Muslims Once Led The World In Science, But Turned Their Backs To It

The Naples [FL] Daily News ^ | December 5, 2004 | Ben Bova

[quidnunc]

The Islamic nations of the world have a population of nearly 1.5 billion, or about one-quarter of the human population of Earth. Yet the gross national product of these nations totals less than half the GNP of Germany.

Poverty is endemic in the Muslim world, despite the fact that most of the world's petroleum deposits and a quarter of our planet's other natural resources lie within these Muslim lands.

The science minister of Pakistan, Atta-ur-Raman, and science adviser Anwar Nasim point out in a recent issue of the British journal Nature that Muslim nations spend only 0.2 percent of their GNP on scientific research, while spending up to seven percent of GNP on their military. They argue that if the nations of Islam put more funding into science, they could create significant economic growth.

Islam once led the world in science.

While Europe wallowed in the poverty and ignorance of the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, the lands of Islam preserved much of the classic learning that was lost in Europe.

-snip-

[MegaSilver]

Any thoughtful person who knows history and religion would be anti-Islam. Along with Communism, Naziism, and the Black Death, Islam has been responsible for more death and destruction on the face of the planet than just about anything else since the last asteroid impact. Islam was started by predators. It has spread by predation. It has lived off the decaying corpses of the civilizations it has destroyed. It is a vast, ancient sea of corruption, oppression, fanaticism, and ignorance lapping up against the shores of the present, kept alive by the fortuitous accident of living above huge reserves of petroleum.

BUMP

[rlmorel]

I would highly recommend Bernard Lewis's "What Went Wrong". (Please bear with me as I relate this, as I read the book several years ago, and may not have it exactly right...but I have the substance right)

As the Muslim world was reaching the zenith of their power, they adamantly refused to allow any translations of western books or materials. I don't have the exact figures, but I believe in 500 years one western document was translated into Arabic, and that was a book on venereal diseases. Apparently, venereal diseases were viewed as "Frankish" in origin, so a Frankish (western) book was needed and allowed.

The Muslim world was so adamantly opposed to anything non-muslim (sound familiar?) that during a naval battle in which the Muslim forces were soundly defeated by enemy (Dutch, I believe) vessels, there was a beached Dutch vessel that set off a violent debate amongst the Muslim leadership on whether or not they were allowed to copy any of the superior features of the vessel.

During this time, the West was furiously translating and absorbing anything useful from the Muslim world.

[Doc On The Bay]

SORRY, "T/D," Ben Bova is one of the BRIGHTEST PEOPLE our Culture has EVER produced.

WHATEVER you may think, Ben Bova is the "Intellectual Equal" of ANYONE you & I Know!!

Your "Distrust of" His "Thoughts" is based on a PROFOUND IGNORANCE of this EXTRAORDINARY MAN'S Intelligence.

BEN BOVA can converse with Stephen Hawkings!!--You & I CANNOT!!

Doc

[Fred Nerks]

"Velikovsky is the last person I'd go to for an understanding of history (or pretty much anything else.)"

Immanuel Velikovsky was born in Vitebsk, Russia, in 1895 and studied at the universities of Moscow, Berlin, Vienna and Edinburgh. From 1921 to 1924 he edited, with Albert Einstein, the Scripta Universitatis atque Bibliothecae Hierosolymitarum, from which the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was to grow. In 1939 he emigrated to America, to Princeton, New Jersey where most of his epoch-making research into the anthropological-mythical history of the earth was formulated.
World in Collision (1950) was followed by Ages in Chaos (1952) Earth in Upheaval (1955) and Oedipus and Akhnaton (1960) Peoples of the Sea (1977) and Ramses ll and His Time. Immanuel Velikovski died in November, 1979, aged eighty-four.
Mankind in Amnesia was published after his death, by his wife Elishiva, in 1982.
Unpublished works can be found on the following site:
http://www.varchive.org/

Take it or leave it, but do not dismiss an entire life's work with nothing but a thoughtless, flippant, ignorant remark.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the Bingo Pingo. :')

[Bandaneira]

Thanks for the reference. I've spent three years studying themany facets of the Temple Mount question.

[wideawake]

Nordic mythology also believed the universe had a beginning and would have an end.

The Nordics believed that the world we live in was created from preexisting matter, not ex nihilo, and that after Ragnarok it would all begin anew.

[aruanan]

BEN BOVA can converse with Stephen Hawkings!!--You & I CANNOT!!

And yet he is wrong historically about Muslim "culture". So Ben can have his off days, too.

[Gengis Khan]

"I don't think the Arab people have made a single advancement since the birth of islam. <---Oh Infidel, How easily you have forgotten. We have taught you how to saw off the heads of handcuffed hostages and how to blow yourselves up with innocent women and children. May Muhammad (piss be upon him) forgive you and grant you your 72 rasins."

72 Virgins u mean?
There is a joke here amongst Hindus :
Muhammad to the muslims that u will have 72 virgins in heaven if u blow up Infidels. What he didnt tell them was those those muslims will not have a body with them in heaven!

[Gengis Khan]

">>camel husbandry<<

>>And from what we hear they certainly brought a new and literal meaning to that concept...same for goat husbandry.<<

Now you're catching on to some of the errors I referred to when I said "trial and error." Ever notice how much Arabic song sounds like "Ma-a-a-a-a-a, Ma-a-a-a-a-!"

What i think it means is that the Arab men made the goats their husbands.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

Yeah, looks like they know it all. Not that they're letting idealogy blind them to the facts, of course.

[Trident/Delta]

I will pretend to not be offended by your rather blase'comments regarding my social skills and intelligence. Something that you base your judgement on from posts on the internet. But, Then again.....

Semper Fi

[Doc On The Bay]

SORRY, "T/D," Ben Bova is Not Only a "Science Fiction Author," but, also, a Respected Scientist (Or so I have been Lead to Believe!).

MANY "Contemporary SCI-FI authors" are Practising Scientists.

I MAY have overestimated his credentials.

No offence intended.

Doc

[null and void]

Muslims: "Hey, you guys stole our zero!"
Western Civilization: "Bwa ha ha ha! You'll never get it back!"

Thanks for nothing...

[VOA]

bump

[null and void]

And what sort of numbers do you use for balancing your checkbook?

The "Arabic" numbers, which they got from the Hindus.

[jimfree]

And now Islam preserves poverty and ignorance.