A Case for Optimism

How are we doing, I mean, as humans?

...Because from where I sit, it doesn't look that good.

There's:

• Brokenness: Broken families, broken hearts, broken lives. Many people in this world will never begin to experience what love is.
• Corruption: Just take a look at Mexico, where anyone with the cojones to stand up to the drug trade ends up six feet under.
• Ignorance: That the Newark public school system could inspire Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift should be evidence enough.
• Rhetoric: Glenn Beck. Jesse Jackson. Lady Gaga.
• Rhetoric listeners: The rhetoric offends enough by itself. But when I learn that my beautiful grandparents watch FoxNews, witness the black community's failure to recognize the overwhelming bullsh*t of its leaders, or wonder why a celebrity's opinion can make headline news, I cringe. And a little hope dies inside.

I'm like Ironhide in Transformers. That's him, pretty studly.

• Ironhide: "Why are we fighting to save the humans? They're a primitive and violent race."

I get tired I wonder if I should even bother to try and change the world.

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But maybe I should take a more historical perspective.

• Optimus Prime: "They're a young species. They have much to learn. But I've seen goodness in them."

We are a young species, and to look back over the last 50,000 years is to see a lot of war and violence; suffering and apathy. But look again and observe a steady progression from darkness into light.

We have formed society. Cooperation has begun to overwhelm conflict as the means of overcoming difficulty. Education has begun to dispel ignorance and its resulting technologies have improved our quality of life. And although these types of progress have marked human progress from the start, never before have they been so widespread.

Since 1970 the percentage of the world's population with access to clean water has increased from 30% to upwards of 85%. Free elections are no longer a luxury, but an expectation. "For the first time in human history all people are convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and actually can be extended to everyone" (GS).

Cause for optimism abounds.

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But how to ensure further progress?

It falls to the leaders and thinkers of the age to discover and protect those principles and underpinnings of society that, in the midst of change and evolution, steadfastly bind humankind to itself. Failure in this regard will leave us slaves to our creations.

Success, well success would just rock :).

Special thanks to Mike Toohey for his ongoing friendship and his contribution to this article. Cited material: Gaudium et Spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. The Vatican, 1965.

Oscars Tonight!

The Best Picture will doubtlessly go to the film that most closely matches this uber-trailer.

What Makes a Religion Good?

The Stoning of Soraya M: Part I

I went and saw a movie Saturday night. It made me think...

The Movie

A lot of people are going to watch The Stoning of Soraya M and write the film off as insensitive or stereotypical in its treatment of Islam. I disagree.

All the film's characters are Muslim. Some do terrible things and some do good things, but the film isn't about religion. In a nutshell, it sets misogyny in an Iranian village—Islam just forms part of the cultural fabric.

Nevertheless, the film is based on a true story and therefore begs the question: What does Islam have to do with it? Does the religion lend itself to violent injustice?

Never fear to ask the question

Islam confuses westerners. The European response has been largely aggressive and has focused on Islam's fundamentalist elements. Yet while the months following 9/11 witnessed an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, such attitudes have been largely overwhelmed by the call for tolerance and understanding (reflecting a focus on civil rights).

Still, few people seem eager to discuss the issue, but not for lack of motivation. Violent protests following the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper, hundreds of terrorist cells worldwide, genocide in Sudan, the fallout after Iran's recent elections, rejection of the historicity of the Holocaust... Injustice across the globe can be linked to varied strains of Islam.

(Please, I beg you, don't regurgitate the same worn-out line that Islam isn't the only religion connected these types of things. In modern times, no other religion can be linked to travesties of such gravity.)

Of those willing to consider the situation, a plurality seems to conclude that the links between Islam and such injustice are no mere coincidence. They suggest that practicing Muslims perceive Allah as distant and cold. Such a relationship, they conclude, contributes to the development of radical fundamentalism.

I'm skeptical, and certainly not knowledgeable enough to comment. I'll leave that to the theologians and offer this instead.

Basic Islam

At its most basic level, Islam offers human beings another avenue to express their belief in a God or gods. A reflection of a near-universal human experience, only since the Enlightenment have significant numbers of people begun to exclude the notion of the divine from their lives. Nevertheless, even such atheism or agnosticism cannot ignore fundamental questions about life, its meaning, humanity, its direction, and so forth. Islam offers one answer.

Moreover, my limited knowledge of the Qur'an informs me that the Muslim holy book includes passages concerning charity, kindness, justice, and peace. The review of these elements of that faith doubtlessly uplifts humanity. The same can be said for the positive impact of Islam's moral code.

The Lovely Zahra

Only one character in the film has a religious experience worth mentioning. To her, religion transcends the cultural. She longs for God.

As Soraya approaches death, Zahra stands by her side and demands the dignity due her. Just before her execution, she tells her "Pray, pray with all your might. God and paradise are waiting for you." And in response to Soraya's fear of dying, she offers: "You are innocent. God knows it. He will take care of you. He will give you courage."

Zahra's religious faith approaches the furthest reach of human optimism. She stands with those who steadfastly hope in a God of love and mercy; those to whom God cannot be sterile, cold, or apathetic. And it is this faith that carries her when human strength fails—this faith that allows her to stand by Soraya.

Good Religion

Even skeptics of religion ought to agree that any faith which inspires human beings to acts of heroic love has real value. In fact from the secular perspective, a religion is only valuable inasmuch as it helps its followers to uplift humanity.

The recognition of the 'Golden Rule' does not make a religion special. An examination of one's own heart reveals the truth therein. No, a religion is special when it supports the limits of human optimism. A religion has value when it sustains our most desperate hope that love will triumph.

I doubt Islam is the problem, but unless its doctrine consistently inspires true self-giving it is hardly the solution.