and to put that into
0:26:08 more perspective that's about the size
0:26:09 of liverpool
0:26:10 so imagine hearing every year a city the
0:26:13 size of liverpool has killed itself
0:26:15 um and what's even more shocking is that
0:26:18 for every one suicide there is
0:26:20 there are anything from two to four
0:26:23 people that have attempted suicide and
0:26:25 failed
0:26:26 so that's another what for two to four
0:26:29 liverpools
0:26:30 uh or a city as large as manchester um
0:26:33 trying to kill itself and failing to do
0:26:34 so that's that's a significant amount of
0:26:36 people
0:26:38 and that's very worrying and i'm going
0:26:40 to argue here that this
0:26:42 that the suicide those who were
0:26:43 committing suicide although obviously
0:26:45 not everyone who suffers
0:26:47 uh from nihilism or anyone who
0:26:49 associates as a nihilist
0:26:50 um is going to be necessarily depressed
0:26:54 or necessarily suicidal but i will argue
0:26:56 that anyone who is
0:26:57 suicidal um is necessarily suffering
0:27:00 from some form of minimalism
0:27:02 that is they don't see life worth living
0:27:05 they don't see a purpose
0:27:06 in their life uh strong enough to
0:27:09 convince them to continue to live
0:27:11 in fact it you know it's the opposite
0:27:13 they see um
0:27:14 much more reason to to end their life
0:27:17 than they do
0:27:18 then they do see reason to live um and
0:27:21 this has very nihilistic connotations
0:27:24 and so i draw a connection between that
0:27:27 that is suicide and nihilism because of
0:27:29 this
0:27:30 now it's not just the the lack of
0:27:32 meaning that can be worrying either
0:27:34 meaning itself can be very very
0:27:36 dangerous and what do i mean by that so
0:27:38 if we take into account some of the
0:27:41 major wars that have occurred in history
0:27:43 um think about hitler for example what
0:27:46 motivated him
0:27:48 what motivated hitler and the german
0:27:51 people at the time
0:27:53 to do what they did it was a severe
0:27:55 sense of meaning you just have to
0:27:57 envisage for example that famous speech
0:28:00 where hitler stood on the podium
0:28:02 and he's shouting and he's screaming and
0:28:04 the people are cheering
0:28:05 um you know that i can you can see it
0:28:08 you can see that they're
0:28:09 they're inundated with meaning like
0:28:12 they're
0:28:13 oozing with meaning the whole atmosphere
0:28:16 is so filled with meaning you you could
0:28:18 cut it with a knife they're
0:28:19 they're they're almost suffering from
0:28:22 meaning there's too much of it
0:28:24 um so much so that you know it it pushed
0:28:27 them to
0:28:28 to extreme things you know they went out
0:28:31 and you know they did terrible things
0:28:34 because they they saw purpose in it
0:28:37 they they saw meaning in it um and
0:28:40 you know that's just one example but
0:28:42 many people
0:28:43 are willing to be killed or even kill
0:28:46 for a sense of meaning you know meaning
0:28:48 can be more important than life itself
0:28:51 be that
0:28:51 their own in in so far as they sacrifice
0:28:54 themselves
0:28:55 or be that in you know with regards to
0:28:57 others you know you think of
0:28:59 uh the atom bomb and you know the the
0:29:03 the devastation that the atom bomb can
0:29:06 um cause you think of japan it had two
0:29:10 atom bombs dropped on it and you know
0:29:12 countless people
0:29:13 uh were killed as a result of this now
0:29:17 what was it that motivated the pressing
0:29:19 of that button
0:29:20 you know there was a there was a
0:29:22 function there was a purpose behind that
0:29:24 they saw um you know their own
0:29:28 particular narrative as as being one
0:29:30 worth sustaining
0:29:31 so much so that it was necessary
0:29:34 to end the lives of thousands of people
0:29:38 um to sustain that narrative to sustain
0:29:42 that
0:29:43 um that life which they they saw with a
0:29:46 particular purpose in mind
0:29:47 they saw that as as you know incredibly
0:29:50 valuable
0:29:50 incredibly important and they wanted to
0:29:52 sustain it um
0:29:54 and this pushed them to to crazy
0:29:56 extremes
0:29:57 and so so we've got this issue here with
0:29:59 meaning um
0:30:00 you know you can have in one extreme an
0:30:02 extent of it
0:30:03 um and it can cause you to do terrible
0:30:06 things
0:30:07 and on the other side of the spectrum
0:30:09 you've got an absolute
0:30:10 absolute negation of meaning no meaning
0:30:13 whatsoever
0:30:15 and you know so meaning itself can be
0:30:17 said to be very positive
0:30:18 in many ways but it can also be very
0:30:21 destructive
0:30:22 um and especially so when meaning is
0:30:24 lost
0:30:25 and you know people end their own lives
0:30:27 and that as others and that of others
0:30:29 sorry for the sake of or the lack of
0:30:31 meaning
0:30:31 um so with regards to the the the
0:30:35 nihilist
0:30:36 it can express itself in a number of
0:30:37 number of ways so you've got um
0:30:39 as i mentioned before for example the
0:30:40 academic um
0:30:42 nihilist who might see it in a positive
0:30:44 way or they might be a bit of a
0:30:45 pessimist themselves
0:30:47 um not necessarily see it positively
0:30:50 but i'm reading some books at the moment
0:30:51 where they talk about it in a
0:30:54 like a chirpy way which is quite
0:30:55 surprising to see um but
0:30:57 they do exist so you can't deny the
0:30:59 existence of that kind of nihilist
0:31:01 um the other extreme is the you know the
0:31:03 typical joker
0:31:05 he's very famous as a nihilist um and
0:31:07 he's expressing nihilism destructively
0:31:10 um that is you know he just what's that
0:31:12 famous quote of his um some people just
0:31:14 like to see the world
0:31:15 burn uh and to help it along and this is
0:31:17 characterized by this sort of
0:31:19 accelerationism uh that is the will to
0:31:22 the end that is you want to see the end
0:31:24 of existence itself and you want to help
0:31:26 that along there's some really good
0:31:28 um kind of archetypal bad guys that were
0:31:31 also
0:31:32 played in final fantasy 9 for any of you
0:31:34 who played that
0:31:35 uh i think that the major boss was like
0:31:38 he kind of encompassed this idea you
0:31:40 know he wanted to end
0:31:42 uh existence and make it so nothing
0:31:44 existed at all
0:31:46 uh because existence itself was just uh
0:31:49 you know the the balance was outweighed
0:31:52 in favor of non-existence as far as they
0:31:54 were concerned
0:31:55 um so you know that's one extreme or the
0:31:58 other extreme sorry and then you've got
0:31:59 the middle ground
0:32:00 where you have sort of the maybe the
0:32:02 passive nihilist
0:32:03 um who's just a couch potato um you know
0:32:06 doesn't want to go outside the house
0:32:07 doesn't want to socialize maybe
0:32:09 uh involves themselves in escapism that
0:32:11 is they just kind of watch mind
0:32:12 numbing things play computer games
0:32:14 endlessly
0:32:16 um i think this would probably cover
0:32:18 most of the
0:32:19 the nihilists and then you've maybe got
0:32:22 the
0:32:22 um the more uh the the self-destructive
0:32:26 that is those who destroy
0:32:28 themselves via suicide or self-harm or
0:32:31 those
0:32:31 uh they out with the destructive
0:32:33 nihilists that is those who go out
0:32:35 and cause trouble elsewhere with other
0:32:37 people um
0:32:38 so some of the famous um what they
0:32:41 called the you know the school shooters
0:32:42 in america
0:32:43 uh they wrote notes and things like that
0:32:45 before they committed their crimes and
0:32:46 ended their own knives
0:32:48 uh they also have this quite nihilistic
0:32:50 tendency as well
0:32:51 you see that in their writing um but you
0:32:53 know there is a spectrum of how nihilism
0:32:55 can
0:32:56 express itself and i think in most cases
0:33:00 it's worrying or it's troubling and
0:33:03 and something that you you wouldn't want
0:33:06 to experience
0:33:07 you do have like i said the the more
0:33:09 optimistic
0:33:10 nihilist although i think this is an
0:33:12 oxymoron
0:33:14 um as we'll see i think nihilism is is
0:33:17 generally associated with pessimism um
0:33:20 now so
0:33:21 i think i've argued quite well here that
0:33:23 this is without a doubt serious
0:33:24 issue that needs to be addressed you
0:33:26 can't just ignore it you can't put your
0:33:29 head in the dirt pretend it doesn't
0:33:30 exist because if it doesn't affect you
0:33:32 it will affect someone you know
0:33:34 at some point in your or their lives
0:33:37 nihilism is something that should
0:33:38 concern us that is all of us
0:33:40 collectively especially
0:33:42 uh the the muslim ummah especially the
0:33:44 duats and
0:33:45 the those involved in dawah and just the
0:33:49 the community
0:33:50 members in general you know you should
0:33:51 be um
0:33:53 equipped in order to be able to deal
0:33:54 with this in your community
0:33:56 um you should be able to spot it
0:33:59 when you see someone suffering from it
0:34:00 they might not even recognize themselves
0:34:02 as nightlists many people
0:34:04 have said to me um they didn't even know
0:34:06 they were an island until they'd heard
0:34:07 me talk about it
0:34:08 they didn't realize there was a concept
0:34:10 associated with the things they were
0:34:12 going through
0:34:12 and it was only after they'd experienced
0:34:14 it and after they'd seen someone talking
0:34:17 about it that they
0:34:18 put two and two together and noticed
0:34:19 that there was um there was a name for
0:34:21 the thing that they had gone through
0:34:23 uh and then obviously they sparked an
0:34:25 interest and they um
0:34:27 they look into it a bit more tried to
0:34:29 understand the issue and so
0:34:30 the issue of meaning here must not be
0:34:32 neglected
0:34:33 uh and is one that we should be giving
0:34:36 our attention to
0:34:37 and part two uh we're gonna go into what
0:34:40 is
0:34:40 the meaning of meaning and you might
0:34:43 notice that this is a bit of a strange
0:34:45 question
0:34:46 um so before we can ask questions about
0:34:49 the meaning of life
0:34:50 um or the lack of it we we need to
0:34:52 understand
0:34:53 what do we mean by the word meaning but
0:34:56 there's a problem here that some of you
0:34:58 may have noticed
0:34:59 uh that is that there seems to be a
0:35:01 presupposition
0:35:03 of the the word meaning in order to
0:35:06 ask that question how do you ask what
0:35:09 the meaning of meaning is is if
0:35:11 if you don't already know what meaning
0:35:12 is because
0:35:14 surely if you if you don't know what
0:35:16 meaning is and therefore
0:35:18 have to explore it in order to
0:35:21 understand it
0:35:22 um you shouldn't be able to ask that
0:35:24 question but we can
0:35:27 you know how is that exactly now we
0:35:30 appear to have
0:35:31 a precognitive understanding of meaning
0:35:35 by precognitive that is we we we have an
0:35:38 innate or a built-in
0:35:40 understanding of meaning without having
0:35:42 to look into it without having to
0:35:44 explore it
0:35:45 uh it's very much a part of us from a
0:35:47 very very early age
0:35:49 uh you see children engaging with the
0:35:51 world in a meaningful way
0:35:53 they understand things signify things
0:35:56 um you know they they're expressing
0:35:58 meaning when they're crying
0:36:00 for the attention of their parents when
0:36:02 they're trying to communicate even from
0:36:04 like very early ages where they can't
0:36:05 talk explicitly
0:36:07 but they maybe point at something they
0:36:09 understand that when they point at
0:36:11 something and say uh uh
0:36:13 that that that is suggesting some sort
0:36:15 of meaning that is that they're trying
0:36:16 to communicate they're trying to
0:36:18 um you know transfer some sort of
0:36:22 information from themselves to that
0:36:24 which they wish to interact with that is
0:36:26 usually their parents
0:36:27 uh or the people that are caring for
0:36:29 them and so
0:36:31 our engagement with the world is already
0:36:34 loaded with meaning
0:36:36 from the from the get-go you know our
0:36:39 very structure
0:36:39 seems to be wired in order to engage
0:36:42 with the the world in a meaningful way
0:36:45 and we can do that in in uh simple ways
0:36:48 with certain signs that don't
0:36:49 necessarily
0:36:50 um or haven't necessarily um
0:36:54 been made with the intention of
0:36:56 communicating some sort of meaning
0:36:58 uh for example here with the image you
0:37:00 you know you have a man he's walking
0:37:02 through the jungle and he sees
0:37:03 some paw prints uh he's familiar with
0:37:06 what animal they relate to and the paw
0:37:08 prints themselves
0:37:09 um they they scream out beyond the paw
0:37:12 print
0:37:13 when someone sees and looks at the paw
0:37:15 print their mind is led
0:37:17 to the existence of a different kind of
0:37:19 being that isn't present
0:37:20 there in the experience but
0:37:23 exists beyond the experience that is the
0:37:27 um the paw prints infer the existence of
0:37:30 the tiger
0:37:31 or the the large cat that might be
0:37:33 crawling through the
0:37:35 um the jungle for the tall grass and you
0:37:38 you
0:37:38 associate certain ideas with that
0:37:40 certain action might be required you
0:37:42 might need to take care you might need
0:37:44 to be a bit more vigilant you might need
0:37:45 to run for safety
0:37:46 um there's a number of things that might
0:37:48 occur but all of this
0:37:51 is all um indicated or signified by the
0:37:54 existence of something as simple
0:37:56 as a an impression in some mud
0:37:59 um you see it and it signifies something
0:38:02 beyond it
0:38:04 now we can go further than that um with
0:38:06 our experience of
0:38:08 uh you know more articulate science it's
0:38:11 signs that have been created
0:38:14 or made with the purpose of
0:38:16 communicating
0:38:17 some sort of meaning um and you see this
0:38:20 more readily in the experience of books
0:38:24 now there's a weird thing that can occur
0:38:26 with books either
0:38:29 like it is most of the time and like it
0:38:31 is when we were reading for example the
0:38:33 the definition of meaning
0:38:35 um when you're engaging with a book for
0:38:37 the most part
0:38:38 the book itself should if it's a good
0:38:41 book especially
0:38:41 should just disappear you're not even
0:38:44 noticing
0:38:45 the book explicitly um you don't notice
0:38:48 the individual letters nor do you
0:38:50 notice the the income you don't notice
0:38:52 it as ink on paper
0:38:54 and what you're doing is you're engaging
0:38:56 with these ideas so you're just reading
0:38:57 it
0:38:58 and you're reading it in a way where the
0:39:00 words dissolve and disappear into the
0:39:02 peripheral
0:39:03 um and you're imagining what's going on
0:39:05 there so if you imagine
0:39:06 if you're reading lord of the rings or
0:39:08 harry potter or whatever it is you're
0:39:10 into
0:39:10 um your mind is actively engaging with
0:39:14 this
0:39:14 narrative that's going on you've got
0:39:16 this adventure happening you've got
0:39:17 people
0:39:18 saving someone's lives or battling some
0:39:20 um devilish creature
0:39:22 and your brain is it's intentionality is
0:39:25 focused
0:39:26 that is it's um it's directed
0:39:29 towards the object of the experience
0:39:32 whether that's in the mind
0:39:34 uh or if you're focusing outside and you
0:39:36 see something that's endangering your
0:39:37 life
0:39:38 um your mind is always focused at
0:39:40 something but that something doesn't
0:39:42 necessarily have to be outside of you
0:39:43 like when you're reading a book
0:39:45 um technically your eyes are pointed at
0:39:47 the paper but your mind is engaged
0:39:49 elsewhere
0:39:50 your mind is focused solely on the idea
0:39:54 itself and a similar thing happens
0:39:56 um when you're i don't know how many of
0:39:58 you experienced this but i i
0:40:00 i'm assuming it's quite common uh where
0:40:02 you're driving to work
0:40:04 or you're doing something that you do so
0:40:06 often that it becomes second nature
0:40:08 and then you zone out because you're
0:40:09 thinking of something other than the
0:40:11 thing that you're doing
0:40:12 uh and then you zone back in and you're
0:40:14 like oh crap i've just traveled
0:40:17 for 30 minutes or for however long i've
0:40:19 been traveling
0:40:20 this has happened even when i've been
0:40:21 walking i've been turning corners and
0:40:23 i've been doing all of this
0:40:24 um articulate movement with my legs and
0:40:26 my body and looking for things and i've
0:40:28 not even noticed i've been doing it
0:40:29 because i've been
0:40:31 daydreaming i've been elsewhere my mind
0:40:33 has been focused on something completely
0:40:34 different
0:40:36 and half an hour flies by and i don't
0:40:38 recall the journey
0:40:40 i don't recall the past 30 minutes it
0:40:42 says the same thing
0:40:43 your mind is directed elsewhere and when
0:40:45 you're engaging with a book
0:40:47 you're engaging with the meaning you're
0:40:49 no longer looking simply at the words on
0:40:51 the paper you're not recognizing them
0:40:52 for what they objectively are you're
0:40:55 experiencing them as something else
0:40:57 something that transcends the page
0:40:58 something that transcends the
0:41:00 the um the physical and we don't need to
0:41:04 go too much into what i mean by
0:41:05 transcend exactly
0:41:06 um all we mean is that it's you know it
0:41:09 it's not
0:41:10 simply to be found in that book um
0:41:13 it's not simply to be found in the the
0:41:15 physical object which gives rise
0:41:17 to the experience there's there's
0:41:20 there's much more to it
0:41:22 and and it goes beyond that and you know
0:41:25 that this is very much what we're
0:41:26 talking about when we're talking about
0:41:27 meaning it's this
0:41:29 um the signification of something
0:41:32 greater than the thing that gave rise
0:41:34 to the meaning so here again let's look
0:41:37 at the
0:41:37 the the definition so what is meant by a
0:41:41 word
0:41:41 text concept or action um
0:41:45 implied or explicit significance uh
0:41:48 important or worthwhile quality purpose
0:41:50 uh intended to communicate something
0:41:51 that is not directly expressed
0:41:53 um so the street sign uh when i see
0:41:56 certain street signs especially ones
0:41:58 like for example
0:41:59 uh the street that i grew up on as a
0:42:00 child um i see that i don't just think
0:42:03 of the sign i don't just think of this
0:42:04 concrete road
0:42:05 i think that you know these signs are
0:42:07 associated with a number of experiences
0:42:09 um you know there's lives that were
0:42:11 lived on these streets
0:42:12 there was relations there was
0:42:14 friendships there was
0:42:16 heartbreak death trauma there was all
0:42:19 sorts that went on on these
0:42:20 particular streets and the sign
0:42:24 is you know an expression of all that in
0:42:27 in this tiny little
0:42:29 thing and you you look at it and the
0:42:31 thing just disappears and all of this
0:42:33 just bellows out from it it oozes
0:42:36 uncontrollably it's not something you
0:42:38 actively have to um do like if you open
0:42:42 a box it just
0:42:43 the box opens off its own accord and all
0:42:45 these things pour out
0:42:47 um meaning does that you see things you
0:42:50 see
0:42:50 and you know things are associated with
0:42:52 them um that are not
0:42:54 explicitly contained within the thing
0:42:56 that gives rise to them
0:42:58 and you know so you see the similar
0:43:00 words here or synonyms
0:43:01 um you know sense denotation connotation
0:43:03 signification
0:43:05 uh import thrust value validity worth
0:43:08 consequence um you know these things
0:43:13 are you know really really interesting
0:43:16 um and the idea of meaning itself is is
0:43:18 an incredibly important one
0:43:20 um that i could talk about for years but
0:43:23 we another important thing to hone in on
0:43:25 here is we cannot talk of meaning
0:43:27 without reference to some sort of
0:43:29 subject or that is life
0:43:31 that is when we ask if something is
0:43:34 meaningful
0:43:35 we must ask to who is it meaningful to
0:43:38 me
0:43:38 to others to god it doesn't make sense
0:43:40 to talk of meaning
0:43:42 uh without reference to a being that
0:43:45 recognizes it without reference to
0:43:47 something with some sort of
0:43:48 consciousness with some sort of
0:43:49 awareness
0:43:50 and because meaning is you know is
0:43:53 related to these concepts of
0:43:54 signification intention purpose
0:43:57 all of this all of these things are
0:44:00 conscious
0:44:01 practices they require some form of
0:44:03 consciousness
0:44:04 and so um you know that any discussion
0:44:07 in terms of what meaning is is to talk
0:44:09 about a subject
0:44:11 that is it is to talk about something in
0:44:14 you know related to subjectivity um
0:44:18 but not in the sense that it's commonly
0:44:21 used subjectivity
0:44:23 you find it from characters like the
0:44:25 richard dawkins type uh or the new
0:44:27 atheist in general
0:44:28 where they use and and many do art as
0:44:31 well
0:44:31 i see this very often um with many
0:44:34 brothers i i know and love
0:44:36 so i mean no disrespect from this i just
0:44:37 think it's it's a modern problem
0:44:39 that we've made the word subjectivity
0:44:41 synonymous with false
0:44:43 with not true um and
0:44:46 there's much more nuance to the subject
0:44:48 than to simply relate it to that idea
0:44:50 if something is subjective we need to
0:44:52 disregard it if something is subjective
0:44:54 it's something of little importance we
0:44:56 don't need to to focus on it in any way
0:44:58 i think this is a huge
0:45:00 mistake and a massive overlap
0:45:01 simplification off the idea of what is
0:45:03 subjective
0:45:04 um and then often objectivity is just
0:45:07 related to
0:45:09 this idea of truth or that which should
0:45:12 be
0:45:13 um absorbed or accepted or acted upon
0:45:15 and things like that and again this
0:45:17 isn't
0:45:17 necessarily the case either there's
0:45:19 there's much more nuance to it
0:45:21 these are not objective subjects are not
0:45:23 synonymous with true and false
0:45:25 um there can be layers of things that
0:45:27 there can be a layer
0:45:29 of um subjectivity and then discussing
0:45:32 objectivity
0:45:33 with regards to subjective things um and
0:45:37 then you've got issues of approaching
0:45:39 the objective um because we're finite
0:45:42 things when we're looking at objective
0:45:44 things
0:45:44 we can't help but perceive them in our
0:45:46 own subjective ways
0:45:48 um so even when you're looking at the
0:45:50 objective what that means exactly
0:45:53 um to the people that are engaging with
0:45:55 it
0:45:56 can often mean varying things um
0:45:59 obviously that's not the case with
0:46:00 absolutely everything that is objective
0:46:02 like for example
0:46:03 um the speed that a car is going is is a
0:46:06 particular speed
0:46:08 you can't talk of that in a subjective
0:46:09 way um but you can talk of
0:46:12 what a particular set of data means
0:46:15 how should we understand this and
0:46:18 interpret it you know
0:46:19 does all of this information imply for
0:46:22 example that there's no such thing as
0:46:23 free will
0:46:24 or that there's no such thing as a self
0:46:26 many of these things
0:46:28 are still up for discussion and in so
0:46:30 far as we've not come to concrete
0:46:31 answers about them
0:46:33 then this is where the subjectivity
0:46:34 creeps in whereas when people are
0:46:36 talking about it
0:46:37 you'll hear sam harris for example he'll
0:46:38 talk about the fact that um free will
0:46:40 doesn't exist and
0:46:42 the self is an illusion and he says this
0:46:43 as if that is itself a fact that's been
0:46:45 established
0:46:46 um even though there's a clear
0:46:48 discussion going on into this
0:46:50 and his arguments have been shown to be
0:46:52 extremely problematic by
0:46:53 a number of philosophers but you know
0:46:57 this we don't want we don't need to go
0:46:59 into this too much but
0:47:01 i'll just give you some examples so we
0:47:03 can say
0:47:04 objectively that these symbols are
0:47:07 infused with some sort of meaning
0:47:09 uh when i've said this to someone before
0:47:11 and one of the responses i got back was
0:47:13 maybe they're not necessarily implying
0:47:14 meaning
0:47:15 maybe they're just trying to express
0:47:17 beauty in this case i would argue
0:47:19 the beauty itself would be the meaning
0:47:21 that that is still to
0:47:23 suggest something other than itself um
0:47:25 you know and
0:47:26 that they we we look at these things
0:47:29 that you know the people that wrote them
0:47:31 have long gone generations and
0:47:33 generations have passed
0:47:35 um like you know we could barely
0:47:38 you know if you just stumbled across
0:47:39 these in the desert and had no prior
0:47:41 knowledge to them
0:47:43 and you know you'd had no communication
0:47:45 with anyone who knew anything about them
0:47:46 there's
0:47:47 there's so many thousands of years uh
0:47:49 distance between
0:47:51 you and the people that scratched these
0:47:52 into the walls or
0:47:54 painted these onto fabrics or tablets
0:47:58 and but you see and you recognize
0:48:01 there's something going on here
0:48:03 you don't just see ink
0:48:06 or scratches you know like for example
0:48:09 if i if i accidentally spill ink
0:48:11 onto the floor or if you see an oil
0:48:14 spill
0:48:15 you know you're seeing like you know a
0:48:17 similar thing you're seeing
0:48:18 one thing um of one sort of substance or
0:48:22 of one quality on top of another thing
0:48:24 you see ink spilled on the floor you see
0:48:27 um oil in the ocean and you know there's
0:48:30 a huge distinction between the colours
0:48:32 of these things and they you know one
0:48:33 thing stands out over the other
0:48:35 here you've got a similar thing you've
0:48:36 got ink on top of something else
0:48:39 um but it doesn't strike you as an
0:48:40 accident it doesn't strike you as
0:48:43 um without purpose without meaning
0:48:46 you know it's it's clearly trying to
0:48:48 express something it's
0:48:49 you know that and that there's there's
0:48:51 all sorts of ideas associated with this
0:48:53 these people relied on these particular
0:48:55 animals for example for food
0:48:57 um or maybe they had you know had them
0:48:59 as pets i don't know
0:49:01 there's the people expressed in them
0:49:04 when the person was drawing that did
0:49:06 they um
0:49:08 you know was that representative of a
0:49:09 particular character in his life like
0:49:11 was this
0:49:12 for example a picture of his dad having
0:49:15 a special
0:49:17 bonding moment with a particular giraffe
0:49:19 or was this a hunter
0:49:21 that he knew a brave warrior that was
0:49:23 out looking for food like
0:49:25 what what what are these what do these
0:49:27 mean exactly
0:49:28 we ask these questions when you see it
0:49:31 you can't help but think and there's an
0:49:32 interesting bit so if you look to the
0:49:34 the left hand side of the the man's leg
0:49:36 um this is strange because there's two
0:49:39 things there
0:49:41 um and they're kind of ambiguous
0:49:44 are they kangaroos or ostriches or are
0:49:47 they
0:49:47 just parts of the rock accidents that
0:49:50 happen to look like animals and
0:49:52 you see meaning in them so you've got
0:49:55 this variance of things when you're
0:49:57 experiencing things things
0:49:58 that are clearly signifying something
0:50:00 things that are ambiguous
0:50:01 maybe accidents that happen to look like
0:50:03 something that may be intended to
0:50:05 signify some sort of meaning
0:50:06 um or things that just don't have any
0:50:09 significance whatsoever or don't
0:50:11 express meaning um but you know there's
0:50:14 there are these things and we can talk
0:50:16 of them in an objective way
0:50:18 um despite their
0:50:22 being innately ingrained into the the
0:50:24 subjective that is you know
0:50:25 there's a level of interpretation but we
0:50:28 can talk about
0:50:29 what the possible variances in
0:50:31 interpretation are
0:50:33 and in so far as we list these out we're
0:50:35 listing out the objective possibilities
0:50:38 for interpretation um and so
0:50:41 you know you have this relationship you
0:50:43 the concepts themselves for example in
0:50:45 order to come up with the idea of the
0:50:46 subjective
0:50:47 you have to objectify the subject you
0:50:49 have to list out
0:50:50 the qualities that are objectively the
0:50:53 case which
0:50:54 makes something subjective and vice
0:50:57 versa in order to come up with the
0:50:58 idea of the objective there has to be a
0:51:01 world in relation
0:51:02 to subjects looking at it for these
0:51:05 things to be distinct from the opinion
0:51:07 of it if you search
0:51:08 the definition of objective
0:51:11 the the word subject pop up in there the
0:51:14 idea of the subject
0:51:15 is integral to the concept of the
0:51:17 objective
0:51:19 and you know it is that which is
0:51:20 separate from us and then even
0:51:22 how we come to objective facts um
0:51:25 these are abstracted from
0:51:27 inter-subjective experiences
0:51:30 that is you know a number of people
0:51:31 experience a particular thing
0:51:33 and you you brush away the things that
0:51:36 are not common within those experiences
0:51:39 and you take note of the things which
0:51:42 occur consistently through every
0:51:44 experience
0:51:45 that is you have a number of subjects of
0:51:47 experiences
0:51:49 you collect all of them and out of that
0:51:51 inter-subjective
0:51:52 information you abstract objective
0:51:55 information so even the objective
0:51:57 itself is derived from some idea or some
0:52:01 concept
0:52:02 or conception of the subjective which is
0:52:04 really interesting and
0:52:05 i'd say these things uh i could
0:52:08 look at photos like this all day um like
0:52:10 what are they are they
0:52:12 uh just really bad drawings of men are
0:52:14 they uh
0:52:15 gin like some people might look at them
0:52:17 uh i don't know if any of you seen
0:52:19 ancient aliens but you know they look at
0:52:21 these things and look it's the
0:52:23 the greys they've got three fingers and
0:52:24 these weird heads must be aliens
0:52:27 it's all incredibly interesting but
0:52:30 all of this is trying to convey
0:52:32 something beyond itself
0:52:33 uh it represents more than simply
0:52:36 scratches or
0:52:37 ink on a wall you know if something has
0:52:40 meaning
0:52:40 it is grander than the thing itself
0:52:43 another way of putting is
0:52:45 this that like um as a an analogy is
0:52:48 words
0:52:48 are to meaning like pictures are to
0:52:51 places
0:52:52 um for example if any of you have gone
0:52:56 to somewhere and experienced a beautiful
0:52:57 sunset on top of a mountain
0:53:00 and you've got this environment around
0:53:01 you and you know as the sun sets it
0:53:03 changes the sky and
0:53:05 uh you know the clouds pop with these
0:53:07 amazing colors
0:53:08 um that are just indescribable and the
0:53:10 whole experience itself is enough to
0:53:12 send shivers down your spine it's enough
0:53:14 to fill you
0:53:15 with all and you're just totally
0:53:18 engrossed by the experience and it's not
0:53:20 just something in front of you it
0:53:21 surrounds you you're enveloped by it no
0:53:23 matter where you look
0:53:24 there's beauty and you're just struck by
0:53:27 the sheer sense of it
0:53:29 you know that everything just screams
0:53:31 out as incredibly significant
0:53:33 in that moment and you know it
0:53:36 so much so that you you think i this i
0:53:39 want this to last
0:53:40 i need this to last i want to share this
0:53:42 with other people and i want to be able
0:53:44 to look back at this and experience this
0:53:46 feeling again
0:53:47 and so you take a picture or you take a
0:53:49 video
0:53:50 and but the problem is is the the
0:53:52 pictures of the videos
0:53:54 never fully encapsulate the experience
0:53:57 that you had
0:53:58 in that live moment you know the the
0:54:01 picture itself
0:54:02 is nothing compared to the place
0:54:05 but it is a signifier it is something
0:54:08 that
0:54:08 when you see it maybe it will lead you
0:54:11 to the memory of the experience but the
0:54:15 memory is never equivalent
0:54:16 to the experience it's always a diluted
0:54:18 form it's always missing something it's
0:54:20 always
0:54:21 lacking something that the um you know
0:54:24 the direct experience contained it's
0:54:26 always
0:54:27 you know a poor um
0:54:31 shadow of itself and you know you can
0:54:34 think of things like plato's allegory of
0:54:35 the cave here the
0:54:37 shadows on the wall as representations
0:54:40 of
0:54:40 actual reality the pictures are
0:54:42 representations of the things
0:54:44 um that they're trying to lead the mind
0:54:46 towards and the same thing
0:54:48 can be said with meaning and words you
0:54:50 know
0:54:51 you you take a look at the the word door
0:54:54 in many different languages you just got
0:54:56 these different arbitrary noises we make
0:54:59 you know in english we say door in china
0:55:02 they say whatever they say in
0:55:04 the arab world they i don't know what uh
0:55:07 arabic is for
0:55:08 door but you know each country has its
0:55:10 own noise
0:55:11 has its own way of you you move your
0:55:13 tongue in a particular way you make
0:55:14 sound come out of your throat in a
0:55:16 particular way
0:55:17 and the a noise is made and that is
0:55:20 picked up by the people that hear it
0:55:23 and they associate that with something
0:55:25 now the noise itself
0:55:27 is is not what's important it's the
0:55:29 meaning it's what was intended to say
0:55:32 um that is the the thing that is
0:55:35 when it's said when someone is
0:55:37 communicating these noises
0:55:39 they're hoping that whoever's hearing
0:55:41 them isn't focusing on the noise itself
0:55:43 but focusing on what
0:55:44 was the signification of it what this
0:55:46 was intending to say and there's a
0:55:48 really beautiful quote
0:55:49 one of my favorite quotes uh that i
0:55:51 stumbled on
0:55:52 a long long time ago uh and it stuck
0:55:54 with me ever since and i love sharing it
0:55:57 uh it's from uh i can never pronounce
0:55:59 his name right zhang c
0:56:01 and he wrote this in the it's in a book
0:56:03 called the inner chapters
0:56:05 and the court is as follows the fish
0:56:07 trap exists because of the fish
0:56:09 once you've gotten the fish you can
0:56:11 forget the trap the rabbit snare
0:56:13 exists because of the rabbit once you've
0:56:15 gotten a rabbit you can forget the snare
0:56:18 words exist because of meaning once
0:56:21 you've gotten the meaning
0:56:22 you can forget the words where can i
0:56:25 find a man
0:56:26 who has forgotten words
0:56:29 so i can talk with him so
0:56:32 here you know in the same way the fish
0:56:34 trap you you
0:56:36 the fish trap serves a purpose you know
0:56:39 you you make the fish trap or you use
0:56:40 the fish trap
0:56:42 because you you've got a goal in mind
0:56:43 you want to achieve a particular thing
0:56:45 same thing with the snare
0:56:47 you want to achieve a particular thing
0:56:48 with it and once you've achieved
0:56:51 what you have you can disregard the
0:56:53 thing because you've achieved it you've
0:56:55 got the thing that you wanted
0:56:57 you know you use the fish trap you now
0:56:58 have the fish you don't need to
0:57:00 focus your attention on that fish trap
0:57:02 anymore you can go away cook and enjoy
0:57:04 your fish
0:57:05 same thing with the rabbit snare once
0:57:06 you've got your rabbit you can
0:57:08 forget about the rabbits there you know
0:57:10 maybe you might want to rub it again in
0:57:12 the future but insofar as
0:57:13 um this you know in in terms of the
0:57:16 moment
0:57:17 once you've gotten the rabbit your mind
0:57:19 isn't constantly staring at
0:57:21 the at the snare while you're walking
0:57:24 away with a rabbit while you're cooking
0:57:25 it
0:57:25 you're not always looking you it
0:57:27 disappears from your experience you
0:57:30 cease to um give it any
0:57:33 value or you know or any preference in
0:57:35 in the experience at all
0:57:37 and the same can be said for words and
0:57:40 you
0:57:40 many of you have probably come across
0:57:41 this and how frustrating it can be
0:57:43 especially if you engage on social media
0:57:46 um especially things like twitter for
0:57:48 example
0:57:49 where you say something and the person
0:57:51 you're interacting with focuses
0:57:53 so um intently on the words you used
0:57:57 that they completely miss
0:57:58 the point of what you were trying to say
0:58:00 you know that they're so focused on the
0:58:02 word and what they think it means
0:58:04 um that they they don't grasp the
0:58:07 significance of the words themselves
0:58:10 and what it was that you wanted to
0:58:12 communicate
0:58:13 and that it feels like there might be
0:58:15 some sort of a wall here and so
0:58:17 with this quote here where can i find a
0:58:19 man who has forgotten words so i can
0:58:21 talk with him
0:58:22 where can i find a man who is focused on
0:58:25 wanting to get to the core of what it is
0:58:27 that i'm trying to say
0:58:28 and not simply simply just picking the
0:58:31 words that i've said
0:58:33 um and you know not holding them in any
0:58:35 relation
0:58:36 um to what i was hoping to communicate
0:58:40 so very briefly there going over the the
0:58:43 meaning of meaning
0:58:45 and concluding that we can now ask the
0:58:48 question well what
0:58:49 how do we relate this to life what what
0:58:51 do we mean or what is
0:58:53 the meaning of life now
0:58:56 it's very difficult to say what is meant
0:58:59 when discussing
0:59:00 meaning in relation to life for many
0:59:02 people
0:59:03 um you know philosophers have even as
0:59:06 far as saying that it's a non-question
0:59:08 that the the question is itself absurd
0:59:10 and we shouldn't even be asking it
0:59:12 um and you know that's one way of
0:59:15 answering the question
0:59:16 uh but definitely not the only way there
0:59:19 have been many books written on this
0:59:20 subject
0:59:21 so many um you know they come in the
0:59:23 form of self-help books you know
0:59:25 motivation books youtube videos films
0:59:29 uh you know the media itself is varied
0:59:32 along with the content
0:59:33 the approaches the answers that are
0:59:35 given are incredibly
0:59:37 varied and they go from anything from
0:59:39 two extremes from incredibly vague
0:59:41 in order to try to be extremely
0:59:43 transferable to everybody on the planet
0:59:45 so anyone who picks up this particular
0:59:46 book
0:59:47 um can draw some sort of idea of what
0:59:50 the meaning of life is
0:59:51 um but it's it's so it's so incredibly
0:59:55 vague
0:59:56 um that it's not very practical i'm not
0:59:59 very helpful in terms of the immediate
1:00:01 how do i
1:00:02 change how i'm going to live or move
1:00:03 forward you know they're just very vague
1:00:06 elusive
1:00:07 um there's many uh like buddhist
1:00:11 buddhist writings that are like this way
1:00:12 you're reading them and it's like
1:00:14 you know they're so ingrained in these
1:00:16 oxymorons or these paradoxes and they're
1:00:19 just saying all these
1:00:20 mad things without really giving you any
1:00:21 specific answers
1:00:23 and it sort of leaves it open-ended for
1:00:25 you to explore and try to decide for
1:00:27 yourself but it's so vague
1:00:28 if you're looking for help in it it sort
1:00:31 of directs it just back to yourself and
1:00:33 you they they try to get you to help
1:00:35 yourself basically
1:00:36 um or to think about it and come to your
1:00:38 own conclusions
1:00:40 uh but insofar as doing that it's not
1:00:41 very helpful in giving you the answers
1:00:42 you're looking for
1:00:43 um the other extreme is being very
1:00:46 specific
1:00:47 um but if it's too specific if it's too
1:00:49 honed in on a particular context or
1:00:51 circumstance
1:00:52 it's not very transferable at all you
1:00:54 know it's it's helpful but only to a
1:00:56 very few
1:00:57 people and so you've got these two
1:00:58 variances in terms of
1:01:00 how people might approach um you know in
1:01:03 terms of literature or just material in
1:01:05 general
1:01:05 uh with regards to this question why
1:01:07 it's the meaning of life
1:01:08 now maybe it is best in some cases
1:01:12 uh rather than trying to say what the
1:01:13 meaning of life is
1:01:15 uh rather to approach it in terms of
1:01:17 what the meaning of life
1:01:19 is not and so there's a few things i'm
1:01:22 going to say that we can say
1:01:23 the meaning of life is distinct from or
1:01:26 a meaningful life
1:01:27 is distinct from a number of things for
1:01:30 example
1:01:31 we can say a meaningful life is distinct
1:01:33 from the concept of pleasure
1:01:35 and the reason we can say this is
1:01:38 because we can
1:01:38 think or we can envisage a life that is
1:01:42 endowed with meaning or purpose
1:01:45 or someone who's experiencing life as
1:01:47 meaningful
1:01:48 um but that is contained with lots of
1:01:51 suffering
1:01:52 so you know you could imagine someone
1:01:54 that is um they see the purpose of their
1:01:56 life
1:01:58 as as one that is um and you know and
1:02:00 they're getting a direct and severe
1:02:03 sense of meaning
1:02:04 from the experience of uh saving someone
1:02:07 um and or you know putting themselves in
1:02:10 harm's way in order to save them
1:02:12 and you know they may very well go
1:02:13 through pain throughout their entire
1:02:15 life but this
1:02:16 this life may still be seen as
1:02:18 meaningful either to them
1:02:20 uh or experienced as meaningful uh by
1:02:23 the people around them or the people
1:02:24 that hear about their life
1:02:26 when you know you when you read books
1:02:28 about people who've
1:02:29 um for example as a a really good
1:02:33 example
1:02:33 with uh job alai salaam um
1:02:37 i i think his ayub is the arabic version
1:02:39 of it but
1:02:40 the the prophet uh job ali salam is one
1:02:43 who's
1:02:43 said to go through a lot of suffering in
1:02:45 his life and in that we we're
1:02:47 experiencing it we're looking at it
1:02:48 and we're deriving a lot of meaning from
1:02:50 it this isn't to say what that is
1:02:51 exactly yeah we've not answered the
1:02:52 question what is the meaning of life
1:02:54 but we can we we still get a sense of
1:02:56 this even when we're looking
1:02:58 and uh or experiencing lives filled with
1:03:01 suffering
1:03:03 people still can't derive meaning from
1:03:05 that um and in many cases
1:03:07 the suffering itself can be a source of
1:03:09 meaning um
1:03:11 and so we can say it's distinct from
1:03:12 pleasure um but we can also say it's
1:03:14 distinct
1:03:15 from suffering because you could imagine
1:03:17 a meaningful life
1:03:19 filled with happiness or pleasure
1:03:22 um but it's you know again not
1:03:24 necessarily related to it um
1:03:26 we can also say that it's distinct from
1:03:28 happiness because you can think of
1:03:29 obviously if a life is filled with
1:03:30 suffering they might be filled with
1:03:32 sadness as well
1:03:34 and so a meaningful life might not be
1:03:38 necessarily associated to the suffering
1:03:40 and pain
1:03:42 but it might still be meaningful and if
1:03:44 that is the case then we can say
1:03:45 that these concepts are distinct from
1:03:48 what we mean
1:03:49 when we're saying that our life is
1:03:50 meaningful we can also say uh
1:03:52 it's distinct from many concepts of
1:03:54 morality um
1:03:55 you take shaitan or obliques as an
1:03:57 example of that
1:03:58 um or hitler or you know any of these
1:04:02 um archetypal bad guys that they
1:04:06 you know they might be driven by a
1:04:08 severe sense of meaning
1:04:10 they might experience their life is very
1:04:12 meaningful um
1:04:14 but you know have no sense of morality
1:04:16 at all or be you know
1:04:17 be amoral completely or you know
1:04:20 they they may be the the most evil
1:04:22 people uh you you think of
1:04:24 uh at least he's you know he set himself
1:04:28 a very particular goal very particular
1:04:30 target um
1:04:31 to to lead as many people as stray as
1:04:33 possible
1:04:34 and but you know he's driven by some
1:04:37 sense of meaning here he sees
1:04:39 a point in what he's doing um so we
1:04:42 again we can say that a meaningful life
1:04:44 may be a moral one
1:04:45 but it's not necessarily the case and so
1:04:47 we can say this concept is also distinct
1:04:49 from it
1:04:50 last uh but not least we can say that a
1:04:53 meaningful life may also be distinct
1:04:55 from a logical or a quote-unquote
1:04:57 rational life
1:04:59 um again this isn't to promote any of
1:05:01 these concepts i i'm
1:05:03 not trying to say that we should negate
1:05:05 all of these or we should
1:05:07 seek to avoid them um especially with
1:05:10 regards to logic
1:05:12 but we can imagine our life being
1:05:13 experienced as meaningful that is
1:05:15 completely irrational
1:05:16 and you see this even more so today than
1:05:18 ever and
1:05:20 where people are just they're they're
1:05:22 trying so hard to live a meaningful life
1:05:24 that they they don't even care if they
1:05:26 embody contradictions
1:05:28 um you know but they they're still
1:05:30 experiencing it they're still
1:05:31 experiencing some sort of
1:05:33 um you know purpose in what they're
1:05:35 doing or some sort of
1:05:37 uh they're experiencing meaning
1:05:39 regardless of whether or not
1:05:41 what they're expressing is coherent or
1:05:43 what they're expressing
1:05:45 is um consistent in any way or you know
1:05:48 they may even
1:05:49 express uh being completely fine
1:05:52 um with contradictions and pushing them
1:05:55 forward
1:05:56 openly and saying this is uh you know i
1:05:58 don't even care
1:06:00 um you get this very much with uh
1:06:03 many of these post-muslim philosophers
1:06:06 um
1:06:06 they're saying one thing um and then
1:06:09 they say something else
1:06:10 that doesn't undermine that it's like ah
1:06:11 well why should we value rationality at
1:06:13 all anyway
1:06:14 like what reason have we got to value
1:06:17 rationality
1:06:18 but they still you know they still seem
1:06:21 to be fine
1:06:22 finding some sort of meaning in that and
1:06:25 so yeah
1:06:26 we can imagine a meaningful life as
1:06:28 distinct from all four of these things
1:06:30 pleasure happiness morality logic
1:06:32 um that isn't to say it's necessarily
1:06:34 distinct you can't have a meaningful
1:06:36 life with these things
1:06:37 but you don't need them in order to have
1:06:38 a meaningful life so the question is
1:06:40 what is the meaning for life
1:06:42 um you know what what do we what do we
1:06:44 mean when we say life is meaningful
1:06:47 that is we mean a life that has a
1:06:49 purpose
1:06:50 a life that has a goal or an aim of some
1:06:54 sort of significance
1:06:56 that is that it communicates something
1:06:58 of great value
1:07:00 beyond itself to something living
1:07:03 and something conscious so remember when
1:07:05 we were talking about these ideas
1:07:07 uh of significance of value
1:07:10 of communication of um
1:07:14 meaning purpose all of these words
1:07:17 aren't necessarily
1:07:18 associated with a subject they are
1:07:22 necessarily
1:07:22 associated with consciousness with life
1:07:25 and so
1:07:26 when we're saying that it communicates
1:07:28 something of great value beyond itself
1:07:30 in the same way when we were talking
1:07:31 about the uh you know how the words
1:07:34 lead the one that's experiencing them to
1:07:36 think of things
1:07:37 more than just simply the ink or the
1:07:39 scratchings on a wall
1:07:40 um there's an experience of
1:07:43 transcendence in some way that isn't to
1:07:45 say you leave the planet
1:07:46 or you go somewhere else although you
1:07:48 know blah blah we're not talking
1:07:50 in terms of that but there is an
1:07:51 experience of some sort
1:07:53 without any reference to these concepts
1:07:55 of subjective or objective there is an
1:07:56 experience
1:07:58 of leaving that which is experienced
1:08:02 and something else manifesting
1:08:05 phenomenologically in the
1:08:08 the field of experience or the field of
1:08:10 conscious experience
1:08:11 um so if i tell you all now to close
1:08:14 your eyes
1:08:16 and i'm not saying this uh facially or
1:08:18 anything like
1:08:19 actually close your eyes um and to
1:08:22 imagine
1:08:22 a a sunset in the desert and the sun's
1:08:26 setting behind
1:08:27 the horizon and then on the horizon you
1:08:30 can see the camels
1:08:32 um walking across with the riders and
1:08:35 the packs
1:08:36 and you know the the the wares that
1:08:38 they're carrying
1:08:40 and the the sun is setting right behind
1:08:42 them so as to make them black
1:08:43 silhouettes
1:08:45 and the sky turns you know an amazing
1:08:48 varying amount of colors from orange to
1:08:50 purple
1:08:51 to you know and they're just infused in
1:08:53 this beautiful way and you've got this
1:08:55 kind of sparkling of the stars above it
1:08:58 now when i tell you to close your eyes
1:09:00 and imagine that
1:09:01 you're experiencing something and it
1:09:04 you know it's it's a fact that you're
1:09:06 experiencing something
1:09:07 we're not saying anything about what
1:09:09 that experience is ontologically how it
1:09:12 exists
1:09:12 is irrelevant the fact is is you're
1:09:15 still experiencing
1:09:16 something and it's not physical outside
1:09:19 in the world in the same way the cup is
1:09:21 but it's it's still an experience and
1:09:23 you're still having it
1:09:25 and your and what's giving rise to this
1:09:28 experience
1:09:28 is your um ex
1:09:32 it's related to another experience that
1:09:33 is the the noises that you hear coming
1:09:35 out of your computers or out of your
1:09:36 phones
1:09:37 there's certain sound waves going
1:09:39 through the air that make your
1:09:41 ears vibrate in a particular way that
1:09:43 sends nerves
1:09:44 and electrons running through the nerves
1:09:45 in your brain and your brain does summit
1:09:47 and then it presents to you
1:09:49 a phenomenological experience you you're
1:09:52 having something
1:09:54 appear to you you can see it if i tell
1:09:58 you to
1:09:58 recite sort of fatiha in your head
1:10:00 without using your mouth
1:10:02 without moving your tongue you can do it
1:10:04 and you can you can hear
1:10:05 something you're having an experience
1:10:06 still and these experiences
1:10:09 can be of great value or of great
1:10:11 significance to the thing that
1:10:12 experiences them
1:10:13 and when we're talking about a
1:10:14 meaningful life we're talking about a
1:10:16 life
1:10:17 um which is expressing something it's
1:10:20 communicating something
1:10:22 beyond itself uh beyond the the you know
1:10:26 the just
1:10:26 the physical makeup of it beyond just
1:10:28 simply being
1:10:29 a collection of atoms um but to
1:10:32 communicate something beyond itself of
1:10:33 great value
1:10:34 to something living in consciousness now
1:10:36 that can be um you know from
1:10:38 one person to someone else so if you're
1:10:41 listening to this on your own
1:10:43 i might be living my life in such a way
1:10:45 so that if you ever hear of it
1:10:47 or if one particular person maybe my
1:10:49 daughter i want to be i want
1:10:50 my life um to be significant or
1:10:54 great value to my daughter so that when
1:10:56 she thinks of my life in
1:10:58 in totality from beginning to end
1:11:01 or when she thinks of me that that it
1:11:04 communicates something great to her
1:11:06 or to you or to anybody and you may have
1:11:09 this sort of uh
1:11:10 desire as well for your life to mean
1:11:12 something to someone
1:11:14 or to a group of people you know that
1:11:16 there might be a crowd a family
1:11:18 a neighborhood a community that you've
1:11:20 got in mind or
1:11:22 a a city or a nation or a states or the
1:11:25 world
1:11:26 or to god now obviously keep in mind
1:11:30 the these are ambiguous in the sense
1:11:32 that you can be an atheist you can be a
1:11:34 theist
1:11:35 you can be uh whatever is like whatever
1:11:38 it is that you
1:11:39 are these can still associate to you
1:11:41 like you may want to express some sort
1:11:43 of meaning to
1:11:44 somebody to some degree and
1:11:48 you know that that that could be a huge
1:11:50 project like for example islam
1:11:51 uh the prophet muhammad he was sent
1:11:55 as a guidance for all of mankind that is
1:11:58 his project
1:11:59 um his life was meaningful not just to
1:12:02 one person or you know a group of people
1:12:05 or just to a city just a medina just the
1:12:07 mecca
1:12:07 but to the whole planet and for those
1:12:10 who believe in god
1:12:11 and and if it turns out we are right and
1:12:14 life can be meaningful
1:12:16 insofar as it's in you know directed
1:12:19 towards this
1:12:20 eternal being and if god exists
1:12:24 and we're going to explore this and
1:12:25 there are um with sapience institute the
1:12:27 whole project of this
1:12:29 um organization is to to give an
1:12:31 abundance of reasons as to the
1:12:33 the proofs and the existence of god and
1:12:35 and why it's
1:12:36 um perfectly reasonable to believe that
1:12:39 god exists
1:12:41 and in so far as we are successful in
1:12:43 this and
1:12:44 uh god does in fact exist then any um
1:12:47 relation with this eternal being would
1:12:50 infuse life with meaning necessarily
1:12:52 allah says in the quran
1:12:53 um you know do you think we've made this
1:12:56 without reason
1:12:57 you know the the purpose of the human
1:12:59 being is to worship
1:13:00 the one who made him allah and you know
1:13:04 if god exists there there is necessarily
1:13:06 a purpose to life
1:13:08 um and so when we're talking of
1:13:11 the meaning of life in this sense um
1:13:14 you know you have this eternal absolute
1:13:16 sense of meaning that
1:13:18 subsists forever um if you have
1:13:22 a more atheist understanding that that
1:13:24 is the positive atheist
1:13:26 who says that there definitely is no god
1:13:28 and obviously this isn't all atheists
1:13:30 some are more agnostic um
1:13:32 but insofar as that's the case and you
1:13:35 have this underlying principle
1:13:37 um that whatever gave rise to existence
1:13:40 itself unconscious then you can't talk
1:13:43 of
1:13:43 life in its totality
1:13:46 as being meaningful you you just have
1:13:49 these fleeting moments of meaning
1:13:51 um you know you could go as far as
1:13:53 arguing that it's
1:13:54 it's illusory uh the the the experience
1:13:57 of meaning is is insignificant
1:13:59 and if meaning is to have some sense of
1:14:01 what is valuable
1:14:03 or what is significant but if the thing
1:14:05 itself
1:14:06 is insignificant and has no value
1:14:09 then this idea of that life being
1:14:11 valuable at all
1:14:13 is mistaken but there's these brief
1:14:16 senses of meaning and they they can be
1:14:18 fleeting and the
1:14:20 the realization upon reflection if you
1:14:22 believe that there is no god
1:14:24 the realization of this uh
1:14:26 meaninglessness can be uh
1:14:27 very daunting and having been an atheist
1:14:31 and having experienced this
1:14:32 and knowing people that do still
1:14:35 experience this kind of stuff
1:14:36 um it it's it's a horrible feeling
1:14:39 especially when
1:14:41 you don't believe especially when you
1:14:42 have no faith um
1:14:44 i would say that although the the theist
1:14:46 can still experience this
1:14:47 it's never to the extreme or it's it's
1:14:50 never
1:14:51 as as horrible as it can be
1:14:54 um when there is no uh when
1:14:57 you have the experience of um the the
1:15:00 lack of faith
1:15:02 there is a huge distinction between the
1:15:03 two but yeah so when we're talking about
1:15:05 the meaning of life we're talking
1:15:07 in a general sense of a communication
1:15:09 between
1:15:10 um two beings a and b b
1:15:13 can be a set of beings so it can be more
1:15:15 than one a collection it can be the
1:15:16 higher being
1:15:18 or it could be the same being as a so
1:15:20 you could literally just be
1:15:22 trying to communicate some sort of
1:15:23 meaning to yourself in some way
1:15:25 and so long as this is significant or of
1:15:27 value um
1:15:28 to even of yourself if you're a very
1:15:31 self-centered person and you don't
1:15:32 really care about other people
1:15:34 um or having an effect on anyone else um
1:15:38 then you know that this could be a sort
1:15:40 of a
1:15:42 self-reference point but in any case
1:15:45 um you know this is what we mean when
1:15:47 we're talking about the meaning of life
1:15:49 is
1:15:49 trying to project something of
1:15:51 significance um
1:15:52 we necessarily have to be talking about
1:15:55 consciousness to some degree
1:15:56 um and this all ties in uh to
1:16:00 the the following so part four what is
1:16:02 the the definition of nihilism
1:16:04 uh so just kind of recap on the
1:16:06 definition i gave you at the beginning
1:16:07 nihilism a viewpoint that traditional
1:16:09 values and beliefs are unfounded
1:16:11 and that existence is senseless and
1:16:12 useless
1:16:14 uh there's a quote here by ronald
1:16:17 h nash uh nihilism is the condition in
1:16:20 which all ultimate values lose their
1:16:22 value
1:16:23 a doctrine that denies any objective
1:16:25 ground of truth and especially of moral
1:16:27 truths
1:16:28 and a doctrine of belief that conditions
1:16:32 in the social organization of soul
1:16:33 balance to make destruction desirable
1:16:35 for its own sake
1:16:36 independent of any constructive program
1:16:38 or possibility
1:16:40 now this uh is again
1:16:43 a very general definition and it can
1:16:46 nihilism can express itself in a
1:16:48 in four particular ways which will go
1:16:50 into with regards to the consequences of
1:16:52 nihilism
1:16:53 and that can either be um what were they
1:16:56 again so you've got
1:16:57 existential nihilism which is the
1:16:59 experience of life
1:17:00 being meaningless you have cosmic
1:17:02 nihilism which is um
1:17:04 the idea that existence itself that the
1:17:06 the cosmos the universe that
1:17:08 everything uh is without purpose without
1:17:12 any meaning
1:17:13 um you also have moral nihilism which is
1:17:16 to deny
1:17:17 the existence of any moral facts um that
1:17:20 is any moral claim whether positive or
1:17:22 negative that is
1:17:23 for example murder is good or murder is
1:17:25 bad
1:17:26 both of these claims are wrong because
1:17:28 they purport facts that do not exist
1:17:30 um and so there there cannot be any
1:17:33 moral facts whatsoever
1:17:34 that would be moral nihilism the denial
1:17:36 of morality altogether or
1:17:37 severe moral skepticism
1:17:41 and then last of all you have
1:17:42 epistemological nihilism
1:17:44 which is to do epistemologies is the the
1:17:47 subject
1:17:47 of um knowledge how do we know what we
1:17:51 know etc
1:17:52 epistemological nihilism denies the
1:17:54 existence
1:17:55 um sorry denies the the possibility of
1:17:57 knowledge at all
1:17:58 uh denies the the possibility of
1:18:01 the any of uh as it says a doctrine that
1:18:04 denies any objective ground of truth
1:18:06 so truth is out the window here um when
1:18:09 it comes to epistemological nihilism
1:18:11 so it can branch out into these four
1:18:13 more vague things
1:18:15 um and here's a really funny definition
1:18:17 i found i really liked it it's the most
1:18:18 popular definition on urban dictionary
1:18:20 nihilism
1:18:21 it's useless to define it and it's
1:18:23 useless
1:18:24 to give an example uh
1:18:27 five thousand two hundred and twenty
1:18:30 upvotes uh which is quite a lot of
1:18:31 upvotes for definition
1:18:33 from what i've seen i was saying that
1:18:35 maybe the definitions i find on urban
1:18:37 dictionary are not necessarily so um
1:18:40 what's the word uh widely spoken
1:18:44 uh so yeah so basically nidism
1:18:47 uh more specifically is the experience
1:18:50 that life has no meaning
1:18:52 has no significance have no purpose um
1:18:55 or any value at all so it's niall comes
1:18:59 from
1:18:59 the the latin or derives from the latin
1:19:01 uh nihilism sorry
1:19:02 derives from the latin nile or nihil
1:19:06 n-i-h-i-l uh which means
1:19:09 nothing so nihilism is in a sense
1:19:12 nothing ism
1:19:13 and it's it's literally the negation of
1:19:15 any sort of meaning any sort of value
1:19:17 significance or purpose
1:19:18 um and what's key here is to understand
1:19:21 that it is
1:19:22 an experience as well and it is
1:19:25 necessarily tied to life
1:19:27 also so whether life and the world is
1:19:30 seen as meaningful
1:19:32 or in the case with nihilism not
1:19:35 both are subjective experiences both are
1:19:38 the experiences
1:19:39 of a being that is looking at the world
1:19:43 and seeing it a particular way now for
1:19:45 example
1:19:46 if i see the world as a theist and
1:19:49 everything to me stands out as
1:19:50 meaningful
1:19:51 and the reason everything stands out to
1:19:53 me as meaningful is because i believe
1:19:54 that allah exists
1:19:56 and that he creates everything with
1:19:58 purpose there are no accidents there are
1:20:00 no coincidences
1:20:01 everything has a function everything has
1:20:05 a purpose um and this purpose is
1:20:09 it's very much the case you can't
1:20:11 explain it away and this is
1:20:13 an experience i have i when i look at
1:20:15 things and i can't help but see
1:20:16 everything as meaningful as having a
1:20:17 place
1:20:18 um as having um having a purpose even if
1:20:22 i can't recognize what exactly that is
1:20:24 i still see it as an integral part of
1:20:28 its existence
1:20:29 now the the one who's a nihilist or is
1:20:32 experiencing nihilism
1:20:33 um it's going through a similar thing
1:20:36 there in so far as he he's simply
1:20:37 experiencing the world
1:20:39 as being meaningless
1:20:42 and you know especially if you go into
1:20:44 this idea of nihilism um
1:20:46 to its more extreme forms where you can
1:20:47 even deny the existence the possibility
1:20:50 of knowledge
1:20:51 um you can you can't say you know for a
1:20:53 fact that the universe
1:20:55 is without meaning here um
1:20:58 nevertheless the person is experiencing
1:21:01 it and in survival is their annihilist
1:21:03 they might even undermine the value of
1:21:05 rationality for example
1:21:07 and if they're undermining the ideas of
1:21:08 rationality then there's no need to be
1:21:11 consistent so what if they say that the
1:21:13 world
1:21:14 um the universe and life and everything
1:21:16 has no meaning has no value has no
1:21:18 significance in any way um you know
1:21:21 who cares if the way they've got their
1:21:24 um
1:21:25 is contradictory in some way so what you
1:21:28 know
1:21:29 the world is absurd they experience
1:21:31 existence is absurd
1:21:33 and albert camus in his book uh the myth
1:21:35 of sisyphus he
1:21:36 even he he goes down the street he says
1:21:38 the more you
1:21:39 explore science and rationality and all
1:21:43 of these things
1:21:44 um the more you have this the experience
1:21:47 off the absurd
1:21:48 the more you are faced with
1:21:49 contradictions the biggest one being
1:21:51 like how do you justify rationality
1:21:53 especially if you're coming from this
1:21:55 exist from you know
1:21:56 zero iman you have no faith in allah you
1:21:59 don't believe in god
1:22:01 at all you don't know whether he exists
1:22:03 or not but you just don't have
1:22:04 experience of belief in him you don't
1:22:06 feel
1:22:06 that there's any need or enough
1:22:09 sufficient evidence to believe in him or
1:22:10 you know like things are just there's
1:22:13 too much chaos there's too much
1:22:14 information there's no way you're gonna
1:22:15 be able to process it all
1:22:17 um you know with your puny little brain
1:22:19 in the amount of time that you have in
1:22:20 your particular life
1:22:21 no way you're gonna be able to cover all
1:22:22 that ground um and so you just kind of
1:22:24 give up on the hope of that at all
1:22:26 that is you you fall into pessimism you
1:22:28 just say that well
1:22:29 it's a hopeless endeavor i won't even
1:22:32 bother
1:22:33 um which is you know what camus
1:22:36 sort of ends up kind of expressing in
1:22:39 his book the myth the sisyphus and he
1:22:40 says everywhere you look you you find
1:22:42 contradictions
1:22:43 you you talk to the scientist he tells
1:22:44 you about the atom and he starts talking
1:22:46 in terms of the
1:22:48 um this
1:22:51 you know the these things floating
1:22:53 around you know you've got the
1:22:54 electrons orbiting a nucleus and the
1:22:57 more he
1:22:58 this is albert camus saying this in in
1:23:00 his book he says the more you speak to
1:23:02 the scientist
1:23:03 the more you start to realize he's
1:23:04 expressing himself in terms of art
1:23:07 so what's he doing here he's he's using
1:23:10 metaphor to communicate something to you
1:23:13 um
1:23:14 and this for albert coming was a big
1:23:16 problem he's like
1:23:17 you're using imagery that isn't
1:23:19 necessarily associated with the thing
1:23:21 that you're trying to describe
1:23:23 how when you when you read uh you know
1:23:26 the
1:23:26 the literature on this and when i'm
1:23:28 talking to you about an atom everyone
1:23:30 imagines a particular image
1:23:31 now the thing is is that image like that
1:23:35 image isn't
1:23:35 a one for one representation of what an
1:23:37 atom looks like
1:23:39 that that image is a metaphor that is
1:23:42 that image is just a way to try to
1:23:44 communicate something to you
1:23:46 but in effect as nietzsche would put it
1:23:48 it's a lie
1:23:49 the atom doesn't look like that and the
1:23:52 scientist himself
1:23:53 will admit no that this is just a very
1:23:55 pretty
1:23:56 way to try to express what's going on
1:23:59 there
1:23:59 um but it's not a one for one
1:24:01 representation
1:24:03 um you know it's it's it's art it's
1:24:06 trying to
1:24:06 communicate a complex idea in a simple
1:24:08 way um
1:24:10 and for camille this was incredibly
1:24:12 annoying and
1:24:13 he he gets to this point where he's just
1:24:15 experiencing everything everything is
1:24:17 absurd everywhere he looks
1:24:19 he just finds the lie he just finds
1:24:21 representation he just finds
1:24:23 um paradoxes and conflicts and things
1:24:26 and
1:24:26 he quite early in his life uh because he
1:24:30 died quite young
1:24:31 uh in a car crash living life to the
1:24:34 fullest i guess
1:24:35 um quote-unquote uh yeah he just he just
1:24:39 saw this all as
1:24:40 absurd and he had what philosophers um
1:24:43 that have this sort of nihilistic
1:24:45 inclination referred to as the
1:24:47 experience of the absurd
1:24:49 um this experience is said to be born of
1:24:50 the conflict of two things and
1:24:52 they say so uh the first is the natural
1:24:54 human need and inclination for meaning
1:24:56 and reason so
1:24:58 it's you know quite um i would say
1:25:01 intuitive and
1:25:02 i don't think you'd find many people uh
1:25:04 that would argue against this particular
1:25:06 premise but
1:25:07 that you know the human being does have
1:25:09 a natural need and inclination for
1:25:11 meaning and reason
1:25:13 that this is an innate part of our very
1:25:15 being it's it's integral
1:25:17 and part of the structure of what it
1:25:19 means to be a human
1:25:21 is that you have this need for meaning
1:25:23 you have this desire for purpose for a
1:25:24 reason for significance of some sort
1:25:26 you know you know we we are um
1:25:30 attached to these notions of value we
1:25:32 can't escape it
1:25:33 and even in so far as someone becomes
1:25:35 annihilus and wants to you know
1:25:37 undermine notions of value completely
1:25:39 what they're doing is they're you know
1:25:40 they've not ceased to value things
1:25:42 they've just begun to value nihilism
1:25:45 they've begun to value the ideas that
1:25:47 are associated with this particular
1:25:49 concept
1:25:50 um so they've not managed to get rid of
1:25:52 it and then this is where the whole idea
1:25:54 of paradox and submission to
1:25:56 contradictions come in that was so what
1:25:59 like why should i value reason yeah
1:26:00 again you see there's very much being
1:26:02 expressed in um
1:26:04 a lot of post-modern philosophies where
1:26:05 it's like this idea of rationality and
1:26:09 reason is social constructs along with
1:26:11 everything else
1:26:12 um it gets rather confusing and sort of
1:26:16 leaves people
1:26:17 in utter chaos and madness in uh you
1:26:20 know
1:26:20 what's that um alice in wonderland
1:26:24 yeah everything's a bit weird you know
1:26:26 and
1:26:27 i i think there is a a certain amount
1:26:30 that maybe everyone can
1:26:31 at some point in their life come to
1:26:32 experience this where you become
1:26:35 overwhelmed with the world
1:26:36 and you have this experience of the
1:26:37 absurd um because again here it says
1:26:39 that the second element of this
1:26:41 experience should be absurd that is born
1:26:43 out of the conflict of two things the
1:26:44 first thing being the natural human need
1:26:45 an inclination for meaning and reason
1:26:47 the second thing and i've got emphasis
1:26:49 on the experience off
1:26:51 again so that you can remember the idea
1:26:53 that all of this
1:26:54 is associated to the idea of
1:26:55 consciousness the experience
1:26:57 of the unreasonable science of the world
1:27:00 that is
1:27:00 you look at the world and it fails to
1:27:04 answer you
1:27:05 uh you don't get the answers that you
1:27:09 were looking for
1:27:10 maybe that might be because you're you
1:27:13 have a high expectation of what
1:27:15 uh you're expecting in terms of an
1:27:16 answer maybe you're just missing them
1:27:19 maybe you know there's many reasons why
1:27:21 um it might
1:27:22 appear to you to be the unreasonable
1:27:25 sign uh silence of the world although
1:27:26 the world might appear to be silent
1:27:29 uh the the point is it's just an
1:27:31 experience
1:27:32 like you look at the world and you're
1:27:33 not experiencing uh
1:27:36 answers to these questions that you're
1:27:37 having
1:27:39 and you find this unreasonable because
1:27:41 you've got these needs
1:27:43 you can't get rid of them like you've
1:27:44 been born with a need
1:27:46 for meaning and reason but then when you
1:27:48 look out into the world you can't find
1:27:50 it anywhere
1:27:51 this is the the conflict and so you get
1:27:54 this absurd
1:27:55 notion arise out of that it's like well
1:27:58 what on earth
1:27:59 is this need what's the function of this
1:28:01 need
1:28:02 if i if it can't be fulfilled what's the
1:28:04 function of
1:28:05 of desiring meaning and reason uh if i'm
1:28:08 not experiencing any
1:28:10 everywhere i look i'm hungry for it
1:28:13 and you know like the the one who
1:28:15 starves who searches for food
1:28:17 but only finds dust you know the the the
1:28:20 one who's
1:28:21 um at the end of this the experience of
1:28:23 the absurd
1:28:24 uh you know he's suffering from this
1:28:26 same conflict
1:28:28 it's like imagine being born in a world
1:28:31 where there's just no food and
1:28:32 everyone's just doomed to die from it
1:28:34 straight away it's this type of
1:28:36 experience
1:28:38 um you know and people get this and
1:28:41 some i think a lot of the time as well
1:28:43 it's probably the consequence of
1:28:44 impatience
1:28:45 people want an answer and they want it
1:28:46 straight away you know you have that
1:28:48 meme
1:28:49 um of the the stereotype of an atheist
1:28:53 which you know i always have to kind of
1:28:54 make these
1:28:56 um footnotes or spoken footnotes where
1:28:59 it's like i obviously don't mean every
1:29:01 atheist but these memes exist people are
1:29:03 producing them
1:29:05 and and the meme is is that um
1:29:08 the the atheist is just kind of like
1:29:10 demanding an answer now so he screams
1:29:12 out to god
1:29:13 in a very arrogant way and he says god
1:29:16 answer me now otherwise i have no reason
1:29:18 to believe in you give me what i desire
1:29:19 you know
1:29:20 uh give me a golden toilet and if you
1:29:22 don't give me this now then obviously
1:29:23 you don't exist and i won't believe in
1:29:25 you and
1:29:25 they they're sort of um giving
1:29:28 god an ultimatum either he he does this
1:29:31 right now
1:29:32 as exactly as i've asked i want to see a
1:29:34 miracle
1:29:35 um without any question as to whether or
1:29:37 not they're deserving of such a thing
1:29:39 um or whether there might be a problem
1:29:41 in the way that they're asking whether
1:29:42 or not
1:29:43 they're in a place where they can
1:29:45 command the lord of the universe
1:29:48 like in a way you you sort of imagine uh
1:29:52 you know this this pauper you know this
1:29:54 um
1:29:56 like this scruffy man who's got um
1:29:59 no sense of self-respect is rude to the
1:30:01 world and everyone
1:30:02 like he's like his whole aim is just to
1:30:05 be a miserable
1:30:06 git um and you know constantly
1:30:09 give everyone a bad time call them names
1:30:11 and be a bully
1:30:12 and then he goes to the king the king
1:30:14 that everyone loves
1:30:16 the king that provides for all his
1:30:19 people
1:30:20 and you know and he he treats them well
1:30:22 and
1:30:23 all of his subjects love him and then
1:30:25 you've got this little idiot
1:30:27 um with no etiquette and no self-respect
1:30:29 or respect for anyone
1:30:30 and he just comes up to the king and
1:30:32 starts demanding things from him
1:30:34 like what what makes you know that this
1:30:38 particular archetype or the meme
1:30:40 um of this stereotype of a you know
1:30:43 number of
1:30:43 a small number of atheists what makes
1:30:46 them think in that moment that they're
1:30:47 worthy of a response
1:30:49 um but you know they they they don't get
1:30:52 one
1:30:53 maybe because they're young naive um
1:30:56 impatient and they're expecting a an
1:30:58 answer straight away
1:31:00 uh and sometimes your answers might come
1:31:02 in a long time like my daughter asked me
1:31:04 certain questions
1:31:04 i know she's not going to be able to to
1:31:06 understand the answer she's only three
1:31:08 um and so i i'm like you'll understand
1:31:11 when you're a bit bigger she wants to
1:31:12 play chess with me
1:31:13 i'm like you can't play chess yet she's
1:31:15 like why so you're just not gonna get
1:31:17 the rules right
1:31:18 it's too it's too complex but she
1:31:20 doesn't even understand the explanation
1:31:21 as to why she needs to wait
1:31:22 and before she can understand um and so
1:31:25 i've just got to kind of put it off when
1:31:26 you're bigger when you're bigger when
1:31:27 you because which isn't an explanation
1:31:28 she's not getting an answer to the
1:31:30 questions when she says why
1:31:32 um she's being made to wait and that
1:31:34 requires patience and one day inshallah
1:31:35 she'll she'll grow up
1:31:37 and she'll be able to play and
1:31:39 understand the game
1:31:41 and you know we'll be able to interact
1:31:42 through that and i would say the same
1:31:44 thing
1:31:44 with regards to the existence of allah
1:31:48 when you ask questions you won't
1:31:49 necessarily get your answer straight
1:31:50 away
1:31:51 but with patience you will get them and
1:31:54 with regards to
1:31:55 nihilism or the experience of nihilism
1:31:56 you're just not getting anything yet
1:31:59 that's not to say you're not going to
1:32:00 get them in the future but you're just
1:32:02 right now i have no experience of them
1:32:04 and some i would say post or very
1:32:07 hastily
1:32:09 attach themselves to this uh
1:32:11 unreasonable silence
1:32:13 and then compare it and
1:32:16 uh you know look at it side by side with
1:32:18 that first premise that is the natural
1:32:20 human need for an inclination
1:32:22 uh towards meaning and reason and they
1:32:24 declare the experience of the absurd
1:32:27 they have it they've got it right there
1:32:29 i have this urge and
1:32:30 it's not being uh satisfied right now
1:32:33 so i see this as absurd and you know
1:32:37 explain the experience that i'm getting
1:32:38 of it but let's explore a few quotes
1:32:40 here
1:32:41 just kind of delve down into this idea
1:32:44 uh
1:32:44 from the perspective of the the
1:32:46 philosophers that are kind of inclined
1:32:47 to this notion so we have
1:32:48 a quote here from thomas nagle uh
1:32:52 in his article the absurd um
1:32:55 quotes at the bottom there and he says
1:32:57 we step back to find the whole system of
1:32:59 justification and criticism
1:33:00 which controls our choices and supports
1:33:02 our claims to rationality
1:33:04 rests on responses and habits that we
1:33:06 never question
1:33:07 that we should not know how to defend
1:33:09 without circularity
1:33:11 to which we shall continue to adhere
1:33:13 even after they
1:33:14 are called into question so you think
1:33:16 that the whole notion of rationality as
1:33:18 i mentioned
1:33:19 before how do you how do you justify the
1:33:21 notion of rationality
1:33:23 without giving a rational argument you
1:33:25 know if
1:33:26 what what do we do here do we say
1:33:28 rationality rules
1:33:29 you know uh that that other atheistic
1:33:33 cliche
1:33:34 um they're not even just atheist to
1:33:36 cliche actually you'll find many theists
1:33:38 talk about this in the same way
1:33:39 rationality rules you know everything
1:33:41 must be able to be rational
1:33:43 rationally explained um but then it's
1:33:45 like well
1:33:47 how if you do that how do we go about
1:33:50 justifying reason itself without
1:33:53 recourse to rationality
1:33:55 because within the whole idea of
1:33:56 rationality circular reasoning
1:33:58 is fallacious so i can't justify reason
1:34:01 with reason
1:34:02 i need to appeal to something beyond it
1:34:04 so i'm not
1:34:06 finding myself in this circle finding
1:34:08 myself in this um
1:34:09 fallacious reasoning so i need to go
1:34:11 beyond it what else have i got other
1:34:12 than rationality
1:34:13 the things that you know in saying
1:34:15 rationality is the highest value in
1:34:17 saying that
1:34:18 everything needs to be justified
1:34:20 rationally
1:34:21 i've i've set myself up for ruin you
1:34:24 know
1:34:24 how how do i defend that without
1:34:26 circularity
1:34:27 um you can't if you say if you make
1:34:30 rationality the be all and end all of
1:34:32 all things
1:34:33 um the the you completely undermine
1:34:36 rational
1:34:36 rationality altogether um
1:34:39 or you could just ignore that um
1:34:42 your foundation is based on this
1:34:44 circular reasoning
1:34:46 but you know that you you have to in
1:34:48 order to escape that you have to appeal
1:34:49 to something beyond rationality yourself
1:34:51 um and people struggle with that
1:34:53 especially if they've made rationality
1:34:54 the highest value
1:34:56 um you know things like intuition are
1:34:58 unsuitable subjective
1:35:00 here we go again subjective being
1:35:02 equivalent with false
1:35:04 intuition just being a bit absurd or
1:35:07 vague and what do you mean by that
1:35:08 exactly
1:35:09 what about people who have opposite
1:35:10 intuitions um you know they could make
1:35:13 the same argument
1:35:14 you know i have this idea that
1:35:15 rationality is uh complete and illusion
1:35:18 and this is my intuition
1:35:19 i don't need to justify that in any way
1:35:22 because rationality is absurd anyway so
1:35:24 what
1:35:24 about the blah blah blah blah but you
1:35:26 know the and
1:35:27 that there's not just that there's um
1:35:29 all these different notions that are
1:35:31 tied up and and he says here that this
1:35:33 um you know whole system of
1:35:35 justification and criticism
1:35:36 uh criticism which controls our choices
1:35:39 and supports our claims to rationality
1:35:40 rest on responses and habits that we
1:35:42 never question and that we
1:35:44 should and we should not know how to
1:35:46 defend without circularity and you find
1:35:48 this when you engage with these people
1:35:50 or with anybody that holds this sort of
1:35:53 mentality they
1:35:54 the more you question the more they sort
1:35:56 of leave themselves
1:35:58 um you know kind of chipping away at
1:36:00 their foundation before
1:36:02 and before too long they they end up
1:36:05 feeling like they're floating in an
1:36:06 abyss they they feel completely lost
1:36:08 they've got nothing to stand on anymore
1:36:10 um you get this with atheists when
1:36:12 you're
1:36:13 engaging with them but you also get it
1:36:14 with theists
1:36:16 who engage with atheists a theist that
1:36:18 hasn't really got a grounding in their
1:36:19 own religion
1:36:20 they've not really spent much time
1:36:23 preparing themselves
1:36:24 for engagement in any sort of
1:36:26 apologetics um
1:36:28 they go out there and they find someone
1:36:30 who's maybe a bit more well-read
1:36:32 um and that person just picks away at
1:36:33 their foundations
1:36:35 and leaves them without any grounding
1:36:36 and feeling like they're floating um
1:36:38 and you get this i've spoken to
1:36:41 ex-muslims i've gone through the same
1:36:42 thing
1:36:43 and it's equivalent to like for example
1:36:45 someone who's like i want to be a boxer
1:36:48 um and he's not trained in boxing he's
1:36:51 never fought in his life he's never even
1:36:53 exercised he's a bit overweight maybe
1:36:56 um he's unhealthy you know if he
1:36:59 if he swings for a punch he's more
1:37:00 likely to knock himself out
1:37:02 and he goes i know what i'll do i know
1:37:05 what i'll do
1:37:06 i'll pick a fight with the heavyweight
1:37:08 champion of the world that'll teach me
1:37:11 that all that i'll teach you is you're
1:37:12 an idiot you know if you if you're gonna
1:37:15 pick fights with heavyweights you're
1:37:18 gonna get knocked out end off and it's
1:37:20 the same principle when it comes to
1:37:22 engaging in apologetics
1:37:24 if you start picking fights with people
1:37:26 way above your belt
1:37:28 uh then you're gonna end up suffering
1:37:31 from this erosion of your foundation and
1:37:32 you're going to be left with an abyss
1:37:34 and many people when they're in that
1:37:35 they're feeling anxiety like we
1:37:37 mentioned at the beginning of this
1:37:38 they have feelings of anxiety they have
1:37:41 feelings of worry
1:37:42 and they just want to find a way out of
1:37:45 that
1:37:46 and one way of doing that is to appeal
1:37:48 to the community you came from
1:37:50 um and one of the issues with this is
1:37:52 that when you move towards your own
1:37:54 community
1:37:55 with these doubts with these fears um
1:37:58 with these contentions
1:37:59 if the community isn't equipped to
1:38:01 answer these contentions
1:38:03 uh which most people are not especially
1:38:06 if you're engaging with like
1:38:07 the higher echelons of the academic
1:38:09 world or people that have training in
1:38:11 this or have spent
1:38:12 a lifetime reading on these particular
1:38:14 subjects if you just go
1:38:15 to the average joe to your uncle to your
1:38:17 dad you know who's just
1:38:18 a mechanic not just a mechanic it's not
1:38:20 to undermine the mechanics
1:38:22 um who basically don't have any training
1:38:25 in academia or any training in
1:38:27 answering these particular questions um
1:38:30 they're going to struggle to answer them
1:38:31 and so what you often get
1:38:33 um and i've seen this within the the
1:38:37 muslim community someone
1:38:38 is showered with doubts one after the
1:38:40 other so many that they can't process
1:38:42 them and they need help
1:38:43 they need to get answers to these
1:38:46 questions and they and there's too many
1:38:48 of them
1:38:49 and their brain's been pickled um the
1:38:51 assumptions they had have been removed
1:38:53 so you know they're suffering from
1:38:55 anxiety and all sorts of
1:38:57 pain internally there's all this angst
1:39:00 and you can't
1:39:01 process information when you feel like
1:39:03 that you know you can't
1:39:06 that if anyone has ever gone through the
1:39:09 experience of
1:39:09 going into an exam having not studied
1:39:12 and going into an exam having been fully
1:39:14 prepared
1:39:15 there's a huge distinction between the
1:39:17 experiences of these two things those
1:39:18 who go in having not studied
1:39:20 not learn anything to do with that they
1:39:22 go in anxious
1:39:23 a mess they flop they fail you know they
1:39:26 they can't get
1:39:28 you know the research the revision
1:39:31 all of this the training is
1:39:35 apart from the the odd few super genius
1:39:39 for the most part most people who go
1:39:40 into an exam in that sort of condition
1:39:42 are doomed to fail um whereas those who
1:39:45 go in prepared
1:39:46 go in feeling comfortable and because
1:39:48 they're comfortable they're
1:39:49 able to think and process the
1:39:51 information that they're eating they're
1:39:52 able to engage critically
1:39:54 with the uh the questions that are being
1:39:56 asked and then to
1:39:57 regurgitate the things that they've been
1:39:59 learning about
1:40:01 now you can't do that if you just
1:40:04 go out into the world you're out on
1:40:06 discord you're out on uh edgy
1:40:08 youtube or edgy twitter and you're
1:40:11 arguing with people
1:40:12 and this is your first first experience
1:40:14 of these things you're going to come
1:40:15 across stuff that's going to make you
1:40:16 anxious and when it
1:40:17 makes you anxious when it makes you
1:40:18 scared um am i on the right thing
1:40:21 or you know what if i i submit to this
1:40:23 now what if i go to hellfire
1:40:25 or what if everything that i believed or
1:40:27 been told to believe is wrong
1:40:30 and i've been living this line my whole
1:40:31 life and everyone that i love has been
1:40:32 living this life might be ostracized
1:40:34 that might be this i might be that
1:40:35 all of these thoughts all these
1:40:36 possibilities all this chaos
1:40:38 it just tears people apart from the
1:40:40 inside and if they don't have people
1:40:42 they can approach and communicate with
1:40:44 this is a recipe for disaster this is
1:40:47 you know the the beginning of nihilism
1:40:49 for a particular person uh it's not to
1:40:52 say that they'll live through nihilism
1:40:53 their whole life maybe they'll find some
1:40:54 sort of way to transcend or escape it in
1:40:57 some way
1:40:58 um but but it's it's there it's on its
1:41:00 way and
1:41:01 you know the the community itself uh
1:41:04 give them these questions they don't
1:41:05 know how to answer them and they get
1:41:06 scared themselves they get anxious i
1:41:07 don't know how to answer that
1:41:08 they panic and say oh no have you um how
1:41:11 dare you question how dare you
1:41:13 uh question god or ask these questions
1:41:15 well let me you know if you do this
1:41:17 you're
1:41:18 um you're a bad person but the person's
1:41:22 thirst isn't satisfied it's like someone
1:41:23 that needs water and they're begging
1:41:25 people for water and they're like it's
1:41:26 stupid get away
1:41:27 how dare you ask for water is i know i'm
1:41:28 so thirsty man you've got you've got to
1:41:30 give me something
1:41:31 um but you know the community pushes
1:41:34 them away or makes them feel bad for
1:41:35 even asking these questions in the first
1:41:37 place
1:41:37 um and so they they become an outsider
1:41:40 to everyone
1:41:41 they don't feel welcome in their own
1:41:42 community um you know they don't feel
1:41:45 welcome in any community
1:41:46 at all and so they they fall back on the
1:41:48 people that gave them them doubts in the
1:41:50 first place and those people say ah
1:41:51 we've got answers and they they give
1:41:52 answers and they the answers obviously
1:41:54 they're for example
1:41:56 uh anti-islamic uh apologists
1:41:59 the answers that they will give um will
1:42:01 be just
1:42:02 uh don't worry what you were on was
1:42:04 wrong but we've got something better
1:42:05 and then maybe the person hasn't really
1:42:07 got the ability to process everything
1:42:09 they're being given
1:42:10 um but the people are speaking it
1:42:11 confidently the people are speaking it
1:42:14 um without any sense of doubt in their
1:42:17 voice or anything like that
1:42:18 and they become convincing and so the
1:42:19 people just adopt whatever it was that
1:42:21 they were being told so whether that's
1:42:22 for example
1:42:23 christians whether that be atheists in
1:42:26 in many cases as well i've even seen it
1:42:28 with
1:42:28 muslims where you've got a bunch of
1:42:30 people
1:42:32 often very young teenagers um they don't
1:42:35 really know anything about what they're
1:42:36 saying they just memorize
1:42:37 particular pathways through a discussion
1:42:42 um and they're they're just going around
1:42:45 and they'll undermine
1:42:46 people's foundations uh leave them
1:42:48 feeling nihilistic or unavoid
1:42:50 and then just talk to them confidently
1:42:52 maybe even giving bad arguments
1:42:54 and we saw this very early on
1:42:57 in the around the 90s and 2000s or the
1:43:01 early millennium
1:43:03 where for example these the the whole
1:43:04 arguments with regards to the scientific
1:43:07 miracles in the quran you still see
1:43:09 remnants of this today
1:43:10 but there was many people that were
1:43:11 brought to the falls of islam through
1:43:13 these
1:43:14 uh through some very very bad arguments
1:43:17 and then when it came to light that
1:43:18 these were bad arguments when they came
1:43:20 to understand how they were fallacious
1:43:22 in one way or another they lost faith
1:43:24 and they left the falls of islam again
1:43:26 what use is they're bringing people into
1:43:28 the religion
1:43:29 with these shaky arguments if when they
1:43:32 discover they are shaky arguments
1:43:34 it's only going to fall out of the fault
1:43:36 again and and so
1:43:37 you know this is just to kind of get a
1:43:39 point across that this is
1:43:40 prevalent across all communities whether
1:43:43 that be muslim atheist
1:43:44 christian hindu what's not what's where
1:43:47 you've got
1:43:48 this phenomena where people
1:43:51 you question them on it uh and you you
1:43:54 question far enough and
1:43:55 basically what comes to light is the
1:43:57 finitude of the human being
1:44:00 how little the human being really
1:44:03 knows and how it can know anything
1:44:05 independently
1:44:06 without any sort of guidance without any
1:44:08 sort of uh
1:44:09 you know help from something that may
1:44:12 know
1:44:13 and if there is no god if uh
1:44:16 the universe is just this dead matter
1:44:18 and the
1:44:19 underlying foundation of it has no
1:44:21 consciousness to it whatsoever
1:44:23 uh then you know that there's there is
1:44:26 no
1:44:26 possible guidance there is no way of
1:44:28 being able to
1:44:29 to find truth however if god does exist
1:44:33 and he does communicate with us and he
1:44:35 is uh
1:44:36 giving us revelation if this information
1:44:38 is coming from a being that is
1:44:39 all-knowing or wise
1:44:41 then this would be the only true
1:44:42 knowledge that we could ever get
1:44:44 under these circumstances insofar as we
1:44:47 are finite beings
1:44:48 and independently we only get ourselves
1:44:50 in a stupa we love to argue
1:44:52 we love to debate um but ultimately
1:44:55 we can only focus on so much we only
1:44:58 have a limited amount of time
1:44:59 in life and we only have limited um
1:45:02 processing power
1:45:04 and so you know if you you take on so
1:45:05 much information there's only so much
1:45:07 you can do with that
1:45:08 before you'll die and you'll find this
1:45:10 is um
1:45:11 what's it called the dunning-kruger
1:45:13 effect that
1:45:14 whenever you have someone that begins to
1:45:17 study a subject they
1:45:19 they get confident at the beginning but
1:45:20 the more they study it the more they
1:45:21 lose their confidence and then they sort
1:45:23 of go right to the bottom
1:45:24 and then that confidence begins to
1:45:26 increase as they
1:45:27 um become experts in the field but even
1:45:30 when you're talking to the experts
1:45:32 and you'll find this when you're
1:45:33 speaking to the um you know the the
1:45:35 ulama
1:45:36 the very learned those in uh the
1:45:38 religion of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
1:45:40 um they they talk in in a very humble
1:45:43 manner they
1:45:44 they they often make you hyper aware of
1:45:46 how little they
1:45:47 know in terms of what there is to know
1:45:52 they're the more you learn the more you
1:45:54 realize
1:45:55 there is to learn every answer to every
1:45:58 question gives rise
1:45:59 to 20 30 40 50 more questions
1:46:03 as you as your the pile of things you
1:46:05 know increases
1:46:07 so does the pile of things you know you
1:46:08 don't know and the pile of things you
1:46:10 know you know
1:46:11 you know sorry it gets a bit of a tongue
1:46:13 twister this part but the pile of things
1:46:14 you know you don't know
1:46:16 increases a lot quicker
1:46:19 exponentially quicker than the pile of
1:46:21 knowledge increases
1:46:22 and this can be very daunting and very
1:46:25 overwhelming for a lot of people
1:46:26 especially with those who have not
1:46:28 practiced patience
1:46:30 and perseverance and discipline and
1:46:34 you know just to kind of work through
1:46:36 problems and not let these immediate
1:46:38 feelings that arise when you experience
1:46:40 certain uh truths not not to let them
1:46:43 overcome
1:46:45 overcome you or overburden you but to
1:46:47 push on
1:46:49 and you get this and so this um
1:46:52 here this quote by thomas nagle
1:46:56 uh is although obviously i i disagree
1:47:00 with him on a lot of things i find
1:47:02 this quote it's so quite profound and
1:47:05 there's a lot to
1:47:06 to take from it now moving on
1:47:09 to frederic nietzsche
1:47:12 the the german philosopher uh who's
1:47:14 famous for talking about nihilism
1:47:17 uh he says pessimism this atheism nine
1:47:21 in his book the will to power
1:47:23 it says pessimism that's the prototype
1:47:25 of nihilism so in here he's saying that
1:47:28 basically the the there's a an
1:47:30 introductory stage to nihilism
1:47:32 and the the first step of that is
1:47:36 pessimism that is the opposite of
1:47:38 optimism
1:47:39 now what is it that gives we you know
1:47:40 this begs the question what is it that
1:47:42 gives rise to pessimism which leads
1:47:44 to nihilism in the end um and
1:47:47 the the idea is is that
1:47:51 as far as i can see it that no one is
1:47:53 explicitly
1:47:54 an optimist no one is explicitly a
1:47:57 pessimist but
1:47:58 people wave in and out of these things
1:48:00 sometimes someone can be too over
1:48:01 optimistic have two high hopes
1:48:03 um and then these hopes become
1:48:06 uh blown out of the water you know that
1:48:08 it's not possible to achieve this
1:48:10 and because they set their hopes too
1:48:12 high they were aiming too high
1:48:13 unrealistically
1:48:14 um when this realization hits them they
1:48:17 they drop into the depths of pessimism
1:48:20 and in so far as they're in the depths
1:48:22 of pessimism the opportunity for
1:48:24 nihilism begins to open
1:48:25 you know you you know as nietzsche says
1:48:28 here insofar as you're
1:48:30 a pessimist uh you you are a prototype
1:48:34 for the the nihilist or pessimism as the
1:48:36 protocol type of management
1:48:37 in aphorism 11 he says the logic of
1:48:39 pessimism leads ultimately
1:48:41 to nihilism but what motivates it the
1:48:43 notion that everything is worthless
1:48:45 meaningless the way that moral judgments
1:48:48 lie behind
1:48:49 all other high ideals so
1:48:53 this last bit here the way moral
1:48:55 judgments lie behind
1:48:57 all other high ideals now nietzsche he
1:49:00 talks in terms of
1:49:01 a higher value undermining itself
1:49:04 um so i think that in the next quote
1:49:07 here he actually says that so
1:49:08 nightlisten there is no goal
1:49:09 uh this is atherism two in the same book
1:49:11 now listen there is no goal no answer to
1:49:13 the question why
1:49:14 what is the significance of nihilism
1:49:16 that the highest
1:49:17 values devalue themselves so if we look
1:49:20 back here again so it says here
1:49:21 the way that moral judgments lie behind
1:49:24 all other high ideals
1:49:26 so with this notion of truth so you you
1:49:29 have um
1:49:31 with the new atheist kind of movement
1:49:34 people like dawkins and things like that
1:49:35 like
1:49:36 truth truth is the highest value we need
1:49:38 to achieve truth and science is bothered
1:49:40 with this and
1:49:41 and they they try to they talk in a way
1:49:43 as if the truth itself is disassociated
1:49:45 from any moral sense it's just
1:49:47 truth is valuable in and of itself but
1:49:51 nietzsche would argue against he was
1:49:52 saying no
1:49:53 this inclination to truth is a moral
1:49:55 judgment you say that truth is good
1:49:58 and in survivors you're saying truth is
1:49:59 good and you move towards it you've made
1:50:02 a moral judgment now he also then argues
1:50:05 that
1:50:06 if you do this and you're lit and
1:50:08 especially if you're living um
1:50:11 with without genuine faith and you're
1:50:14 like in the the atheism of the madman he
1:50:16 talks about this man man that comes down
1:50:18 from the mountain
1:50:19 uh he's talking to the people and he's
1:50:20 saying he's looking for god and the
1:50:21 people are laughing at him
1:50:23 um you know they don't take this notion
1:50:25 of god seriously anymore
1:50:26 nihilism has taken them um they you know
1:50:29 disbelief has taken them but they
1:50:30 haven't even realized it yet
1:50:32 and they're just mocking this man now
1:50:35 insofar as this is the case where you
1:50:38 have
1:50:39 um richard dawkins or whoever it is
1:50:42 talking about
1:50:42 truth as being a value in and of itself
1:50:45 um
1:50:46 what you have is truth ends up
1:50:48 undermining itself that is
1:50:49 the highest value devalues itself as he
1:50:52 says in that next quarter
1:50:54 and it can do in a number of ways one
1:50:56 way um
1:50:57 truth undermines trust and
1:51:00 the way it does that is that truth
1:51:02 reveals corruption
1:51:04 so in a particular society say you've
1:51:07 you know all of the politicians this may
1:51:10 speak to some people especially today
1:51:12 um all the politicians have become
1:51:13 corrupt uh they're all a bunch of liars
1:51:15 they're medias
1:51:16 um for the most part corrupts um and
1:51:20 truth has has become not so much a
1:51:22 concern
1:51:23 for them and so they
1:51:26 perpetrate propaganda uh they lie
1:51:29 you know they do what they can to get
1:51:30 what they want they are out to benefit
1:51:33 themselves and no one else
1:51:34 now insult pharah's truth reveals this
1:51:37 and this truth is made or brought to
1:51:39 light and the people
1:51:41 in general know that their trust has
1:51:44 been
1:51:44 um undermined that these people have
1:51:47 been lying
1:51:48 to them the whole time now if they find
1:51:50 out that the community
1:51:52 at large has been lied to
1:51:55 and that their trust has been undermined
1:51:57 this trust
1:51:58 it brings to light that they've lived
1:52:00 for so long thinking they had truth
1:52:03 and the i because their trust has been
1:52:05 undermined
1:52:06 they um they lose the the the hope that
1:52:10 they can achieve
1:52:12 truth any further they've been lied to
1:52:13 for so long and believed it what else do
1:52:16 they
1:52:16 um believe in that turns out to be a lie
1:52:19 and
1:52:20 you and you've got notions of the the
1:52:21 post-truth era
1:52:23 that sort of derive out of this like
1:52:25 people have been lied to so many times
1:52:27 by people who are supposed to be in
1:52:29 places of authority people who are
1:52:30 supposed to be able to trust
1:52:31 the people just lose confidence in the
1:52:33 ability to gain truth
1:52:34 even when they've achieved it so you
1:52:37 know they might
1:52:38 actually be on the truth they might have
1:52:40 um been told something that is true
1:52:42 but they they fail to be able to accept
1:52:45 that
1:52:46 because of the fact that they've been
1:52:47 lied to so many times they just they
1:52:50 you know they lose any ability to trust
1:52:52 anyone anymore
1:52:53 and you see this with things that are
1:52:54 quite um
1:52:56 in terms of the the science it has been
1:52:58 established like
1:52:59 climate change like things that to do
1:53:01 with um
1:53:04 the the fact that the the the earth is
1:53:06 changing and
1:53:07 we are having some sort of contribution
1:53:09 towards that
1:53:11 now what are the answers i don't know
1:53:14 that's a
1:53:14 whole conversation in enough stuff we
1:53:15 don't need to get into that but there is
1:53:17 there are problems occurring there are
1:53:19 things happening
1:53:20 you know pollution you know we do have
1:53:22 problems with pollution
1:53:23 when i was traveling everywhere i went
1:53:25 regardless of how remote you would find
1:53:27 yourself you'd find a
1:53:28 bleeming coke bottle on the floor a
1:53:30 packet of crisps
1:53:31 a cigarette packet how is it
1:53:34 that crap is getting to the middle of
1:53:36 nowhere
1:53:37 that there's an issue here there's a lot
1:53:39 of stuff floating around in the ocean
1:53:41 we're being extremely wasteful the these
1:53:43 are issues and this is this is real
1:53:45 and some people um have gotten to a
1:53:48 point where they just
1:53:48 they they can't even accept this anymore
1:53:51 um
1:53:52 and they just kind of accept whatever
1:53:54 they want to or they're being fed
1:53:56 whatever they want um fake news this
1:53:58 fake news that and
1:53:59 truth we end up in this post-truth era
1:54:01 where truth becomes whatever they want
1:54:03 so that's truth undermining itself truth
1:54:05 was one thing that led to the
1:54:07 the uh the erosion of trust which leads
1:54:10 to
1:54:11 a um a lack of confidence in the ability
1:54:13 to attain truth anymore
1:54:15 there's a there's other ways of doing it
1:54:17 truth um
1:54:18 to some degree for example that you you
1:54:22 look at the world and you see there's
1:54:24 all these different moral systems
1:54:26 that's a particular truth there are
1:54:28 different moral systems in the world
1:54:29 you've got
1:54:30 different ethical frameworks and you
1:54:32 know different
1:54:33 communities and different cultures have
1:54:36 different ways of approaching things one
1:54:37 part of the world thinks polygamy is
1:54:39 okay another part of the world doesn't
1:54:41 um you know one part of the world thinks
1:54:43 it's fine
1:54:44 to um imprison a huge portion of its
1:54:48 population for
1:54:49 minor crimes the other part of the world
1:54:51 doesn't think that's okay
1:54:53 you've you've got a huge variance in
1:54:55 moral systems that's a truth
1:54:57 and this itself can lead certain people
1:55:00 to take on these moral relatives
1:55:01 positions or in even more extreme cases
1:55:03 moral nihilist positions where they deny
1:55:05 truth altogether uh and so you you have
1:55:08 truth undermining uh the the concept of
1:55:11 the idea of morality
1:55:13 which then further leads to the
1:55:14 undermining
1:55:16 of um the
1:55:19 idea of truth altogether if it's
1:55:22 discovered that truth is underpinned by
1:55:23 notions of morality
1:55:25 so if truth undermines morality morality
1:55:29 if truth is immoral um function
1:55:33 if if you negate morality you then
1:55:35 negate truth which led to
1:55:36 this uh this discovery um that morality
1:55:40 is
1:55:41 uh a a false idea or a
1:55:45 an error you know it's referred to in
1:55:47 ethics as an error
1:55:48 as as error theory uh it's just another
1:55:51 way of referring to moral nihilism that
1:55:52 is the denial
1:55:54 um that when you're talking about moral
1:55:57 um
1:55:57 opinions that they are facts in fact
1:56:01 they refer to it as an absolute error
1:56:03 um in language and there needs to be
1:56:06 other ways of approaching it
1:56:08 and you know that would be the this
1:56:10 notion of the highest values def
1:56:11 uh devaluing themselves so that is
1:56:15 there are some mechanisms within the
1:56:17 process of valuing something that
1:56:19 ultimately leads to its
1:56:20 own destruction it's uh it's like the
1:56:24 the man that kicks his own legs from
1:56:26 underneath him
1:56:28 and insha'allah in the weeks to to come
1:56:33 we're going to go into this in a lot
1:56:34 more details like i said in week
1:56:36 two inshallah we'll go into the the
1:56:37 causes for
1:56:39 nihilism and week three we'll go into
1:56:42 the effects so we'll speak more
1:56:44 specifically with
1:56:45 regards to the four um distinctions you
1:56:48 can find or the four categories
1:56:49 within nine of them so like
1:56:50 epistemological nihilism existentialism
1:56:53 cosmic nihilism
1:56:54 and moral nihilism and then in the final
1:56:57 one we'll go into
1:56:59 a possible response to it from an
1:57:01 islamic perspective
1:57:02 um and in insha'allah potential tools in
1:57:06 order to
1:57:07 overcome nihilism all together uh
1:57:10 so that is the end of the slide i
1:57:14 do apologize that it's taken so long uh
1:57:17 let's have a look how long have we been
1:57:18 on
1:57:19 throw away finding on here
1:57:24 i can't i can see that the slide has
1:57:27 been running for nearly two hours i
1:57:28 don't know
1:57:30 it's not saying anything in particular
1:57:31 here so yeah so if anyone has
1:57:33 any questions so far uh i would be happy
1:57:37 to take them for the time being uh so
1:57:40 you should be able to ask your questions
1:57:42 in the
1:57:47 the app that you're using to listen to
1:57:48 this so i'm just gonna have a look
1:57:50 through these um
1:57:58 so the uh someone has asked uh salaam
1:58:01 what's up salaam could you send us the
1:58:03 the link where the recordings will be
1:58:05 uploaded
1:58:06 so the the recordings insha'allah should
1:58:08 be going on to the sapiens institute
1:58:11 youtube channel and they should also be
1:58:13 available on the sapiens institute
1:58:15 website um so if you check them out
1:58:18 they should be uploaded there um do we
1:58:21 get the slides
1:58:22 later on uh yeah you can have them later
1:58:26 on
1:58:26 i think i'm not too sure if they're
1:58:28 going to be made available on the
1:58:29 website
1:58:30 um or there might be like a file link or
1:58:32 something but you know if you
1:58:34 if you do want them do send me an email
1:58:36 and i can forward them to you just
1:58:38 simply say can i have the slides for
1:58:40 lecture one or lecture two or whatever
1:58:42 and i can send them to you uh if you
1:58:44 email me at
1:58:45 contact dot pondering soul at gmail.com
1:58:50 and i can get them to you if there's no
1:58:52 other way of you getting them
1:58:53 um so
1:58:57 someone else is asked here the animals
1:58:59 just simply exist yes they do
1:59:02 by fulfilling their is it's the same
1:59:04 with the
1:59:05 human beings we are created to serve our
1:59:07 creator
1:59:08 by learning who he is as long as
1:59:12 our fitra isn't clouded then you start
1:59:14 questioning yourself yeah exactly so
1:59:16 this is again a a way of explaining how
1:59:19 the human being
1:59:20 can be considered distinct from the rest
1:59:23 of
1:59:23 uh creation or the rest of the animal
1:59:25 kingdom um
1:59:27 because we we have these things where we
1:59:30 get ourselves into a pickle because
1:59:31 we're just
1:59:31 thinking too much and you know if you're
1:59:33 an observer from the outside and just
1:59:35 looking
1:59:36 you're like what's going on here this
1:59:37 person uh
1:59:39 let's say an alien species
1:59:41 hypothetically came down to look
1:59:43 at all of the creatures and you know
1:59:44 just to find the the human beings
1:59:47 and mass so i get i gave a particular
1:59:49 number it was like 800 000 people
1:59:50 killing themselves every year
1:59:52 um up to four times that amount
1:59:55 attempting and failing to kill
1:59:57 themselves and you're looking at these
1:59:59 numbers
2:00:01 which are a large amount of numbers and
2:00:04 trying to figure out what's going on
2:00:06 here it's like
2:00:07 half of it um probably the majority of
2:00:10 it is caused by
2:00:11 the internal processes that you know the
2:00:13 thought processes that these people come
2:00:15 through
2:00:16 and don't necessarily communicate to the
2:00:18 external world half of the problems
2:00:20 um if suicide could probably be resolved
2:00:24 if there was someone
2:00:26 equipped to be able to talk to them and
2:00:28 help them overcome the issues that
2:00:29 they're going through
2:00:30 um so yeah this is an interesting point
2:00:34 uh says
2:00:38 wafik could you recommend some books on
2:00:42 this
2:00:42 topic uh so with regards to
2:00:46 nihilism there's uh
2:00:54 so nietzsche's wrote extensively on it
2:00:56 but nietzsche
2:00:57 is a bit of a weird
2:01:00 reader uh sorry a bit of a weird person
2:01:04 to get into
2:01:04 especially if it's the first thing
2:01:06 you're going to start engaging in
2:01:08 um leave that with me
2:01:12 i'll probably i'll try and get
2:01:15 in the bibliography sections of my essay
2:01:18 there's usually a lot of work being
2:01:19 referenced there
2:01:21 which touches on this subject so if
2:01:22 you've read my essay that's been
2:01:24 published on the sapience institute
2:01:25 website
2:01:26 um scroll to the bottom there's a
2:01:28 bibliography and there's a lot of
2:01:29 further reading on the subject that
2:01:31 you'll find there
2:01:32 there's also like a very short
2:01:35 um book by the oxford
2:01:38 publishing group uh called the meaning
2:01:40 of life so it's a very short
2:01:41 introduction the meaning of life
2:01:43 um that probably will touch on it
2:01:45 briefly
2:01:46 um unfortunately they've not actually
2:01:50 got
2:01:50 a book on nihilism yet
2:01:54 maybe i'll try and get them to
2:01:58 let me write that one sure make the
2:02:00 world but um
2:02:05 there's a good introduction to nietzsche
2:02:07 uh written by one of my old teachers
2:02:10 actually called
2:02:13 starting with nietzsche by ulrich hassey
2:02:16 um
2:02:16 so that that covers pretty much all of
2:02:19 nietzsche's work and it goes into
2:02:21 it very briefly it's like a short
2:02:23 introduction
2:02:24 um and
2:02:28 there is a sub chapter in there that
2:02:29 discusses the the idea of nihilism
2:02:32 and that was a pretty good book to kind
2:02:35 of
2:02:36 start grappling the ideas that nietzsche
2:02:39 puts forward
2:02:40 um but again i would preface this with
2:02:43 just giving you
2:02:44 a a push to make sure you establish your
2:02:47 foundations
2:02:49 um in vic and akita uh before you start
2:02:52 venturing out into any of this because
2:02:54 philosophy in and of itself is very
2:02:56 nihilistic
2:02:57 and one thing that students of
2:02:59 philosophy often end up having to deal
2:03:01 with
2:03:02 uh is some form of existential crisis
2:03:05 um it's it's quite common uh so much so
2:03:08 it becomes like a
2:03:09 sort of meme within the philosophic
2:03:13 uh philosophy community that like you'll
2:03:15 just be brushing your teeth and you
2:03:16 might have an existential crisis
2:03:18 but um yeah and one of the reasons is is
2:03:21 that
2:03:21 people often they'll put on philosophy
2:03:23 hat forgetting philosophy is supposed to
2:03:25 be a tool
2:03:26 in order to discover truth in order to
2:03:29 it's a practical tool the whole aim of
2:03:31 it in the first place
2:03:32 um was to discover the best way of
2:03:35 living
2:03:36 to you know to figure out um the answer
2:03:38 to the big questions with regards to
2:03:39 life with the garcia with regards to
2:03:42 the best way of organizing as a society
2:03:44 um but very often people will put that
2:03:46 hat on
2:03:47 and forget to take it off and they'll
2:03:49 live in it um
2:03:51 in the same way it's like someone who
2:03:52 picks up a spanner and then we'll refuse
2:03:54 to put it down and wants to use it for
2:03:56 everything
2:03:56 um the philosophy has its place
2:03:59 philosophy is um
2:04:00 you know is brilliant with many things
2:04:03 um
2:04:03 but if taken to an extreme it can lead
2:04:06 people into a labyrinth they can get out
2:04:08 of
2:04:08 um you know they can dig holes too deep
2:04:10 and forget to bring a ladder with them
2:04:13 um and be unable to to get out of that
2:04:16 and it it does lead people into severe
2:04:18 skepticism
2:04:20 and i would say in in certain
2:04:22 circumstances
2:04:23 to nihilism where they just feel
2:04:25 completely
2:04:28 not confident that you can really
2:04:30 completely overcome anything
2:04:32 um and you know people suffer from this
2:04:35 and it's quite common so a lot of the
2:04:37 famous philosophers
2:04:38 end up uh suffering
2:04:41 greatly because of philosophy nietzsche
2:04:44 um
2:04:45 whether there's debate about whether
2:04:46 what caused his problems
2:04:48 but he was supposed to do this huge
2:04:50 crescendo like his final publication was
2:04:53 supposed to be this big
2:04:54 um final thing that was going to destroy
2:04:57 christianity he called it the antichrist
2:05:02 although the book actually i think had a
2:05:04 grander name than the antichrist i think
2:05:05 the antichrist was
2:05:06 supposed to be a chapter in this book um
2:05:09 but he didn't even get to finish that
2:05:10 he was crippled uh
2:05:13 by something mentally and he the last
2:05:16 thing that was recorded off him was that
2:05:18 he saw a horse
2:05:20 being beaten by his his owner that so it
2:05:22 was like a horse and carriage in the
2:05:24 street
2:05:25 and the horse was being beaten and
2:05:27 nietzsche broke into tears
2:05:28 he ran over he cuddled the horse and
2:05:32 said i know your pain and then he never
2:05:34 spoke again
2:05:35 and he was instituted for 10 years of
2:05:37 his life his
2:05:38 family had to look after him and he
2:05:40 never spoke a word again
2:05:42 and he lost his mind and this debate
2:05:44 whether or not it was actually
2:05:46 maybe syphilis or something like he had
2:05:47 an sti from some encounter with a
2:05:50 prostitute when he was younger
2:05:52 um and so there is debate as to whether
2:05:55 or not it was
2:05:56 maybe his madness was linked to that um
2:05:59 but there's also a huge possibility that
2:06:01 it was a result of his
2:06:03 um of his work and especially with
2:06:06 uh delving into the the ideas and
2:06:08 concepts of nihilism
2:06:10 um because it it's it's quite a grand
2:06:13 subject
2:06:14 and it can be a very dangerous one so
2:06:16 just be careful
2:06:18 delving in this like i say i would
2:06:19 always recommend making sure you have
2:06:21 your foundations in a peta
2:06:23 sorted um so you've got something to
2:06:26 stand on so you've got a footing
2:06:27 um before you go moving out into
2:06:29 anything else
2:06:30 uh next question how can we convey this
2:06:34 concept
2:06:35 in a more friendly manner with our
2:06:37 friends
2:06:38 as it's not something discussed
2:06:40 especially on campuses despite
2:06:42 the rampant depression suicide prevalent
2:06:45 good question
2:06:49 you have to pick and choose your moments
2:06:50 you can't just drop this in randomly
2:06:52 like hey
2:06:53 you want a cup of tea yes and nihilism
2:06:55 no it's
2:06:57 usually you've got to kind of deal with
2:06:59 each person individually and you'll have
2:07:01 to pick up on a cue
2:07:03 and squeeze this in ever so gently
2:07:08 people when they're suffering from this
2:07:09 not necessarily comfortable talking
2:07:11 about it
2:07:12 or 100 wanting to um
2:07:15 one of the biggest feelings is just this
2:07:17 feeling that of being innate
2:07:19 unable to communicate the problems that
2:07:20 you're experiencing
2:07:22 sometimes empathy is can go a long way
2:07:25 so you can ask someone how you're doing
2:07:26 and they might give you a bit of a clean
2:07:29 ah i've been struggling a bit or
2:07:31 a bit of a headache a bit stressed a bit
2:07:33 this and you could probe them on that
2:07:36 and say like why what's going on is
2:07:37 everything all right and you know they
2:07:39 might
2:07:40 start to open up a bit more and then you
2:07:41 can relate to them
2:07:43 with empathy and say you know maybe
2:07:44 you've experienced similar things and
2:07:46 um usually a good way to kind of work
2:07:49 your way into that is
2:07:50 tell them about you say ah you remind me
2:07:52 when i was younger
2:07:54 or you know a while ago in this
2:07:55 particular part of my life um i went
2:07:57 through a really really really
2:07:59 low point um where i was struggling a
2:08:01 lot i felt unable to communicate with
2:08:02 people i felt like no one would
2:08:04 understand me
2:08:05 um and you know i was very much
2:08:08 alienated isolated from the world and
2:08:10 the community around me
2:08:13 and because i suffered a lot you know i
2:08:15 i went through depression and i went
2:08:16 through this
2:08:17 and for me this is true and obviously uh
2:08:19 it's a lot more difficult if you haven't
2:08:21 had these experiences
2:08:23 maybe you can work on um
2:08:27 some sort of trust that they have with
2:08:28 you um that might help
2:08:30 and if they trust you maybe they might
2:08:32 be more willing to open up even if you
2:08:34 can't relate to the problems that
2:08:35 they're having and they may attract
2:08:36 attempts to communicate with you you try
2:08:38 to work through them problems
2:08:40 um but yeah so you've just got to kind
2:08:42 of find openings and work your way in
2:08:44 there
2:08:45 be patient you don't want to just jump
2:08:46 straight into a deep end or drag them in
2:08:48 especially with this subject matter
2:08:50 because they're already kind of probably
2:08:51 suffering from anxiety and things like
2:08:53 that
2:08:53 um so it's just a case of taking slow
2:08:56 and steady steps with them and
2:08:58 you know only going as far as maybe
2:09:01 they're willing to you don't necessarily
2:09:02 want to force people into a conversation
2:09:03 they're not
2:09:04 comfortable having and another option is
2:09:06 sometimes to
2:09:08 also try to seek professional help so
2:09:11 there are people
2:09:11 specifically trained in order to help
2:09:13 people deal with things like depression
2:09:15 etc and
2:09:16 to to overcome certain issues um so
2:09:19 that's another thing you could do is
2:09:20 obviously try to get them professional
2:09:22 help um while simultaneously being there
2:09:25 for them um obviously you need to
2:09:27 balance it because
2:09:29 you know it can be quite contagious as
2:09:31 well and if you're dealing with someone
2:09:33 who's
2:09:33 really suffering from depression and
2:09:35 you're trying your hardest to help them
2:09:37 and maybe they're unwilling
2:09:38 um to accept the help or willing to get
2:09:40 it um
2:09:41 they can drag people down with them
2:09:43 rather than the people trying to help
2:09:44 them being able to pull them up
2:09:47 um it can have the opposite effect
2:09:49 sometimes so you want to be careful
2:09:51 and uh you know make sure you've
2:09:54 secured certain safety devices in place
2:09:56 so that they
2:09:58 if they try to drop you down that you're
2:09:59 not just going to go tumbling with them
2:10:01 um that is obviously if you're
2:10:03 struggling as well to a particular
2:10:04 degree
2:10:05 maybe try to focus on sorting your own
2:10:08 issues out
2:10:09 as well um before you try to
2:10:12 kind of help people get out of their
2:10:14 stump or their um
2:10:17 low points you need to to get yourself
2:10:19 into a more confident
2:10:20 and happy position so that you're you're
2:10:22 able to lift people up to something
2:10:24 um you can't do that if you're not up
2:10:26 anywhere
2:10:27 to help lift people um yeah so
2:10:30 that would probably be the best way of
2:10:32 doing it um
2:10:34 patience is the key and listening half
2:10:37 the time
2:10:37 and probing so questioning and trying to
2:10:39 get them to kind of
2:10:40 open up to you you can kind of explore
2:10:42 it with them um
2:10:44 again you know with regards to the as
2:10:46 deeply as i've gone into it
2:10:49 maybe you can introduce them to the
2:10:50 lectures so just send them a link see
2:10:52 what they say
2:10:53 if they watch it that might open up a
2:10:55 conversation as well you can start
2:10:56 discussing the things that you've
2:10:57 listened today
2:10:58 um listen to today etc uh
2:11:02 what is our relationship to subjectivity
2:11:04 as muslims
2:11:07 um with regards to as muslims
2:11:11 um i think whether you're
2:11:14 muslims or not uh shouldn't really
2:11:16 matter the the relationship that the
2:11:18 human being should have to subjectivity
2:11:20 um is one of interest that is that
2:11:25 simply hearing that something is
2:11:27 subjective
2:11:28 shouldn't make you think that there's
2:11:30 nothing to learn from that or that there
2:11:32 is
2:11:32 um that there is no value to it or that
2:11:36 it's synonymous with this idea of
2:11:38 falsity or that it should be disregarded
2:11:41 dismissed put in a cupboard swiped away
2:11:44 it the the relationship with
2:11:45 subjectivity is a complex one
2:11:48 and there's much more to it
2:11:52 than meets the eye like i say even the
2:11:54 objective
2:11:55 is derived from intersubjectivity that
2:11:58 is
2:11:58 you know everyone is having particular
2:12:00 experiences
2:12:01 um and we can derive them and abstract
2:12:05 them and we come up with these ideas of
2:12:07 that which is the case independent of
2:12:09 any mind
2:12:11 um it's a bit of a weird
2:12:14 statement to make um because that
2:12:17 information was only achieved
2:12:18 because there was a mind so how
2:12:22 you can then move on to this idea of
2:12:24 independent of the mind we're kind of
2:12:27 um what we're basically saying is that
2:12:29 we there is this external world
2:12:32 we're taking it for granted that it
2:12:33 exists and i i think it's a reasonable
2:12:36 assumption to make um that this all
2:12:38 isn't just in your head
2:12:41 um but we take for granted that the
2:12:43 external world exists and it exists
2:12:44 independently of
2:12:45 individual human minds we take
2:12:49 each subject of experience of
2:12:52 a collection of people and then we
2:12:54 abstract what is common throughout
2:12:56 um you know we repeat tests and what
2:12:59 keeps occurring in each of these
2:13:01 experiences um all of them without
2:13:04 deviation we're going to refer to that
2:13:07 as objective
2:13:08 we're going to say that is independent
2:13:09 of the mind even though we've derived it
2:13:11 off the mind
2:13:12 so the objective is still related to the
2:13:14 subjective the subjective is related to
2:13:16 the objective and so far as
2:13:17 you need to objectify the subject in
2:13:20 order to come up with a concept
2:13:21 of what subjectivity is or what um
2:13:25 what qualities are subjective and let me
2:13:28 turn the slide i'll actually probably
2:13:29 better
2:13:30 um so you know there's there's a
2:13:33 relationship between these two concepts
2:13:35 uh it's not a dichotomy they're not one
2:13:38 or the other
2:13:39 and often the case is very layered
2:13:42 um you might have subjectivity within
2:13:44 objectivity within subjectivity with an
2:13:46 objectivity
2:13:48 um and you've got to be aware of this
2:13:50 relationship so that you can explore it
2:13:52 properly
2:13:53 um and what that means is that the
2:13:56 relationship you have with subjectivity
2:13:58 is a nuanced one where you
2:14:01 approach it with an open mind you want
2:14:02 to look at it and to see what you can
2:14:04 abstract from that
2:14:06 um because it's often the case that
2:14:07 there is objective that can be
2:14:09 abstracted
2:14:10 from a number of subjective experiences
2:14:12 um
2:14:15 so you know you want to approach it
2:14:16 carefully don't just
2:14:18 um take this ah that's subjective that
2:14:21 so that's a little crap but i'm not
2:14:22 going to listen to it i'm going to just
2:14:24 assume that there's no
2:14:25 wisdom to be taken from this because
2:14:28 it's been categorized in the subjective
2:14:29 box
2:14:31 and so i'm just going to forget about it
2:14:32 and move on and and this also
2:14:35 means that you know people might
2:14:37 overvalue certain things that are
2:14:38 objective
2:14:39 like all right certain facts might be
2:14:41 the case
2:14:42 um but what purpose or what use are they
2:14:45 like what what can i do with them
2:14:46 so okay that car was moving 30 miles an
2:14:50 hour
2:14:50 so what that's objective do i really
2:14:52 need to value that tiny piece of
2:14:54 information
2:14:55 like what you know that what
2:14:58 what wisdom can i derive from that
2:15:00 particular objective fact there are many
2:15:02 objective facts that are just completely
2:15:04 irrelevant
2:15:05 or serve no purpose or you know knowing
2:15:08 them is useless
2:15:09 they're not going to gain anything from
2:15:11 it the world won't gain anything from
2:15:13 knowing it
2:15:14 you know like certain information like
2:15:15 how many
2:15:17 hairs are on every human body like
2:15:21 that's an objective fact that no one is
2:15:23 ever going to need to know
2:15:25 like who gives a crap about how
2:15:29 many hairs are on every human being like
2:15:33 you know this valuing of objectivity is
2:15:36 sort of this absolute value is just
2:15:39 um quite demonstratively absurd
2:15:42 that's not to say that most people i
2:15:43 think even people who do value
2:15:45 objectivity a lot when they you know if
2:15:48 you say this to them they're not going
2:15:49 to say oh well we should know that
2:15:50 anyway
2:15:51 i think they're going to admit that
2:15:52 there are certain objective things that
2:15:54 we don't need to know
2:15:56 um but it's it's basically you just you
2:15:58 offer these two counter examples there
2:16:00 are subjective
2:16:01 things that are important mainly because
2:16:03 we abstract objective from
2:16:05 collections of subjective experiences
2:16:07 and
2:16:08 with that there are objective facts um
2:16:11 that just
2:16:11 serve on purpose or are completely
2:16:13 useless um and then the opposite there
2:16:15 are objective facts which are incredibly
2:16:16 important
2:16:17 and there are subjective facts which are
2:16:19 subjective bits of information
2:16:21 uh that said more purpose or are
2:16:23 completely useless and always all but
2:16:24 it's
2:16:25 um there should be nuance between the
2:16:26 two uh someone says
2:16:30 i once asked my teacher if objective
2:16:33 morals
2:16:34 actually exist without having to refer
2:16:37 to a creator allah
2:16:40 he then said that kant was the closest
2:16:42 to prove that
2:16:44 it was objective uh can you please shed
2:16:46 light on that insha allah
2:16:48 so i really i'm not too fond
2:16:52 of a lot of the typical conversation
2:16:56 or the typical dialogue that you find
2:16:58 with these ideas of objective or
2:17:00 subjective morality
2:17:01 now for example you could say
2:17:05 that the the law is an objective
2:17:09 quote-unquote morality if by morality
2:17:12 you mean
2:17:12 a notion of what is good and what is bad
2:17:15 or evil
2:17:17 what you should do how you should act
2:17:18 how you should not act
2:17:20 um there is an argument to be made that
2:17:22 will you know it might be arbitrary you
2:17:24 might not be able to
2:17:25 completely justify the whole thing but
2:17:27 it would still count as an objective
2:17:29 morality to some degree
2:17:30 insofar as you could say that
2:17:33 this law objectively exists you know
2:17:36 there is this book
2:17:37 that we call the you uh the british law
2:17:41 and that book exists independently of
2:17:43 any mind
2:17:44 and within there there is a code on how
2:17:47 we should all
2:17:48 live our lives if anyone breaks that
2:17:50 code we put them in prison or
2:17:52 you know do whatever we're going to do
2:17:53 to them um and if people obey it then we
2:17:56 leave them alone
2:17:57 there's a way of describing that as
2:17:59 objective in the
2:18:01 in in so far as it exists independently
2:18:03 of any particular human mind
2:18:05 there's a way of um describing it in in
2:18:08 many ways it's not particularly useful
2:18:11 to talk of morality in these weird
2:18:16 ways um and there's a lot of nuance that
2:18:18 goes into it because like i said
2:18:20 i'm not 100 fond of the concepts of
2:18:22 objective
2:18:23 i guess the maybe the the words you
2:18:25 people might be looking for is
2:18:27 absolute binding completely regardless
2:18:31 of time place or person
2:18:32 um that might be more of a
2:18:36 a better way to respond to it but even
2:18:39 then
2:18:41 um you know it can get even more complex
2:18:43 so can you have a
2:18:44 law that's conditional and if there is a
2:18:46 conditional law
2:18:47 should you describe this as subjective
2:18:49 or objective um so if
2:18:51 alcohol is permissible at one time and
2:18:54 it's not permissible at another
2:18:56 does that make the the idea that
2:18:59 this is change because this has changed
2:19:01 does that make it subjective or relative
2:19:04 or can you look at it as an objective
2:19:06 conditional
2:19:07 that is on a particular condition this
2:19:11 output will be considered to be true
2:19:14 under a different condition so with
2:19:16 different inputs
2:19:18 under a different context this output
2:19:20 will be considered true
2:19:21 uh you know the general theory of
2:19:23 relativity the speed
2:19:25 um the general theory of relativity is
2:19:29 an objective set
2:19:30 of laws which contain things which are
2:19:33 relative to certain
2:19:34 circumstances um just because there is a
2:19:36 relativity or you know
2:19:38 a change in context leading to different
2:19:40 outputs
2:19:41 it doesn't follow from that that it's
2:19:42 not objective
2:19:44 um so you know like i said it's a very
2:19:47 deep
2:19:48 subject uh to get into one that could
2:19:50 probably do a whole series on it on it
2:19:52 on its own um with regards to morality
2:19:56 and you know the different approaches to
2:19:58 it
2:19:59 um with regards to whether a
2:20:02 got the closest to it maybe he did maybe
2:20:05 he didn't i'm
2:20:07 i've read his book uh the critique of
2:20:09 pure reason
2:20:10 and he ends up moving towards us um
2:20:14 he
2:20:18 it's going to take too long to go into
2:20:19 it so it's probably better i don't
2:20:22 try to answer it absolutely but like i
2:20:24 said i think the best answer to this at
2:20:26 the moment would just be that
2:20:27 um looking for answers to
2:20:31 you know can you have objective morality
2:20:33 without god
2:20:34 um there are answers to that way you can
2:20:37 say yes
2:20:38 but that doesn't mean that it's
2:20:39 satisfying it doesn't mean that they
2:20:41 have
2:20:42 um justified it well enough but it might
2:20:45 still be referred to as objective
2:20:47 because what does objective mean just
2:20:48 means that it is the case independent of
2:20:50 the human mind
2:20:51 independent in what way like when you
2:20:54 say
2:20:54 if you're trying to take some sort of
2:20:56 moral realist position and say that
2:20:57 morality does exist
2:20:58 is this where it exists how
2:21:02 and do you mean by that it exists
2:21:04 independently of the world
2:21:06 like is it existing because allah
2:21:08 subhanahu wa
2:21:10 created it would that make it objective
2:21:11 and if it doesn't exist with allah what
2:21:13 else is left
2:21:15 maybe you can posit something like
2:21:17 plato's forms
2:21:18 where you have this other dimension uh
2:21:23 you know they can bring these
2:21:24 hypotheticals um
2:21:27 and you can maybe refer to as objective
2:21:31 but then again it's like well how then
2:21:33 do you go on to prove this or the
2:21:35 dimension with these
2:21:36 forms existing well insofar as they do
2:21:39 if they did exist then we could call
2:21:41 that objective if they didn't
2:21:43 um then we might have an issue there but
2:21:46 then we could just refer to the the law
2:21:49 as it's written down as objective we can
2:21:52 come to
2:21:53 and because this is the thing you've got
2:21:54 to remember before i said the objective
2:21:56 is an abstraction of the intersubjective
2:21:58 now if the objective facts of the world
2:22:02 that we you know our exploration about
2:22:04 we call science
2:22:05 if all of that and everything we refer
2:22:08 to as an objective fact in that way
2:22:10 is abstracted from intersubjective
2:22:12 experiences then why couldn't
2:22:14 law act in a similar way but then just
2:22:16 because you can do that and refer to it
2:22:19 refer to it as objective because it is
2:22:23 does that necessarily mean that it ought
2:22:25 to be followed
2:22:26 or that it is of value or that it is
2:22:29 significant
2:22:30 not necessarily you know the the the
2:22:33 concepts of objective
2:22:35 um it doesn't contain necessarily
2:22:38 these notions of ought this kind of
2:22:42 links to the
2:22:42 uh to hume's problem you know deriving
2:22:44 oughts from an is
2:22:46 so just because you can talk about a
2:22:47 particular fact in the world it doesn't
2:22:49 mean you can necessarily
2:22:50 derive um a necessary action that should
2:22:53 follow from that
2:22:54 um you know this is a distinction
2:22:56 between descriptive and prescriptive
2:22:58 statements you can't move from
2:23:01 descriptive premises where you just have
2:23:04 only descriptive premises
2:23:06 to a prescriptive conclusion um
2:23:09 so talking about morality in senses in
2:23:12 the sense of it being objective
2:23:14 i think is a massive overly
2:23:17 simplification
2:23:18 um and even if the answer to that was
2:23:20 that you could get something close to it
2:23:23 um without god or without a creator or
2:23:25 allah subhanahu
2:23:27 it doesn't follow from that that you've
2:23:30 gained a point or that you've won
2:23:31 something
2:23:32 or that you've put something forward
2:23:34 that is
2:23:35 superior or worthy to follow um
2:23:39 you know it's like i said there's
2:23:40 probably a huge conversation that could
2:23:42 be had on this
2:23:43 and quite an interesting one the next
2:23:46 question
2:23:47 meaning is intention uh it's related to
2:23:51 intention so it's not
2:23:52 is so it's not like meaning is exactly
2:23:54 the same as intention
2:23:56 meaning contains intention um
2:24:00 can contain intention and there's
2:24:02 different notions of intention as well
2:24:04 so in terms of
2:24:06 phenomenological phenomenology or the
2:24:08 school of philosophy known as
2:24:09 phenomenology
2:24:10 intentionality is this directedness of
2:24:13 consciousness
2:24:14 so when we're talking about the
2:24:16 intentionality
2:24:18 of an experience we're talking about
2:24:20 that which the
2:24:21 experience is aimed at so
2:24:25 if you're focusing on your computer the
2:24:28 intentionality of your consciousness
2:24:30 what what it's intentionally directed
2:24:32 towards is
2:24:33 the computer if you're daydreaming
2:24:35 you're not really listening to what i'm
2:24:36 saying or you're not focusing on your
2:24:38 computer
2:24:39 and you're thinking about that time
2:24:40 you're on a holiday in egypt and you
2:24:42 went scuba diving
2:24:43 the what's um the the internet the
2:24:46 intentionality there that
2:24:48 what you are directed towards is the
2:24:49 idea of you being on holiday
2:24:51 so that's what intention means there
2:24:55 and so with relation to meaning um
2:24:59 meaning has an intentionality that is it
2:25:02 has a direct
2:25:03 something that is directed towards when
2:25:05 you're looking at words
2:25:07 the meaning directs you to um
2:25:10 the meaning of it directions away from
2:25:12 the words to that which it represents
2:25:15 um and then you've got intention as
2:25:17 intending to do something so if i
2:25:20 write something down um there's a
2:25:22 meaning in that writing
2:25:24 and i intend to communicate a particular
2:25:26 thing to you
2:25:27 so it's another way of understanding
2:25:29 intention um
2:25:31 but it's not i wouldn't say meaning is
2:25:32 intention i would say meaning contains
2:25:34 intention
2:25:35 um and then in a variety of different
2:25:38 ways as well
2:25:39 uh why is picking at one's words
2:25:42 a problem um it's not necessarily a
2:25:46 problem
2:25:47 but it can be like when someone when
2:25:49 you're talking to someone
2:25:51 and they're only they're looking at your
2:25:54 words and they focus so much
2:25:55 like have you ever said a word so many
2:25:57 times that it stops sounding like a word
2:26:00 and like you know or been
2:26:03 like i i've had that experience a lot
2:26:07 where i've just
2:26:07 i've said a word over and over and over
2:26:09 and it's like that doesn't even sound
2:26:10 like and even with simple words like who
2:26:12 or how who hey w-h-o and then you look
2:26:15 at the way it's written and you're like
2:26:16 well that's
2:26:18 that looks weird that doesn't or there
2:26:20 might be a bigger word and you write it
2:26:22 down and you're like
2:26:23 wow is that how you spell it yeah that
2:26:25 that really looks
2:26:27 strange the more you look at it now when
2:26:30 someone picks up words too much
2:26:33 they lose the context when you
2:26:36 when you zoom in and on a small part
2:26:39 you forget the big picture and so when
2:26:42 you know when you're communicating with
2:26:44 someone and if someone's too busy
2:26:46 focusing on a particular word
2:26:48 they it's very possible they can lose
2:26:50 the context
2:26:52 of what that word was meant to represent
2:26:54 or
2:26:55 the place in the conversation as a whole
2:26:57 and you find this
2:26:59 in conversations about the apologetics
2:27:02 regards to the quran
2:27:03 so someone looks at the quran and they
2:27:05 see kill the disbelievers
2:27:06 and they look at that particular quote
2:27:09 and they go look
2:27:10 and they're so busy picking at this
2:27:12 particular sentence or the this
2:27:14 these three words kill the disbelievers
2:27:16 they look at that
2:27:17 they fail to see what it's embedded
2:27:19 within
2:27:21 you know they fail to see the context of
2:27:23 the whole thing
2:27:24 they fail to see elsewhere where it
2:27:26 talks about um
2:27:28 you know the the context of this
2:27:29 particular verse talking about
2:27:31 um you know the battle of badr that the
2:27:33 the the people were surrounded
2:27:35 um it's not to be understood as an
2:27:38 absolute
2:27:39 statement that everyone who is not
2:27:41 muslim should be killed
2:27:43 oh the blah that is not the intention
2:27:46 of this statement um but someone picking
2:27:49 up the words
2:27:51 and just focusing in on that particular
2:27:53 thing loses that context and insofar as
2:27:55 they
2:27:55 refuse to move beyond the words they
2:27:58 can't get the context
2:28:00 insofar as you isolate these on their
2:28:02 own you can't move beyond that
2:28:04 and you're left with this notion kill
2:28:06 the disbelievers what else can you do
2:28:07 with that when you're looking at it on
2:28:08 this one if i was to
2:28:11 spray paint that on the wall with no
2:28:13 other context
2:28:15 then that's going to be extremely comp
2:28:17 um problematic
2:28:18 but i haven't done that that's not what
2:28:20 the quran is the crime isn't just
2:28:21 spray paint on a wall with you know
2:28:24 three words out of context the quran
2:28:26 is a whole book with many statements
2:28:29 with many verses
2:28:30 many chapters and insofar as you have
2:28:32 the whole book you can't miss the
2:28:33 context
2:28:34 you can't take away from that that we
2:28:37 should be going out
2:28:38 and just you know you go around asking
2:28:40 people are you all muslim and if they if
2:28:42 they say no
2:28:43 then you do the unthinkable you know you
2:28:46 can't take that when you read the
2:28:47 quran and so and this is the issue and
2:28:51 we have this problem not even just with
2:28:53 the quran but when communicating with
2:28:55 people
2:28:55 in a general sense and it's incredibly
2:28:58 frustrating when they pick at your words
2:28:59 or just even at your sentences and
2:29:01 refuse to take
2:29:02 in what they meant in place with regards
2:29:05 to the paragraph
2:29:06 or with regards to the particular
2:29:08 argument we can um
2:29:10 probably take any a particular we can
2:29:12 take the fact someone could
2:29:14 um cut this video now
2:29:18 and take that moment where i've quoted
2:29:20 the quran where i said kill the
2:29:21 disbelievers
2:29:22 they could just take that quote and post
2:29:24 that on the internet and say oh look
2:29:26 yusuf said this that would be picking up
2:29:28 the words or picking a sentence
2:29:31 and it's obviously gonna lead people
2:29:33 astray to thinking i
2:29:34 believe or to command something of the
2:29:36 people that i did not command
2:29:39 so that would be why picking up words is
2:29:41 a problem
2:29:42 in your journey to islam there's a
2:29:43 search for meaning bigger
2:29:45 the bigger reason to accept islam
2:29:50 or the search for truth what i mean
2:29:54 is by the what i mean by this question
2:29:56 is sometimes some people meaning is more
2:29:58 important than truth
2:29:59 uh so if any religion idea give them the
2:30:02 meaning
2:30:03 they search for they will accept it
2:30:05 regardless if it's true or not
2:30:07 um no like so for me it wasn't
2:30:10 primarily just the meaning so i was
2:30:14 focused on what was true um and out of
2:30:17 this
2:30:18 meaning arisen so if it was only meaning
2:30:22 i dabbled in things like buddhism i
2:30:24 dabbled in things like the
2:30:26 new age religions hinduism a little bit
2:30:28 and i was getting a sense of meaning
2:30:30 from this
2:30:30 but i wasn't getting a sense of truth um
2:30:34 and so although when i was in these
2:30:37 um ideas
2:30:40 i like i said i was getting
2:30:44 this meaning from it you know i felt
2:30:46 like i was driven by some sense of
2:30:48 purpose
2:30:48 by by some goal by something of greater
2:30:51 value than myself
2:30:52 um but i just didn't see truth in it
2:30:56 there was too many contradictions it was
2:30:58 just too
2:30:59 problematic for me in terms of its
2:31:01 content
2:31:02 and it's and the truth values of the
2:31:03 propositions it was putting forward
2:31:05 and when i was reading into islam um i
2:31:08 was getting
2:31:08 like a grand sense of meaning from this
2:31:11 but along with that it was accompanied
2:31:13 with truth so i
2:31:14 like i was finding um truth in the
2:31:16 notion of tawheed
2:31:18 and the consistency which i didn't find
2:31:20 in notions of polytheism
2:31:22 pantheism or these other theisms um
2:31:25 and alhamdulillah you know the the
2:31:28 fusion of these two things sort of led
2:31:29 me
2:31:30 uh closer to that than to go closer to
2:31:33 islam and draw me to it
2:31:35 um while the the falsity of these other
2:31:37 things even though i was getting
2:31:38 sensitive meaning out of them
2:31:40 um you know we're pushing me away from
2:31:43 it
2:31:43 and meaning something i think for me at
2:31:47 least
2:31:47 it needs meaning in order to draw you
2:31:49 towards it
2:31:50 um but it needs meaning with truth and
2:31:53 insofar as you
2:31:55 um you have one and not the other so if
2:31:57 you if you have truth without meaning
2:31:59 um you're not going to go towards that
2:32:02 and you know you've got to keep in mind
2:32:04 we're finite beings and having access to
2:32:06 certain truth
2:32:07 um doesn't mean you have access to the
2:32:09 absolute truth you don't have access to
2:32:10 the abs
2:32:11 to the biggest picture um and you you
2:32:14 can get this
2:32:14 or a sense of this when you're talking
2:32:16 to someone who's um
2:32:18 unconvinced the theism because of
2:32:19 something like the problem of evil
2:32:21 for example you know they have access to
2:32:23 particular truths that is
2:32:24 there is evil in the world um or they
2:32:28 have experienced a certain amount of
2:32:29 suffering or they know people who have
2:32:30 suffered
2:32:31 and then they think from that that they
2:32:33 can move to the conclusion that god
2:32:34 necessarily doesn't exist because
2:32:36 xyz um that
2:32:39 uh you know the the premises that there
2:32:42 is suffering etc
2:32:43 that's that's the truth um
2:32:47 but to me like it can be often quite a
2:32:50 meaningless statement because half the
2:32:51 time
2:32:52 the they're judging a lot of these
2:32:53 notions based on
2:32:55 uh you know arbitrary preferences that
2:32:57 they haven't really justified completely
2:32:59 like oh i think that if there was a god
2:33:03 um that he wouldn't allow any evil or
2:33:05 suffering at all that the world would
2:33:06 just basically be paradise straight away
2:33:08 why do you think that
2:33:12 how do you know that if there was a god
2:33:13 that that would be the necessary outcome
2:33:16 how can you say that explicitly oh well
2:33:18 because he would be good and if he was
2:33:20 good he wouldn't
2:33:21 allow suffering he said well no that
2:33:23 there is
2:33:24 a conception or an idea as to why there
2:33:26 could be suffering
2:33:27 there could be the you know there's all
2:33:29 sorts of arguments have been given in
2:33:30 um the fields of theology that there's
2:33:32 the the soul building theologies
2:33:34 that the existence of evil um you know
2:33:37 there's the the comparison
2:33:39 notion so in order to appreciate
2:33:41 something
2:33:42 you need to experience this opposite in
2:33:44 order to appreciate
2:33:45 light you need to experience dark in
2:33:46 order to appreciate and you get
2:33:48 for anyone who's fasted in order to
2:33:50 really begin to appreciate food again
2:33:52 you need to starve a little
2:33:54 and you know in ramadan you go through
2:33:56 that process of um becoming very hungry
2:33:59 and out of that becoming hungry you get
2:34:02 a profound gratitude for food again
2:34:06 and alhamdulillah is one of the reasons
2:34:08 i absolutely
2:34:09 love ramadan and i can't wait for it
2:34:11 because once ramadan's not been around
2:34:13 for a little bit and you've been kind of
2:34:15 spoiled and you get to eat what you want
2:34:16 when you want
2:34:17 you you cease to value the food anymore
2:34:19 because you just got it in abundance
2:34:21 um however having experienced this
2:34:23 opposite
2:34:25 allows you to to appreciate it and so
2:34:28 the same thing with
2:34:29 and for me growing up i'd experienced
2:34:32 evil
2:34:32 i'd experience suffering um and this has
2:34:35 really led me to be able to
2:34:37 really appreciate the the goodness i i
2:34:40 have in life
2:34:41 and then some might argue well what
2:34:43 about the afterlife
2:34:44 you know there's um there's going to be
2:34:46 constant pleasure there
2:34:47 how then does that work as well well in
2:34:50 the afterlife
2:34:51 you're going to have constant pleasure
2:34:52 but you're going to have a notion that
2:34:54 you experienced
2:34:55 suffering you you know you're gonna have
2:34:57 a memory that you had a life you've
2:34:58 already gone through pain you've already
2:35:00 gone through
2:35:00 death you've gone through all of these
2:35:02 so you now have something to compare it
2:35:04 to and you can
2:35:05 um obviously that the paradise our
2:35:07 bodies aren't necessarily going to be
2:35:09 constructed in the same way
2:35:10 um but there there's basically
2:35:14 in short there's lots of arguments that
2:35:15 you can give which can explain why they
2:35:17 might be suffering why they might be
2:35:19 evil
2:35:20 um and you know people might neglect
2:35:23 them or say that they're not
2:35:24 sufficient although i would argue that
2:35:26 they they argue it very well
2:35:28 and i'm i'm very convinced by them um
2:35:31 but
2:35:31 you know it's basically to return back
2:35:34 to your question sorry i want a bit of
2:35:35 tangent there
2:35:36 it's not just about truth independently
2:35:38 it's truth and meaning
2:35:40 um let's have a look so i've been going
2:35:42 for about two and a half hours
2:35:44 i'm conscious that i've already gone
2:35:45 quite a long time
2:35:47 um so i'm gonna leave the questions here
2:35:50 for the time being
2:35:51 uh inshallah i'll see if it's possible
2:35:54 for me to take a note
2:35:56 off the questions um and maybe i can do
2:35:59 like a separate video if if it's
2:36:01 possible to save them
2:36:03 and go through them because it's quite a
2:36:04 lot here now um so we'll leave it there
2:36:06 for the time being
2:36:09 to everyone for attending may
2:36:12 allah bless you all um
2:36:16 and like i say if you're watching on the
2:36:18 the youtube channel
2:36:19 please leave comments below um don't
2:36:21 forget to like subscribe to the channel
2:36:23 um sapience institute keep an eye out on
2:36:26 the website sapens
2:36:28 institute.org there's a lot more
2:36:29 material um being published and if this
2:36:32 is the only thing you've watched of
2:36:33 um sapiens go check out the other things
2:36:36 that they've been producing there's a
2:36:37 few other brothers involved in the
2:36:38 organization that are doing some
2:36:39 brilliant work
2:36:40 um covering a lot of the the major
2:36:42 contentions in academia at the moment
2:36:44 with regards to
2:36:45 uh the existence of god and you know
2:36:47 polemics uh concerning islam
2:36:50 um so check make sure to follow on the
2:36:53 social medias as well so twitter there's
2:36:55 a safety sensitivity twitter account
2:36:56 not 100 if there's one on facebook but i
2:36:59 think there probably is
2:37:00 uh so do make sure to venture out there
2:37:03 to check out that other material
2:37:05 um and also subscribe to my channel uh
2:37:07 pondering soul i do go into a lot of
2:37:10 detail with regards to more of this and
2:37:12 obviously you can engage with me there i
2:37:13 do live streams from time to time
2:37:15 uh so check that out follow me on
2:37:17 twitter at yousufpunders same tag you'll
2:37:19 find me on facebook
2:37:21 and i have an email address
2:37:22 contact.ponderingsoul gmail.com
2:37:24 very busy at the moment i've got a bit
2:37:26 of a um
2:37:28 a backlog of emails that i still need to
2:37:29 respond to going back a few months uh
2:37:32 so you are welcome to email me i
2:37:34 generally do read them and then flag
2:37:36 them
2:37:36 um in a particular color so that i've
2:37:38 got a box of flagged messages that i
2:37:40 need to respond to
2:37:41 i will in shall i get through to them um
2:37:44 when i
2:37:44 when i've gone through this project in
2:37:46 particular and the essay that i've got
2:37:47 due
2:37:48 coming on the end of may which is going
2:37:49 to be part two
2:37:51 um to the first essay on this subject
2:37:54 um so yeah feel free to email me i'll
2:37:56 i'll read them if it's not too hard to
2:37:59 just kind of respond straight away i i
2:38:01 will do and i generally do
2:38:02 if the question um has got too much
2:38:04 going on in it and it requires a bit of
2:38:06 attention
2:38:07 um or if for whatever reason when i'm
2:38:09 reading it i'm already caught up with a
2:38:10 number of things
2:38:11 um i'll put it into this folder and
2:38:14 respond to it at a later time but i will
2:38:16 respond to them uh inshallah so feel
2:38:17 free to email
2:38:19 as well uh even if it's just criticisms
2:38:21 i don't necessarily need to respond to
2:38:23 that would be appreciated or any
2:38:24 feedback
2:38:25 um so even if i don't have the time to
2:38:28 respond or even if you frame it where i
2:38:29 don't need a response that would be even
2:38:31 that would be great
2:38:32 um i can check them out as well
2:38:34 insha'allah um but other than that
2:38:36 i i hope this has been a value to you
2:38:39 all i hope that you've
2:38:40 learned something and it's been a
2:38:41 benefit to you may allah bless you all
2:38:44 and guide you all
2:38:45 assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi