Farid as a calligrapher

I met with Farid in Calligraphy class. I cannot remember clearly but I think it was summer 1996. we practiced calligraphy. He continued and got the highest degree in calligraphy. Here is his last work. For people who cannot read Persian, it is a composition of some Persian letters.



(posted by Iman)
Posted:Saturday, June 28, 2003 | 

Mehdi Akhavan Sales (M. Omid)(1928 - 1990) is my favourite poet. You may find sadness in his poem. One of the most thoughtful poem that I have read is Inscription. I think it is a good description for our society and revolution.


Inscription
By Mehdi Akhavan-Sales
translated by Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak


The stone lay there like a mountain
and we sat here a weary bunch
women, men, young, old
all linked together
at the ankles, by a chain.


You could crawl to whomever your heart desired
as far as you could drag your chain.


We did not know, nor did we ask
was it a voice in our nightmare and weariness
or else, a herald from an unknown corner,
it spoke:


"The stone lying there holds a secret
inscribed on it by wise men of old."
Thus spoke the voice over and again
and, as a wave recoiling on itself
retreated in the dark
and we said nothing
and for some time we said nothing.


Afterwards, only in our looks
many doubts and queries spoke out
then nothing but the ambush of weariness, oblivion
and silence, even in our looks
and the stone lying there.


One night, moonlight pouring damnation on us
and our swollen feet itching
one of us, whose chain was the heaviest
damned his ears and groaned: "I must go"
and we said, fatigued: "Damn our ears
damn our eyes, we must go."
and we crawled up to where the stone lay one of us, whose chain was looser

climbed up and read:


"He shall know my secret
who turns me over!"

With a singular joy we repeated this dusty secret
under our breath as if it were a prayer
and the night was a glorious stream filled with moonlight.


One...two...three...heave-ho!
One...two...three...once more!
sweating sad, cursing, at times even crying
again...one...two...three...thus many times
hard was our task, sweet our victory
tired but happy, we felt a familiar joy
soaring with delight and ecstasy.


One of us, whose chain was lighter
saluted all, then climbed the stone
wiped the dirt-caked inscription and mouthed the words
(we were impatient)
wetted his lips (and we did the same)
and remained silent
cast a glance at us and remained silent
read again, his eyes fixed, his tongue dead
his gaze drifting over a far away unknown


we yelled to him"


"Read!" he was speechless
"Read it to us!" he stared at us in silence
after a time
he climbed down, his chain clanking
we held him up, lifeless as he was
we sat him down
he cursed our hands and his
"What did you read? huh?"
He swallowed and said faintly:
"The same was written:


"He shall know my secret
who turns me over!"


We sat
and
stared at the moon and the bright night
and the night was a sickly stream.

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Saturday, June 28, 2003 | 

Freedom, Sex and Injustice

Recently, I have read something about the Sex in Iranian weblogs especially those are written in Persian.

Besides popular political and news sites, half of the 10 most visited Persian blogs are about sex, according to figures from a service providing statistics on Web usage.

Some people think that the reason is that Iranians have not been able to express their feelings and needs in a religious state. As you read in in this report

The new generation has been using the Internet to express themselves and satisfy their hunger for knowledge about taboo subjects, ranging from sex to Western-style entertainment or politics

Pornography is quite popular every where in the world particularly in the west. I think it is one of the most interesting issues in many friendly chats, jokes and movies! Also it seems that porno sites are most popular websites and are many internet surfers’ hobby! So it is not strange that Iranian people who have internet access enjoy reading these blogs and website like other poeple!. In my opinion , pornography should not be considered as a immoral matter since it is a private issue and every body has this right to enjoy her or his fantasy. However, I usually think about this fact that in such a huge business, many people are abused especially women. So before discussing about freedom, I think it is better we think about Justice as well. I think a free world that human rights are not considered should be called a world of Injustice. Maybe it is inevitable and this is a natural trait as Hooman says

People are people and the same things usually drive the mankind everywhere

What do you think?

(posted by Iman)





Posted:Friday, June 27, 2003 | 

Pluralism(2)

A-I am somewhat familiar with your view which I know under the name of pluralism. I am not aware of your religious studies and urge in this field though. So Iwant to ask you something which is by no means to question your belief, but only to help me understand this position better. I always had trouble putting myself in the shoes of those who have this view, and I always thought that there must be things that I don't understand about it.So maybe you can help me.pluralism has different kinds, I believe that all religions have the same source and major goal,which as you said is to help people get closer to God which is the only reason of man's creation in the first place, but another kind of pluralism which is sometimes named extreme pluralism says that people don't have to follow a certain religion and anyone of them can satisfy this end. It seems that this is the one type you mentioned , since you said that"Whether one is a Baptist, Buddhist, Muslim, etc. is not important." The first one which I believe in, doesn't say that we don't need to follow a certain religion, but that the major goal of all religions is one. so I ask my question like this:

-what is the immediate result of this way of looking?

--does it mean that if a new prophet comes and even I believe in him/her, I don't need to follow him/her,and that I can achieve the same goal through another religion?

if the answer to this question is "no" and that "we must follow all his/her orders and devote ourselves to the new creed, how can we adopt that extreme appproach to pluralism?
If the answer is "yes" , then it brings more questions

is God doing something unnecessary by sending a new prophet?

**we know that each time a prophet came , he suffered severe hardship and lots of his followers were martyred.Were all these things unnecessary?
**religious experince that a prophet gains, is a source of new insight for humans to lots of new problems of life; prophets bring their instructions for the immediate need of the people of the related time and period, and these instructions are given to make the spiritual development possible, so if these instructions are the best source of the right approach towards the problems of that particular time, how can we do without them? As you know, the make of the society has a direct effect on the spiritual education that a person receives , so besides working on the one-to-one relationship of the person with God,religions have teachings that are to make the society too.

-since this look makes the person feel very independent of a new religion, and since “everything comes to the waiting heart”, I think that having this view makes it so hard to recognize a prophet and see the message of the new religion.

-if somebody claims that he is the one that Jesus was talking about all the time in Bible, but we think we are in good shape without him, then why Jesus spent so much time talking about this over and overand trying to make people ready for it?

I respect your view and asked these questions just for my lack of knowledge, which is the only thing I am responsible for, thank you again for answering my email and all the best wishes

(posted by Farid)


Posted:Friday, June 27, 2003 | 

Pluralism(1)

Weeks ago I read something about the literally meaning of Bible and I sent an email to its author and since then we have had communication around the topic of pluralism. I will gradually post our discussions. Unfortunately I have lost the link to his writing , but I will ask him and post it later; it’s not directly related to this topic anyhow.

A: me
B: author of that article

A-I read your writing about literal meaning of Bible now and I liked it, there are many points that I think the same way you do…I believe there are many things that different religions can learn from each other, as I learned tonight from your writing…I am always open to reconsider my faith and investigate more and more.
B-The goal of religion (to me) is to lead people to God. Whether one is a Baptist, Buddhist, Muslim, etc. is not important. What is important is how close a relationship that person has with God. Most Christians would not agree with me on this point, nor would most Muslims. That does not bother me at all. Most saints, I think, would.
(posted by Farid)





Posted:Thursday, June 26, 2003 | 

Death(20)

Those who are familiar with Arabic enough to understand these verses , agree with me how
incredibly beautiful they are:

`O soul at peace, return unto thy Lord, well-pleased, well pleasing! Enter thou among My servants! Enter thou my paradise!(Koran, fajr, 27-30)
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, June 24, 2003 | 

Violence and Revolution: Our Nightmare !

These days I see many Iranian bloggers (mostly in Persian) use curse words against people who they do not like to express their hatred. I think Violence starts from verbal violence and eventually may end up physical violence. Hatred has been one of the most dangerous matters in the world and many brutal slaughtering in the history stem from hate!

You know before water is boiling, we hardly see any changes inside. Only when it gets 100 degrees centigrade will it boil. We might say the current "temperature" of Iran is between 98-99 degrees centigrade. When it hits its boiling point, the changes will take place and burst out. The way to spark Revolution! and I am really concerned. I have the same nightmare as
Mojtaba describes it.

Nightmare

The gray sky cries
The winds of sorrow knock on the window
I see a crowd who are mourning
They come towards me
Young and old, men and women, children and parents but dead
Some of them are on fire
Some of them have a hanging rope around their neck
Some of them have gun shot wounds
Some are without legs or hands or head
And I wake up with a cold sweat

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, June 23, 2003 | 

World Refugee Day!
Today, 20 June, is the World Refugee Day 2003.

"The days of our youth are the days of our glory". So wrote the poet Byron. But tragically, for 20 million young people around the world, the days of their youth, far from being days of glory are often filled with hopeless misery, unspeakable cruelty and heartless exploitation. Among them are the world’s refugee youth – youngsters whose only crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who now find themselves the displaced victims of other people’s wars and conflicts."

Still we should be concerned about Afghani, Iraqi and African and many other kids in the world. Unfortunately, we always in wars notify that they exist and suffer! You remember during US attack every body was talking about people who were dying!. Now how many people speak about this issue?! I think we usually forget that our mind is manipulated by media and politicians! I do not what I can say but I know many Iraqi school children still cannot go to school. But nobody cares since politicians and media can find more interesting topics. I hope it would not be Iranians school children!! I wish!
(posted by Iman)

Posted:Friday, June 20, 2003 | 

I encourage everybody to listen to this song if you still haven't:

Love Is The Answer

Name your price
A ticket to paradise
I can't stay here any more
And I've looked high and low
I've been from shore to shore to shore
If there's a short cut I'd have found it
Light of the world, shine on me

Love is the answer
Shine on us all
Set us free
Love is the answer

Who knows why
Someday we all must die
We're all homeless boys and girls
And we are never heard
It's such a lonely world
People turn their heads
And walk on by
Tell me is it worth just another try


Are we alive
Or just a dying planet
What are the chances
Ask the man in your heart for the answers
And when you feel afraid

Love one another
When you've lost your way
Love one another
And when you're all alone
Love one another
And when you're far from home
Love one another
And when you're down and out
Love one another
And when your hopes run out
Love one another
And when you need a friend
Love one another
We got to love one another

(England Dan & John Ford Coley)
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Thursday, June 19, 2003 | 

"Religious Experiece" vs.
"Pulling my chair a few inches towards the table"

I had 8 posts with the title of "Religious Experiece" and I got only one
comment while "Pulling my chair a few inches towards the table" had
190 comments; staggering ha? The one comment I got was from Iman
who asked a question on this issue at first place which made me start
writing about it, and even on this it was me who asked Iman to give his
comment, so I would know that someone reads them. By the way , do
you remember the post I had a while ago of a quote by Albert Einstein
about "The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience"?

(poste by Farid)


Posted:Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 

Death(19)

immortality

In my last post I quoted a very emphatic quote about immortality as a start to write more
on this topic in a way that effects the question of death directly.
Issue of death is so closely related to the concept of immortality. Human’s instinct to
avoid death is in a sense a desire for immortality. People either believe in life after death
or not, and this belief can vary over a spectrum with one extreme ending in a frail notion
gained for no obvious reason , reaching next to intellectual or cognitive belief, getting
stronger and stronger as certainly, conviction, certitude and then reaching to affective
experiences like trance, vision, or the luminous. Those who don’t believe in it, can be
troubled to varying degrees from the thought of death and those who do believe in it may
enjoy the advantage of minifying this fear or based on their idea of what that afterlife has
to offer even anticipate it with different degrees of impatience. Of course there are some
who cannot be placed in any of these two categories, and that’s why I took the caution of
expressing them more in a tentative rather than definitive term with using “can be” and
“may”. We cannot put those who are bored with life or the burden of it has become
insufferable to them and decide to end it but also don’t believe in an afterlife in one of
these categories. But apart from this and some other exceptions which constitute a small
minority, I think that this is the general state of the matter that belief in an afterlife puts the
person’s mind much more in ease with death. I will have posts on some examples about
this particular case later, but now I mainly intend to focus on defining the terminology of
immortality itself as a firm basis for what I will write later. Since this post has gotten too big
already, I defer it to the next one.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | 

Monarchy
One of the issues that I am thinking about is Monarchial political system. These days are very important in the history of Iran and I think exploring different political systems would be interesting. Iran has a long history of monarchy and some people think that it is essential for Unity. If it is seen in the historical context, it may seem understandable, even if it is not acceptable. However, in IT (information technology) era, I wonder to know how such primitive system is interesting for some people in the world. In countries like England, Norway, Canada, Australia, even though Royal family does not have power, I do not know why people think that the country need these family. Are they the symbol of Unity, Nation and ….? Don’t other nations have Unity? I think that maintaining royal families in their position is wasting money. Indeed, I do not know why it is necessary in countries like Canada Queen's picture is printed on money! and their country send money for her! (somebody let me know if I am mistaken).
These questions and their answers are much more important in countries like Iran since it is more probable that a Monarchial government, even claim that they will follow democratic principles, becomes a dictator state.
Why Iran cannot be like England or Norway? Basically, these countries have established democratic system and the monarch is a constitutional monarch and is bound by rules and conventions and remains politically impartial. However, in Iran it would be an executive monarchs - that is, they had the right to make and pass legislation. It is said they believe democratic principles for election and political system. The question is that why they are interested in keeping this position in society?!
For which reason they have this right. If we look at the recent Iranian king's family (former Shah), you easily find them criminals who oppressed their nation and stole what this poor people had. In other words, even if we think that monarchy system is a good system for this country, these people do not have any special right to take power.

Let's come back to our first question "How can one explain that a modern state can maintain such an "antiquated" system?

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Monday, June 16, 2003 | 

Religious Experience(8)

Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce (pronounced "Kay-see") was a man who, over the span of his lifetime (1877-1945), had more near-death experiences than anyone ever documented. Cayce learned that when he was hypnotized, he could leave his body and journey into the afterlife realms. Cayce made over 14,000 otherworldly journeys in his life and the information he gained from these journeys has astounded people all over the world. In 1910, the New York Times carried two pages of headlines and pictures in which he was declared the "World's Most Mysterious Man" A national magazine ran an article titled, "Miracle Man of Virginia Beach", and Cayce was swamped with an avalanche of 25,000 requests for medical help. In 1954, the University of Chicago accepted a Ph.D. thesis based on a study of his life and work. Cayce is also considered to be the father of holistic medicine by JAMA, the prestigious medical journal. Cayce was a wonder to the medical community because of his ability to diagnose and specify a treatment for gravely ill people often hundreds of miles away through his out-of-body journeys. Cayce was able to gain a tremendous amount of information through his frequent NDEs. Much of this information solved some of the greatest mysteries of humanity.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Sunday, June 15, 2003 | 

Death(18)

Millions long for immortality who do not know what
to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

(Susan Ertz)
(posted by Farid)



Posted:Saturday, June 14, 2003 | 

Tears from Persia

"Tulips originated in Persia. The name tulip was derived from the
flower's resemblence to the to the turbans worn by Turkish men
-tulipan. Persian myth tells of a young man, Ferhad, who was in
love with a disinterested girl, Shirin. When she rejected him outright
, Ferhad went out in the desert and wept mournfully. As his tears
pooled in the sand, they became beautiful tulips. Ferhad died of a
broken heart, but the tulips remained."

Flora's Secret

Lovers in the long grass
Look above them
Only they can see
Where the clouds are going
Only to discover
Dust and sunlight
Ever make the sky so blue

Afternoon is hazy
River flowing
All around the sounds
Moving closer to them
Telling them the story
Told by Flora
Dreams they never knew

Silver willows
Tears from Persia
Those who come
From a far-off island
Winter Chanterelle lies
under cover
Glory-of-the-sun in blue

Some they know as passion
Some as freedom
Some they know as love
And the way it leaves them
Summer snowflake
For a season
When the sky above is blue
When the sky above is blue

Lying in the long grass
Close beside her
Giving her the name
Of the one the moon loves
This will be the day she
Will remember
When she knew his heart
Was
Loving in the long grass
Close beside her
Whispering of love
And the way it leaves them
Lying in the long grass
In the sunlight
They believe it's true love
And from all around them
Flora's secret
Telling them of love
And the way it breathes
And
Looking up from eyes of
Amaranthine
They can see the sky
Is blue
Knowing that their love
Is true
dreams they never knew
And the sky above is blue
(by Enya)
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Friday, June 13, 2003 | 

Women, cloths, Normality and freedom

In my post regarding Women and Cloth, I asked a question about the reasons of wearing short cloths. As I expected many of you thought that I am talking about morality, religion, freedom restriction and eventually supporting this idea to force women to wear particular cloths since men can not avoid looking some particular parts of woman's body! I think we usually read something and understand what we have thought about this issue before or interpret it on the basis of our cultural and historical background.
Maybe I have to mention my idea about liberty, morality and politics and religion. However, it is not possible and whenever we read something in a book or journal and recently in a weblog, different opinion may cause misunderstanding!.

My question was simple "Why women wear short cloths?" As I said this question might be strange or unusual. However, it is not like asking about the colour of grass or sky, which are objective facts. I think every cultural matter as a subjective issue has own historical background. In this case, I am talking about Normality. Every society has own norms, which is not necessarily consistent with humanistic values. Justice, humans rights are based on our general consensus. For this reason, we may not accept every normality in our society. In fact human beings' history is the story of fighting for changing these unacceptable normality. Slavery, Apartheid, racism, sex discrimination are some obvious examples. In a tribal community that there is sex discrimination, even though women may accept their role as a inferior sex in the family, it is not acceptable. Why? Since it is injustice.
When you read my question why women wear cloths that may be sexually attractive, I do not criticize this idea why women are free to dress like that.

But we only can say “ they are free to choose their cloths" but this is not my answer. I asked Why?
It is like this question why some Muslim women obey their husbands. Although we can say that they are free to do this , feminists are fighting to change this situation. I do not know if you have talked to a woman who believes her husband's superior role. If she accepts this role and enjoys her life why we criticize such a relationship. Since we try to answer this question why? We dig in the history and culture to find the answer.
Generally speaking, I think every normality is not acceptable and this is a universal role. Thought we cannot test every social theory scientifically, we can try to criticize every injustice or discrimination.
Let me get back to my first question. I think in our world, some men abuse women’s beauty for their own business and sell it to other men who are interested!. A picture of semi naked woman on soap is a simple example.

I think in the East and West, women are abused for their beauty and sex in different ways and it seems that some women help men. Some of them because of financial matter do. Probably some of them like to do it like women in cloths fashions, models (I do not have any idea about prostitutes).

The answer of this question, however, should not have any effect on women's freedom. In fact, apart from using law to restrict men' ability to abuse women, the most important matter is that women should be aware of this issue. Otherwise, we cannot change the world with powerless and ineffective laws!
(posted by Iman)



Posted:Thursday, June 12, 2003 | 

Centuries of Moral Evolution

Plenty of people wish well to any good cause, but very few care to exert themselves to help it, and still fewer will risk anything in its support. ‘Someone ought to do it, but why should I?’ is the ever reechoed phrase of weak-kneed amiability. ‘Someone ought to do it, so why not I?’ is the cry of some earnest servant of man, eagerly forward springing to face some perilous duty. Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.

(Annie Besant)
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Wednesday, June 11, 2003 | 

Religious Experience(7)

Says Saint Teresa:
"Like imperfect sleep which, instead of giving more strength to the head, doth but leave it the more exhausted, the result of mere operations of the imagination is but to weaken the soul. Instead of nourishment and energy she reaps only lassitude and disgust: whereas a genuine heavenly vision yields to her a harvest of ineffable spiritual riches, and an admirable renewal of bodily strength. I alleged these reasons to those who so often accused my visions of being the work of the enemy of mankind and the sport of my imagination. . . . I showed them the jewels which the divine hand had left with me:--they were my actual dispositions. All those who knew me saw that I was changed; my confessor bore witness to the fact; this improvement, palpable in all respects, far from being hidden, was brilliantly evident to all men. As for myself, it was impossible to believe that if the demon were its author, he could have used, in order to lose me and lead me to hell, an expedient so contrary to his own interests as that of uprooting my vices, and filling me with masculine courage and other virtues instead, for I saw clearly that a single one of these visions was enough to enrich me with all that wealth."

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 

Cat Stevens


"In the final analysis I knew I was as human as anyone else. The whole image of the ‘Super-Star’, I helped to create. It was also therefore, possible for me to change it or destroy it.Today, people still reflect on an image they want to see, but Cat Stevens was never really there; he was a part of so many things which came together. The artist however, was there; there was a person behind that art. But most importantly, there was an identity seeking to be fulfilled.That is the soul’s identity which I think everybody needs to come to terms with. We are born not of our own calling, but through Grace we are given life. We have to then acknowledge the Power that gave us that life, to be thankful, and to make our life in accordance with the will of our Loving Creator in order to be happy.The moment I became a Muslim, I became happy.It is very difficult to explain beyond that."

you can read the whole thing here.
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 

Women and Cloths
Why women wear short cloths? This question would seem strange. However, I cannot understand its reason. It has cultural, geographical or simply constitutional reasons. In other words, Is it normal or natural? Many people think that it is the sign of freedom! I do not know if there is any place in the world (except Scotland) that men wear skirt. I do not know whether women wear short cloths or come out semi naked because of men’s demand. Why don’t men do the same? Is it the matter of beauty? Men are not beautiful? or beauty means sexual attraction?

PS: you may know my idea about freedom and liberty. So I am not talking about any restrictions but rather I think about the possibility of this kind of abuse in the western world, say Utopia that many people in the developing countries wish.
(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, June 09, 2003 | 

Uncertainty and Death!

I think there is a process of between knowledge and practice. In social sciences as well as Medicine, this process is called KAP or Knowledge, Attitude and Practice. It means that to practice something you have to have Knowledge about it. However, it is not enough since you need more than knowing something to do it. Like many people who aware of the hazardous effects of smoking or alcohol. But they do not care. So for changing any behavior, we should change people’s attitude. Then people practice those behaviors without any force (though sometimes the reverse is true. For example, seat belt is mandatory, so people know that they have to use it and gradually their attitudes are changed!
When I read the discussion in Farid’s last post about Death, this thought came to my mind that “ we start from Ignorance to Knowledge then our attitude is changed, then we reach to this belief that we will certainly taste the Death. This may be a journey from Uncertainty to Certainty. But the denying phase is lengthy (as you see many young people do not believe that they will die and prefer to ignore or avoid discussing about it). Eventually, even if you believe that there is another life after this life, it does not mean that you are Certain. The last step is Perception and finally Acceptance. I think death still is difficult for many old people!


(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, June 09, 2003 | 

Cat Stevens

I never knew that Cat Steven became a Muslim until two nights ago when I borrowed a video of an interview with him from library. He started with explaining about recording of “The life of the last Prophet” like a typical Muslim clergyman with very long beard and short straight hair taking the shortest path directly to his forehead. First I was amazed at his perfect British accent, being confident that he is an Arab. Being the only of such a case I have ever seen or heard of in my life, I was immensely surprised to find out that he once was Cat Steven, a very famous western pop star that I always was so fond of his music, converting to Islam by his own free will. He then explains what happened that caused him to convert to Islam, which can be summarized as studying Koran. He says that he found Koran quite the opposite of how it is depicted in West and very similar to Christian beliefs in essence, and that in the middle of chapter called “Yusuf”, he starts to cry, convinced that this cannot be the words of a man.He also says that the moment he became Muslim, he felt the peace he was always looking for. Later he changes his name to Yusuf Islam. Its unbelievable to know that he abandons his music life, to the extent that he never plays guitar again and doesn’t even own one. I started downloading his recent recitations of Koran or other Islamic songs, and it was so interesting to see how beautifully he pronounces Arabic words, rendering the fact that he is not an Arab incredible.
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, June 08, 2003 | 

Death(17)

Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short,
but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit,
and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day.

( Ralph Waldo Emerson)
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Sunday, June 08, 2003 | 

Religious Experience(6)

These are some other quotes from "The Varieties of Religious Experience".
I will write my own words after one or two other posts quoting from this book:

Saint Teresa might have had the nervous system of the placidest cow, and it would not now save her theology, if the trial of the theology by these other tests should show it to be contemptible. And conversely if her theology can stand these other tests, it will make no difference how hysterical or nervously off her balance Saint Teresa may have been when she was with us here below.

You see that at bottom we are thrown back upon the general principles by which the empirical philosophy has always contended that we must be guided in our search for truth. Dogmatic philosophies have sought for tests for truth which might dispense us from appealing to the future. Some direct mark, by noting which we can be protected immediately and absolutely, now and forever, against all mistake—such has been the darling dream of philosophic dogmatists. It is clear that the ORIGIN of the truth would be an admirable criterion of this sort, if only the various origins could be discriminated from one another from this point of view,

In forming a judgment of ourselves now," Edwards writes, we should certainly adopt that evidence which our supreme Judge will chiefly make use of when we come to stand before him at the last day. .

The good dispositions which a vision, or voice, or other apparent heavenly favor leave behind them are the only marks by which we <22> may be sure they are not possible deceptions of the tempter.
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Saturday, June 07, 2003 | 

Information and Internet

In my post on Tuesday , I wrote something about Internet and misinformation. My dear friends gave me several challenging feedbacks.
David says

Information outweighs the Misinformation and like other media, everything is polluted with outright lies or subtle spin. …readers should beware because with freedom comes risk and vice versa and with security comes chains.

Hooman believes

Internet has a state of confusion, but user should have the discretion and then asks a fundamental question what is misinformation? What is information? Information to me could be misinformation to other people and vise versa.

Rezwan looks at this issue as a matter of freedom and liberty with some political attitude. He believes

The Internet is a revolution Reaching and communicating more and more people.
He suggests researchers should filter out the intended information from millions of sources and make information free and accessible to anyone who searches

Hooman, however, says

Another reality is that most of bandwidth of the internet is used to download porn, music, or movies, hardly any information

David mentions the exiting usage of Internet like weblog, even finding a phone number, checking the spelling of a word, getting a quick background an a topic for discussion, finding friend in other continents. So he tolerates a little misinformation if I need to

I think Internet has been a revolution in our communication. If I can talk to my brother in Europe or family in Iran every day and know what they are doing there is only because of Internet. I came to Canada by means of Internet! I could not do the majority part of my research in Iran without Internet since I had correspondences with researchers in England and states. Even we did common project. Without Internet it was not possible to have such smart blogger friends in the world to help me to think about my questions and concerns.

Here in Canada, within 2 weeks, I have done what I could do in Iran in 6 months. Finding articles and some online courses about statistics and the like. (though majority of these things are not possible in Iran since people have to use Modem for their connection!).
Nevertheless, there is a challenging issue. How can we search in Internet? There is no doubt that we need a "Smart Search" to find useful information. And learning how to search takes time and you cannot find every thing you really need. Last year in a conference in Spain, one of the interesting topics discussed in several sessions was how we can give reliable information regarding Breast Cancer to our patients. Since there are billion piece of information in Internet. So how can we tell them which one is important. In the west doctors tell their patients that they have to search for their questions regarding their disease and then make a decision (which is not an issue in Iran since Internet is not popular, say available). And this confusing for many people. I think you need skill to search for reliable and safe information. When we look at the political issues, we find more difficult situation. You need smart search, thoughtful interpretation through a critical point of view, which is not possible for majority of people. And I repeat Hooman's question what is information and what is misinformation?


PS: I quote what these guys said since I think they mentioned more important things than that I wrote!!.

(posted by Iman)
Posted:Saturday, June 07, 2003 | 

Doctors' ties ' in Britain!!

Doctors are being urged to stop wearing neckties in British hospital.. BBC reported .They believe ties may carry bacteria and bugs, which doctors may be inadvertently passing onto patients! Ties can brush against patients' skin during examinations or dressing of wounds and then pass on bacteria to others.
We have to ask Mojtaba about what is going on.It is good news for messy people like me who do not care about their dressing. Though I do not practice right now, I hope that Canadian Medical Association will have the same attitude in future.

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Saturday, June 07, 2003 | 

Religious Experience(5)

This excerpt is from "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James.
I will later write about importanceof this book and also quote more of the arguments that led
to conlusion he draws here:

In the natural sciences and industrial arts it never occurs to anyone to try to refute opinions by showing up their author’s neurotic constitution. Opinions here are invariably tested by logic and by experiment, no matter what may be their author’s neurological type. It should be no otherwise with religious opinions. Their value can only be ascertained by spiritual judgments directly passed upon them, judgments based on our own immediate feeling primarily; and secondarily on what we can ascertain of their experiential relations to our moral needs and to the rest of what we hold as true.
Immediate luminousness, in short, philosophical reasonableness, and moral helpfulness are the only available criteria.

(posted by Farid)
Posted:Thursday, June 05, 2003 | 

Death(16)

Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark;
and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales,
so is the other.
(Francis Bacon)
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Wednesday, June 04, 2003 | 

Modesty and Nudity

I am thinking about this matter, while I am passing through streets in Montreal from downtown to the hospital every morning and evening, I have enough time to see what people do. It has been a challenging issue for a long time that this tendency toward Nudity and Modesty is original, say natural, or cultural based matter. I do not know what a woman feels when she wears a short skirt in a cold day! Or when she can see naked women’s photos everywhere.
I have written something about Hijab and Modesty before.

(posted by Iman)

Posted:Wednesday, June 04, 2003 | 

Uncertainty in Medicine

Dr. Steven N. Goodman is an epidemiologist in Johns Hopkins University. Reading his articles about evidence-based medicine was turning point in my thought in Medicine. Though that topic was not original, he explained the matter in the best way. Here I quote some parts of his article Probability at the Bedside: The Knowing of Chances or the Chances of Knowing? in Annual of Internal Medicine, 1999;130:604-606

Consider what would happen to 100 identical copies of Mr. Smith if each underwent the operation, with a 40% mortality rate. Would 40 Mr. Smiths die? Or would all 100 Mr. Smiths either live or die, with 40% representing our uncertainty about which it would be? The first of these scenarios represents the stochastic interpretation of risk, implying that risk is a physical characteristic of Mr. Smith. In the second scenario, Mr. Smith’s fate is determined, and potentially explainable. What we are calling his risk is actually a measure of our incomplete knowledge: the degree of-belief interpretation. We cannot ascertain scientifically, which of these scenarios is true, yet our view affects how we manage patients, how we talk to them, and how we are heard.

He quoted an interesting part of Tanenbaum’s article entitled What physicians know in New England journal of medicine, 1993;329:1268-71.

Uncertainty is inherent in medical practice because patients present individual and complex medical circumstances. Physicians can never be certain how to transpose a biomedical theory or a clinical research finding to a particular case. In an act of interpretation, not application, physicians make clinical sense of a case, rather than placing it in a general category of cases. As interpreters, physicians draw on all their knowledge, including their own experience of patients, and laboratory-science models of cause and effect.

I will write more about this matter though I think many of you know this kind of challenge in every science.
(posted by Iman)




Posted:Monday, June 02, 2003 | 

The Internet is an Epidemic!


During my search in the Internet for my project, I came across the following sentences by Prof Branko Cesnik, Monash University

The Internet is an Epidemic
Growing at a rate of 10% per month
All ages are involved with a prediliction for the young
No vaccine is available
Those not infected often feel left out and seek out carriers who can transmit the condition
The greatest collection of misinformation the world has ever seen


(posted by Iman)

Posted:Monday, June 02, 2003 | 

Death(15)

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, "Did you bring joy?" The second was, "Did you find joy?"
(Leo Buscaglia)
(posted by Farid)

Posted:Sunday, June 01, 2003 | 

Religious Experience(4)

I would like to repeat Iman's question here to get more feedbacks :

"What is difference between people who claim that they are prophet and we treat them as schizophrenic patients and real prophets as we believe?"

Iman, I asked you a question in the comment under that post that you forgot to answer.
(posted by Farid)
Posted:Sunday, June 01, 2003 |