A critical rationalist approach to religion

In an interview, conducted by Rabbi Edward Zerin in 1969, concerning the views of the Austrian philosopher, Karl Popper, on God, Popper had stated, among other things: “Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism – to admit that we don’t know and to search – is all right.” Chapter 3 focuses on this rich interview to argue that while agnosticism is an approach which some critical rationalists, like Popper, have chosen towards religion, it is possible to develop, within the framework of critical rationalism, an alternative approach, which is consonant with the sensibilities of a Muslim believer towards religion. In particular, the following point is highlighted in the chapter that the proposed approach to religion, and the framework of critical rationalism in general, provide the best theoretical approach for reform-minded Muslims who wish to produce viable syntheses of modernity and tradition acceptable to both conservative and progressive Muslims. In an interview, conducted by Rabbi Edward Zerin in 1969, concerning the views of the Austrian philosopher, Karl Popper, on God, Popper had stated, among other things. This chapter focuses on this rich interview to argue that while agnosticism is an approach which some critical rationalists, like Popper, have chosen towards religion, it is possible to develop an alternative approach. As a critical rationalist, the chapter suggests, as a conjecture, that almost all religions, and at the very least those that belong to the Abrahamic tradition, consist of two principal parts: an ontological-epistemological and a technological part. Criticisability is a broader criterion than falsifiability which Popper himself developed after he realised the limitations of the falsifiability criterion for assessing non-empirical. A critical rationalist who is also a believer in a religion, in this case Islam, like all fellow critical rationalists, also whole-heartedly subscribes to the wider form of optimism introduced by Popper as an integral part of critical rationalism.