It is a little known fact that many of the brightest, well-known stars in the sky have Arabic names.
The luminous Aldebaran of Taurus, the majestic Rigel of the Orion constellation… the night sky is studded with shining reminders of an age where the early Muslim astronomers mapped the heavens and the Earth, and committed the knowledge to thousands of paper manuscripts and stored them in the world’s first public lending libraries.
In the early centuries following the Prophet’s death, Muslims made tremendous intellectual and scientific breakthroughs in areas as varied as astronomy, arts, science, math, philosophy and literature: a period accurately portrayed as the ‘Golden Age’ of Islam.
Referring to what he called “civilization’s debt to Islam”, US President Barack Obama said in his famous speech at Cairo University in June 2009, “It was Islam… that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance.”
From the pinnacle of scientific and intellectual achievement 800 years ago, the downward spiral of Muslims to outcasts of the knowledge society has been spectacular, and devastating.
Astronomy, like other scientific disciplines, is today largely the dominion of Western scientists. The Soviets fired man into space in 1961. NASA landed man on the moon in 1969.
Nearly five decades later, only one Islamic nation, Iran, has managed to even launch a domestic satellite – in 2009. Meanwhile, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, that left the Western hemisphere 33 years ago, continues to send back images from the farthest edges of the Solar System.
Statistics paint a bleak picture.
Out of every 10 students who attempt the O’Levels in the Maldives, only three achieve passing grades. Maldivian citizens have an average of a mere 4.7 years of schooling.
The Sachar Committee Report, commissioned by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 to evaluate the social status of Indian Muslims, revealed that 25 percent of Muslim children under 15 didn’t attend schools, or dropped out early, despite free public education. Muslims were way behind the curve in literacy as well.
By the 10th century, Islamic centres like Baghdad, Cairo, Cordoba and Tripoli boasted great libraries containing between 600,000 and 3 million volumes, but the UN Human Development Report 2010, which weighs in literacy as a development factor, records only five Muslim states among the top 50 countries on its index, and none in the top 30.
Muslims take pride in the fact that the Guinness Book recognises Al-Qarawiyyin University in Fez, Morocco as the world’s first university to issue degrees. Ironically, not a single university from a Muslim country figures in the top 100 Times Higher Education world university rankings for 2010.
Only nine Muslims have ever won a Nobel Prize. Out of a population of 1.57 billion, exactly two have won the science prizes. In comparison, Jewish scientists and intellectuals have racked up 178 Nobels.
Some insight into this dismal performance can perhaps be gleamed from the reception to Nobel laureates at home.
Dr Abdus Salam, who won the Physics Nobel in 1979, was deemed a heretic in his home country of Pakistan. Dr Salam was certainly devout – he quoted from the Qur’an in his acceptance speech – but he subscribed to the Ahmadi sect which was declared un-Islamic in Pakistan in 1974. Consequently, the epitaph on his grave was defaced, by court order, to remove the word ‘Muslim’. His tombstone now reads, quite inaccurately, ‘the first Nobel Laureate’.
In Iran, religious conservatives criticized Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi, a Human Rights lawyer, for not covering her hair during the ceremony, and alleged that the award was a conspiracy to “ridicule Islam”. Following attacks and raids on her home and office, Ebadi fled Iran and now lives in exile in UK.
These are reasons, perhaps, why President Musharraf of Pakistan, observed in February 2002, “Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race.”
Egyptian scientist Dr Ahmed Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1999, said in an interview that it was not Islam that prevented progress in the Muslim world, but “politicised Islamic scholars who profess that knowledge is restricted to the study of scriptures.”
Indeed, a study by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute of Pakistan found that the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education, which is controlled by Deobandi Islamists, had altered school textbooks to include material that allegedly glorified war and incited violence against minorities.
A government proposal to introduce science subjects in Pakistani madrassas was met with hostility. The five madrassa boards formed an umbrella organization – the Ittehad Tanzimat-e-Madaris-e-Deenia (ITMD), which vowed to defy all government attempts at reforms.
Likewise, religious conservative parties in the Maldives objected strongly to plans by experts in the Ministry of Education to make Dhivehi and Islam subjects optional to senior Secondary students.
The Ministry argued that students should be free to focus on subjects that would help them get enrolled into Universities. Religious groups, however, accused the Ministry of “anti-Islamic” policies.
In September 2010, the Adhaalath party condemned government plans to introduce co-education in 4 schools. They claimed co-education was “a failed concept”. Incidentally, all of the Top 10 universities of 2010 were co-educational institutes.
Similar objections were raised by clerics in Saudi Arabia towards the inauguration the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology – a vast, new $10 billion dollar, co-educational institution.
Maulana Syed Kalbe Sadiq, a senior Indian Muslim cleric and Vice President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board rejected this view. Noting that even co-worship was permissible during the Hajj, he stated there was no basis to deny co-education to Muslim students.
Speaking at Aligarh Muslim University in 2010, he said, “In the 21st century, only those who adopt high-level modern education will survive”.
The late Sheikh Tantawi, Egypt’s top cleric and the influential head of Al-Azhar University, ruled that Muslim girls in France should obey French Law and continue their education despite the ban on Hijabs, because sacrificing one’s education would be ‘the greater evil’.
Nevertheless, young Muslim girls continue to be kept at home by religious conservative families in Muslim countries, including the Maldives.
“Read!” -the archangel Gabriel’s first words to an illiterate prophet sparked the beginning of a movement which led to one of the greatest periods of human cultural achievement and enlightenment.
Muslims have a legacy of generating a volume of knowledge that, historians say, outweighs the combined works of ancient Greece and Rome.
That legacy of reason and science appears to have been overwhelmed by dogma in the 21st century. A culture that produced intellectuals of the calibre of Al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd is today more closely identified by gun-toting militants.
In the Maldives, it appears increasingly implausible that Islam might someday be represented less by Islamist preachers and more by scientists like Dr Hassan Ugail. But such a day, if it were to come, would pay rich obeisance to the legacy of learned Muslim ancestors.
It could be argued that such intellectuals are equally, if not more, deserving of the title ‘ilmuverin’, or ‘Scholars’.
Perhaps what it takes to fire up the uninspired young Muslim generation is a set of healthy intellectual role models to finally step in to inspire and guide them.
Alternatively, they could look up at the same Arabic stars that fascinated their cultural ancestors, and be inspired by the distant, faintly-glowing reminders of their fiery intellect from an age gone by.
Image: An astrolabe made in Yemen in 1291, an ancient ‘computer’ used to calculate time and triangulate location, relative to the sun and the stars. They were also used to determine the time for Salah (prayers).
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"Acquisition of knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim."
Famous hadith by Prophet Mohamed (PBUH)
I believe after Ghengis Khan brought a decline to the Islamic Golden Age, power hungry people, with little or no regard for the essence of Islam, demonized KNOWLEDGE... as being kufr or knowledge of anything other than the Holy Quran and the Hadiths being a source of evil that will decay our iman and aqeada.
These power hungry people abused the words of Islam to even hinder people from learning and understanding the knowledge and wisdom derived from the Holy Quran itself.
Instead they spread hate, intolerance and the adherence to blind faith... making many Muslims fearful of knowledge, expanding their minds and growing intellectually, spiritually and holistically...
Muslims need to rise above the preachings of those who want to stop knowledge... all knowledge that helps us in our daily life, and living in this world. Islam says to gain knowledge of all that holds to do good... and to stay away from the bad...
Today we see Muslims in the name of an unjustified claim of "jihad" learning and gaining knowledge of evil... of how best to kill people thru bombs, suicide bombing, guns,...etc... THAT IS NOT KNOWLEDGE...NOR WISDOM... It is against Islam... No question about that...
Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries
An important Documentary to be watched by each and every Muslim's also Yamyn (im in doubt now whether this guy is a muslim as mentioned in one comment that he claimed himself a atheist.)
Hera are some youtube links... ENJOY ..
http://www.google.mv/search?q=bbc+science+and+islam&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=ZPI&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=Cv87TceeH46CsQOf28jXAw&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQqwQwAA
Also watch this part :
The Power of Doubt.
How Islamic scientific ideas permeated into the West in the 16th and 17th centuries.
@hilath.
hey hilath being a writer or a blogger so openly and posting article discriminating certain groups would face these kinds of incidents. but no worries. they might kill you and you dont have to be afraid of death. in my belief and some others, nothing will happen after death and its over. after that we will keep you as a hero. so again NO Worries. you dont have to write all this like a kid.
@heck "The achievements will recur only when the SAME faith of early Muslims recur FIRST!"..I try to follow your reasoning but fail. Are you saying that there are NO sufficiently devout Muslims now, and therefore NO scientific discoveries by them in the last few hundred years or what? There must be some explanation.
@musician, I have invited you to escape to religious freedom but you did not accept. So continue with your blind unquestioning following of a redundant faith.
"That how much of a difficulty will it be for a god to give 72 virgins in heaven for a muslim who made it to paradise" I thought that ridiculous promise applied especially to suicide bombers, I may be wrong!
What is the fundamentalist Islamic view on evolution I wonder? Is it similar to that of Sarah Palin and many other Americans?
@Ahmed Aliased..congratulations on showing rational intelligent thought processes, all is not lost for Islam. Shame that you are in a tiny minority, but keep up the good work here.
"Religion is the opium of the people" (Karl Marx)
I am beginning to see an interesting analogy of a terror network in Maldives which could be regarded as high treason and a dangerous combination.
Nazim-Aniya-Heelath-Yaamyn-Maakana Show-Le Cute-Velezinee-Anni?-DO Sappe-Ahmed Aliased(anony),more to come,more to come..
Now I know why Anni went to see Maakanaa Show.
We must see that MDP does not get a single vote in the Local Council elections.
We are being eaten by termites from in side out.
Whoever this yaamin is, he don’t know anything about Islam nor what he is writing. May be not his fault, his parents will have answer this in the day of judgment. since they have not educated their son. He is a real atheist he should be head chop. His main aim in this article is very clear that he trying to convenience Christian religion. He has no guts to say it openly, since it’s the best he can think I wonder why he can’t speak it openly. most probably he took these details and phrases in Christian books and that’s the only book he can read and understand. Doesn’t mean it’s right because he don’t know how read Quran. but still my Duaa is may God bestow him Islamic knowledge and faith. Read Quran
“politicised Islamic scholars who profess that knowledge is restricted to the study of scriptures.”
This is one of the most accurate ways to describe the "problem" we have.
This is a very good and timely article. This is also a vast subject; the author did a good job, since it's impossible to do justice to the Golden Age of Islam in such a short article.
I can see some people jumping up and down about how those early scholars did their ablutions and prayers BEFORE sitting down to study. This may be true, but the difference today is that we don't have ANY religious scholar able to comprehend Mathematics or Science. They have simply concentrated all efforts on the religious part.
What needs to happen is NOT doing away with faith OR science. We should be learning BOTH and try becoming good at that.
You also have to remember that a single person cannot be a PhD level in both religion and science. They have to make a choice at which subject they should excel. Of course they should have some serious fundamental knowledge in both.
Someone claimed that Dr. Ugail's Islamic knowledge may be elementary. I know Dr. Ugail and I can definitely say he has more than sufficient knowledge of Islam. He won't have time to get a PhD in Islamic studies; neither do most of us.
There's also a very important point missed by the article. The search for knowledge in science and mathematics were driven by the Muslim leaders of the time. The leaders wanted to exploit the knowledge to increase the reaches of their empires. The Golden Age of Islam was not entirely based on just pure research for the sake of research. It had a very important aim; a political aim.
That same political aim continues in the West today. The search for scientific truth is funded by politicians who want to "improve" their way of life.
@ Derek:
why is 72 virgins a ridiculous promise? if you were the recipient of them all and the bliss of eternal life in paradise, even then you will say its ridiculous?
one more thing...
is not the whole concept of an afterlife not ridiculous???
and for that matter our life here in earth, a tiny dot of a planet in the vast cosmos.. that we living in this planet where every thing seems to be arranged in our favour, is this not also ridiculous? i mean, why shall the sun not burn us or the atmosphere not choke us? why is everything in our favour?
evolution my dear watson!!
@Islam-Hassan,
you are so right! Since i know this guy very well i totally agree with you.
Yaamyn:
They all must have been Atheists? Those great scholars of the Golden Age? Hmm...
"politicised Islamic scholars who profess that knowledge is restricted to the study of scriptures."
When every bit of scientific discovery made up to now and to be made in the future is to be found somewhere in the Quran then what is the point of studying anything else.
Heck, we don't even need to study Quran!
Let studying and research be done by the West. We Muslims, we will just linger on until everything is discovered and points to Quran and then, .. and then... well we'll buy some firecrackers with our last laari, celebrate and die of hunger.
First they claim they will retake the islamic golden age for ever and ever. Now they deny that such a thing exists?. "You don't know anything about islamic history".
Whut.
And add a generous sprinkling of baseless accusations, termites, weird-ass conspiracy theories involving the MDP and boneless chickens and we get... "the islamic apologist's defense take!".
No wonder islam is the butt joke of the modern world now. The so-called muslims today are like AIDS victims with a serious case of denial. They refuse to acknowledge that something is wrong with what they're being taught.
And as long as they do that, they're condemning themselves to a fate worse than total annihilation.
@muslim boy "why doesn’t the oceans sink through the porous earth?" - please, ask such funny questions in science class at school, but you are making youself ridiculous here.
I find the question "male or female 72 virgins" very, very interesting!
All religions are philosophies.
It's up that certain individual to perceive the meanings of those philosophies. When all philosophies are meant to show a peaceful and enlightening path. When all religions are interconnected. When all the main religions share a same history.
What I really don't understand is that, why wouldn't you all suckers stop wining about whose right and whose wrong and start practicing what you know and what you believe.
I do think some Maldivian's so called haabees are bit over the top. And some of the athiests thinking "OH! Yeah! It's the new GEN!".
So whose has a right to point fingers at who? you?
Please! Keep the religion to yourselves! It's your choice of a way to think about life itself. Not another way of creating drama. Get over it.
i urge all the muslim brothers and sisters (hihihi) to go jihad and suicide at Palestine so that at least people who wants to live the life peacefully can live as they want.
and
muslim boy on Sun, 23rd Jan 2011 2:11 PM
" who created this earth?
what happened before bigbang?
why doesn’t the oceans sink through the porous earth?
why are you and me here? why why?
from what knowlege are you saying god did not create this creation? i know you haven’t said it but you do imply this no?" -muslim boy
Do you believe there are things we don't know yet? and just because we don't know something does it have to be GOD? or even jinni/ghost or some crap. Did you know a lot of things we know now are based on what science has taught us.
Think about this what do u think would happen if we introduce a high tech humanoid robot to the ancient people.say during the romain empire. They would probably think its god.
Do you know if i ask 3 year old what E=MC^2 is that the kid wont know it? and do u know why?
lets say ur the kid right now and if i try to explain to u evolution the same would happen. (this scenario applies to all most all the faith heads)
the questions you have asked (as if your are trying to challenge me like Zakir naik) are good for your brain if you choose to find the answer through science except for the "why doesn’t the oceans sink through the porous earth?" which is already answered in science. ask uncle google. (already asked u to think about 72 virgins before replying)
I urge you break your stupid religious boundaries and think about the questions you have brought forward. refer to real science not your crappy holy book.
"from what knowlege are you saying god did not create this creation?" -muslim boy
from the knowledge i learned from internet and library. from what knowledge are u trying to say that god created what ever creation you are saying? (dont even think of mentioning that brain washing book.)
ok feel sleepy now. *aaahh the 72 virgins* (females)
gnite
@Ahmed Bin Addu Bin Suvadheeb
"That same political aim continues in the West today. The search for scientific truth is funded by politicians who want to “improve” their way of life."
Like it or not, I will agree with you on this.
@ Derek Postance (the saviour of Maldives from a Christian country)
{“Religion is the opium of the people” (Karl Marx)}
Why are you quoting Karl Marx? You like Marxism? Quote something of your own.
@ Ahmed Aliased
I don't like to read your comments. Though I don't like yaamyn for his Atheism, his points are worth pondering and inviting for a response although he sees things through tinted glass.
Your comments are boring. Improve it a little bit, will ya! I am sure you know how bad they are. Phew!
@ Marina
You are so proud of science? If so why are you not proud of the creator of science?
@ Avatar
"Heck, we don’t even need to study Quran!"
Who? We?
@ Satharugan sinha
"are you also saying that all the goods done by people from other religions are a big waste."
Where does 'good' come from and how do you know it's good?
I'm serious, this guy Ahmed Aliased (who's been getting a lot of comment-action here)--half his blog is contributed to by a guy who calls himself the Shadowrunner who, back in 2008, wrote long blog posts admiring Nazism.
It's an ad hominem argument, true. But most of the comments here are nothing but...
@muslim boy:
you know its an interesting thought that why everything in our favor? why sun does not fry us alive or why our atmosphere give us oxygen?
BUT i think your thought process need to reversed, so to speak. why do we always think because we are here, sun does not fry us, planet is in safe zone, and our atmosphere protects us etc. BUT isn't it the other way around. We are here because sun does not fry us, because there is atmosphere to protect us. we reverse the cause of affect. Our collective memory is very short, tiny compared to the cosmic time, so we can't think of a time where earth was not like this etc.
"Nearly five decades later, only one Islamic nation, Iran, has managed to even launch a domestic satellite – in 2009. Meanwhile, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, that left the Western hemisphere 33 years ago, continues to send back images from the farthest edges of the Solar System."
Yamyn: Erm Iran the most extremist of all did that?
@heck: I don't like to read your comments either. It's all full of self-serving lies and silly propaganda theories centered upon keeping Maldives in the dark ages.
Just kidding. I love reading your comments. You're a direct sonar reading on how frustrated and cornered the average 'islamic apologist' is.
theMaldivian: I welcome all ad hominem attacks. It shows that you had no argument to begin with.
Since you're so riled up about some goose-stepping Germans, I'll say this; what's so bad about Nazism?. They fixed up a country with a worse economic outlook than Maldives and turned it into a industrial superpower that lasts to this day that is responsible for bringing jets, computers and rockets and e=mc2 to this reality.
Besides, it would be pretty damn hilarious if a 1938 happened to islamic extremism.
PS: Those 72 virgins?. They're actually the lemon party crew.
{“Religion is the opium of the people” (Karl Marx)}
Why are you quoting Karl Marx? You like Marxism? Quote something of your own..
@heck, quotes from famous people are so much more interesting than quotes from..heck for example. Whoever heck is!
@muslim boy "is not the whole concept of an afterlife not ridiculous???"
Yes. It is! Would there be one for the lower animals, for trees etc? If not, why not? There is nothíng special about mankind, except for his ability to destroy the rest of the natural world, and his ability to dream up "religions" to serve his own ends.
@ heck on Mon, 24th Jan 2011 2:57 AM
"good" comes from the values i(we) have for humans. as a human i (we) understands how other humans would feels and as a living being we understand how other living beings feel. we all work towards survival and happiness. To accomplish this we (humans) work together. (not kill each other for land and religion)
so heck, I don't think this is even rocket science to understand. the real problem is once you get infected with religious faith its not easy to get out of it. works just like a virus.
@ sathurugan sinha
"refer to real science not your crappy holy book."
Today's 'real' science is tomorrows 'crap' science!
Our Holy Book is there for eternity!
@ Derek Postance
"Yes. It is! Would there be one for the lower animals, for trees etc?"
Look! Derek. If you are interested in Islam - Minivan News is not the best place to get information about Islam. It will only double your doubts.
From your above question it is obvious that your parents did not talk to you much when you were growing up! Are you an orphan?
@ Satharey, "once you get infected with religious faith its not easy to get out of it. works just like a virus."
Very true! In some cases, heck, muslim boy, musician etc, for example, it is an illness for which there is no cure..
Islamic Development Bank Prize for Women’s Contribution to Development
"The Prize is awarded annually in order to draw international attention to the vital role women play in developing their communities and the world. The Prize aims to RECOGNIZE, ENCOURAGE, INSPIRE and REWARD women's participation in the socio-economic development process.
The 6th Annual IDB Prize for Women’s Contribution to Development aims to recognize and reward female scientists who helped to improve the quality of people’s lives through applied science. The individual should also serve as a role model to inspire and encourage girls participation in the field of science."
http://www.isdb.org/irj/portal/anonymous?NavigationTarget=navurl://744f417a19ed335f9f3f27decc21e0c4
@ heck on Mon, 24th Jan 2011 2:02 PM
Do you know what satanic versus means?
to get a general idea refer to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses
critically think about what it's all about. (hoping you don't comeup with your typical jewish propaganda defensive argument)
Did you know that Quran was originally written in palm leaves, animal skins, etc by Muhammad relatives and close friends. only after some 20 years of Mohamed's death, Quran was written and complied as a book.
also note that since Quran is literature, any literature could have multiple meanings. for example a decent love song could mean to love for family or his partner. depends on who reads it and what he means by love, the same goes to violence, good, bad, etc...
The version used by maumoon, DJ majeed, Shaheem, or Osama bin laden differs vastly and each one of them claim that their version is real. hehe.
and every time when you translate from one language to another the meaning changes. try translating for yourself. even English to Dhivehi.
If you ask the "Islamic scholars" around the world to translate a specific verse of Quran they all would come up with different meanings which suites most to their political advantage or emotional security.
and yes science changes but the basic principle may not always change. (1+1 has so far been 2 and always will be) , thats the beauty of it. we(humans) progress as we find new discoveries.
cheers
@ satharugan sinha
If "we all work towards survival and happiness" why do we feel it is necessary to kill to survive and to be happy?
Doesn't, life sentencing or capital punishment go against "good" which is drawn from "values we have for humans"?
So how can your "survival" game go hand in hand with 'good' values?
What are you talking?
"@muslim boy “is not the whole concept of an afterlife not ridiculous???”
-Yes. It is! Would there be one for the lower animals, for trees etc? If not, why not? There is nothíng special about mankind, except for his ability to destroy the rest of the natural world, and his ability to dream up “religions” to serve his own ends."
Derek P.
-----
One of my life's longest-standing mysteries has been resolved. Thank you, minivannews for hosting this article.
@ satharugan sinha
"Did you know that Quran was originally written in palm leaves"
I thought Quran was originally written in people hearts and they were called Hafiz!
@ Derek Postance
Look who's talking!
Atheism is a religion, and you are trying to defend your faith and dogma.
So if someone once got infected with a virus like religious faith, it's you!
Why are you dhalu beyrun jehening? I mean hitting the net from outside?
Just to clarify that yameen rasheed who wrote this article is not the producer of maakana show. Because I am the producer of maakana show and my name is yamin rasheed
Ive noticed for the past few days that some one or some people have commented under yaamin maakana show. This confuses people thinking that it was me who commented under yameen maakana show. Firstly I don’t spell yameen, but the correct way to spell my name is yamin. Secondly I have never commented on any articles in my whole life and this is the first time. I just want to clarify to every one that i am doing this to overcome the confusion. Who ever is criticizing as yameen maakana has the right to use any nick he wants. But pls if the reader gets confused pls clarify that u r not the producer or has any thing to do with maakana show or me.
Thank you
Brilliant article.
Sadly this will aggravate the beardees, ignorants, religious-blinded weaklings, etc. And they will do everything they can, not to let go of the shell, just like a hermit crab.
I takes courage to admit reality, what you see etc, instead of taking the easy way out by putting your faith on an invisible god, asking for a direction, which NEVER happens.
The divide has kept growing from the moment it began. Muslims will fail every progress in civilization unless
A) they let go of the fundamentalist thinking and think ahead and ways of improving community.
B) they face the reality and recognize the hoolo hoolo created by the beardees, whose Amin agenda is monetary benefit and political power.
@heck: Man, they must have been pretty hardcore to write the quran in their hearts!. Did they stay alive after the impromptu surgery?. Or were their hearts used as pages by the general public?. I really want to know!.
Protip: Memetic memorization is never perfect.
Also, here's a free laugh for confusing atheist's beliefs with religion.
@heck
"Atheism is a religion"
How is lack of belief in God a religion? Is bald a hair colour too? Is *not* going fishing a hobby too?
*Most* atheists do not assert a positive knowledge claim that god does not exist. They would rather say there is no evidence for a god (or atleast not convinced of the evidence), and hence their lack of belief in a god. This does not make it a religion.
Yes there are some evangelical atheists that positively assert the non-existence of god, just like others who positively assert many things without evidence. This still does not make it a religion.
@heck,
and before u respond. Atheists don't claim there is evidence for the non-existence of god either. Existence or non-existence of god cannot be proven scientifically or philosophically.
I don't understand why heck always tries to slam down science as "crap"!?
The great thing about science is that its inquiries are generally intended to be as objective as possible to reduce biased interpretations of results.
Data and methodologies are documented, archived, shared with other scientists, giving them the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. If it fails, science will ADMIT this.
There is not one scientist of repute which declares HIS study as correct, without being reviewed, and calls all other scientists who oppose him a 'kaafir'.
Studies are being peer-reviewed and sometimes criticized, and that's good, otherwise they could have never been optimized!
Religion, on the other hand, is extremely inhomogenic, because well... first of all there is this Monotheism vs. Polytheism, and within (Abrahamic) Monotheism there are followers of different prophets (old testament, new testament, quran, ...), and within one religion there are sects or streams which dictate you how to hold your arms in prayer,whether killing is justified or not, if and how, and when to have intercourse, and so on...
If you accuse Derek with being an Atheist who is "infected by a virus like religious faith", then he might be just sitting a few miles away from the "Holy Land" with a cup of coffee and watching the world of faith heads kill each other
@satharey:
I think you are taking science as the ultimatum for everything to be explained. And I know that what science is all about. Depending on how you define science the answer can vary. If science is based only on observation and experimentation where the results can be tested using our senses then I am sure there are many things that we don’t have explanation. And you would agree to that. How the universe did came to existence. What initiated the big bang? The answer that I would get from you most probably would be that time was created after the big bang so the question of how big bang was initiated is irrelevant.
Now my question is what logic is this? An explosion starting by itself or some external agent initiating it! Which is more logical. A radioactive material when it is unstable would be emitting radiation. But to make it radioactive its energy level has to be destabilized.
Logic is part of science for which there can just one or more arguments. And there could be instances where one or more can be correct.
A God or creator creating the Universe and life on Earth is a difficult thing to imagine for a human being based on Science and the limited knowledge we have. But when something is difficult to be understood that does not necessarily mean it is impossible. The impossible things that were 20 years, 100 years ago are becoming a reality. So what you consider impossible may be found to be possible at a later time. Science is always advancing and new things are always being discovered. And these are facts.
Because it is difficult to believe in a God creating the universe, God has revealed a book. And this book to be from God it must be miraculous. If the source of knowledge contained in this book is from human then there is bound to be contradictions, errors, scientific mistakes. Etc. Now when we ask an atheist how much he know about this book most of the time I get the answer that he has not read it. But we still claim that we are open- minded. Here are a few questions that I would like you to answer.
1- When did science discover about the big bang?
2- Human embryonic development?
3- Determination of the human sex.
4- Finger print.
5- Forebrain.
6- Sun’s motion.
Most of the people believe what they believe by ignorance. Be it religion or science. Islam cannot progress without scince.
Agree with Ahmed Aliased on Mon, 24th Jan 2011 10:30 PM
@ heck
"If “we all work towards survival and happiness” why do we feel it is necessary to kill to survive and to be happy?"
Religions is main reason for war in this world. so you should answer me that question since you are already infected.
"Doesn’t, life sentencing or capital punishment go against “good” which is drawn from “values we have for humans”?"
are you sure ur brain is inside ur skull , I think its mis located between ur legs. check. and also one ball (ie left side of ur brain) could be missing. Sorry for such an insult but i couldn't help.
tell me. do you really think you can marry a child of 12 years? Don't say Muhammed did not do it. Its in the Quran clearly stated.
“Did you know that Quran was originally written in palm leaves”
I thought Quran was originally written in people hearts and they were called Hafiz!
you thought? I assume what you mean there is to memorize the Quran. but Quran wasn't originally memorized. It was written in various places, thats how people wrote those days.
Definition of atheism at wiki: Atheism is commonly defined as the position that there are no deities. It can also mean the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. A broader definition is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist.
which basically means atheists don't believe in any god. I know its hard for he religious faith heads to grasp the idea of not believing in any higher force. (ie Allah, Jesus, Budhdha). Hope you can come up with a more constructive argument than just saying ..
"Atheism is a religion, and you are trying to defend your faith and dogma.
So if someone once got infected with a virus like religious faith, it’s you!
Why are you dhalu beyrun jehening? I mean hitting the net from outside?"
seriously, is that best you could reply?
@heck, one final word..if I, as an atheist, suddenly decide that I now DO believe in some mythical god, my "atheist religion" as you call it does not call for my death as punishment for doing so (unlike the way peaceful Islam deals with apostates).
Attention all retarded islamic apologists who are wont to take your assumptions as facts. Please stop sending death threats/hiring random thugs to send death threats to Yamin Rasheed, the producer of Maakana show.
You have demonstrated to us that you take your own assumptions as facts, not caring for whoever gets hurt in the process when you want to silence information about the islamic golden age.
Thank you for your cooperation.
@ earthling
ok lets reverse the process..
"We are here because sun does not fry us, because there is atmosphere to protect us."
BUT why?
even after the reversal, the why remains.. why?
do we have to do anything, just ANYTHING to put god out of the equation? is this not a bias?
Good work!
@Ahmed aliased
I haven't received any death threats from any one. pls stop associating me with this article or who ever wrote it, cause its not me. if i want to express my idea's about any thing than i would do it on my platform. yameen who wrote the article is not me or has any thing to do with maakana show, so pls dont confuse people. ive never ever commented abt any thing on minivan news. some people have commented as "yameen maakana show" but it has nothing to do with me because that's not me.