Regensburg Lecture: Beyond Media’s Intellectual Capacity
True to its nature, the western press has, in the last couple of days, stupidly and dangerously mischaracterized the Holy Father. They have, with a crudeness that surpasses credulity, tried to portray Benedict’s brilliant, recent lecture at Regensburg, to a group of scientists, as an attack on Islam. Clearly, the speech surpasses the intellectual ken of the typical journalist. It is one of the clearest, pithiest, most forceful expositions of the path that led to the separation of faith and reason in the West that I have ever read. For those who have not read it, here it is.
That the pope’s erudite lecture should have led to this headline is maddening. That the New York Times should be calling for him to apologize is infuriating.
That the “Muslim street” is burning him in effigy is confirmation of the words of Emperor Manuel II that Benedict had quoted in the lecture.
My outrage at this situation is directed largely at the western media, who incited this whole mess. Western journalists continue to fan the flames. The unconscious voluntarism and subtle nihilism that informs western journalists (who are, of course, a reflection of us all) demonstrates itself in this case to be even more destructive than the conscious voluntarism and violent nihilism of the ‘Muslim street.’ But more on that later…
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The Western press are very stupid and irresponsible, that is true. Here’s some of my thoughts on the issue if anyone’s interested. Plus some excerpts from 12th century Musli Scholar Al-Ghazali about how irrationality goes against God and religion. Remember this was when Islam interacted with Greek philosophy and culture:
http://rambutan.blogs.friendster.com/poetry_and_reflections
Comment by David Alexander — September 16, 2006 @ 11:43 PM
Here’s my website again which I think I messed up on the earlier comment.
Comment by David Alexander — September 16, 2006 @ 11:44 PM
The Western Media’s fanning Islamic hatred is akin to a “Enemy of my enemy” strategy, to diminish the Church that stands against them.
Comment by St. Jimbob of the Apokalypse — September 19, 2006 @ 11:56 AM