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.

This post: "One wonders how far claims that contempo…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

Traditionalist: This groups views the origins of ‘modern science’ as starting with the Reformation, which led onto the Enlightenment, when nature became desacrilised and an object of mere utility to be exploited. Whilst there have been many advances, this view of nature has led to waste, greed and destruction of the environment. Traditionalists have a well-defined ontology on which their entire philosophy rests (which differentiates them from other categories), and regard other approaches as superficial or limited in their scope, lacking the holistic approach they advocate. Critics deem they promote elitism and mysticism, without offering any real solutions to alleviate problems amongst Muslims. The leading exponent of this view is Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

Transformationist: Although useful, ’secular’ knowledges, including the physical sciences, must undergo an espitemological correction to be of any benefit to Muslims, i.e. they must be ‘Islamized’. Put simply, an ethical limit is placed on what can and can’t be researched. However, the basic division of knowledge is still similar to ’secular’ disciplines. Traditionalists and Relativists view Islamization as superficial as well as glossing over the hard sciences. The most well-known advocate of this view was Ismail Raji al-Faruqi, although Syed Muhammad Naqui al-Attas was the first to coin the term ‘Islamization’.

Relativist: Each culture should develop a science based on their cultural values, limitations and needs (i.e. you have Islamic science, Western science, Chinese science, and so on). Science is only good insofar as it serves the community or humanity, so research should be conducted on pressing problems (e.g. research into agricultural techniques). They are the smallest of the major groupings, because their critiques (not criticisms) of ‘modern science’ rely on the social sciences, something largely ignored or marginalised by many Muslims. Anyone familiar with the Science wars would recognise them as being advocates who view science as ’social knowledge’, and  driven by other concerns like profit and empire. One of the most well-known (English-language) proponents is Ziauddin Sardar (though I think he is, or has become, a ’softer’ advocate of this approach).

Assimilationist: There is no such thing as ‘Western’ or ‘Islamic’ science. Only good and bad science. People who promote Islamic science and Bucaillism are doing their fellow believers a big disservice by inhibiting the true aims of science: unfettered inquiry into the truth. Some suggest science should be promoted to enable societies to alleviate suffering. Other advocates of this assimilationist approach suggest that mere pragmatism is not good enough; the culture of science must be absorbed by Muslims too. In general, they have a linear view of the history of science. Pervez Hoodbhoy is one of the leading voices from this category.

Bucaillian: Following Dr. Maurice Baucille, this group tries to marry-up scientific findings with verses from the Qur’an or Prophetic narratives. In doing so, they hope science will prove their religious beliefs. Bucaillism is popular amongst Muslims with a ’secular’ education and forms one of the major strains of contemporary Muslim apologetics.

This post: "Muslims and science" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

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

This post: "Contradictory? Centuries ago the greates…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

This post: "This is your brain on God, new studies i…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

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.

This post: "In this post I accuse Den Beste of eithe…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

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.

This post: "Al Qaeda on Arabian Peninsula’s mufti t…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

This post: "Memetic jihad offensive. Wired takes on …" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

Clash Of The Fundamentalists

This post: "Clash Of The Fundamentalists ;-)…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

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.”

This post: "Saudi cleric who denounced new mixed-gen…" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/

This post: "Perhaps black holes are the universe’s …" was originally posted at Talk Islam - a crescent waxing eloquent. The RSS feed may not be used at other sites without permission. You can subscribe to this RSS feed for Talk Islam at http://talkislam.info/feed/