HE DID'NT EXPECT THIS BY MUSLIM - HUMBLING END
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
202.71742
Summary
Jazakum Waraikum Al-Khalilah: From Nothing, Nothing Comes. Why does God exist? What does the universe have in common with the rest of the universe, and how can we prove that God exists?
Transcript
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The universe cannot, you cannot have an infinite regress of dependent things.
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So it has to rely on something that's independent.
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Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, dear brothers and sisters.
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As we watch what is unfolding today in Gaza, we have to understand
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that opposition is counting on us to lose attention, to become fatigued,
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And just as we can't allow them to dictate our attention,
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we also can't allow them to dictate the pace of our solidarity.
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And part of that solidarity is going to be there to rebuild Gaza short-term, long-term.
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I am proud to give my support, my word of support,
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to trusted brothers and sisters in the United Kingdom
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that have started a waqf, that have started an endowment
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to make sure, inshallah ta'ala, that we're there for the long run.
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It's going to be long-term, and we will not forget our cause in Palestine.
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And we will not forget our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
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Jazakum Allah, khaira, wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
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You cannot have us, you cannot have matter, time, space, energy from nothing.
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You can't have these things popping out of nothing.
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But then you can also ask, can the creative pop out of nothing?
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the onus of proof that something can come from nothing
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Because we've never experienced anything like that in our lives.
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So the onus is on you, not on me, to prove that that's true.
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You, you, you, you, you've way more used to talking to this than I am,
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I, I can't give you a good, concise definition.
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I'm, I'm sure there's a better one in the Oxford English station.
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But we, we just fundamentally don't know how the universe was created.
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Because there was nobody, there was nobody there to see it.
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you're talking about underdetermination right now, right?
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You previously said evolution is the explanation for why we're here.
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We chose evolution amongst a group of other options.
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Why don't we look at the universe and look at the different options and then decide which
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I just don't think that question is very interesting.
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I think the question of why the universe is here, how it was, how it occurred or was created
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There's so many interesting things happening in the world between people.
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What if I was to ask you something that you said earlier on in the conversation?
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You said, it wouldn't make a difference to you if God existed or not.
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Because if God exists, then we have a purpose, which is objective.
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If God doesn't exist, this life is meaningless.
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So it does have an existential impact on our lives.
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But, but, but, but, that statement may be true, but that just makes the existence of a
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The reason why I said this is because now the question of God is important.
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I'm not saying God exists because God is desirable.
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I'm saying it makes the question of God important.
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You said there was a, God made sure there's a purpose.
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Okay, the purpose of life, according to Islam, is to have a relationship with God.
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And that relationship with God is what's going to give us happiness.
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If I gave you a billion dollars and you had one year to spend it, what would you do with
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You look at the type of person that will go and find a cave and get a bunch of mutants.
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Anyway, like do scientific experiments, buy yachts, get cars, do other stuff.
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Like if I was allowed to invest it, then I could like make sure I live like very comfortably
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But, but you, you asked me to spend it in one year and I'm like, it's just the limit to
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But say you had not one year, you had a hundred years.
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You do everything that you found desirable in your life.
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Would you say that you have now maximum happiness?
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There's no more happiness beyond these material things.
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I think, I think I would probably take a few steps up what you call like the hedonic treadmill
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and now I would get used to a higher standard of living and, and I would just set higher goals
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for myself of what to achieve because now I should be able to achieve more because I, I
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have like, what did you say, a billion pounds and then, and then I probably wouldn't achieve
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Are you familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
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That was the original, that was the original sketch.
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It was like food, shelter, sleep, things like that.
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As you go up the ladder, your physical needs are being left for something more transcendent.
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The ultimate transcendent being is God and true happiness, the Quran says, is when you
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And this is, you know, you said it's not desirable or it doesn't impact your life.
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It's on the minimum, I hope today you've seen from my perspective that God has a meaningful
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So that's why the question of God is important.
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It's not just an abstract discussion, just a nice fancy way of, you know, passing time
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So I would say there are three types of possibilities or three types of existence.
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We have possible existence and we have necessary existence.
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The first one is an impossible existence, like a triangle square.
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Number one is possible existence, which is contingent, something that relies on something
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And number two is a necessary existence that is independent of any need.
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So would you agree that me and you are dependent?
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So we are contingent on other things for our survival?
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So would you agree that planet Earth is dependent on other factors for its survival?
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Would you accept that our solar system is dependent on other things?
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I don't think I know enough about like astrophysics to answer that question.
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No, it's not a matter of knowing about astrophysics.
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It's knowing that, for example, in our universe, we are a planet within our galaxy.
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I mean, like you have planets that are wandering and don't have a sun, right?
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Are they dependent on something else for its survival?
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Like, I know what you want me to answer, but I just don't know enough about the topic.
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To me, my definition is this for something that is contingent.
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It depends on something else for its existence.
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It can be any other way and it's composed of pieces.
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Would you agree that other planets are composed of pieces?
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Anything that is composed of pieces is dependent.
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So what I would say is, for example, do you accept that, for example, our universe,
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Because you accept that we require an independent thing.
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All you do is you ascribe that to the universe.
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So, number three, that shows me that it is dependent.
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Because it's composed of pieces, it can be any other way.
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No, no, you're making up all these definitions and saying all these words,
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but like, it doesn't, like, we just agreed the universe was independent.
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The universe might just be its own thing and there might be no other things.
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No, you said it's independent, which, to me, remember we said there are two types of existence.
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Impossible existence, possible existence, and necessary existence.
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All you've done is, you've accepted that there are possible existence and there's a necessary existence.
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You ascribe the necessary existence to the universe.
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If I can prove the universe is not independent-dependent, the question I will ask you is, what does it depend on?
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You said it's dependent on the pieces it's made of, that makes it dependent on itself.
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If it's composed of pieces, and it can be any other way, it is dependent, it's not independent.
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Those pieces, like, for example, you know they say the part comes before the whole.
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That's like saying I'm dependent on myself, and therefore I'm not dependent.
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You depend on your heart to be for you to exist.
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It's just circular logic, and it does not in any way prove the existence of a God.
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To me, it seems like you know where it's going.
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I'm saying to you, very simply, do you depend on water to survive?
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So, I'm saying to you, the universe within itself, it is also dependent.
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The universe might very well be self-sufficient.
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Yes, I actually need to be an astrophysicist to answer these questions.
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Therefore, not only that, we don't have infinite in the real world.
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Can you prove to me infinite in the real world?
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There's like an infinite number of real numbers.
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I mean, now we're just having a semantics discussion.
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You cannot have an infinite regress of dependent things.
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You require an independent, self-sufficient, necessary being that gave rise to all the dependent things.
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The fact that it exploded and needed all those forces.
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No, you're talking nonsense and then you say...
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No, you're upset because you can't rationally bring anything to the table.
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I understand you're upset because the thing is,
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because you feel like they bring it to the table.
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I'm having a rational, rational discussion politely.
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Maybe you should go to school and learn some science.