Is Islam Scientific?
By Shafiya
April 2002
We have all been listening slogans as to how Islam is
a very scientific religion and anxious Islamists are eager to prove that
many modern day scientific discoveries were actually predicted in the
Quran. My article exposes this fallacy that Islam (for that matter any
revealed religion) is scientific.
My argument as to why Islam is not scientific is that
it never allows doubt. Doubt is one of the worst possible sins in Islam.
But science is built on the foundations of doubt. A scientist is never a
believer, for to believe in any thing means to accept facts without
verification. A scientist is always a skeptic, always a doubter. Does this
apply to Islam? NO, a big NO! Islam demands 100% faith with no room for
any doubt. Islam demands that we accept what the koran says, what the
hadiths say, 100%. There is no question for any doubt. No debate. No
questioning accepted of the basic beliefs. Any one daring to do so is
promptly silenced.
A true scientist does not follow this approach. For
example if a scientific theory is propounded, it is rigorously
scrutinized, experiments done, observations made and if all the results
correspond to the theory, it is accepted, till it is denied by later
observations and experiments.
Nothing is rigid! Nothing is fixed! Things are always
in a state of flux in the world of science.
For example Newton’s theories were accepted by the
scientific Fraternity for 300 years for they tallied with their
experiments. Newton’s theories also tallied with the then observation of
the planets. But science never demanded rigid belief in Newton’s
theories. (People not believing in his Theories were not called
unbelievers and persecuted.)
Along came the discovery of the atom and greater
observation of the universe by more powerful telescopes. Newton’s
theories didn't work well with the latest experiments, Until Einstein and
Plank proposed the Quantum theory. Nowadays the quantum theory is the
accepted theory in science, till newer observations turn up. Now Einstein
is not called an apostate for questioning Newton, nor will the future
scientists be if they challenge the quantum theory.
This is what we call the scientific approach...never
believing in any thing 100%. This is science, and not believing in
anything 100% and twisting facts and observations to correlate with some
koranic verses. A religion that coerces blind belief in `revelations’
can never claim to be scientific, for the basis of science is doubt.
May be religions like Buddhism, Jainism,
Confucianism, Taoism and Hinduism, which allow and even encourage dissent
& free thought can claim to be scientific but certainly not Islam,
Christianity or Judaism which depend on revelations and blind belief, and
especially Islam which stifles intellectual enquiry at the pain of death
& punishment, is never scientific and can never claim to be one.
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