islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
Islamic Science Rediscovered. Stereotyping Muslims, Myths and the Media Sunday, November 13, 2:00 p.m. Panel discussion with Dr. Reza Aslan, Wajahat Ali, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq, moderated by Angie Coiro
A good friend of mine was (not so) recently awarded a major honor by his university. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. Who says science and (Muslim) religion can’t mix?
Good article on the challenges facing Muslims and entry into scientific competitiveness in modernity. Technorati Tags: Islamic history
Of interest because it is being co-sponsored by a Muslim state (Kyrgyz Republic) and the Aga Khan Foundation, amongst others. Technorati Tags: Kyrgyz Republic, women
Muslims had it 500 years before the West! Woo hoo! Story here and here. So what? It should sadden us that the doors of communication have been closed or filtered for so long that this knowledge wasn’t available earlier. It’s more a reflection of the mindset we have of each other that a comment on how intelligent Muslims may have once been. (Although that is how the story is framed, which makes me sad that the stereotypes persist and keep us all stupid.) Technorati Tags: Islamic Architecture, Math
"He told of a time, more than a millennium ago, when Baghdad reigned as the intellectual center of the world, a history fossilized in the night sky. The names of the constellations are Greek and Roman, Dr. Tyson said, but two-thirds of the stars have Arabic names. The words “algebra” and “algorithm” are Arabic. But sometime around 1100, a dark age descended. Mathematics became seen as the work of the devil, as Dr. Tyson put it. “Revelation replaced investigation,” he said, and the intellectual foundation collapsed." Fascinating article in NYT about scientists trying to grapple with religion. IQRA!
Understanding God’s Creation. How can you do it with out science? I don’t understand. This is what got me thinking about the question. Just cool. Technorati Tags: Creation, Physics
Mentioned an op-ed in the NYT about evolution. This piece complements it nicely. Really makes you understand the size of a mote when we put ourselves in perspective. How can we not be awed? How can we not understand that God gave us signs so that we may know (5:97, 17:12, 49:13, 65:12)?
I was intrigued by this article in CNN on the Kansas Board of Education. It seems that the faulty logic that ID people are trying to put forward actually puts them at a disadvantage in terms of curriculum design. If their wording goes through, it should be fine to suggest that a grand wizard (not the KKK kind, but the Gandalf kind) brought the world into existence. We are, in fact, nothing more than a magic school exercise. Or, how about that life on Earth is not unique, but we were seeded here by aliens to see how we would…
Armchair theologian becomes armchair scientist. I love evolutionary biology. Today’s NYT op-ed has a nice piece about finding our non-ancestoral local aliens.