Neil Tyson talks about this period of time when the scientific centre of the world was Baghdad (from the Beyond Belief lectures). People of all beliefs were free to come and exchange ideas, including ‘doubters’ or what we’d call athiests. Out of this came a great number of scientific discoveries about astronomy, mathematics, medicine, engineering. However something happened that led to the end of this age of science in the Islamic world. Neil Tyson describes what happened, involving a scholar (Imam Hamid al-Ghazali) who put forth the idea that mathematics was the work of the devil. This plus other things led to the collapse of that scientific tradition, and it has not since recovered. I suspect that if the thinkers from that period saw the evidence for evolution, they would accept it gladly. Only with this attitude of accepting evidence as more reliable than dogma can a society develop intellectually, as it did in the time of Islamic science, when doubt wasn’t blasphemy. The Science Network: www.thesciencenetwork.org
The Effect of Islam on Science in the Middle East – 9th-12th Century
Muslim Women's Choices: Religious Belief and Social Reality (Cross Cultural Pers
 | US $32.21 End Date: Friday Apr-13-2012 10:40:58 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $32.21 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Red, White, and Muslim: My Story of Belief
 | US $9.49 End Date: Monday Apr-16-2012 8:41:07 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $9.49 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Related posts:
- Islam Has Brought Peace and Harmony to the Middle East All Through History
- If Obama Become The President Will His Islamic Belief Destroy America. All The Other Middle East Countries?
- How will open gays in the US military be welcome by Muslim extremist in the middle east… & I thought the?
- Dr. Yahya On His Proposed Plan For Peace In The Middle East
- First Time in Saudi Arabia – the First Chapter in a Travel in the Middle East
@thecreepyguy brother, with all due respect You dont have a clue as to? what you are saying…if there is a reason why Islam/Muslims had such a prosperous past then it was solely due to the FAITH of Muslims in their hearts which today unfortunately isnt all that good…on the contrary America promised the world all that Freedom and see what it actually gave – A MORALLY DECAYED AND GREEDY SOCIETY plus wars all over the world with entire nations annihilated…i hope u get the point…
@MsBaystater It still is but faith is not there. When Islam was at its? peak, the believers were actually believers and adhered to every word of it not what you see today. It is that Muslims became too arrogant and big headed and started to derail. The book is a guide. It says balance religion and the world. But it seems they seem to be slipping from both.
Islam? is for the mentally crippled.
The Quran is? not arranged according to importance, continuity, sacredness, biography, chronology, significance or sequence of any sort, but simply by length: the longest chapter, followed by the next longest. The verses are disorderly arranged and jumbled up in unrelated subjects/topics. The Quran has no prophecy, no chronology, no geography, no biography of anybody (except bits & pieces of Mo), cont’d
no ministry, no history, no proverbs, no parables, no miracles, no psalms, no sequence of any sort. It’s generally a manual of dos and don’ts, like an instruction manual of a vacuum cleaner, with punishments, reprisals and rewards specified in it. The Quran is, undoubtedly, not a book created by an intelligent being, and is unfit for the intelligent and rational thinking person. This book is fraught with stupidity, lacks logic and reason, which makes it a complete? lie.
With? all the ‘science’ in the Quran it’s a wonder that Muslims haven’t claimed EVERY Nobel prize for ALL the sciences since Nobel had his first blast. The reality is that Muslims have done very poorly.
@ProphetsofGod Oh, horse hockeys! Muhammad planted the seeds of Islam’s own destruction. Alas, that destruction has been a long, slow process. Nobody wants to see actual Muslims suffer? more than they already do. Indeed, Muslims need to abandon the suffering they have been forced to endure. Message to the most devout: you will be welcomed to and wecomed in the company of man. You don’t need to be Christian or Ahteist — just open your eyes and love what you see.
@uarsalan If ISLAM were so transcendent what happened?! It’s TRUE that Arabia was the center of knowledge during the part of the middle ages. But AGAIN — what happened? Could it have been that Muslims began taking themselves so very seriously that the only widely sanctioned form of education was based on? the time-consuming and spirit-defeating memorization of the Quran? A book with so many contradictions and non-sequitors that intelligent people were left bereft? What a waste!
@illywacker1? BRAVO !!!!
When Islam kicked in, that is when the arab world went down hill and until today has? never recovered and never will as long as religion and especially this religion rules.
I don’t know much abt the person Imam Gazali but I heard after the Siege of Baghdad, which occurred in 1258 by Mangol army most of the prominent researchers n philosophers where killed and approx most books n research work was burnt and due to ashes river water was? black for several weeks. (so, that might be one of reason but I still don’t understand why Muslims didn’t again put their hearts and mind in something they were ordered to do ~__~ )
Islam encouraging investigation & observation of nature (which is also know as science) ….
And it is said in Quran something like , Can the people who know and don’t be equal? …. Can the people? with normal eyes and blind be equal?
So, you have got to research, got to investigate …. there are hints of truth all around us.
@illywacker1 LOL WUT?? got proof?
@illywacker1? LOL WUT?
@illywacker1 Actually it was Islam which allowed great? advancements in science and has kept the Arab world rich and made it what it is today. However, the arabs themselves and interventions of the western countries in the middle east has screwed them up. Islam encouraged education this is why the rise took place in the 9th century
so basically that guy who said mathematics is the work of the devil stopped? the whole arabic world from becoming a leader in knowledge and a future superpower. what an asshole
so basically that guy who said mathematics is the work of the devil stopped? the whole arabic world from becoming a leader in knowledge and a future superpower. what an asshole
Islam ruined science and has kept the Arab? world back.
The Arabs would be nothing today had it not been for Islam. Why do you think Muhammed was hailed one of the most influential man in history? Islam managed to drive the backward Arabs into a global force that eventually resulted in this golden age in the 9th-12th century of scientific free thought and tolerance. The? fact that this happened shows that the Quran isn’t incompatible with free thought and science. Today the case is much different but the people are at fault, not the religion itself.
@illywacker1 That’s ridiculous, you clearly don’t know much about the Quran. I’ve read the Quran entirely and still find it easy to? follow it down to the word. Just because you hear stories of people using Quranic verses to justify their crazy antics doesn’t mean what they say is true. Unfortunately, today most in the Muslim world are uneducated, suppressed and frustrated. Don’t judge the religion by the actions of its people.
@ultragoliath84 Yes he does but the immediate assumption he makes is that this is inevitable because? this is supported fully by the Quran. If people in the 9th-12th century managed to develop one of the most scientific and enriching center in the world at a time of such backwardness, then why do people still condemn the Quran as being anti free thought? Perhaps it is so today in the Muslim world because there are dictators in charge who want nothing but to suppress free thought.
@ProphetsofGod no he doesnt, he? states clearly that it is derived from one man, imam hamid al-ghazali. i think that you have been restricted sir or madam. religion itself is restrictive in what you will allow yourself to think, feel, and be aware of, your comment being a perfect example.
In? an attempt to polish Islam’s image, Muslim activists usually quote verses from the Quran that were written in the early days of the Islamic movement while Mohammed lived in Mecca. Those passages make Islam appear loving and harmless because they call for? love, peace and patience.
Such is a deception. The activists fail to tell gullible people? that such verses, though still in the Quran, were nullified, abrogated, rendered void by later passages that incite killing, decapitations, maiming, terrorism and religious intolerance. The latter verses were penned while Mohammed’s headquarters was based in Medina.
In an attempt to polish Islam’s image, Muslim activists usually quote verses from the Quran that were written in the early days of? the Islamic movement while Mohammed lived in Mecca. Those passages make Islam appear loving and harmless because they call for love, peace and patience.