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Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights


Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — Principles of a Free Society

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Aayan Hirshi Ali and Her Free Thought

I listened to Aayan Hirshi Ali this morning as she accepted an award from the "Freedom From Religion Foundation". She wrote "Infidel", which I read several years ago. She has been a source of inspiration in her fortitude and resistance to religious zeal and her desire to seek rationality instead of religious belonging.

Her speech used "The Emperor With No Clothes" and she talked about how those that want to "belong" at all costs will suppress their questions and unify their opinions because they fear being an "outcast" or "outsider" to the "faith".

This is correct, as humans are prone to decieve themselves and others in their attempt to provide and protect their "community". It  becomes an all out "war" of sorts because one's very identity is caught by such thinking and being in the world. Aayan embraced the questions because she valued honestly above myth. Such questioning  is doubly threatened because it puts one's personal values in question, especially if financial and family investments have a stake in such interests.

Ms. Ali escaped Islam's grasp over her life by fleeing Somalia, becomeing educated in the Netherlands, and finding a "voice in America".

Is she duped by her "reason"? Is she sabatoging another's right to "believe"? What she suggests is that rationality is to be held as a guard against religious fundamentalism, and zeal. It protects from psychological abuse that hinders one from becoming and being in the world as a free moral agent.The individual is to be set free from such "communal understandings". Belonging should be about things that do not depend on irrationality, which leaders have power to enforce at the costs of another's rational conviction and/or commitment.

America is great because it allows for freedom of religion, but doesn't demand religion as a test for public service. Character, which is of uptmost importance in public office is not dependent on one's religious affliation. In fact, religious people, as well as the irreligious, justify what they do by "rational argument". There is no justification to defrauding or manipulating because of a 'higher law" or standard, whether that standard be a religious or secular standard.  America believes that all "belong", as citizens and it is the citizen's right to be treated as equal before the law. And it is called our Constitutional right.

Memory Is Fleeing...and Sometimes Fabricated

This morning while talking with a family member, I was amazed at their recollection of events in the past! I basically did not say anything, as what was meaningful for their point was important to affirm (for their sake). And the value to both of us was what had transpired since the remembered (or "dis-remembered") historical events.

After hanging up the phone, I told my husband what was said and he agreed that what was said was a figment of the imagination (embellishment of the facts) and an attempt to make one's "mistakes of the past" pale into oblivion. We all tend to do this unless we are held accoutable and/are self-reflective enough to recognize certain tendencies or weaknesses. And we all tend to do this is we have low self-esteem.

The recollection of events was not interesting to me because of some need to be "right", but a reflective and aware moment that this person's reality was skewed as it concerned what I had remembered...This is often the case and is why in our courts, the accused is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

But, this experience of memory has value in understanding anything about the past. And in ancient texts, which could or could not be remembering history, it has value. Scriptures have been evaluated upon the mythological and the historical. The facts don't matter if one is only interested in "theological" understanding. But, it is important if there is value in ancient texts that impacts our society today....

Christian faith has no foundation, but Christ. And Christ is not even recognized as a historical figure by all scholars. But the history of Christian faith is within the Jewish tradition, not an isolated "Roman cult". Blood does nothing to "cleanse from sin", except if one chooses to believe some mystical revelational message that has no historical value, other than making someone feel better about themselves.

This is the main reason why I think that reason has to be engaged for there to be development of the individual. And it is not in some mystical faith tradition. It is the development of reason which is separate from faith. And yet, reason cannot be separated from faith because we are finite beings, that have limitations of understanding, and contexts.

While our memory is fleeing before our eyes, we all need to remember what is important and of value. These are values of commitment to the ideals of justice, truth, and value, tempered by mercy, because we recognize the fragility of life and memory, itself.