greetings of peace I'm on my way to pick
up the next guest for this week's show
and you're probably wondering what a
nice we're thinking what a nice scenery
isn't it like where are you going Eddie
well I'm going to get this special guest
for this week's show
and you're he might be I don't know if
you can tell I'm actually limping also
not too long ago I'll having to in the
video description I talked about the
beautiful blessing of the the body being
able to heal itself I broke my toe at
that time and guess what that was about
six months ago broke my my toe and then
come to find out I also tore mine never
heard of this plantar plate but al
hamdulillah it healed and just a couple
weeks ago I broke the neighboring toe
what else can you do but say
alhamdulillah and have for hope
shall I'll get better we got exciting
show for you this week with my next
guest you'll learn about him when I go
get him when he comes on stage
this is the cool I'm back I found him I
got him dr. Brown not my that's not my
best friend who you guys have seen many
of times dr. Lawrence Brown but we'll
see maybe he's related somehow I don't
know we got Jonathan Brown here on the
Dean show and we're taking a nice little
walk
not a cornfield who resembles something
such like one huh dr. Jonathan Brown
hello how are you doing good
so what do you think about the scenery
very Midwestern it's this way you
know what comes to mind dr. Jonathan are
you by any way one of my best friends
your last name is brown have you heard
of dr. Lawrence Brown yeah I know him I
met him you met him but I'm probably not
related because my there's fake grounds
in there real Brown uh-huh Brown is a
Scottish clan but then a lot of families
when they came from Russia Eastern
Europe they changed their name to brown
just because it sounded really English
so most Browns are fake Browns I'm a
fake Brown my dad's dad changed his name
to brown before I came to get y'all walk
in and I'm you notice I'm kind of
limping and I had I had a talk with I
did a video yeah I trained uh Gracie
Brazilian jiu-jitsu and I broke one of
my toes have you ever heard what's
called a plantar plate most people have
in Oh
no no actually I've never heard this
most people don't know about the plantar
plate it's actually a ligament in in
underneath the foot so come to know you
know a toe takes about a broken bone
takes about what six six to eight weeks
to heal it heals and I did a video about
this talking about the you know the
blessing of the craters put in the body
being able to heal itself and what
happens is I end up thank god the bulb
gets healed but then I tore the plantar
plate right that takes about six months
and that heel thank God and just two
weeks ago guess what so the neighboring
toe I was training and I broke that one
too now so then that goes to my question
about hope you know somebody you know
you come off an injury a tragedy in life
and now the beautiful thing about this
way of life is the hope at the end you
know I get you in the right state of
mind and I was like a hundred uh you
know but somebody who goes to many of
these tragedies you see people jumping
out buildings because they don't have
hope and it's Lomb giving us hope are
you comments on this I mean yes I spend
a lot of my younger years very anxious
about lack of meaning in life maybe one
of the reasons you know you lack meaning
is you don't feel like you're I don't
feel like you're you're aiming at
anything and you know if you don't have
an objective so having an objective is
have an objective is extremely important
belief in God and the belief in doing
good deeds absolutely central to I think
the life that feels meaningful to you
beautiful here with dr. Jonathan Brown
have you had coffee tea we might go get
some some of that we're gonna be right
back with more of this interview with my
new friend dr. John
right back please subscribe to the DCO
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now
what guided you what struck you to
really think about this well many people
are just thinking about money
maybe fame being cool going to the
latest parties what triggered you to
think more serious and to start living
purpose that's interesting question I
mean I think that I guess it's it's
interesting to me that somebody would
not think about this but I guess you're
right I mean some people don't don't
think about this I think that it's
probably because they're I mean I think
if you distract yourself you if you
become so distracted by these more
superficial issues eventually you forget
that anything more significant exists
the distraction becomes a reality and
it's very hollow reality unfortunately
but I I think when I was younger
especially when I was and was a teenager
I just felt these existential issues
very very deeply I felt incredible
anxiety about you know my mortality I
needed to know that there was some some
something I could do there was some
reason for my existence it wasn't just
going to cease when I died and so I
thought about this so much when I was in
high school I mean I really just did it
it almost incapacitated me the anxiety
and it was very upsetting I was very
emotionally um I was really met me I
think was really messed up as a teenager
yeah I didn't affect my schoolwork I
didn't you know do anything stupid thank
God but I mean I was visiting I think I
was a miserable person I was very very
upset all the time I was very sad and I
felt that extremely strongly and so I
lived in California when I was in high
school and I I I used to just you know
go in wander we live near these hills
this National Park I'd go and wander in
the hills and I would just I would just
think about these things I try to find
some kind of connection to something
bigger than me I was raised Pisgah
pillion Christian but we didn't really
have religion in our house we went to
church every Sunday but
it was not it was more like you church
Sunday do that you come home and there's
nothing about the God and in the house
really and so I had I didn't didn't find
any investment any interest in that
background and so when I when I learned
when I went to college when I learned
about Islam then it really this struck
me as the kind of thing I was I had
always been searching for I always no
one had to be there and yeah I mean at
that age in my life Inc we know it's
funny when I think now if I were to you
know if I were to learn about Islam now
I don't know if what I mean ahead I
can't imagine what it would be like to
go like I say you're married you have
kids you have a job of a whole life and
then suddenly you you you take on this
whole other religion I think that would
be incredibly difficult when I did it I
was young I was idealistic I didn't have
any attachments and it gave me the
framing I was I'm very grateful that I
learned about Islam at that time and I
was able to make that choice at a time
it was easy please subscribe to the
Biggio follow us on our official
Facebook and Twitter pages in the links
below
please also help support the V show by
making a donation in the link below what
do you think is an academic year
professor yeah also it was at George
Georgetown outdoors at Georgetown
University you know it Oxford user in
Oxford University did they did a study I
believe it was in 2011 in the
anthropology department they had 57
researchers 40 different studies in 20
different countries and what they had
concluded from investigating this now
this is not a bias study where maybe a
Christian did it or Muslim these are
probably primarily it's a secular
University and they concluded that
belief is something innate in the human
being this is their study and atheism is
something acquired this belief is
something acquired now you as an
academic you do you see a lot of people
they get cast out from that inner circle
of the community of academics if they
argue the design argument but if this is
something that is is innate in the human
being is something that's natural why do
you think such movements people are
giving time to such movements as the New
Atheism so I think that in the in the
West in the modern West the a lot of
animosity towards religion is actually
morphed out of animosity towards
Catholicism and towards kind of
superstitious social practices so if you
look at the this whole life idea for
example the science and religion area
and clash is called the clash thesis in
history of science no actual historian
of science actually believes that
religion and society and science are
incompatible and it's just a silly idea
that that is only in the popular media
but what you see is it actually starts
especially this clash thesis really
starts as a attacks on the Catholicism
in the United States and so it's not
really against it it starts out as a
attack on certain kind of religion and
then it just kind of expands more and
more to become an attack on a religion
overall and it's based on this idea that
if you're religious then somehow you're
not you know you're not able to be
objective you're not able to be
intelligent not able to be reasonable
and you won't be able to discover
scientific truths or social scientific
truths and then a cup I think of about
two years ago there was a study at
Harvard about you know do scientists
tend to be atheists and I think that the
study found that they looked at
scientists at like Harvard and Yale or
something and found that you know they
tended to be atheist more than religious
people then but then when the another
study was done of two year later it
looked at scientists across the board
you know it
not just in these few universities I
found actually that they're just the
same as regular population so what
you're really talking about is not
necessarily whether someone who learns
about science or learns about
scholarship that that somehow pushes
them towards atheism but actually it's
just a specific community it's a kind of
a network of people it's almost a
culture within certain universities of
atheism and so it's really it's not
really something that is essentially a
result of people who somehow learn to
look at the world in a more accurate way
and that makes them think that there's
no God or something it's actually just
like you know if we decide oh we're same
color t-shirt and all our friends wear
that same color t-shirt we only let
people into our club who wear the same
color t-shirt it's really just like a
part of a badge and a certain or feature
of a certain subculture so that's when
you when you realize that and I mean I I
certainly realized that when I was in
graduate school that there was nothing a
lot of the the let's say the people who
talk about early Islamic history or the
nature of the Quran we just I don't know
if you were following this controversy
about the Birmingham Koran that they
discovered these pages of the Koran they
discovered in University of Birmingham
and you know they it was first it came
out this is from the time of the Prophet
lace Islam and then you know then
somebody came in since it comes from
before the prophet's time and it you
know if you looked at the way some of
these you know not all but some western
scholars were looking at it who just
would you see is that there they have a
faith commitment that the koran cannot
be intact that's that's the article of
faith for them and it doesn't matter
what outrageous rationale steps they
have to take to reach that conclusion
they will take those steps and what was
fascinating is you looked at their you
know one second they say the koran comes
much from much later than the time of
the prophet now they're saying it comes
from before the time of the prophet is
it you look at their accusation is that
religious people aren't objective that
they don't look at data they just have
these assumptions they build everything
on those assumptions those faith
assumptions
well you look up these people they're
doing is actually the same thing and
this is just as religious this is just
as faith-based inactivity as what
they're criticizing and so when you look
at a lot of these new atheists and there
are just obsession with criticizing
religion obsession with criticizing
Islam
Muslims especially is that they are
they're not they this is an article of
faith for them and they will twist
whatever data in the world they have to
twist to fit that and I think this is
important to tell people and understand
because they think that somehow if
you're scientific and you're objective
if you're religious you're not objective
no you know these groups are objective
people always have there are
pre-existing biases and then they'll
shape the world according to those the
this is amazing that we see this kind of
research and this is science I mean this
is where they did this research you had
also dr. Barnett one of the key
researchers in the anthropology
department at yeah Oxford who who said
that if you were to take a handful of
children this is his opinion and throw
them on an island that they would grow
up believing in God hmm and like even to
fail who like this hiya Ben Yaakov on
this famous story by in magic oh I think
I mean I'm just I think it's where even
badger 10th or 11th I think 10th century
I'm just a little rusty on this so ya
know we're listening to this and I'm
making mistakes then look it up and
correct it so he has the story of how
it's an existing story that you see
other people write about - but it's
called haya band Yaakov and hire the
living one the son of the awakened one
and his child who's born on this desert
island or Island and he basically the
author just describes the process that
this child goes through of using his
reason to kind of like Abraham and the
Quran Liz Lemon looking at the world
looking observing nature observing the
natural realities around them it he
comes to this using his reason
observation it comes to this belief in
one one God and kind of then there's
certain ethical consequences and ethical
principles that follow from that
consequentially and then he you know
finally meets someone comes someone
comes to island he finds out that
actually his belief is the same as these
other religions so I that's an old an
old idea and I think it's a correct idea
and I'm glad to know that it's it's now
being you know bolstered by these these
more social scientific surveys but
because I mean human beings and you know
this is what
summers that were taught which is that
you know you have you're born to you
already in pre time you already said to
God when God said on my night Lord you
already said yes you're my lord
we've already all said that you know in
our existences I hope you enjoyed this
week's show as much as I did thank you
for tuning in
come back next week where we're gonna go
ahead and do part 2 subscribe right now
if you haven't already and we'll see you
until next time peace be with you
something and don't forget as I asked
you to do already if you haven't
subscribed right now