Talk Islam

Latest Updates: science and religion RSS

• 

  johnpi 10:50 am on December 4, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: King Abdullah University, Muslim science (3), religion and science (3), science (70), science and religion, secularism (38), war on science (2), Western science (3)

  Al Qaeda on Arabian Peninsula’s mufti tees off on new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. (More on the opening of the university here)

  In early November, [Ibrahim Suleiman al] Rubaish questioned Saudi King Abdullah’s decision to allow men and women to jointly attend the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. According to a translation of Rubaish’s statement prepared by the SITE Intelligence group, Rubaish blasted the decision as a violation of sharia law and said that King Abdullah was moving his country towards “secularism.”

  “If [King Abdullah] is not able to distinguish between good and evil and what is good and harmful, then how can he be put as the ruler over millions of people?,” Rubaish asked. “I call upon every Muslim to (distance themselves) from this agent apostate government, that has clearly demonstrated that it prefers infidelity to faith, and that all it wants from Islam is the parts that do not affect its secularist method.”

  I suspect the original motivation for creating the university had something to do with feelings of frustration and humiliation about this:

  …despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.

  I doubt a scientific research institution under an extremist regime would be able to do much to address the problem.

   

  Reply Click here to cancel reply.

  Name (required)

  Email (required)

  Web Site

   
• 

  johnpi 1:13 pm on October 4, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: basic education (2), education (70), evolution (28), gender segregation (16), islamic science (4), Muslim education (7), Orthodox Islam (3), orthodoxy (8), saudi arabia (135), science (70), science and religion

  Saudi cleric who denounced new mixed-gender university and who said evolution is an “alien ideology,” resigns.

  A top Saudi cleric resigned from the board of the Council of Senior Clerics Sunday in the wake of controversy over his statements opposing gender mixing at the first co-ed university in the Kingdom.

  Sheikh Saad bin Nasser al-Shethri’s resignation from the senior ulema came just days after he appeared on the Qatar-based al-Majd satellite channel and lashed out at the newly-opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University for offering co-education.

  Shithri was one of several clerics who objected to the mixed gender university, which is outside the purview of the conservative cleric-dominated education ministry.
  ….

  The senior cleric said religious scholars should vet the curriculum to prevent alien ideologies such as “evolution” and set up a committee to ensure it does not violate sharia, or Islamic law.

  “We are looking at some of the sciences that have included some irregular and alien ideologies, like evolution and such other ideologies,” the daily al-Watan newspaper quoted Shithri as saying last week in response to a viewer’s question.

  Two comments from TI contributors apply:

  Shams: “Heresy against orthodoxy in science is how advances are made.”

  Razib: “i think there’s a reason that the IQs of fundamentalists in the USA is so much lower than moderate, and especially liberal, religionists. the system is rigged so that any deviation from “orthodoxy” means the whole system collapses and one sees nihilism as the only valid alternative.”

   
• 

  johnpi 8:58 am on September 25, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: creationism (25), creationists (3), evolution (28), Muslim science (3), religion and science (3), science (70), science and religion, Western science (3)

  Aziz Huq at altMuslim recently wrote, “…many American Muslims share the Republican party’s social views.” Some conservatives in the Muslim community share a perception with Republicans that indicts science for ‘imposing’ secular teachings on religious peoples.

  Here’s one expression of those views, that’s been crafted into a law in Oklahoma:

  The Oklahoma House of Representatives Education Committee has just approved House Bill 2211.

  The bill requires public schools to guarantee students the right to express their religious viewpoints in a public forum, in class, in homework and in other ways without being penalized. If a student’s religious beliefs were in conflict with scientific theory, and the student chose to express those beliefs rather than explain the theory in response to an exam question, the student’s incorrect response would be deemed satisfactory, according to this bill.

  The school would be required to reward the student with a good grade, or be considered in violation of the law. Even simple, factual information such as the age of the earth (4.65 billion years) would be subject to the student’s belief, and if the student answered 6,000 years based on his or her religious belief, the school would have to credit it as correct. Science education becomes absurd under such a situation.

  We don’t need your stinkin’ science anyway.

  And consider this from a kid’s perspective: Why bother studying for the test when you can just feign religion and get a good grade anyway?

   
• 

  razib, murtad fitri 5:26 pm on November 19, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: science and religion

  i had a friend of mine who used to be a creationist, but is now a christian who believes in evolution, ask me if i could honestly say that one could believe in god and evolution simultaneously. i’m a convinced atheist, but, i am not an atheist because of evolution, nor do i think evolution falsifies christianity. most of the world’s christians in fact accept both.

  my friend is from a fundamentalist background, and now that he rejects literalism he is freaking out about god, etc. it just shows the bankrupt nature of christian fundamentalism that accepting science, truth, reality, makes them question their religion. i think there’s a reason that the IQs of fundamentalists in the USA is so much lower than moderate, and especially liberal, religionists. the system is rigged so that any deviation from “orthodoxy” means the whole system collapses and one sees nihilism as the only valid alternative.

  i think this is a cautionary tale for western muslims.

   
• 

  razib, murtad fitri 9:51 pm on September 22, 2008 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: science and religion

  in the comments thabet says:

  But I still think creationism is strong amongst technically literate religious believers. One of the biggest (non-Muslim) creationist organisations in the UK is headed by a professor of thermodynamics. Lots of Muslim creationists are doctors, etc. In fact, my own prof of thermofluids was a soft-creationist and a church going Christian. (Bloody engineers again!)

  the “engineer-creationist” is kind of a running joke among evolutionary circles. i do want to note that there is a difference between *creationist scientists* and *intelligent design* proponents. the former tend to be non-biological scientists and scientific professionals (e.g., doctors and engineers) who use their credentials to burnish their authority when speaking to the choir. the attempt at “science” here is a giggle-inducing sham (this is why i made fun of adam deen for being stupid; he duplicated the arguments in the dossiers of these dishonest or foolish individuals). OTOH, “intelligent design theorists” tend to have backgrounds in philosophy and other meta-fields. they’re argumentation is often slippery and obscure to the point of not-even-wrong. it is notable that the founder of modern ID, phillip e. johnson, is a trained lawyer.

  also, i will add that though most professional creationists in the united states are engineers, physical scientists and doctors, most engineers, physical scientists and doctors are not creationists.