I questioned the statement: "At certain points in time, the Muslim world was the most civilized and advanced in recorded history."
Our history is written by Western scholars, in great numbers hostile to the culture that supports them, more sympathetic to other cultures, in fact or imagination. I am inclined to accept C.G. Jung's conclusion, after first hand study, that there is nothing of psychological or spiritual value in the East not also present in the Western tradition, though usually ignored by most people. I suspect that many among us turn to the Far East because they hunger for what was discarded by the Enlightenment as old fashioned mysticism, superstition. Some are turning East, but not so far, to the Eastern Orthodox Church, where more of its mystical tradition is immediately visible. In the West, many of us, dazzled by modern science, make religion a mere exercise in intellectual gamesmanship. Most cultures have a high noon, when they are at their best. I don't doubt that Islam had its. However this whole question is not moot, for the folks at Al Quaeda are precisely trying to restore the Caliphate, hungering for its moment of economic dominance and intellectual respect. They are willing to put the world through a dark age of human making to get there. My personal dark night of the soul is sufficient for me. Choppy At 10:45 AM 1/3/03 -0600, John wrote: >I see that I mistyped what I meant to say. What I meant to say was that at >a certain point in history, around 1000AD to 1300AD, Muslim civilization >was the most advanced culture in the known world at that time, not that >Muslim culture was the most advanced ever. Note however that our history >is the history recorded by Western scholars. If I had to choose, I would >say Hindu culture was the best example of civilization in recorded >history, namely for producing and practicing an effective subjective >science, but that's only my opinion.
