I recently saw some reviews of a new book defending agnosticism. The book is called “Spiritual Envy”, written by a Jewish fellow named Michael Krasny. Obviously, if Dr. Krasny (a PhD in literature) is defending agnosticism, he is not strictly speaking a religious practicing Jew. I have not read his book yet, but the reviews indicate that Krasny once believed in the God taught by the Torah and the Prophets, but now does not. However, he doesn’t accept the tenants of atheism either. He defends the idea of accepting that one cannot really know if there is a God or not; or if there were, just what that God would be like. <\/p>\n
But Dr. Krasny obviously still cares, or else he wouldn’t write a 264 page book about what we can or cannot know about God’s existence. Perhaps he is still searching; perhaps he is still hopeful. And perhaps he still takes the leap of faith in living as though there were a God of goodness that cared about us. Even though I share Krasny’s intellectual agnosticism, I also care. As to whether I live a life of faith, well, I guess that I’m not the one to judge that. But I do the best I can, I try to remain hopeful.<\/p>\n
One little glimmer of hope for the muddled-up world that we currently experience is found in one of the Spiritual Envy reviews. Would you believe that an Islamic scholar gave a Jewish agnostic’s book a positive review? Oh ye of so little faith! Yes, Prof. Reza Aslan wrote a very edifying review <\/a> of Krasny’s book on the Daily Beast site. It’s definitely worth a read. Aslan of course is not your typical imam or mullah. He’s a young American Islamic idealist, a guy who seems to be pushing the edge of the Moslem envelope in search of a kinder and gentler Allah, Prophet and Ummah. I take my hat off to the guy, for having the guts to be open-minded about a Jew’s intellectual search for God (or not-God). He gives me hope that Islam may become more than a religion of “righteous war”, despite all the violence in its history. (YES, I realize that ALL RELIGIONS have violence in their history, even Buddhism; but Islamic violence and warfare goes right back to its founder, Mohammad). <\/p>\n Oh, and as to whether Moslems who are actually involved in warfare are always pointing the gun at the USA, rather than at the enemies of the USA, I also just saw a story in the recent Scientific American about a scientist helping to develop a laser weapon to be used by US combat helicopters, that would defeat the heat-seeking missiles often shot at them, e.g. by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The name of the lead scientist is Mohammad Islam. Just another reminder that Moslems are not all anti-American, Jew-hating jihadists. I would venture to guess that most Moslems are as just as open-minded as any Christian or Hindu or Wiccan, relative to their own dogma.<\/p>\n