Fear of Science
This is from an article on the contemporary fear of science in the Muslim world in Nature Magazine based on a lecture by Ziauddin Sardar
On Islam and science two things can be stated with some certainty. One, science thrived during the classical period of Islam; two, science in Muslim society has suffered a drastic decline. The difficulties arise in trying to ascertain when the decline began and what the causes were. Historians of science offer different dates and reasons.
It is tempting to blame Islam itself. There is something in the teachings of Islam, the argument goes, which does not allow science to take root in Muslim societies. This suggestion not only belies history but also the basic teachings of Islam, which proclaims itself as an intrinsically rational world view.
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If the basic teachings of Islam are the same now as they were 1,400 years ago, what was it that drove science, learning, knowledge and creativity from Muslim culture? Historians have tried in vain to fix a date, to pinpoint what provoked the downward spiral. There are many factors to consider
Filed under: Changing World, Sloganism over Reality
Um, is there a fear of science or a lack of technological advancement in certain predominately Muslim areas? Is this because of the prevalence of poverty or because of a religious based aversion to science?
The reason I am asking is because I know plenty of Muslim doctors, engineers, etc. On Oprah I watched a team of Egyptian doctors that included a woman. In Muslim personal ads I see plenty of single women (doctors) looking for husbands.
I am not sure that contemporary Muslims feel that Islam doesn’t allow for scientific thinking. One of the interesting points in this post is the issue of zakat and institution building.
On another note I was recently listening to NPR and they were discussing the crisis in science education within the United States. The basic point was that American society, children and adults, have little general knowledge about science. This makes me think that a lot of the crisis in science is due to the changing structure of society or perhaps issues of access and the undemocratic nature of intellectual communities.
Does anyone else have other ideas?
A lack of patronage of the arts and sciences coupled with the ‘closing of the doors of ijtihad’ had something to do with the decline.
I don’t have statistics, Samira, but I think there may be a tendency for muslims to study science-based techniques rather than actual science- medicine rather than biology or biochemistry, engineering rather than physics. You only need look at muslims’ attitude to modern biology, with its evolutionist basis, to see that there are realproblems in accepting some aspects of modern science.
One reason for the decline, I’d guess, was the triumph of asharite philosophy over mutazalite in the muslim world, just when the mutazalites, especially Averroes and Avicenna, removed many of the constraints on European philosophy and enabled the “Rise of the West”.
I hope you realize what it means to have a headline; “fear of science”. What do you think the Pope’s speech at Regensburg was about?