Importance of Belief | The Evidence Course | Session 1 / Part 1 (2021-06-09) ​

0:00:15 welcome to the first video
0:00:16 in the series of the evidence this video
0:00:19 we want to talk
0:00:20 today about is the importance of this
0:00:23 discussion the importance
0:00:25 of discussing the belief and i want you
0:00:28 to
0:00:29 imagine that after you've watched this
0:00:31 video and you go to sleep
0:00:33 in your usual room in your normal bed
0:00:36 and that as you start to wake up you
0:00:40 know it says something unusual
0:00:43 instead of your cozy bed you find
0:00:45 yourself lying on sand
0:00:47 and as you adjust and the fog of sleep
0:00:50 you know you overcome this
0:00:52 you start to realize you're in the
0:00:53 middle of a desert
0:00:55 upon a sand dune so you went from your
0:00:58 own house your own room your own bed
0:01:02 to suddenly in the middle of a desert
0:01:04 you're gonna naturally ask certain
0:01:05 questions
0:01:07 what am i doing here what is going to
0:01:09 happen to me
0:01:10 why am i here these are natural
0:01:13 questions
0:01:14 that everybody would seek to answer if
0:01:17 they're putting that type of situation
0:01:19 now imagine while you're in this desert
0:01:22 you start to get thirsty so you end up
0:01:24 looking for some water
0:01:26 or you get hungry so you look for food
0:01:28 you think to yourself you need a bit of
0:01:29 shelter
0:01:30 so although you're pursuing these
0:01:32 aspects these
0:01:34 these needs in life or in this desert
0:01:37 the question of why you are there
0:01:40 how you got there and what's going to
0:01:42 happen you will never leave you
0:01:44 you'll always be in that situation where
0:01:45 you're thinking constantly
0:01:47 now again going back to this desert
0:01:51 you find a group of people and you go up
0:01:54 to them you say
0:01:55 how did i get into this desert and one
0:01:58 person he turns around
0:01:59 and he says well you just popped into
0:02:03 this desert you weren't here and
0:02:05 suddenly you became here
0:02:07 now would you accept that would that
0:02:08 make sense to you
0:02:10 that you simply popped into exist or
0:02:12 popped into the
0:02:14 the desert from when you were previously
0:02:16 in your own house in your own room
0:02:17 it wouldn't make sense similarly if
0:02:20 somebody turned around and said oh big
0:02:21 bird scooped you up out of your bed
0:02:23 flew over and dropped you off here
0:02:26 you'd naturally ask the question where's
0:02:28 your evidence
0:02:30 yeah did it really happen do you have
0:02:32 any proof for it
0:02:33 you're not just simply going to blindly
0:02:35 imitate
0:02:36 what they have said and the analogy is
0:02:39 clear
0:02:40 life is like this from nothing
0:02:43 or from no conscious awareness suddenly
0:02:46 we find ourselves
0:02:47 consciously aware thinking to ourselves
0:02:50 how did we get here
0:02:51 and everybody knows no matter
0:02:55 who they are whether they're religious
0:02:57 or not whether they believe in a creator
0:02:59 or not
0:02:59 every single person knows that they are
0:03:02 going to die
0:03:03 and so the natural question then is
0:03:06 what's going to happen to me after i die
0:03:09 and these two questions how did i get
0:03:12 here
0:03:13 and what's going to happen to me
0:03:14 afterwards are the two
0:03:16 most fundamental questions that will
0:03:18 shape our viewpoint towards life i.e
0:03:20 our purpose towards this life
0:03:24 and this purpose understanding this
0:03:28 allows us else also to understand and
0:03:30 appreciate our moral outlook
0:03:32 how we see good how we see bad will be
0:03:35 determined
0:03:36 how we view our purpose in life and how
0:03:38 we view our purpose in life is
0:03:40 determined
0:03:41 by answering the question how did i come
0:03:43 how did i get here
0:03:44 and where am i going and this question
0:03:47 is not just for religious people because
0:03:49 the assumption is about purpose of life
0:03:51 it's a religious discussion
0:03:52 it's a debate and a discussion that
0:03:53 maybe christians and hindus and muslims
0:03:55 might have
0:03:57 this question is a fundamental question
0:03:58 because it's going to shape
0:04:00 our moral outlook for example john
0:04:02 stuart mill
0:04:03 who was born in 1806 and forms part of
0:04:06 what the west calls
0:04:08 the enlightenment thinker he expounded
0:04:11 upon this idea called utilitarianism
0:04:14 which is this ethical theory that seeks
0:04:16 to maximize benefit
0:04:18 for the greatest number of people and
0:04:19 minimize harm
0:04:21 and his ethical and moral outlook was a
0:04:24 direct result
0:04:26 because for mill he answered the
0:04:28 question about the purpose of life
0:04:30 which he for himself he believed that
0:04:32 there was no relationship between
0:04:34 christianity
0:04:35 and the moral dictates from revelation
0:04:38 or whatever
0:04:39 religious scripture to the role that
0:04:42 life has
0:04:43 how it's governed so he's separated in
0:04:45 fact many people
0:04:47 they say that mill himself he was an
0:04:49 atheist so he didn't believe in god
0:04:51 and he attacked and criticized
0:04:53 christianity
0:04:54 uh you know quite a lot similarly you
0:04:57 have russo
0:04:58 the french thinker from the 18th century
0:05:01 and he
0:05:02 argued before he argued his moral
0:05:04 philosophy his outlook on life
0:05:06 the first thing he argued was whether a
0:05:09 god exists or
0:05:10 not and what he said was that the belief
0:05:13 in a creator
0:05:15 is subjective some people have arguments
0:05:17 for some people have arguments against
0:05:19 it's a personal belief and as such
0:05:22 personal beliefs cannot be the basis of
0:05:24 determining morality
0:05:26 of the individual and within society at
0:05:28 large
0:05:29 so as you can see the various western
0:05:32 thinkers
0:05:33 of the 18th and 19th century developed
0:05:35 their moral philosophy
0:05:37 which in turn developed from that from
0:05:39 them
0:05:40 their political economic outlook so from
0:05:42 their moral philosophy came this
0:05:44 political and economic outlook but all
0:05:47 of this was predicated
0:05:49 built upon the question about
0:05:52 what is our purpose in life and that
0:05:54 itself was predicated upon
0:05:56 what comes before life and what comes
0:05:58 after life and its relationship
0:06:01 to this life's affairs therefore this
0:06:04 question about purpose isn't just a
0:06:06 question
0:06:07 for religiously inclined people
0:06:10 but rather are questions that shape how
0:06:13 each
0:06:14 one of us acts in this life and how we
0:06:16 perceive not only individual actions
0:06:19 but societal actions at large and as
0:06:22 such
0:06:23 everyone no matter who they are
0:06:26 has a belief system we all have belief
0:06:29 systems
0:06:29 whether we call ourselves religious or
0:06:32 whether we call ourselves you know
0:06:34 irreligious or don't have claim we don't
0:06:36 believe in god or whatever
0:06:38 we will have a belief system some of
0:06:41 these beliefs or for many people these
0:06:42 belief
0:06:43 systems that they develop or are
0:06:46 unconsciously adopted from the
0:06:48 society around them so you have many
0:06:50 people that turn around
0:06:51 and they may use you know terms like you
0:06:53 know we only live once therefore live
0:06:56 life to the maximum
0:06:57 yeah or live life to the max now that
0:06:59 term that concept
0:07:01 comes implicitly by accepting there is
0:07:03 no god there is no afterlife
0:07:05 therefore our moral outlook is built
0:07:08 around
0:07:08 how do we maximize our life yeah
0:07:12 similarly you have other people they say
0:07:14 well
0:07:15 i should be free to do whatever i want
0:07:17 so long as i'm not harming
0:07:19 other people this is a an argument that
0:07:21 john stuart mill himself
0:07:23 articulated 200 years earlier and you
0:07:26 see how
0:07:27 people and that was a radical argument
0:07:30 at that time
0:07:31 and yet now because it's become accepted
0:07:34 as a norm a normal idea within today's
0:07:37 western liberal secular societies
0:07:39 that now people naturally make this this
0:07:41 statement i should be free to do
0:07:42 whatever i want so
0:07:44 so long as i'm not physically harming
0:07:46 other people
0:07:47 it's a belief system and again that
0:07:49 belief system has certain ideological
0:07:51 connotations
0:07:52 that is related to how we view our
0:07:54 purpose in life
0:07:56 for a muslim the answer to the question
0:07:59 of purpose of life
0:08:00 will obviously naturally create a unique
0:08:03 outlook because for a muslim
0:08:04 not only do we believe that a creator
0:08:06 exists but also we believe that the
0:08:08 creator created us
0:08:10 our instincts our needs our need to
0:08:12 perform actions
0:08:14 and we also believe that allah on the
0:08:17 day of judgment meaning
0:08:18 after this life will judge our actions
0:08:21 how we performed our actions how we
0:08:24 satisfied our needs how did we
0:08:26 eat how did we drink so every single
0:08:29 action
0:08:29 whether big or small will be we will be
0:08:33 held accountable for
0:08:35 so we therefore when we look at our
0:08:38 actions
0:08:38 we weigh our actions according to this
0:08:40 belief
0:08:42 are we doing an action which the creator
0:08:45 is pleased with
0:08:46 and has ordained for us or are we doing
0:08:49 an action
0:08:49 which displeases our creator and we're
0:08:51 going to be held
0:08:52 accountable for which is different to
0:08:55 the idea that with so long we should be
0:08:57 able to do whatever we want
0:08:58 so long as they're not harming others or
0:09:01 others
0:09:02 who say you know my actions are
0:09:04 predicated on personal benefit
0:09:06 or as much gratification as i possibly
0:09:08 can rather this person
0:09:11 he looks at his actions based upon how
0:09:13 he worships his creator
0:09:15 not just in his prayer and fasting but
0:09:18 he looks at even in the other aspects
0:09:20 what we were termed as muslims from
0:09:22 amulet or the societal transactions
0:09:25 so everything that he does from his
0:09:27 dress to his eating
0:09:29 to his praying to his relationships with
0:09:31 people outside
0:09:32 to the society at large all of this will
0:09:35 be looked at
0:09:36 within the paradigm within the framework
0:09:38 of this belief of this islamic belief
0:09:43 so if we answer this question
0:09:46 that there is nothing before life and if
0:09:48 we answer the question
0:09:50 that after this life we go to nothing
0:09:53 then like i said this will create a a
0:09:55 different type of viewpoint on life
0:09:58 so you find that such a person
0:10:02 will maybe seek to maximize his
0:10:04 individual gratifications
0:10:06 but for a muslim as i mentioned before
0:10:08 we look at this
0:10:09 separately if then
0:10:12 the understanding asking this question
0:10:15 what is our purpose
0:10:17 is a natural question when we wake up
0:10:19 into existence
0:10:20 and if this question has such a profound
0:10:23 impact
0:10:24 on how we perform actions changes our
0:10:26 viewpoint on life
0:10:28 then this question is the most important
0:10:30 question in life
0:10:31 i what is our purpose and what came
0:10:34 before life
0:10:35 does a creator exist is there life after
0:10:38 this life
0:10:40 indeed it should be noted that one of
0:10:42 the famous scholars of islam his name
0:10:44 was imam
0:10:45 jawaini and he lived about a thousand
0:10:47 years ago he was also known as imam
0:10:49 al-haraman
0:10:50 imam of the two holy sanctuaries because
0:10:52 he was imam of both mecca and medina at
0:10:54 that time
0:10:55 and he was also known as the teacher of
0:10:57 imam khazali
0:10:58 the famous scholar of islam he stated in
0:11:01 his book
0:11:03 that the first obligation placed upon a
0:11:06 muslim
0:11:06 is to establish the foundations of their
0:11:08 belief and he
0:11:10 deduced this ruling so he said the first
0:11:14 obligation placed upon a muslim
0:11:15 most of the time when we think about the
0:11:17 first obligation placed upon a muslim
0:11:18 we're thinking about prayer
0:11:20 salah you know the pillars of islam but
0:11:22 he said the first obligation placed upon
0:11:24 a muslim
0:11:25 is to establish the foundations of their
0:11:27 belief meaning
0:11:28 establish the rational justifications
0:11:31 for his for their belief
0:11:32 and he deduced this from surah muhammad
0:11:35 chapter 47
0:11:36 verse 19 where in translation it says
0:11:39 so know that there is none worthy of
0:11:42 worship
0:11:42 except allah in the arabic it says
0:11:48 the term the verb is used for islam
0:11:52 so it's i to seek
0:11:55 to seek knowledge and the term ill as
0:11:57 explained by imam jawaini
0:11:59 means knowledge with certainty and he
0:12:02 then goes on to explain that the only
0:12:04 way we can determine
0:12:05 certainty through and establish
0:12:07 therefore in
0:12:08 in that there is none worthy of worship
0:12:09 except allah
0:12:11 is to approach this question through the
0:12:14 use of our mind
0:12:16 i think now this leads us to the next
0:12:19 video
0:12:20 how should we approach this question and
0:12:22 that is to say what methodology
0:12:24 should we use