Monday, January 30, 2012

What kind of spiritual person are you?

This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.  The French magazine Psychologies,...

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Saturday Video: Ehab Abouheif and Taner Edis on Evolution and Islam

by Salman Hameed In October 2009, we had organized an international conference on Darwin and Evolution in the Muslim World at Hampshire College. One of the public sessions included presentations by evolutionary biologist, Ehab Abouheif and physicist Taner Edis (he is also the author of An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam). They have different takes on Islam and evolution....

Thursday, January 26, 2012

On creationists...

Tip from Farid Alvie. I have a whole collection of these 'ascent of man' cartoons. Of course, they also propagate the erroneous ladder view of evolution. But what can we do? They provide for some nice comic opportunities. Here is one of my favorites, from the New Yorker...

Gender issues in Pakistani schools

by Salman Hameed Kamila Shamsie, the author several novels set in Karachi (for example, In the City by the Sea, Kartography), had an interesting article in Guernica about schools in Pakistan. The challenges are immense. It is not just a matter of creating more schools - after all, the Taliban are also "students". It is about the quality of education and its accessibility to all Pakistanis. Here...

Monday, January 23, 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Saturday Video: Appreciating religious values within Atheism

by Salman Hameed Here is an excellent talk by Alain de Botton called Atheism 2.0. Instead of ridiculing religions, he looks at the positive virtues they have to offer and suggests ways in which they can be incorporates within atheism. He makes an interesting point that in the 19th century, with the decline of religion in Europe, many turned to literature to find lessons in life and morality. By...

Friday, January 20, 2012

A novel about growing up Muslim in Wisconsin

by Salman Hameed English writers of Pakistani descent are becoming more and more prominent. A recent issue of Granta, for example, was dedicated to these writers (see: Granta - and a flock of new Pakistani writers). Uzma Aslan Khan even mixed in the fossil riches of Pakistan with the debate over evolution...

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Tebow, football miracles, and Islam in America

by Salman Hameed I have to admit, up until recently I had no idea who Tim Tebow was and why he was so popular. And I do follow the NFL. But this season, the discussion of his Christian faith has become more and more prominent, and we've had to hear about miracles on the football field (though, I think...

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

New Yorker on God's schedule during the creation of the universe

by Salman Hameed It is really hard to create a universe. Here is a hilarious take on God's daily schedule while He was working on creating the universe. From Simon Rich in the New Yorker - The Center of the Universe: On the first day, God created the heavens and the earth. “Let there be light,” He said, and there was light. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening—the first night. On ...

Monday, January 16, 2012

My 100th Irtiqa Post + my own top-10 favorites

This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.  After almost two years of contributions to Irtiqa, I have hit the 100 milepost. Considering that numerous bloggers have reached the...

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Film Autopsy of the ambitious "The Tree of Life"

by Salman Hameed There were a number of ambitious films this past year. But I think no one can beat Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life in this category. It aims to place the day-to-day details of a boy's summer in Texas in the 1950s in the context of the whole history of the universe - from the beginning to the end! Yes, yes. The beginning of the universe 13.7 billion years ago, the formation of...

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Scientists must speak up against assassinations of scientists

by Salman Hameed Actually everyone must speak up against assassinations. But the news that another Iranian physicist has been assassinated is deeply troubling. I'm not in favor of nuclear weapons and there should every effort to eliminate them. But targeted killings of scientists associated with a nuclear program? How should we think about it? First of all, this is illegal. This is extrajudicial...

Talk at The Tech Museum in San Jose on Jan 15th

by Salman Hameed I 'm headed to the west coast (actually this post is from 30,000 feet above Salt Lake City). The Tech Museum in San Jose has an exhibition Ingenious Innovations: Islamic Science Rediscovered (the exhibition is there until Feb 26th). Along with the exhibition, the museum is also hosting a lecture series. I will be speaking this coming Sunday at 2pm (Jan 15th) and the title...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Hoodbhoy on Neutrinos and Angels

by Salman Hameed This was published in Pakistan Tribune. This is familiar territory for Pervez. He has been calling out on the pseudoscience of finding science in the Qur'an for over two decades. The real problem is that some of the proponents have scientific degrees - and that is a scary thought. This business of I'jaz, I think, is one of the most damaging pseudoscience prevalent in the Muslim world....
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