Here is a trailer for a documentary film, The Nature of Existence. It is not playing in theaters near me - and it is hard for me to predict the leanings of the films just from the trailer. On the one hand, I'm afraid that this film may be like the other absolute trash What the Bleep Do We Know. On the other hand, it does seem to contain interviews with some credible physicists and biologists (Susskind, Dawkins, Woosley, etc), and it is directed by Roger Nygard, the director of the very funny and amusing Trekkies (check it out if you haven't seen it). This can potentially be an interesting film and I hope it stays away from crap like quantum spirituality etc. From reading a bit on the movie website, I think I'm cautiously optimistic.
If you have seen it, let me know what you think about it. Here is the trailer:
The Nature of Existence - Original Trailer from Roger Nygard on Vimeo.
What is Irtiqa?
Irtiqa is Salman Hameed's blog. A few years ago (before Facebook killed many of the blogs), it used to track stories of science & religion, especially those related to Muslim societies. That is still one of its foci, but now it dovetails more of Salman's interests including film, astronomy, science fiction, and science outreach in both Pakistan and the US.
Irtiqa literally means evolution in Urdu. But it does not imply only biological evolution. Instead, it is an all encompassing word used for evolution of the universe, biological evolution, and also for biological/human development. While it has created confusion in debates over biological evolution in South Asia, it provides a nice integrative name for this blog. For further information, contact Salman Hameed.
The blog banner is designed by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad. You can find all his creative endeavors at Orangie.
Salman Hameed
Salman is an astronomer and Associate Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities at Hampshire College, Massachusetts. Currently, he is working on understanding the rise of creationism in contemporary Islamic world and how Muslims view the relationship between science & religion. He is also working with historian Tracy Leavelle at Creighton University to analyze reconciliation efforts between astronomers and Native Hawaiians over telescopes on top of sacred Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He teaches “History and Philosophy of Science & Religion” with philosopher Laura Sizer, and “Science in the Islamic World”, both at Hampshire College. Salman and Laura Sizer are also responsible for the ongoing Hampshire College Lecture Series on Science & Religion, and you can find videos of all these lectures below. Contact information here.
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Blog Archive
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2010
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- Science academies - old and new
- University of Hawaii Regents approve plans for TMT...
- Pigliucci and the Islamic Civilization
- Movie Trailer: The Nature of Existence
- Obama's science initiative in Indonesia
- Plato's cave in clay
- “Nonsense on Stilts” by Massimo Pigliucci – a review
- Paris Zodiac and science & religion
- Next time you eat a grape...
- Blood samples back to Yanomamo
- The Face of God – the French version
- Why do Muslims look for modern science in the Qur'an?
- Film Autopsy of SPLICE
- Streamlining the gene pool through religion
- A Report from the Islamic Astronomy Conference
- The Templeton Foundation Dilemma
- The invention of heaven
- Video for "The Curse"
- Drone strategy in Pakistan being questioned
- BBC radio show on the life of Carl Sagan
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June
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3 comments:
I have not seen it. And I did not like the trailer. It wasn't appealing enough to make me buy a ticket to see it. But if it is there on Documentary channel, I might give it a go.
Based on the trailer alone, I think it seems like an interesting movie. I did what and enjoyed What the Bleep and the Secret and this doesn't seem to be like that at all, which is not a problem. I love how it attempts to answer some of the big questions or at least to get a sense of what many great minds and not so great minds think about the topic. My only concern is that it might be very similar to Religulous which from my point of view was a complete was of time.
I struggled with this film due to Nygard's childish interview style that never allows any of the "celebrities" of the movie to actually say anything substantial. Sure he parades strange people and opinions before your eyes, but they only result in 93 minutes of short sound bites that bear little if any relation to one another. This movie is very disjointed and leaves the viewer wondering if the best parts of it were left on the cutting room floor. Steven Hawking had no interest in this movie and neither do I.
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