> Sunnis embraced al-Ghazali as the winner of the debate with the Hellenistic rationalists
Let's assume it is true and Sunnis followed Ghazali and stopped thinking, pondering and doing research work but what about Shias and other factions of it? Why did not they produce something amazing in science? One can't blame Ghazali for all the mess, especially when he was not followed by all Islamic sects. I will not blame Islam or Quran either. It is something else, probably some kind of excuse or laziness. I wanted to say that the "Hunger for Heaven" might have made them not to use brains but then I see non practising and liberal/modernist Muslims, they did not do anything remarkable either.
I guess it is a culture, some kind of viral disease like thought that propagated in entire Muslim world and it affected regardless of someone is practising Muslim or not. Being a Pakistani muslim I observe that people have no interest of asking questions, they never ask questions. They accept things as it is which is quite irritating. They just accept things as a "gift of God" and prefer to move on rather than finding out WHY is it around.
Not disputing you, just wanted to note that Shia Iran is doing far, far better than it's Sunni neighbors, which is even more impressive when you consider the kind of government they have and all those sanctions.
And while we Muslims undoubtedly carry the biggest blame for our demise- lets' not forget the west has real interest in keeping the status quo- a free thinking, rational government is fundamentally at odds with the fundamentalist dictators west has been supporting (e.g. in Saudi arabia) for past few centuries.
Let's assume it is true and Sunnis followed Ghazali and stopped thinking, pondering and doing research work but what about Shias and other factions of it? Why did not they produce something amazing in science? One can't blame Ghazali for all the mess, especially when he was not followed by all Islamic sects. I will not blame Islam or Quran either. It is something else, probably some kind of excuse or laziness. I wanted to say that the "Hunger for Heaven" might have made them not to use brains but then I see non practising and liberal/modernist Muslims, they did not do anything remarkable either.
I guess it is a culture, some kind of viral disease like thought that propagated in entire Muslim world and it affected regardless of someone is practising Muslim or not. Being a Pakistani muslim I observe that people have no interest of asking questions, they never ask questions. They accept things as it is which is quite irritating. They just accept things as a "gift of God" and prefer to move on rather than finding out WHY is it around.