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  johnpi 1:56 pm on March 2, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: climate change (9), culture (72), science, Western culture

  One wonders how far claims that contemporary Western culture is compatible with science can be taken:

  Cyber-bullying rises as climate data are questioned.

  The e-mails come thick and fast every time NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt appears in the press.

  Rude and crass e-mails. E-mails calling him a fraud, a cheat, a scumbag and much worse.

  To Schmidt and other researchers purging their inboxes daily of such correspondence, the barrage is simply part of the job of being a climate scientist. But others see the messages as threats and intimidation – cyber-bullying meant to shut down debate and cow scientists into limiting their participation in the public discourse.
  ….

  Trenberth says that is the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails: Facts don’t carry more weight in the public debate. The nature of public discourse – be it climate change or health care – has changed; information that does not fit one’s worldview is now discounted or rejected.

   

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  thabet 2:07 am on February 20, 2010 | 8 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Islam (243), knowledge, muslims (347), science

  Seeing the post below by Arif on Pervez Hoodbhoy, reminded me of this rough-and-ready attempt I made to categorise Muslim approaches to ’science’ (below the fold).

  (More …)

   
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  arif 8:01 pm on February 19, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: education (70), Islam (243), mullahs (2), Pakistan (569), pervez hoodbhoy (2), science

  Contradictory?

  Centuries ago the greatest poets of Persia, like Hafiz and Rumi, stripped away the mullahs’ religious pretensions and exposed their stupidity. Today, however, those same mullahs have taken control of the Iranian republic. The answer lies just as much in the domain of world politics as in theology. Khomeini developed the doctrine known as “guardianship of the clergy,” which gives the mullahs much wider powers than they generally exercised in the past.

  —

  Ayatollah Khomeini was quite content to keep science and Islam separate—unlike Pakistan’s leaders who have made numerous absurd attempts to marry the two. Khomeini once remarked that there is no such thing as Islamic mathematics. Nor did he take a position against Darwinism. In fact, Iran is one of the rare Muslim countries where the theory of evolution is taught.

  Hoodbhoy hardly provides any better answers.

  http://www.meforum.org/2593/pervez-amirali-hoodbhoy-islam-science

   
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  willow 5:38 pm on February 16, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: religion (365), science

  This is your brain on God, new studies in ‘neurotheology’ claim. The stuff about the measurable ability of prayer to heal a sick body is fascinating.

   
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  Shams al-Nahar 7:38 am on December 10, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Palin (10), science, WECs (27)

  In this post I accuse Den Beste of either commiting intellectual seppuku or of exhibiting such raw contempt for his low information WEC base that it takes my breath away. He reposes in the perfect confidence that not a single one of his Hotair readers understands what teleology means.
  Here is the same phony pithed populism exhibited by a FOX “news”caster.
  And by Sarah Palin who sneers at “elites” while larding her “book” with phony Plato and Aristotle quotes in a craven attempt to appear intelligent and well-read.
  The simple truth is that soi-disant conservatives reject science, materialism, and empirical data in favor of clinging to a status of outdated memes, anti-scientific teleological beliefs based on religious doctrine, and magical thinking.…..the ideological Party of Teleology.

  That’s the world view of engineers and scientists — and businessmen, for that matter. It’s the world view of people who understand and use mathematics, and statistics. It is a place where cause leads to effect. It’s the place that game theory studies.

  Sowwy, SDB but only 6% of scientists are republicans– only the “businessmen” are “conservatives”…and we certainly know that is in simple selfinterest and not through any attachment to principled “materialism.”
  Either reform the core memes of conservatism, or give up on the college-educated vote like the GOP has been forced to give up on the black vote.

   
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  johnpi 10:50 am on December 4, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: King Abdullah University, Muslim science (3), religion and science (3), science, science and religion (5), 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.

   
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  Shams al-Nahar 7:02 am on October 21, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: science, talibangelicals (13), vaccination, war on science (2)

  Memetic jihad offensive.
  Wired takes on the freeriders and autism conspiracy theorists.
  An Epidemic of Fear
  The Misinformants
  Three War on Science Myths

   
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  thabet 12:45 pm on October 12, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: atheism (46), bill o'reilly (2), christianity (73), faith (44), religion (365), richard dawkins (12), science

  Clash Of The Fundamentalists

   
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  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, science and religion (5)

  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.”

   
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  aziz 9:59 am on October 3, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: astronomy (11), cosmology, science, The Universe

  Perhaps black holes are the universe’s tumors?

   
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  thabet 6:37 am on October 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: biology (4), education (70), evolution (28), Islam (243), muslims (347), religion (365), science

  Hampshire College held (and is still holding, I suppose) a conference on Darwin and evolution in the Muslim world.

  A look at the programme shows Pervez Hoodbhoy was at the conference too. Hoodbhoy is an outspoken critic of ‘Islamic science’ (he teaches in Islamabad) and especially attempts to work in proofs (not even evidences!) into the Qur’an and hadith. One or two of the other names ring a bell too. Hopefully though, it was/will be productive and not just a sledgehammer against ‘religion’.

  (Via Irtiqa.)

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 2:32 am on September 26, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: science

  just an fyi, i did a bloggingheads with john hawks on fossils & evolution. since several readers have emailed me that they appreciated finding my scienceblog via talk islam, i’m pretty sure a subset of readers might be interested….

   
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  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, science and religion (5), 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?

   
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  thabet 7:07 am on September 12, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: biology (4), creationism (25), education (70), evolution (28), Islam (243), religion (365), science

  Sticking with science and religion, and the man behind the Irtiqa blog, Salman Hameed, has a paper entitled “Bracing for Islamic creationism” (pdf). It provides a good summary of views about evolution amongst Muslims around the world.

   
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  thabet 6:47 am on September 12, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: international relations (189), Muslim World (13), Obama (249), science, technology (17), united states (577)

  This is a good, and commendable, move from the Obama administration:

  The administration of US President Barack Obama is ramping up plans to develop scientific and technological partnerships with Muslim-majority countries.

  The move follows a June speech by Obama at Cairo University in Egypt, when he promised to appoint regional science envoys, launch a fund to support technological development and open centres of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and southeast Asia. So far, the science-envoy plan is closest to getting off the ground, say White House officials, who see it as part of a broader drive to improve relations with the Islamic world.

  “Polling consistently shows that science and technology is an area where the United States is widely respected for its leadership,” says a top administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This is a key part of the comprehensive partnerships we are pursuing with Muslim-majority communities.” The effort is being led by the National Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

  I found the above via @muslimvoices, who disagreed with Salman Hameed (author of Irtiqa, a blog about science and religion) on Hameed’s view that the state of ‘Islam and science’ was ‘dismal’ by pointing to Iran’s successes. However, Iran (and possibly Turkey) is something of an anomaly amongst Muslim-majority countries; most Muslim countries rank poorly when we consider science citation indices.

  Hameed also raises a good point with respect to the science outreach programme: it should not confuse technological developments for science (as people often do).

   
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  thabet 7:43 am on September 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: education (70), history (133), religion (365), schools (20), science, united kingdom (732)

  An organisation has a campaign to provide schools with educational packs which aim to highlight scientific legacy of Muslim civilisation:

  An educational foundation has announced plans to distribute free books to UK schools to highlight the scientific and cultural legacy of Muslim civilisation. 1001 Inventions is the brainchild of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) – a network of academics dedicated to debunking the myth of the so-called `Dark Ages of Civilisation`.

  Last month, atheism activist Richard Dawkins announced plans to distribute free DVDs to UK schools. Whilst FSTC does not consider it`s 1001 Inventions campaign a direct challenge to Dawkins, it does hope to encourage debate about the relationship between science, faith and culture.

  FSTC has campaigned for school curriculums to acknowledge the scientific achievements of Muslim civilization for more than a decade. While the Dawkins campaign, supported by the British Humanist Association, positions science and religion as opposing forces, the 1001 Inventions project reminds us that for 1000 years the religious and the scientific were comfortable bedfellows and led to unprecedented openness to new ideas and social change.

  The Richard Dawkins Foundation launched its campaign last month.

  The FSTC also has an exhibition at the British Science Festival (5th-10th September).

   
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  thabet 12:49 am on August 12, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: creationism (25), education (70), evolution (28), science, united states (577)

  Course requirements for an undergraduate course at a theological seminary:

  You have three things to do: (1) take the final exam (worth 40% of your grade); (2) write a 3,000-word essay on the theological significance of intelligent design (worth 40% of your grade); (3) provide at least 10 posts defending ID that you’ve made on “hostile” websites, the posts totalling 2,000 words, along with the URLs (i.e., web links) to each post (worth 20% of your grade).

  To be fair it is more difficult to get a master’s degree: you need to do a 3,000 word blog comment on one of these “hostile” websites.

  (Via @Barthsnotes.)

   
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  thabet 1:20 am on August 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: belgium (4), biology (4), catholics (4), creationism (25), education (70), faith (44), muslims (347), religion (365), science

  Creationism amongst higher education students in Brussels:

  Almost a quarter (23.5%) of students in secondary, higher and university education in Brussels believes that man is God’s creation.

  The number of creationists is strikingly higher by young Muslims. Among them, 82.8% opted for this answer in a multiple-choice question. Among Catholic youth, 20% thought, ‘evolution was not completely convincing.”

  This according to a study by a research at ULB from several years ago.

   
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  johnpi 5:32 am on August 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: education (70), Muslim education (7), Muslim science (3), science, Western education (2), Western science (3)

  Nigerian Catholic church releases statement on Islamist sect, condemns “any religious movement that would subvert the progress that has been made in education and technology in Nigeria.”

  “We, therefore, call on the leaders of the Boko Haram movement (translated as Western education is sin), currently causing hardship for innocent ordinary citizens in the northern parts of the country, to adopt a creative approach to their religious practice in order to give honour and glory to Almighty God.”

  The church said that the underlying pillars of any religion include the principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

  “Modern education and modern civilizations do not preclude ardent religious devotion. In fact, it should be underlined that Islam, as a religious practice, from places like Al-Azhar, carried the light of learning through so many centuries and paved the way for Europe’s renaissance and enlightenment.”

  Muslim communities have contributed to the development of the order of algebra, magnetic compass and tools for navigation, the mastery of pens and printing, mastery of the knowledge of diseases and healing technologies, timeless poetry and cherished music, and calligraphy, the church stated.

  “We therefore condemn any religious movement that would subvert the progress that has been made in education and technology in Nigeria and at the same time thwart law and order. We condemn a descent to religious fanaticism that would destroy our national peace and stability.”

   
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  aziz 9:33 am on July 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Galileo, religion (365), science

  An awesome, awesome discussion about Galileo, science, religion, the Church, and cosmology.

   
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  thabet 2:20 am on June 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: historiography (14), history (133), language (95), religion (365), science

  The messy history of ’science’ and ‘religion’ (and the never-ending problem of anachronisms).

   
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  thabet 8:30 am on June 16, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: environment (24), faith (44), language (95), nature (2), nature inc, science

  I caught Nature Inc. on the BBC during breakfast this morning, and the thing that struck me the most was the quasi-religious undertone of the scientists and engineers when they were talking about ‘nature’.

   
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  thabet 12:55 am on June 5, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: atheism (46), debate (11), faith (44), religion (365), science

  A little late on this, but here’s a review of a debate between Steven Jones and Nancy Rothwell, and Robert Winston and Denis Alexander.

   
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  thabet 10:58 pm on May 27, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: blogs (23), media (407), neal's yard remedies, pseudo-science, science

  There was much joy on Twitter when it was announced that Neal’s Yard Remedies, a chain of ‘herbal and homeopathy specialists’, was so viciously mauled in the comments by sceptical readers, that they refused to take part in their planned online Q&A session at the Graun’s Ethical Living blog.

   
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  thabet 3:59 am on May 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: evolution (28), media (407), science

  Worth bringing to the top for a short time: important find, but no ‘missing link’, and a lot of media hype.

   
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  thabet 2:39 pm on May 19, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: evolution (28), science

  The ‘missing link’?

  It will be interesting to see how this enters the creationist-evolution arguments (I hesitate to talk it a ‘debate’, because one side has little or no grasp of the subject matter…).

   
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  thabet 9:58 am on May 14, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: charles darwin (2), history (133), science, united kingdom (732)

  George Monbiot is right to say we should question corporate involvement in science, and the New Labour government’s approach to funding science, but he is dreaming up a past where ‘pursuit of knowledge’ was some kind of altruistic, noble, endeavour, free of the influence of politics, wealth, etc, when he writes about Charles Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle:

  Picture Charles Darwin trying to fill out his application form before embarking on the Beagle. “Explain how the research has the potential to impact on the nation’s health, wealth or culture. For example: fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the United Kingdom … What are the realistic time­scales for the benefits to be realised?” If Darwin had been dependent on a grant from a British research council, he would never have set sail.

  Which is just wrong:

  The main purpose of the [Second voyage of HMS Beagle which involved Charles Darwin] was a hydrographic survey of the coasts of the southern part of South America as a continuation of the work of previous surveys, producing charts for naval war or commerce and drawings of the hills as seen from the sea, with height measurements.

  Science requires money. And often a lot of money.

   
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  aziz 12:00 pm on May 5, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: creationism (25), education (70), science, texas (12)

  The curriculum in Texas now censors the age of the Universe.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 3:35 pm on April 29, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: psychology of religion, religion (365), science

  re: discussion below about the nature of religion, i recommend how religion looks to a cognitive scientist.

   
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  thabet 3:46 am on April 29, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: history of science, religion (365), science

  Uncontroversial article on 19th-century ‘clergymen-scientists’.