- Damascus (Wikipedia)
Damascus (/dəˈmæskəs/ də-MASS-kəs, UK also /dəˈmɑːskəs/ də-MAH-skəs; Arabic: دِمَشق, romanized: Dimaşk, IPA: [diˈmaʃq]) is the capital of Syria, the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam. Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām (الشَّام) and dubbed, poetically, the “City of Jasmine” (مَدِيْنَةُ الْيَاسْمِينِ Madīnat al-Yāsmīn), Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.
There are metaphysical problems, which cannot be disposed of by declaring them meaningless. For, as I have repeatedly said, they are “beyond physics” indeed and demand an act of faith. We have to accept this fact to be honest. There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that “belief” must be discarded and replaced by “the scientific method.”
Max Born, Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1964)