Tuesday 4 October 2016

"Cutting the study of Islam a mistake"

Do you daily use soap, shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush, coffee, a clock, a camera, a fountain pen? Did you study algebra, chemistry or the scientific method at a university? Do you own a guitar or magnifying glasses in your home?
If your answer is yes to any of these, you have Islamic civilization to thank [*], from which all of these inventions and scientific disciplines, plus many more, were developed during the medieval period.
From "Cutting the study of Islam a mistake".  October 2, 2016.
[*] No, we don't!

Ok here's me the blogmeister commenting on these so-called "inventions" of the Islamic world:

  • Soap was invented in Egypt in ~200 BC, about 900 years before Muhammad (PBUH) came on the scene. 
  • Shampoo came much later and was a Hindu invention.
  • Coffee came out of Ethiopia about 600 years ago, but was as likely a Christian discovery as an Islamic one. I'll award half a point for coffee, then.
  • The first Clock was invented by an Englishman. 
  • As was the first Camera.
  • Algebra came out of India, not the Islamic world.
  • The Scientific method came out of enlightenment Europe, not the Islamic world. Indeed Islam specifically rejected the scientific method in the intellectual wars of the 13th century, won by the anti-scientific Al-Ghazali. This is recounted in Robert Reilly's "The Closing of the Muslim Mind".
So, that's just what I know, sitting here on an airplane in Moscow, and without doing any more research. In short, I've just debunked virtually every one of the claims of Islam's contribution to world inventions and science.
Nearly ALL of these claims about Islamic contributions to the world are bogus. [Later: see end of post: only 0.5 out of 10 of these items have anything to do with Islam]
They also reveal a great insecurity in Islam. Islamic apologists are always trying to show how Islam has contributed to the world's scientific progress. Whereas on closer inspection, their claims are revealed to be bogus. Like the religion itself. A bogus "religion of peace". A bogus addition to mankind's wellbeing. A bogus "perfect life" of the "prophet" to live by.
These claims, often repeated -- and perhaps even believed by their authors -- show just what a huge inferiority complex Islam has.
It is, in short, a deeply bogus and dangerous ideology. Its claims for having added to scientific advance are simply pathetic. Its totalitarian ideology is a retrograde force.
These laughable claims bring to mind Richard Dawkins' tweet a few years back that Trinity College in Oxford had won more Nobel prizes than the whole of the Islamic world. He was slammed for saying that, by sensitive leftie luvvies, who called him "hateful". But it's true, nonetheless. Imagine that: more scientific firepower in one college than in the 1.6 BILLION people in the Islamic world. Muslims ought to be thinking about that, rather than trying to blind us with soap and shampoo.
The article here is a classic in the genre of Islamic apologia. Misdirection and obfuscation.
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LATER (25/10/16): the Fountain pen was invented by a Romanian living in France at the end of the 17th century. Nothing I can find places the fountain pen anywhere near the Islamic world (so why claim it??).
LATERER (29/10/16):

  • Guitar: For its history see here.  The sum of that is that early guitars were developed out of the Lute (European) and the Oud (Moorish, and hence "Islamic", if you wish).  So, I'm going to score that as a half a point. Yay! for Islamic inventions!
  • Magnifying glass was first described in ancient Greece, with a modern version credited to Roger Bacon in England in the 13th century.  
  • Toothpaste goes back to 5,000 BC, in Egypt, China and India.
  • Toothbrush: the bristled version like we used to day was invented in China in 1498.  Earlier versions go back to 3,000 BC.
  • Chemistry's "invention", that is, its modern form, was by Robert Boyle, with the publication of his Sceptical Chymist [sic] in 1661.

SUM: out of 13 items claimed to have been invented by Islam, I score a half for coffee and a half for guitar = 1 out of 13.
Let's see: that would be 7.7% of those "inventions and disciplines" claimed as Islamic actually have anything to do with Islam.  I class that as: Fail.
A final note: as with other "Islamic inventions" I've looked into, there's an interesting little trick these folk do: if something was invented, say, in ancient Egypt, or ancient Persia -- in other words well before Islam invaded them --  it will be claimed as Islamic because those places are now Islamic!  A great cheat.  But just another example of the bogus of Islam, the deception we've become used to.  They're still up to it with the greatest deception of all: that it's a "Religion of Peace".