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Greg27
Guest
I’ve read Warraq’s book. While some of his arguments are interesting, I don’t think overall they accurately reflect Islam in the medieval period, any more than Richard Dawkins brusque dismissal of St Thomas and his philosophy in the ‘God delusion’ accurately and fairly represents medieval Christian philosophy.
Islamic civilisation is still producing outstanding thinkers. Abdus Salam, an Ahmadi Muslim from Pakistan (same as Paarsurrey) won the Nobel Prize for Physics, in his work on electroweak theory.
The wikipedia entry is as follows:
“Abdus Salam (Urdu: عبد السلام) (January 29, 1926 at Santokdas, Sahiwal in Punjab – November 21, 1996 in Oxford, England) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for his work in Electro-Weak Theory which is the mathematical and conceptual synthesis of the Electromagnetic and Weak interactions, the latest stage in the effort to provide a unified description of the four fundamental forces of nature. He holds the unique distinction of being the first Muslim Nobel Laureate as well as the first Pakistani Nobel Laureate. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg arrived at the theory independently and shared the prize. The validity of the theory was ascertained through experiments carried out at the Super Proton Synchrotron facility at CERN in Geneva, particularly, through the discovery of the W and Z Bosons.”
As for that blogger you quote who claims Islam is in decline, in my view he has not produced convincing evidence that Islam is in decline. Comparing the statistics of scientists in Israel vs Iran is too limited and probably also flawed by personal bias; one would need a wider survey. I agree the West has the upper hand in advanced scientific research at the moment, but soon China and India will probably match and exceed the West in terms of scientific discoveries and breakthroughs.
Personally I think we are not going to get anywhere trying to prove one religion is better than another using science, philosophy, or other achievements. Each world civilisation has its outstanding thinkers, and one claim for superiority in one field can quite easily be negated using a counter-example. The West at the moment is probably at its high point in history, so yes, more leading scientists and thinkers live now in the West than in the Islamic world. But this probably will not remain so forever, as history does not stand still, and the Islamic world will eventually catch up to any ‘lack’ it may have to the West, given its rich heritage.
Would things be the same if the West was still dominated by the Church as it was in the medieval period? I am not sure. The medieval period and the modern period produced many great scientists, but the historical record shows religion hindered and also helped science in many ways. Many scientists were inspired by the Greek notion the cosmos was discoverable by mathematics and human reason, and by the Judeo-Christian notion the cosmos is a good being made by God. Many leading scientists were also Catholics or Christians, from St Albert to Nicholas Oresme to Galileo to Lemaitre and Gregor Mendel in the 20th century. However there were and are great scientists were and are now also atheists, agnostics, theists, or those of non-Christian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Indians and Japanese have also won Nobel Prizes, not just Europeans and Americans. Religion is only one of several factors which can help or hinder science or intellectual progress, and is not the sole or most important factor for many scientists or for scientific breakthroughs.
Human genius is universal, and while people can try to repress it where it flares up, even in theocratic societies like Iran or medieval Europe, it doesn’t stop them from flourishing. Therefore your attempts to show Islam is somehow more backward than Christianity or Western civilisation in my view, is easily and strongly refuted by the evidence.
