science islam
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Science and Religion in Islam
Taner EdisDepartment of Physics, Truman State University
www2.truman.edu/~edis/
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2007 Science and Religion in Islam 2
Why Islam?
• Science and religion debate– Complicated.– Dominated by Christian background.
• Islam is a close cousin of Christianity and Judaism, but is also different enough in theology and history to be interesting.
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2007 Science and Religion in Islam 3
Science and the supernatural
• Our sciences have converged on naturalistic explanations of the world – physics, biology, neuroscience…
• Casts doubt on supernatural realities.
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Worrying about materialism
• Mustafa Akyol, (liberal Muslim, ID proponent): “ID is indeed a wedge that can split the foundations of scientific materialism… For the first time, the West appears to be the antidote to, not the source of, the materialist plague.”
• Symbolic enemy.
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Responding to materialism
• Technology is attractive to modern religious people. Linked to science. So can’t ignore science.
• Need to appropriate science, and correct science if it disagrees with revealed truths.
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Conservative, popular options
• Science either – Supports traditional beliefs, such
as those derived from taking scriptures at face value;
– Or if it does not, “True Science” done by the devout shows the errors of the materialists.
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Creationism
• Christian version: often young-earth.
• Muslim version: Quranic; often old-earth.– Widespread belief in
special creation, linked to scriptural literalism;
– Popular pseudoscience.
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Islamic Creationism
• Turkish origin, but internationally popular.
• Deny common descent.
• Borrows from Christian creationists.
• Sees “Darwinism” as a materialist conspiracy.
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Science-in-scripture
• Christian version: Electricity, laws of physics in Bible; Behemoth = dinosaur.
• Muslim version: Modern science and technology anticipated in Quran.
• Very popular legends. 55:19-20 about barrier between two bodies of water. Mediterranean-Atlantic salinity barrier; Jacques Cousteau conversion legend.
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Quranic Embryology
• Scattered verses such as 39:6 “God creates you inside your mothers, in successive formations, in three darknesses.”
• Authority of Western MDs: Bucaille, Moore.
• Fragments of ancient Greek medicine.
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Quranic astrophysics
• Seven layers of skies/heavens in Quran.• H. Nurbaki:
1. Solar system
2. Our galaxy
3. Local group of galaxies
4. “radio magnetic sphere”
5. Quasars
6. Expanding universe
7. “remaining boundless infinities”
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Why so popular?
• Miracle: Proves divine source of Quran.
• Like Biblical prophecy for conservative Christians.
• Intellectually worthless.
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Not defending medieval ideas!
• Turkey: much pseudoscience tied to Nur movement.
• Said Nursi: respected religious leader. Orthodox.
• Nur adherents noted for modern outlook; pro-capitalism, pro-technology enthusiasm.
• Do pseudoscience because they value science!
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Reconstructing science
• Christian version: “theistic science” ideas in ID movement.
• Muslim version: Islamizing science.– Design-centered biology and physics;– Social science shaped by Islamic social
ideals, Islamic law.
• Serious ideas much debated by Muslim intellectuals. Affects policy.
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Sophisticated creationism
• ID in Turkey.
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr– Common descent OK;– No natural creativity;– Reconstruct God-
centered science;– Revive medieval
Islamic views.
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Moderate options
• Moderate, liberal Christians seek compromise with science, interpret Bible less literally.– Example: guided evolution (ID-lite).
• Muslim case: there is some openness to metaphorical interpretation.– Some theologians adopt guided evolution,
accepting much common descent.
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Guided evolution
• Even guided, non-Darwinian evolution is controversial.
• Naturalistic process, particularly random element unacceptable.
• Human evolution particularly unacceptable.
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More liberal options
• Christianity: the supernatural retreats to ultimate, metaphysical domain. Science deals with mere details, is autonomous.
• Islam: much rarer. Science should be subordinate to revelation and moral concerns. (Even liberals think so.)
• Exceptions: some defend autonomy of science. Abdolkarim Soroush in Iran.
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What is different in Islam?
• The religious and intellectual options Muslims face are similar to those for Christians.
• But among Muslims, science is weaker and religiously-colored pseudoscience is stronger. Among intellectuals as well as the popular realm.
• Why?
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History
• Past few centuries dominated by need to catch up to modern, especially Western world.
• West has technological advantage military and commercial power. Need science!
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“Golden Age” exaggerated
• Muslim science did not greatly decline. Europe surged ahead with a new way of learning about nature.
• Medieval Muslim science embedded in religious, occult ways of thinking. Different from modern science!
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Defending Islam
• Borrow technology but guard against outside cultural influences.
• Materialist aspects of science undesirable. External imposition, not indigenous heresy as in Europe.
• Retain primacy of revelation; supernatural-centered view of nature.
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Awareness of Christianity
• European secularization seen as a disaster for religion; an example to avoid.
• Separating science from religion is dangerous. Even liberals are reluctant to go this way.
• Islam need not repeat Western history of science-religion accommodation.
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Strong doctrinal conservatism
• Liberal Muslim views much weaker than their Christian counterparts.
• Reinterpretation, seeing religion as human strongly opposed. Even violence.
• Even modernists, democrats can be cultural conservatives.
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Creationism example
• In education, commonly no evolution, or official support for creationism.
• International popular, media-based creationism such as Harun Yahya.
• Supported in intellectual circles, by academic theologians, by some science faculty in universities.
• ID default in Muslim intellectual culture.
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Weakness of science
• Muslim lands very weak in science.– Applied science OK;– Lack of creativity.
• Ineffective opposing creationism– Endorse pseudoscience– Tagged as secularist.
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Secularism is discredited
• Ideas with secularist associations suffer.
• Secularism = despotic, elite imposition on pious populations.
• Democracy religious populism. Islam central to political legitimation.
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No separate spheres?
• Science and religion in West: intellectual friction, institutional accommodation.
• Separate spheres. Science independent of religion.
• Not in Islamic world?• How much of a practical problem
is scientific backwardness?
Religion
Science
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Plug
Taner Edis, An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam (Prometheus Books, 2007).
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Web site
www2.truman.edu/~edis/• Contains many articles on science and
religion, and science and Islam topics.
• E-mail [email protected]
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Thanks for listening!
• Any questions?