Just added to my Pittsburgh Objectivism Society message board:
Morally Evaluating an Idea or a Philosophy
I think something important needs to be pointed out in terms of the Muslim uprising in the Middle East. As far as I can tell from my understanding of Islam the way Mohammed meant it to be, those seeking to kill us because we are infidels and mock Islam are the true followers of that religion. But one has to judge the philosophy – the teachings of Mohammed – apart from those who claim to practice it (completely or incompletely).
As Dr. Peikoff explained in “Fact and Value” one ought to get to the point where one is morally evaluating an idea – not the followers and not those claiming to be this that or the other – but morally evaluating the idea or system of ideas they are proposing to follow. In other words, using man’s life as the proper standard, one has to evaluate the set of ideas as they related to human life and whether or not following those ideas will lead to a life proper to a human being or one that will erase his life as a consequence. In other words, the value of the set of ideas is dependent on the facts of the ideas and not its followers.
In this regard, Islam is evil. It rejects man’s independent mind (blind obedience) and upholds Faith over reason as an ideal. It also says that a man ought to be in total submission to the interpreters of Islam, leaving the individual no moral grounds on which to morally judge the philosophy on its own merits. One is forbidden to think for oneself, least one suffer eternal damnation, and cannot take the ideas of Mohammed and compare them to man’s life as the standard in any manner whatsoever.
So, quite apart from the followers killing the infidel and waging every type of war and stratagem against the infidel and the apostate, a man’s mind is cut off from existence, which is itself evil and not subject to a better moral evaluation.
That many of them choose to follow the further edict that those who disagree with Islam ought to be killed just goes along with the idea that one cannot question Islam by any other standard. It is part and parcel to Islam to kill anyone who disagrees with it. They are ordered to do so by Mohammed, because questioning Islam brings a death penalty.
For those who say they do not choose to follow Islam that thoroughly, I suggest you get a better philosophy, because it is high past time when we in the West ought to go through any effort to differentiate those of you who are true Muslims from those of you who want it both ways. We will be judging you by the ideas you claim to accept. Choose wisely.
http://www.aynrand.or…
Fact and Value by Dr.Leonard Peikoff