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  jordan111 year, 5 months ago

  The Arab world was at one time far ahead of others in their intelligence/understanding of the world, especially in mathematics. Muslims studied ancient Greece, who had a culture dedicated to philosophy and the sciences.The Muslim world appeared to try and emulate that period of advancement, and take it beyond where it had left off. Their technological and scientific superiority was sought after by European scholars, who looked for translations of Muslim works. At that time most European scholars realized the tremendous scientific and technological superiority of the Islamic world and sought translations of Muslim & Greek works. The Greek and Muslim works flowed into Europe, especially after the 12th century.

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  jordan111 year, 5 months ago

  Continued: Arabic numerals and the zero symbol made possible the decimal system of computing.  Also, Euclidean geometry, together with algebra and trigonometry from the Arab world, increased the scope of mathematics. It also made it more accurate. This information transfer happened just in time, because from about 1350 & on, Christians in Spain began to destroy Islamic books (the original book burnings.) The Mongels destroyed their works as well.

  We owe a debt to the Muslims for their work, as well as to ancient Greece. How do I know these things? I looked it up.

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    Daylight1 year, 5 months ago

    jordan11

    You look for knowledge and you found it but those who do not look for knowledge blame Islam for every ill in the world, this a very unfortunate situation, always they trying to portray Islam and Muslims as archaic and religion of the enemy, they don't realize that they are very ignorant of everything about Islam and Muslims

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        HMTKSteve1 year, 5 months ago

        In this case, was it the religion that did these things or the people who follow the religion that did them?

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    sophie11 year, 5 months ago

    Jordan11--

    Excellent post. I would just like to add that the field of chemistry was also kept alive by the Muslims during Europe's Dark Ages. That was when it was referred to as "al chemia" which ultimately morphed into alchemy.

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      jordan111 year, 5 months ago

      I would just like to add that the field of chemistry was also kept alive by the Muslims during Europe's Dark Ages. That was when it was referred to as "al Chemia" which ultimately morphed into alchemy.">>>>

      I quickly looked that up, and found it was 'sacred chemistry.' Apparently Muslims found knowledge to be spiritual and integrated religion with progress, rather than view it as the enemy of religion. I'm impressed. Thanks for giving me one more thing to learn. ;)

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        sophie11 year, 5 months ago

        I'm beginning to find out that the enmity between science and religion is a fairly recent thing -- that, for instance, what happened to Gallileo, while terrible, was actually out of the ordinary. For most of its history, the motivation behind scientific pursuit was "for the glory of God".

        I wonder why that seems to have changed. I'm a Roman Catholic and also a biology teacher. I rely on my understanding of chemistry and the carbon cycle, for instance, to reinforce my understanding of the Catholic doctrine of transsubstantiation. I know the Catholic Church to be quite amenable to science. At the same time, I'm aware that there are some pretty aggressive proselytizing atheists out there who proselytize in the name of science -- Richard Dawkins comes to mind. How can we find reconciliation when people like Dawkins refer to faith as a delusion? Does he even want reconciliation?

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          jordan111 year, 5 months ago

          I'm beginning to find out that the enmity between science and religion is a fairly recent thing -- that, for instance, what happened to Gallileo, while terrible, was actually out of the ordinary. For most of its history, the motivation behind scientific pursuit was "for the glory of God".>>>>

          Could you share some of the sources you found for that? I would really like to study them. From what I've read this far, Christianity destroyed the works of the cultures it took over, as with the Muslims. Perhaps it's that which makes people think that Christianity shuns science. Anyway, anything you could provide would be appreciated.

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            sophie11 year, 5 months ago

            I would start with Thomas Aquinas who revived the lost works of Aristotle and started the scholastic movement around the twelfth century. I'm at work right now, so I don't have the references right at hand, but I remember a book a couple of years ago that outlined the entire history of science. The title of the book was "For the Glory of God". Can't remember the author.... sorry....

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  Chunjinhao1 year, 5 months ago

  AMEN!

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  sue20081 year, 5 months ago

  Jordan11--"found it was 'sacred chemistry.' Apparently Muslims found knowledge to be spiritual and integrated religion with progress"

  actually, they are always encouraged to seek knowledge.

  it is part of the individual's duties to know new things every day through education or experience or reading....

  in case you don't know already

  "al Chemia" is an arabic word for chemistry . it is pronounced " el-Kem-ya"

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