Comment by zappo2938

10 years ago

Isn't science and things like the invention of the scientific method and Arab numerals deeply rooted in the history of Islam?

22 comments

zappo2938

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silentsea90  10 years ago

Arab numerals actually come from India. Fun fact: Arabic goes from right to left but their numbers go from left to right, because they were learnt from Sanskrit which is written from left to right.

0xFFC  10 years ago

Despite being ex-Muslim (and being an atheist) I don't have (or care) any viable information about history.Specially about Islam's history.

reality_czech  10 years ago

That's kind of a weird question to ask. You are implying that somehow Islam is responsible for "the invention of the scientific method and Arab numerals." I don't think that's the case at all... there is nothing in the holy books of any of the major religions that could really be called the scientific method or Arab numerals. Cheerleading because some particular scientist or mathematician had [insert nationality or religion here] is kind of silly.

  • dragonwriter  10 years ago

    > You are implying that somehow Islam is responsible for "the invention of the scientific method and Arab numerals." I don't think that's the case at all...

    This much I agree with (though there may be a role of Islamic society in the development or spread of some key ideas, and Islam may contribute to that, calling Islam responsible for either the scientific method or the use of Arabic numerals is going farther than is supported.)

    However, I must take issue with this as support of it:

    > there is nothing in the holy books of any of the major religions that could really be called the scientific method or Arab numerals.

    While some major religions (especially, the Abrahamic ones) may give particularly important roles to "holy books", none of them have a content limited to their respective holy books, even if some (or some branches within some) purport that the entire content of the religion is derived from or capable of being understood by understanding the appropriate holy book. (Particularly, many of the groups for whom such a belief is part of the content of the religion have a holy book which does not contain that claim about itself, making such a belief about the role of the holy book itself a part of the content of the religion that is not contained within the holy book.)

    As such, the fact that something is not explicit in a religions holy book is not a basis for dismissing the responsibility or influence of the religion in that thing.

mkempe  10 years ago

Not at all.

  • skeuomorf  10 years ago

    Cite? Cause Al-Hassan Ibn Al-Haytham (Arab muslim), Al-Biruni (Persian muslim) and Ibn Sina (Persian muslim) among others played a big role in the development of the scientific method.[0]

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method#E...

    • mkempe  10 years ago

      The development of science is rooted in the works of Aristotle, Galileo, Bacon, and Newton. In order to succeed in the West it had to break the stranglehold of Christianity on the intellectual scene (thanks to Aquinas).

      Further, science has nothing to do with religion in general, and the Moslem religion in particular. On the contrary, Islam is radically opposed to reason, and the few science-minded intellectuals, inspired by Ancient Greek texts, that lived undr Islam rule a thousand years ago were persecuted whenever they attempted to uphold reason over faith.

      Parts of the growth of mathematics in the West, from time of the Renaissance, was inspired by the rediscovery of Ancient Greek texts. The Western mathematicians who looked at what Moslems had done with this were mostly revulsed, especially by their bad transaltions, and hence returned to the study of the original texts and problems, such as the Diophantine equations.

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  • srean  10 years ago

    I think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhazen deserves to be better known and I am forever intrigued by Omar Khayam. Those so called "Dark ages" was a very Christian thing. At that time Islam was doing pretty well by many standards of modernity, better than most of Europe.

    • ousta  10 years ago

      i think you might have thought you were on reddit right? putting comments like this without any comments backing it up and saying some leftist narrow minded view of the world full of self hatred toward the christian civilisation that accounted for a lot in the fact that you can today type on a keyboard posting on the internet (yes you guys think it is alright as you don't insult an opressed minority I know) won't work on HN.

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