Science and Religion in Islam

1. Science and Religion in Islam Taner Edis Department of Physics, Truman State University www2.truman.edu/~edis/

2. Why Islam? • Science and religion debate • Complicated. • Dominated by Christian background. • Islam is a close cousin of Christianity and Judaism, but is also different enough in theology and history to be interesting. Science and Religion in Islam

3. Science and the supernatural • Our sciences have converged on naturalistic explanations of the world – physics, biology, neuroscience… • Casts doubt on supernatural realities. ? Science and Religion in Islam

4. Worrying about materialism • Mustafa Akyol, (liberal Muslim, ID proponent): “ID is indeed a wedge that can split the foundations of scientific materialism… For the first time, the West appears to be the antidote to, not the source of, the materialist plague.” • Symbolic enemy. Science and Religion in Islam

5. Responding to materialism • Technology is attractive to modern religious people. Linked to science. So can’t ignore science. • Need to appropriate science, and correct science if it disagrees with revealed truths. Science and Religion in Islam

6. Conservative, popular options • Science either • Supports traditional beliefs, such as those derived from taking scriptures at face value; • Or if it does not, “True Science” done by the devout shows the errors of the materialists. Science and Religion in Islam

7. Creationism • Christian version: often young-earth. • Muslim version: Quranic; often old-earth. • Widespread belief in special creation, linked to scriptural literalism; • Popular pseudoscience. Science and Religion in Islam

8. Islamic Creationism • Turkish origin, but internationally popular. • Deny common descent. • Borrows from Christian creationists. • Sees “Darwinism” as a materialist conspiracy. Science and Religion in Islam

9. Science-in-scripture • Christian version: Electricity, laws of physics in Bible; Behemoth = dinosaur. • Muslim version: Modern science and technology anticipated in Quran. • Very popular legends. 55:19-20 about barrier between two bodies of water. Mediterranean-Atlantic salinity barrier; Jacques Cousteau conversion legend. Science and Religion in Islam

10. Quranic Embryology • Scattered verses such as 39:6 “God creates you inside your mothers, in successive formations, in three darknesses.” • Authority of Western MDs: Bucaille, Moore. • Fragments of ancient Greek medicine. Science and Religion in Islam

11. Quranic astrophysics • Seven layers of skies/heavens in Quran. • H. Nurbaki: • Solar system • Our galaxy • Local group of galaxies • “radio magnetic sphere” • Quasars • Expanding universe • “remaining boundless infinities” Science and Religion in Islam

12. Why so popular? • Miracle: Proves divine source of Quran. • Like Biblical prophecy for conservative Christians. • Intellectually worthless. Science and Religion in Islam

13. Not defending medieval ideas! • Turkey: much pseudoscience tied to Nur movement. • Said Nursi: respected religious leader. Orthodox. • Nur adherents noted for modern outlook; pro-capitalism, pro-technology enthusiasm. • Do pseudoscience because they value science! Science and Religion in Islam

14. Reconstructing science • Christian version: “theistic science” ideas in ID movement. • Muslim version: Islamizing science. • Design-centered biology and physics; • Social science shaped by Islamic social ideals, Islamic law. • Serious ideas much debated by Muslim intellectuals. Affects policy. Science and Religion in Islam

15. Sophisticated creationism • ID in Turkey. • Seyyed Hossein Nasr • Common descent OK; • No natural creativity; • Reconstruct God-centered science; • Revive medieval Islamic views. Science and Religion in Islam

16. Moderate options • Moderate, liberal Christians seek compromise with science, interpret Bible less literally. • Example: guided evolution (ID-lite). • Muslim case: there is some openness to metaphorical interpretation. • Some theologians adopt guided evolution, accepting much common descent. Science and Religion in Islam

17. Guided evolution • Even guided, non-Darwinian evolution is controversial. • Naturalistic process, particularly random element unacceptable. • Human evolution particularly unacceptable. Science and Religion in Islam

18. More liberal options • Christianity: the supernatural retreats to ultimate, metaphysical domain. Science deals with mere details, is autonomous. • Islam: much rarer. Science should be subordinate to revelation and moral concerns. (Even liberals think so.) • Exceptions: some defend autonomy of science. Abdolkarim Soroush in Iran. Science and Religion in Islam

19. What is different in Islam? • The religious and intellectual options Muslims face are similar to those for Christians. • But among Muslims, science is weaker and religiously-colored pseudoscience is stronger. Among intellectuals as well as the popular realm. • Why? Science and Religion in Islam

20. History • Past few centuries dominated by need to catch up to modern, especially Western world. • West has technological advantage  military and commercial power. Need science! Science and Religion in Islam

21. “Golden Age” exaggerated • Muslim science did not greatly decline. Europe surged ahead with a new way of learning about nature. • Medieval Muslim science embedded in religious, occult ways of thinking. Different from modern science! Science and Religion in Islam

22. Defending Islam • Borrow technology but guard against outside cultural influences. • Materialist aspects of science undesirable. External imposition, not indigenous heresy as in Europe. • Retain primacy of revelation; supernatural-centered view of nature. Science and Religion in Islam

23. Awareness of Christianity • European secularization seen as a disaster for religion; an example to avoid. • Separating science from religion is dangerous. Even liberals are reluctant to go this way. • Islam need not repeat Western history of science-religion accommodation. Science and Religion in Islam

24. Strong doctrinal conservatism • Liberal Muslim views much weaker than their Christian counterparts. • Reinterpretation, seeing religion as human strongly opposed. Even violence. • Even modernists, democrats can be cultural conservatives. Science and Religion in Islam

25. Creationism example • In education, commonly no evolution, or official support for creationism. • International popular, media-based creationism such as Harun Yahya. • Supported in intellectual circles, by academic theologians, by some science faculty in universities. • ID default in Muslim intellectual culture. Science and Religion in Islam

26. Weakness of science • Muslim lands very weak in science. • Applied science OK; • Lack of creativity. • Ineffective opposing creationism • Endorse pseudoscience • Tagged as secularist. Science and Religion in Islam

27. Secularism is discredited • Ideas with secularist associations suffer. • Secularism = despotic, elite imposition on pious populations. • Democracy  religious populism. Islam central to political legitimation. Science and Religion in Islam

28. No separate spheres? • Science and religion in West: intellectual friction, institutional accommodation. • Separate spheres. Science independent of religion. • Not in Islamic world? • How much of a practical problem is scientific backwardness? Religion Science Science and Religion in Islam

29. Plug Taner Edis, An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam (Prometheus Books, 2007). Science and Religion in Islam

30. Web site www2.truman.edu/~edis/ • Contains many articles on science and religion, and science and Islam topics. • E-mail edis@truman.edu Science and Religion in Islam

31. Thanks for listening! • Any questions? ? ? ? Science and Religion in Islam