Musicmystery
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Joined: 3/14/2005
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OK. Look. I'll go slow.
Fuck the fuck off. Did I go too fast?
You've ignored all the links to Islamic science. You've embraced the idea that in the last 700 years, not one Islamic scientist, not in Arabia, Turkey, India, Spain, Africa, China, has contributed to scientific knowledge, and all during a time when the west was a backwards backwater not only mired in superstition, but even as late as the 17th century, confined Galileo to house arrest for the crime of teaching that the earth went around the sun.
And even when I backed off it, you want to continue to hound the matter.
Fuck off. Fuck off royally. Fuck off with painful toys up your backside.
Muslims made great advances in many different fields, such as geography, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, architecture, linguistics and astronomy. Algebra and the Arabic numerals were introduced to the world by Muslim scholars. The astrolabe, the quadrant, and other navigational devices and maps were developed by Muslim scholars and played an important role in world progress, most notably in Europe's age of exploration.
Muslim scholars studied the ancient civilizations from Greece and Rome to China and India. The works of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid and others were translated into Arabic. Muslim scholars and scientists then added their own creative ideas, discoveries and inventions, and finally transmitted this new knowledge to Europe, leading directly to the Renaissance. Many scientific and medical treatises, having been translated into Latin, were standard text and reference books as late as the 17th and 18th centuries.
Islamic universities; Al-Zaytunah in Tunis, and Al-Azhar in Cairo go back more than 1,000 years and are the oldest existing universities in the world. Indeed, they were the models for the first European universities, such as Bologna, Heidelberg, and the Sorbonne. Even the familiar academic cap and gown originated at Al-Azhar University.
In modern times, there is of course no "Islamic" science, or Buddhist science, or Hindu science, etc., because the very concept of science doesn't lend itself to those distinctions. Nonetheless, an Islamic scientist is likely to see the process as uncovering the signs of the divine, and as such, discoveries are likely to be summarily dismissed prior to closer examination by more secular minds.
In his famous novella entitled “Le Petit Prince”, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry describes in a passage the asteroid B-612 from where he believes the little prince came from:
"This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.
"On making his discovery, the astronomer has presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish Costume. And so nobody would believe what he said.
"Grown-ups are like that…
"Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report."
Did I mention to fuck the fuck off?
Your dismissive summary of Islamic sciences as "road side bombs and knapsack bombs" is childish, gilb, and moronic.
Fuck off.
No, really. Fuck off.
If you're *really* interested, go read the links. Go read some world history.
Commanded by the Koran to seek knowledge and read nature for signs of the Creator, and inspired by a treasure trove of ancient Greek learning, Muslims created a society that in the Middle Ages was the scientific center of the world. The Arabic language was synonymous with learning and science for 500 hundred years, a golden age that can count among its credits the precursors to modern universities, algebra, the names of the stars and even the notion of science as an empirical inquiry.
''Nothing in Europe could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600,'' said Dr. Jamil Ragep, a professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma.
It was the infusion of this knowledge into Western Europe, historians say, that fueled the Renaissance and the scientific revolution.
Islam's rich intellectual history, scholars are at pains and seem saddened and embarrassed to point out, belies the image cast by recent world events. Traditionally, Islam has encouraged science and learning. ''There is no conflict between Islam and science,'' said Dr. Osman Bakar of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown.
''Knowledge is part of the creed,'' added Dr. Farouk El-Baz, a geologist at Boston University, who was science adviser to President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt. ''When you know more, you see more evidence of God.''
Islamic science seems to decline only when viewed through Western, secular eyes. '
''Why did Muslim science decline?'' he said. ''That's a very Western question. It flourished for a thousand years -- no civilization on Earth has flourished that long in that way.'' the Ottomans, who took over the Arabic lands in the 16th century, were builders and conquerors, not thinkers, said Dr. El-Baz of Boston University, and support waned. ''You cannot expect the science to be excellent while the society is not,'' he said.
And in the past couple centuries, yes, Fundamentalists have worked against the embrace of science -- but not just in Islam; Christian fundamentalists are just as hard at work in their zeal to suppress it.
Now fuck off.
For real. Get the fuck out.
I'm not having a "discussion" with Roadside Bomb Boy.
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RE: The Erosion of Progress by Religions - 
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