Comments on: And The Heaven He Raised

By: montag

montag — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 12:25:29 +0000

In re: conversion to Christianity:

(before 1933-1945 era) possible acceptability by “German society” as seen in the phenomenon of Assimilation and the life of Fritz Haber;

(1933 – 1945 era) not possible whatsoever.

A comparison of Haber and Einstein’s personal lives is surprisingly instructive.

By: Alipasha Sadri

Alipasha Sadri — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 05:15:07 +0000

Thanks Brian. I wish more people could think objectively and without prejudice or not from a place of ignorance about these issues.

I am an atheist which was brought up in one of those 7 banned countries; I know everyone cherry-picks the religious texts to prove a point, but there are “good” cherries to pick too. (yeah, I know I know; the majority of those texts are “literally” unacceptable to a descent and moral modern human. I am talking about “cherry-picking”) For instance I remember from my Religious Studies and Quran classes that you actually “had” to learn about the world because humans were supposed to be the “caliphs” of Earth and therefore had to KNOW it. It was a “duty” to study the workings of the world and cosmos and there might actually be a few places in Quran that you are discouraged from learning. So, if you wanted to cherry-pick, there were cherries that actually promoted science. There are many verses in Quran that end with “these are signs for those who think”. And these were the major forces behind the golden age of Islamic Empire. Scholar saw it as their religious “duty” to question things and find answers. There are philosophers from that era who would have been hanged or beheaded if made the arguments they made in many of the Muslim majority countries.

By: Brian Koberlein

Brian Koberlein — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 17:50:27 +0000

Funny how arguing in favor of basic human dignity is seen as “fighting for Islam,” and that somehow that makes me an anti-science pothead…

By: Anton

Anton — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:14:56 +0000

Scientists should fight for science. There is a lot of “people” who fighting for islam, and be sure, if you support them, as a result your kids will grow cannabis, and astronomy would be banned.

By: Aldor Ericsson

Aldor Ericsson — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:14:38 +0000

Well, if you want to, certainly. But I was thinking more along the lines of stoning improperly dressed women to death and exterminating Christians. Please understand, I never meant to deny that a person may be a Muslim and a brilliant scientist at the same time. But the Quran does not command all its followers to do great feats of science. It does, however, command to stone improperly dressed women. So I have all reasons to believe that brilliant Muslim scientists were brilliant not because they were Muslim, but despite that. That goes for all theistic religions, by the way.
As for Kerim Kerimov, he was a Soviet general, that means a member of CPSU and, therefore, atheist.

By: Brian Koberlein

Brian Koberlein — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:33:42 +0000

From Trump's own website: "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States..." Targeting Muslims was a campaign promise. I'll stick to science when racists like you stop getting in the way of it.

By: Tino

Tino — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 02:57:52 +0000

Brian, my highest respect for making such a clear statement. It would be easy just to paddle along, put your blinkers on and write another post purely about physics or/and astronomy. But no, you have connected some dots and highlighted some very important issues occurring within your country – and knowingly upset a significant percentage of your followers. You spoke out against a racist tyrant and his crowd – good on you for doing so.

First they came for the scientists, then they came for the Jews (or the Muslims in your case) Please make sure you don’t end up in a camp.

By: Wesley Sulek

Wesley Sulek — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 01:10:49 +0000

“the leadership of my country has seen fit to paint people such as these as dangerous” — No, the USA has not painted Muslim scientists as dangerous. The Executive Order mentions neither Muslims nor scientists. When Obama banned Iraqis for 6 months in 2011 no one complained. When Jimmy Carter banned Iranians in ’79-’80 no one complained. Scanning the authors of peer reviewed science journals hardly yields an abundance of Muslims. Stick to science, not poorly informed polemics.

By: sjastro

sjastro — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 22:08:49 +0000

The Arab invasions of the Middle East, Northern Africa and Spain was completed by the early eighth century.
The flowering of Islamic science and mathematics began in the ninth century.

Perhaps you would like to explain to us why the Islamic conquerors would hang around for a century before tapping into the resources of “non Arabic” astronomy (and mathematics).
Who exactly did the Arabs steal from?
Was it from the Persians or Byzantines from the Middle East, or perhaps the Moors from North Africa or Visigoths from Spain?
Only the Byzantines and Persians (Sassanids) were advanced and familiar with Greek observational astronomy and mathematics.
Whoever the Arabs “stole from” it’s up to you to show that observational astronomy and mathematics was already advanced beyond the Greeks before the Arabs came on the scene.
The fact is you can’t because there was no advancement prior to Islamic influence.
The advancement came from Islamic scientists and scholars.

Historically the pre-eminence of Islamic science came to an end in 1258 when the Mongols sacked Baghdad which was the intellectual capital for both Europe and the Middle East.
Baghdad never recovered.

By: LocalFluff

LocalFluff — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:35:21 +0000

Koberlein, why don’t you move to Saudi Arabia if that is your paradise on Earth?
Why do you religiously deny that islam means to never change, to never tolerate any differences, to never evolve? Islam is the first written arabic nomadic cultural inheritance. They refused to earn anything for 1400 years.First and only. That’s their tragedy.

By: Brian Koberlein

Brian Koberlein — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 14:32:33 +0000

See, Mike Peterson? I’ll leave this comment because it’s a good representation of the kind of comments I’ve been deleting. Despite clear evidence of the Islamic golden age, and modern contributions to science by Muslims (many of whom are Arabic, but certainly not all). A commenter sees fit to compare them to Nazis. Of course “LocalFluff” has to say these things behind a pseudonym. That’s what racist cowards do.

By: LocalFluff

LocalFluff — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 08:00:37 +0000

Do you deny that what you call “arab astronomy” was not at all performed by any arabs? It was a continuation of non-arabic astronomy worked on by people who the arabs had invaded and occupied. And after a few generations that pre-islamic tradition had died out and no cultural development occurred, they are stuck in their 1,400 years old ideal. Calling the occupied former world leading civilizations “arab” is like calling Einstein a nazi because he was a professor in Berlin. Completely anti-historic.