Banter/Off-topic Thread & Community Stoning Platform

[Thomas Talus]

I can't remember the proper Arabic term off of the top of my head, but Islamic metaphysics began to take a view that reality is wholly predestined by God, destroyed and recreated anew every instant to progress time, so therefore what purpose is there in trying to dig into the nature of reality when it's already working as divinely ordained? This view became dominant around the time that the Arab and Persian mathematicians, natural philosophers, and astrologers began to recede in their output and quality of work and there's a likely correlation between the two. It gets brought up from time to time, academically, but this most simple of observations that would be trivial with respect to any other religious or social system just triggered the Islamophobia Alarm and now you're out of a teaching position (if adjunct) or are now a departmental pariah (if tenured) and the university press won't publish your monograph.

I think the term you're looking for in western philosophical terms is "occasionalism". I don't know the arabic rendition, but it was expounded by the Ash‘arite school of philosophers.

 

[Dispirited Helmet]

there are things i don't need on sale for cheap and they're TEMPTING me

How do you go from being the world's beacon of light in science, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, poetry, and then forever damned to be a backwater fundamentalist poop-chute. Did Harun Al-Rashid make a mistake?

Give it a few more years and we'll see how it happens in the US as an example

 

[RestlessRain]

 

[Abomination]

View attachment 79381

When that happens, I will take my own life. I don’t know how exactly, but the alternative is too horrifying to even contemplate.

 

[Helkar]

It would've been a far more interesting world to live in if Trump was even 10% of a person his opponents claim him to be.

 

[Laidho]

It would've been a far more interesting world to live in if Trump was even 10% of a person his opponents claim him to be.

Yeah, as is, he's the most flaccid dictator I've experienced. Where's the military takeover I was promised!!!

Come on, pick up your games, Trump! You can do better than all the SEA monkeys dictators! I know you have it in you!

 

[Hff201]

View attachment 79381

You guys are missing the funniest part of this article.



I'm going to fucking kill myself, buy my merch!

 

[Planetary Bombardment]

I'm going to fucking kill myself, buy my merch!

"Nice guys can't fuck."
"Real men heart single moms."

I would wonder aloud if she understood how these two things were related, but I know good and well that the answer is 'no.'

 

[Sky Shouter]

View attachment 79381

It would've been a far more interesting world to live in if Trump was even 10% of a person his opponents claim him to be.

The phrase I always use is "Biden is the President the media claimed Trump would be. We have unchecked inflation, conflict with Russia and the Middle East, rampant crime, and the government is putting people away without trial for years on end. The difference is, the media is trying to paint it as a good thing because it's not Trump who's doing it."

This election is so fucking delusional I'm honestly concerned we're heading down the road to dictatorship, regardless of who wins this one.

 

[Laidho]

Alex Jones has decided to become a vtuber. It seems like he's applying to Phase Connect.

 

[Nenélove]

Alex Jones has decided to become a vtuber. It seems like he's applying to Phase Connect.

I wanna see him as the next invader.

 

[Aquatic Novellite]

I wanna see him as the next invader.

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! MALE ON STREAM! RED ALERT! RED ALERT!

 

[Nenélove]

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! MALE ON STREAM! RED ALERT! RED ALERT!

What about Flaygod? He's already banged half of phase.

 

[Aquatic Novellite]

What about Flaygod?

Debatably male.

 

[GOD'S STRONGEST BUILDERBEAR]

you have 2k more posts than me so no shit

Skill issue

 

[Hff201]

What about Flaygod? He's already banged half of phase.

Nah, he only banged Rie (and at this point, who hasn't?).

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

Nah, he only banged Rie (and at this point, who hasn't?).

Nah, Rie pegged him.

 

[Dispirited Helmet]

Alex Jones has decided to become a vtuber. It seems like he's applying to Phase Connect.

The writing's been on the wall for a while, tbh

 

[VSoyBoy]

The writing's been on the wall for a while, tbh

Jesus Christ, that video is 8 years old already...

 

[PleaseCheckYourReceipts]

Spoiler: Autism

Serious scholarship out of Baghdad largely stopped a good century and change before the Mongols sacked the place, and given the propensity of the famous scholars' contemporaries to call them apostates, it is somewhat debatable inhowfar the era could even be considered "Islamic" rather than "Arabic."

The Mongol invasion also only covered a limited area, and had no impact on, for instance, Al Andalus, whose multicultural and intellectually advancing era had ended a bit after 1000 AD, to be replaced by strict conservatism (whose intolerance drove Jews and Christians alike up north).

Tellingly, when the Ottomans eliminated the Byzantine Empire and took Constantinople, the flood of Greek refugees reaching Italy dramatically influenced art, literature and natural philosophy. When the Mongols eliminated the Abbasids and took Baghdad, absolutely nothing changed in Arabia, Egypt or Iberia.

And given the propensity of the crusades era near east to engage in destructive behaviour not meaningfully different from modern ISIS (Al Aziz, one of Saladin's sons, tried to destroy the pyramids for being unislamic; he failed, but he gave it a try; the attempt is visible on Menkaure's pyramid to this day), there is an argument to be made that the Mongols merely beat the Arabs to the punch. Like shooting someone suicidal before he can jump.

How do you go from being the world's beacon of light in science, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, poetry, and then forever damned to be a backwater fundamentalist poop-chute. Did Harun Al-Rashid make a mistake?

I can't remember the proper Arabic term off of the top of my head, but Islamic metaphysics began to take a view that reality is wholly predestined by God, destroyed and recreated anew every instant to progress time, so therefore what purpose is there in trying to dig into the nature of reality when it's already working as divinely ordained? This view became dominant around the time that the Arab and Persian mathematicians, natural philosophers, and astrologers began to recede in their output and quality of work and there's a likely correlation between the two. It gets brought up from time to time, academically, but this most simple of observations that would be trivial with respect to any other religious or social system just triggered the Islamophobia Alarm and now you're out of a teaching position (if adjunct) or are now a departmental pariah (if tenured) and the university press won't publish your monograph.

Sadly, there's a far more technical answer: cousin marriage. Because the limitation is not 1 man, 1 woman and fairly heavily enforced, it completely destabilizes the marriage market instantly. The Caliphates were able to expand before that issue caught up. It's causes almost a 1 SD loss of average intelligence in a society over 100-150 years. There's been a couple of deeper studies on it, but I'd have to go track those down as it's been a while. Before the social media era, it wasn't exactly hard to find discussions of the issue. It's actually similar to the 120:100 Male:Female ratio in China from the 1 Child Policy. It's just consequential in a different way.

While you still have some really bright spots around (and there's a 100+ year lag time from the conquest to the issue catching up), the rapid drop in group intelligence brings everything down. It's an actual dark age taking over and a devolution of knowledge & understanding.