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Science In Islamic Countries

biohack sends us to Physics Today for a thought-provoking article on the status of and prospects for science in Islamic countries. The author, a Pakistani physicist, posits that 'Internal causes led to the decline of Islam's scientific greatness long before the era of mercantile imperialism. To contribute once again, Muslims must be introspective and ask what went wrong.' The author makes a few strong conclusions, many of which are relevant to the general debate between science and religion. From the article: "Science finds every soil barren in which miracles are taken literally and seriously and revelation is considered to provide authentic knowledge of the physical world. If the scientific method is trashed, no amount of resources or loud declarations of intent to develop science can compensate. In those circumstances, scientific research becomes, at best, a kind of cataloging or 'butterfly-collecting' activity. It cannot be a creative process of genuine inquiry in which bold hypotheses are made and checked."

16 of 1,289 comments (clear)

  1. I am Muhaaaaamaaaaddd! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I am made of everyTHIIING!!!!!!!

  2. Islam is evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The 'prophet' of Islam was a mass murderer, multiple rapist, bigamist with 15 wives, and a PAEDOPHILE, who 'married' a NINE YEAR OLD GIRL when he was FIFTY FOUR. And he CHOSE her to be his 'bride' when she was only SIX.
    www.prophetofdoom.net

    Now tell me 'Islam is a religion of peace'.
    And ask yourself why muslims have, for 1400 years, happily recorded the heinous crimes of their 'prophet', but strangely enough, they don't want their new hosts to know anything about them...
    Taqiyya, anyone?

  3. Tomorrow's headline... by rhombic · · Score: 0, Troll

    "Pakistani physicist's head found 200 yards from body. 'Must have had an accident' says neighbors"

    --
    1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
  4. No surprise by JoshJ · · Score: 0, Troll

    Of course Islam has trouble with science. It's no different than any other religion. Once you start with the preconception that "X is automatically right (because it's in a specific book)" you've rejected the scientific method utterly.

    It's the exact same thing that's going on in America. The Jesus freaks utterly reject anything that might come into conflict with their preconception of GOD MADE THE EARTH IN SEVEN DAYS AND IF YOU SAY OTHERWISE YOU'RE GOING TO BURN IN HELL FOREVER. The "moderates" may be able to advance scientific despite their unscientific premises, but that only happens when the science is not in conflict with their religion, or when they ignore that conflict.

    1. Re:No surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      "God is bigger and more fantastic than anyone can comprehend."

      God is a fairy tale.

      Seems like I comprehend it just fine, you on the other hand seem to have some difficulty separating fact from fiction.

      And it's not science that tells you there's no god, it's people who understand science. You see, once you understand the science, then the lies of religion seem obvious and primitive.

      And just so you know, the need for religion is most definitely a primitive stress reaction. How does it feel to know your belief in god stems from your failure to evolve?

      Seems kind of pathetic when you realize what it's really all about, people running around buying in to stories because they failed to advance intellectually.

  5. Not To Worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The NeoCons and their fools, the Evangelical Sheeple, will hold our science back enough that the rest of the world can catch us. it must be another one of nature's beautiful control mechanisms - the self-stupidifying human. go flat earth!

  6. Re:The USA by HebrewToYou · · Score: 0, Troll

    What a troll. At least have the balls to not post as AC.

    --
    I'm not popular enough to be different.

    Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

  7. Only in a secular society by huckamania · · Score: 0, Troll

    In the Islamic world, the answer to all questions that begin with 'Why' is "Because it is the will of Allah". Apples do not fall to the ground because of gravity, they fall because "it is the will of Allah".

    The only time that something is not because of "the will of Allah" is when it is the fault of "the Great Satan".

  8. Re:I was told this in College: by beckerist · · Score: 0, Troll

    No need to be an asshat, I stated a fact. I backed it up with 2 articles. In fact, your statement was completely unrelated and irrelevant... So far, you've posted 6 times on the same article without any sources or real material. Come back when you have something interesting or useful to say.

    --beckerist

  9. Re:Why Islamic countries are not progressing by goldspider · · Score: 1, Troll

    What are you, some kind of racist? We ALL know that the apparent lack of progress in the Middle East is caused by Zionism. The Jews (and by proxy the United States) are responsible for a thousand years of Arab non-progress.

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
  10. There is no discussion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    God does not exist. Science proves it. Practicing religion is bad judgment. Any mixing of science and religion is bad judgment. I am embarrassed to participate in (most) societies because so many humans are religious. They must be delusional for the truth is obvious. Must they believe in a higher power for some comfort? It's okay, though. We are evolving at quite a fast rate. Religion will be gone in less than three thousand years.

  11. Re:"Here's your problem" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I'm sorry, but you're an idiot.

    Muhammad was originally a caravan manager who married his first wife (who was his boss and his senior) when he was an adult, and was polytheistic but mystical (i.e. he sought personal/emotional relations with the gods). One day while meditating in a cave, the Muslims believe that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him on multiple occasions and told him "recite! recite!," and he began to recite and know the Qur'an (which he didn't know before). It came to him in multiple stages, and not in chronological order. To the Muslims, the Jewish and Christian prophets that preceded him were also messengers of God, but their messages have been corrupted by humanity. Muhammad is, to the Muslims, the Seal of the Prophets (i.e. the last one to be sent), and the Qur'an is the set of "corrections" to the preceding faiths, and the last message from God. The plight from Mecca to Medina in 610 was brought about by powerful polytheistic Meccans who feared the change in the status quo if Islam were to take root. The Meccans continued to harass Muhammad and his followers in Medina until 630, when, for political reasons, Muhammad and his followers took over Mecca and christened the Ka'aba in Mecca as a monotheistic shrine to Allah (which was originally built by Abraham and his sons, but taken over by the Arab tribes that controlled Mecca). Among other things, the Qur'an explicitly states that the People of the Book (i.e. Christians and Jews) have part of the picture and respect the right prophets, but the picture isn't complete. It also states not to proselytize by force. Muslims believe in the 10 commandments, and are forbidden from lying. The Islamic terrorists we see today are extremely radical in their beliefs and selectively believe in particular suras in the Qur'an and take the texts of some Hadiths (another collection of religious texts in Islam which among other things discuss how Muslims should live their lives, but are preempted by the Qur'an) with too much enthusiasm.

  12. Re:"Here's your problem" by ShaneThePain · · Score: -1, Troll

    Fucking Muslim. I burn the Koran.

    --
    Fascism is the greatest political ideology ever conceived. Sorry.
  13. Re:"Here's your problem" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    you follow a liars religion and that makes you a liar. down with allah, down with muhammad. damn all muslims.
     
    the world suffers because you're all lunitics.
     
    start a real revolution today: boycott all muslim owned businesses.

  14. Re:interesting by E++99 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Thank God we're just talking about a bunch of ignorant dumbfuck ragheads here. I mean, could you imagine how scary this would be if anything you said were applicable in our own country? Ouch! I just got an acid burn from some sarcasm that splashed on my hand.

    I hear you brother! I assume you're talking about the mindless drones who refuse to believe anything that they don't hear straight from the mouth of Richard Dawkins, right?
  15. ISLAM IS THE CANCER!! NUKES ARE THE ANSWER!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Muhammad's army of madmen rode out of the deserts of Arabia. They
    raped/conquered and enslaved the minds of all the people in the area and
    to
    this day more than 1.2 billion people have been infected with the mental
    disease we know as Islam.
    I urge my fellow Americans to boycott all Muslim businesses and write your
    congressmen to stop the billions of dollars in foreign aid to Muslim
    countries, stop all future Muslim immigration, and BAN ISLAM. Now before
    you
    start ignorantly screaming "freedom of religion", Islam is
    unconstitutional,
    and let me explain why. Islam is a supremacist political party disguised
    as
    a religion, which discriminates against non-Muslims, women and
    homosexuals.
    The main goal of this totalitarian system is worldwide domination under
    Islamic law; and Islamic law is a real fun time: Muslim countries are
    constantly hanging women for adultery or "honor" and executing homosexuals
    just for being gay, and murdering Jews just for being Jewish. Women can't
    vote or equally testify in court and millions of Middle-Eastern Muslim
    women
    get their clitoris cut off by the age of 14. Islam is clearly
    unconstitutional, and if we can't ban it, then we need to change our
    constitution. The constitution should not be a suicide pact. Don't buy
    that
    bullshit that liberals try to sell, saying that Islam is in any way
    peaceful. People who blow themselves up and mutilate their daughters
    vaginas
    are obviously suffering from a mental disease. Islam calls for the
    subjugation or death of non-believers. Not just Christians and Jews, but
    all
    non-Muslims are at danger due to this plague on humanity. Christian
    schoolgirls get bombed/decapitated in Indonesia, Christian nuns get
    stabbed
    and churches burned in Egypt, Buddhists get their heads cut off in
    southern
    Thailand, Hindus beaten to death in Kashmir, black Christians castrated
    and
    put into slavery in Sudan... the list goes on forever.
    Muhammad means The Praised One in Arabic. The Praised One was under the
    control of demons for 23 years of his life. Although nobody knows his real
    name, he is called the Rasool or Prophet. He is also referred to as
    al-insan
    al-kamil, meaning the perfect man. According to the muslims, their idea of
    a
    perfect man was one who raped little girls and decapitated Jews.
    According to the demon worshippers, "Allah" is the one true God. Now
    Allah is pretty much Satan, but Muslims have been convinced that he is
    God.
    The pedophile and mass murderer known as Muhammad (may pig shit cover him)
    was a completely delusional psychopath, and Allah was his alter-ego who
    revealed the Koran to him in a series of revelations. So when Muhammed
    heard
    voices in his head, it was the word of God. And the way they eventually
    wrote it down is said to be the literal words of God. Changing a comma
    would
    be blasphemy. Here are some examples of what Muslims consider the actual
    words of God:
    * Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion
    shall reign supreme." (8:39)
    * "God revealed His will to the angels, saying: 'I shall be with
    you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of
    the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their
    fingers!' " (8:12)
    * "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you
    find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for
    them.
    If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to
    go
    their way. God is forgiving and merciful." (9:5)
    * "Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and
    deal
    rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home a