We all know names of western explorers like Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Columbus and others who have put their names in the history of ocean and sea exploration.
When I was a little girl in primary and secondary school, my teachers told me about their important contributions and participations in building the “Great Western and World Civilization”.
They told us about Marco Polo and his adventures in China, Vasco da Gama and his success in establishing a sea route from Europe to India through Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Columbus and how he discovered America etc. But they never told us about the eastern explorers who made history before the others did.
Names like Ibn Battuta, Ibn Majid, Shamsuddin Abu Abdullah al-Moqaddasi, Ibn Fudhlan, Ibn Jubayr, Abu Bakr the Second (King of Mali), Piri Reyes and many other Muslim explorers were never mentioned until I entered university and discovered how important Islam was (and still is) to the world civilization.
I discovered the beauty and the richness of our Islamic civilization with all those many muslim figures who made history and left their own mark in every field in which they were specialized.
Each ethnic and racial group that embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged. One of the Eastern figures that attracted my attention in the world of sea travelers and explorers is the Muslim Admiral Zheng He.
Zheng He, the man who discovered America before Columbus did. He was born at the end of the 14th century, in a small town in the region of Yunnan to a Hui-family, which is a Muslim Chinese ethnic group. His birth name was ‘Ma He’. In China they use “Ma” as a short name for “Muhammad”.
His family claimed to be a descendant of a Mongolian governor in Yunnan or from King Mohammed of Bukhara. Raised as a Muslim, Ma He studied the teachings of Islam and memorized the Quran at an early age. His father and his grandfather completed their pilgrimage to Makkah.
They had a great impact on his education and it’s under their influence that the young Ma He would develop an intense curiosity about the outside world. The travels his grandfather and father undertook would contribute a lot to his education.
Aside from his religious education, Ma He was raised in a family where speaking Arabic and Chinese was something evident. That means that both languages were his mother tongue. He wanted to know everything about the countries that were geographically located westward of China. He studied their languages, religions, traditions, history and geography.
When Ma He was 10 years old, the army of the Ming Dynasty captured him during their military raids in Yunnan. They took him to Nanjing and there he did his military training. After that, they took him to Beijing to serve Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan and the 4th son of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Rising Star
Thanks to his abilities, loyalty, honesty, integrity and brilliance, Ma He became the best friend and the personal bodyguard of the young prince.
It was during this time and period that Ma He’s intelligence, wisdom and leadership abilities became visible. After all the campaigns and battles he led and fought on the side of Prince Zhu Di during four years, Ma He became the most powerful military commander in China.
When Prince Zhu Di became the new Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he decided to reward all the officers and officials who had supported him. Ma He was one of them.
In 1404, the new Emperor awarded him as “the supreme command of the Imperial Household Agency”. Zhu Di decided also to change the name of Ma and gave him his new title: Zheng. It was Zhu Di’s way to thank him for everything he did and as a symbol of the imperial honor. From that moment Ma He became ‘Zheng He’.
The political discussions he had with Zhu Di, the military experiences he undertook, his connections with the people of knowledge, trading with merchants and all the abilities he developed in his childhood will only open new doors and horizons to him: exploring the world.
The emperor chose him as the ideal commander for the great voyages westward. After he became the most powerful commander in China, he became China’s greatest maritime explorer. Admiral Zheng He, became his new title. Zhu Di held Zheng He responsible for all the maritime affairs.
Zheng He prepared everything very carefully before he accomplished his mission as an explorer. He made some detailed studies about existing naval charts, astro navigation, eastern and western calendars, astronomy, geography, marine sciences, piloting, shipbuilding and repair.
From 1405 until 1433, Zheng He led 7 great maritime expeditions. He crossed the great oceans and seas several times. From the South China Sea to the east coast of Africa, passing through the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
He visited more than 30 Asian and African countries and learned a lot about their cultures and beliefs. It is possible that during one of his expeditions he completed his pilgrimage to Makkah. Zheng He was not the only Muslim on those expeditions. Advisors and translators who traveled with him, like Ma Huan were just like him, Chinese Muslims.
The first fleet Zheng He commanded included 27.870 men on 317 ships, including sailors, clerks, interpreters, soldiers, artisans, doctors and meteorologists. He was on his way to Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Java and Sumatra.
The ships that Zengh He commanded were up to 137.2 m long and 186 across, capable of carrying more than thousand passengers as well as a massive amount of cargo with products like porcelain, gold and silverware, cotton, copper and silk goods. Those ships were many times the size of Columbus’s ships that passed across the Atlantic and several times larger than any other wooden ship ever recorded in history.
The most spectacular and important voyage of Zheng He was his 4th one with his 30,000 men, which was to Arabia (through Hormuz, Aden and the Red Sea). When he arrived in Arabia, 19 countries sent ambassadors to board Zheng He’s ships with gifts for Emperor Zhu Di.
After his trip to Arabia, he travelled to the east coast of Africa and possibly reached Mozambique.
After the death of Emperor Zhu Di in 1424, the new Emperor (Hongxi), ceased immediately all the maritime expeditions. China became a self-isolated country during the coming 100 years.
New Phase & Discovering New World
Zheng He was appointed as port commander in Nanking and received orders to disband his army. Zheng He chose with the support of Xuande, who had succeeded Hongxi, to bring life again to his expeditions.
On his 7th and last travel in 1433 (when he became 60 years old) , Zheng He revisited the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and Africa and died in India on his way back.
It is also proven that Zheng He discovered America and Australia in one of his trips before Columbus did. And he also reached the east coast of Africa and sailed from the Cape of Good Hope to the Cape Verde Islands before Marco Polo did.
Every time Zheng He reached a country, he sailed back to China with exotic products such as ivory, camels, gold and other goods.
All those expeditions sent one message to the world: China is an economic and political superpower. But Zheng He added another important thing in his travels: calling people to Islam. With his muslim advisors, Zheng He invited the local people to embrace islam wherever they traveled to.
In the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo and others, small Muslim communities were already installed before they met Zheng He. The spread of the Islamic message in Southeast Asia began a few 100 years earlier thanks to the Arab and Indian merchants. Zheng He actively supported the continuous growth of Islam in these areas.
To facilitate the spread of Islam quickly in Southeast Asia, Zheng He established Chinese Muslim communities in Palembang, Java, the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. Their task was to spread islam around the area to build mosques and to provide other social services the local Muslim community would need.
After his death, the Chinese Muslims in Southeast Asia continued Zheng He’s work in different ways. This brought more people to Islam in Southeast Asia and strengthened the growing Muslim community in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and this complete Southeastern Asian area.
Conclusion: Zheng He, China’s greatest maritime explorer, isn’t only the pride of the Chinese history, but also a very unique hero in the history of our Islamic civilization.
Al-Battani (Albategnius): The Trigonometrical Genius
Abu Abdallah Muhammad Ibn Jabir Ibn Sinan Al-Battani Al-Harrani, known in the West as Albategnius, is considered the greatest astronomer of his time and one of the greatest during the Middle Ages.
Al-Battani was born around 858 C.E. in Battan, a state of Harran, and was first educated by his father Jabir Ibn San’an Al-Battani, a well-known scientist. He then moved to Ar-Raqqa, situated on the bank of the Euphrates in Syria, where he received advanced education and began his career as a scholar.
The Fihrist (Index), compiled by the bookseller Ibn An-Nadim in 988, gives a full account of the Arabic literature available in the 10th century and briefly describes some of its authors. It depicts Al-Battani as:
… one of the famous observers and a leader in geometry, theoretical and practical astronomy, and astrology. He composed a work on astronomy, with tables, containing his own observations of the sun and moon and a more accurate description of their motions than that given in Ptolemy’s Almagest.
In it, moreover, he gives the motions of the five planets, with the improved observations he succeeded in making, as well as other necessary astronomical calculations. Some of his observations mentioned in his book of tables were made in the year 880 and later on in the year 900.
Nobody is known in Islam who reached similar perfection in observing the stars and scrutinizing their motions. Apart from this, he took great interest in astrology, which led him to write on this subject too. Of his compositions in this field, I mention his commentary on Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos.
Al-Battani’s Kitab al-Zij is by far his most important work. The book contains 57 chapters, beginning with a description of the division of the celestial sphere into the signs of the zodiac and into degrees. The necessary background mathematical tools are then introduced (such as the arithmetical operations on sexagesimal fractions and the trigonometric functions).
Chapter Four contains data from al-Battani’s own observations. Chapters Five through 26 discuss a large number of different astronomical problems – following, to some extent, material from the Almagest. Ptolemy’s theory regarding the motions of the sun, moon, and five planets are discussed in Chapters 27 through 31; however, for al-Battani, the theory appears less important than the practical aspects.
After providing the method for converting data from one era to that of another, al-Battani then devotes 16 chapters explaining how his tables are to be read. Chapters 49 through 55 cover problems in astrology, while Chapter 56 discusses the construction of a sundial. The final chapter discusses the construction of a number of astronomical instruments.
What were al-Battani’s main achievements in Kitab Al-Zij? He catalogued 489 stars, refined the existing values for the solar year’s length (as 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 24 seconds), calculated 54.5″ per year for the precession of the equinoxes, and obtained the value of 23.35′ for the inclination of the ecliptic.
Rather than using geometrical methods, as Ptolemy had done, al-Battani used trigonometrical methods, constituting an important advance. For example, he provided important trigonometric formulas for right-angled triangles such as: b sin(A) = a sin(90-A).
Al-Battani showed that the farthest distance of the Sun from the Earth varies and, as a result, annular eclipses of the Sun are possible as well as total eclipses.
However, Ptolemy’s influence on all medieval authors was remarkably strong so that even a brilliant scientist like Al-Battani probably did not dare claim a different value of the distance from the Earth to the Sun than that given by Ptolemy. This occurred despite the fact that Al-Battani was able to deduce a value from his own observations that differed greatly from Ptolemy’s.
Particularly in the Middle Ages, Al-Battani’s original discoveries in both Astronomy and Trigonometry were of great consequence to the development of the sciences.
He had substantial influence on scientists such as Tyco Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus, managing to produce more accurate measurements of the motion of the sun than did Copernicus who expressed his indebtedness to Al-Battani in his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Clestium.
Beer and Madler, in their famous work Der Mond (1837), refer to one of the surface features of the moon (a plain eighty miles in diameter in Section One that is surrounded by mountains ten to fourteen thousand feet high, several craters, and several saucer-shaped pits) as Albategnius.
The printed edition of Al-Battani’s Kitab al-Zij was translated into Latin as De Motu Stellarum (On The Motion Of The Stars) by Plato of Tivoli in 1116, and appeared in 1537 and again in 1645. A Spanish translation was made in the 13th century; both it and Plato of Tivoli’s Latin translation have survived.
Al-Battani’s greatest fame came in Mathematics, with the use of trigonometric ratios as we use them today. He was the first to replace the use of Greek chords by sines, with a clear understanding of their superiority. He also developed the concept of cotangents, and furnished their tables in degrees.
According to tradition, Al-Battani died while en route to Baghdad to protest on behalf of a group of people from Ar-Raqqa who had been unfairly taxed. His memory remains strong today in the field of Islamic scientific history; he is even mentioned on modern television shows.
Al-Battani’s reputation as a premier astronomer has even worked its way into Star Trek lore. According to Star Fleet records, the first posting of newly graduated Ensign Kathryn Janeway was the USS Al-Battani. During her assignment, Janeway once knocked out power to six of its decks by misaligning positronic relays. She would survive this embarrassing mishap, however, and rise to the rank of Captain and Commander of the USS Voyager.
Astronomers of the Islamic Golden Era
The list of prominent stars with Arabic names or those derived from Arabic is a long one. The reason is simple – they reflect the contributions of Medieval Muslims, from Baghdad to Granada, to our understanding of the stars and the planets.
Almost as soon as they had established their capital at Baghdad in 762, the Abassid Caliphs cultivated the study of astronomy. After a period of translation, during which the works of Euclid, Archimedes and Ptolemy were studied, Islamic scholars made significant discoveries and contributions to the entire field.
The results of astronomical observations at centers in Baghdad and Damascus were collected in a work entitled: “The Verified Table in the 9th Century.” Among the books were many accurate notations like the calculation that the obliquity of the ecliptic; which matches almost exactly the modern figure.
Observations of the equinoxes made it possible to measure the length of the solar year with a high degree of accuracy. Muslim astronomers of the 9th Century even attempted the fundamental operation of measuring an arc of the terrestrial median – an operation that wasn’t to succeed until a thousand years later.
This was done by assessing the distance between the point chosen as a part of departure by the observers and the spot where they were when the height of the pole had varied by one degree.
In addition, the Baghdad school produced astronomical tables of the position of the planets and an exact determination of the precession of the equinoxes.
Other scholars determined the precession of the equinoxes with unprecedented accuracy, drew up tables showing the positions of the planets and, in 959, arrived at the figure of 33 20′ for the latitude of Baghdad – a margin of error of only 10″.
Abul-Wefa, who died in Baghdad in 998, recognized that the limits of the greatest latitude of the moon were variable. His attempts to account for what was clearly an imperfection in Ptolemy’s theory of the moon, led him to observe, in addition to the equation of the center of evection, a third irregularity – now known as the theory of variation.
Political turmoil and repeated invasions from the end of the 10th Century eventually led to the replacement of Baghdad by Cairo as the scientific capital of Islam. The astronomers of Cairo enjoyed the interest and protection of the city’s sovereigns. The library contained two celestial globes and 6,000 works on mathematics and astronomy.
The scientists conducted most of their observations from the summit of Mokattam Mountain, where Saladin Cairo Citadel now stands. The Egyptian astronomer, Ibn Jounis, who flourished during the reign of El Hakam II, prepared the Hakemite Table – which superseded all previous tables and was reproduced in all subsequent works on astronomy, including that of the 13th Century Chinese astronomer Co Cheou King.
Very little survives of the astronomical research of Spanish Muslims due to the systematic destruction of their manuscripts during the 15th Century. Hence, most of the Muslim astronomers of Islamic Spain are known to us only by their names. However, the few clues we do have as to the content of their work leave no doubt as to its importance.
For example, Arazachel, who lived in the 11thCentury, is known to have made 402 observations of the apogee of the sun. He also determined the annual value of the movement of the precession of the equinoxes at 50″, which is the exact figure given in modern tables.
Some historians of science believe, based on the astronomical works of Alfonso X of Castile and similar documents, that the Muslims of Spain had discovered the elliptical movement of the planets and the theory of the earth’s motion around the sun well before Johannes Kepler and Nicolas Copernicus.
The instruments used to achieve these results were primitive by modern standards and almost solely dependent on precise human observational skill; a fact that heightens rather than diminishes their achievement. The only method for precise measurement of time was the sundial.
The pendulum had not yet been applied to clocks, so these early Muslim astronomers lacked the degree of accuracy in time measurement necessary in astronomical observations. Angles were observed with quarter circles, some of which had radii over twenty-five feet in length, and with astrolabes.
In summary, the medireview Medieval Muslim astronomers left behind an impressive legacy. They introduced tangents into astronomical calculations; prepared tables showing the motions of stars; determined the obliquity of the ecliptic and its progressive decline; and precisely estimated the precession of the equinoxes and the length of the year.
In addition, they noted the irregularities of the greatest latitude of the moon and in the process discovered the third lunar anomaly (now known as a variation). Their accomplishments are written not only in the textbooks of astronomy, but across the sky in the names of the stars themselves.
Hunayn Bin Ishaq: The Great Scientific Translator
Abu Zayd Hunayn bin Ishaq al Ibadi ranks as the finest medical and scientific mind of the early Abassid era. Born in 809 to an apothecary in Al Hirah, Hunayn went to Baghdad to study medicine as a young man. There he enrolled in the earliest known private medical school in Islam under the direction of Yuhanna bin Masawayh.
Desiring greater access to the classical world’s knowledge of the healing arts, Hunayn intensified his study of Greek. After mastering the available Greek medical texts, Hunayn undertook a program of the translation of these works into Arabic.
At the same time, the Abassid caliphs, in particular al Ma’mun, initiated a policy of rendering Greek classics on science, engineering and medicine into Arabic, in order to make them available to a wider audience. When word of Hunayn’s personal efforts reached al Ma’mun in 830, the physician was placed in charge of Bayt al Hikmah, the Abassid supported institution for the translation, promotion and dissemination of classical writings.
Hunayn quickly established himself as a careful, reliable and scholarly translator. Traveling widely, Hunayn gathered a collection of the best-preserved Greek manuscripts. Prior to undertaking translations, he would compare these manuscripts in order to obtain the best reconstruction of the original text. Once he had what he felt was an authentic version, Hunayn’s translations were precise but not overly literal.
The quality of these translations was such that Hunayn was paid for them with their weight in gold. Within fifty years Hunayn and his students completed the monumental task of rendering all of the most important Greek medical texts written over a millennium into Arabic and Syriac — including all of the works of Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, Discorides; and their important commentators…from Oribasius to Paul of Aeginata.
The importance of these translations cannot be overemphasized. Hunayn and his associates provided the medical review of the Muslim world, from Spain to Samarkand, with the knowledge of the ancients thus forming the foundation of the Muslim intellectual ferment of the next century.
It would be a mistake to think of Hunayn as merely a sterile translator. A prolific writer, Hunayn penned twenty-nine original books on a variety of medical topics and also prepared a valuable index of the Galenic writings available in Arabic and Syriac. Hunayn made significant original contributions and improved and modified existing medical theories and teaching procedures.
His Al Masa’il fi at-Tibb (Introduction to the Healing Arts) was quickly adopted as the principal manual used by examiners in testing physicians seeking licenses. In addition, Al Masa’il was commented on, summarized and interpreted by authors from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries. Translated into Latin, it was a widely consulted medical reference work for Western physicians throughout the Renaissance period.
Hunayn also wrote ten treatises on the physiology, anatomy and treatment of the eye. These volumes were the first systematic and organized texts on the subject in Arabic and are the earliest works to include anatomical charts of the eye. The influence of these treatises on the development of ophthalmology was profound, not only in the Islamic world, but in Europe as well. Oculists quoted and consulted them through the fifteenth century.
Hunayn was also cited by contemporaries and succeeding generations as the quintessential ethical physician. During the ninth century, rulers in both Europe and the East were fearful of being poisoned. Hence they exercised great care in choosing their attendants and in particular, their physicians.
The latter, after all, possessed knowledge of both drugs and their effect on the human body, thus making them highly qualified potential assassins. While Hunayn had an excellent reputation for integrity, the Caliph al Mutawakil (846-861), according to an often-told story, decided to test him.
Al Mutawakil offered Hunayn enormous riches if he would create a poison the Caliph needed to exterminate an enemy. Hunayn replied that he had spent his life learning about the healing aspects of drugs but would need to spend several years in study to master those with a deleterious effect. Insisting that he needed it immediately, the Caliph doubled his original offer.
Hunayn restated his original position. The harder the Caliph demanded and the higher he raised the price, the more Hunayn stood by his conscience. In a tone of moral indignation, Hunayn lectured the Caliph, explaining that a physician is sworn never to give injurious or deadly medicine and that professional ethics demand that practitioners do all they can to help their clients, not harm them.
The Caliph, he said, would do better to look elsewhere for his poison. Thrown into prison and threatened with execution for defiance, Hunayn stated that he would rather accept death than violate the ethics of a medical doctor. Al Mutawakil Hunayn died in Bahdad in 873 at the age of 64. Not only did he leave behind a rich legacy of translations and original works, but his exemplary life helped establish the ethical standards of behavior that exist to this day in the medical profession.
Origins of Life in Universe: By Design or Chance? Book Review
Scientists, philosophers, metaphysicists and theologians have debated about the concept of an ‘intelligent creator’, or God, from ancient times. Some are as devoted to proving that this universe is ‘Godless’ as monotheists are fervent to prove otherwise.
The debate, in recent times, has grown out of being only a quibbling matter for philosophers to a theory that can be proven or falsified by science. Many scientists believe that what cannot be tested or falsifiable cannot be a valid theory and thus the idea of God, in the opinion of some, is the product of human imagination or human need for a superior deity.
Some evolutionists encourage the concept of a “God-free” universe like Canadian evolutionary biologist Denise Lamoureux, who believes that “…the dangerous notion arises that maybe human ignorance is in effect the ‘creator’, a resident only of our minds”.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that not all scientists are at conflict with religion. By Design or by Chance makes this point clear, as well as introducing the interesting concepts of creationism, intelligent design and evolution to the lay reader.
Denyse O’Leary uses her journalistic style effectively in explaining the controversy on the origins of life.
As a Muslim, I am not unbiased towards the issue of the origin of life. But I am always open to reading different points of view, especially on such mind-teasing subjects as this one, which I find intellectually fulfilling.
Truthfully, even after studying evolution in school and without any influence from religion, I have never been able to come to terms with the idea that humans evolved from a blob of simple cells which later self-organized to what we are today.
The book presents excellent arguments for intelligent design, and surprisingly, the arguments for chance (meaning that life began by mere chance) are unexpected.
Among the main players in this controversy are the Darwinists and the Creationists. However, amidst the monopoly Darwinism has on scientific thought and the educational systems in the West, re-emerges a school of thought known as Intelligent Design.
Perfection by Accident
What is the possibility that we are here by chance? Before answering this question, it is important to note that there is a difference between some types of evolutionists and strict Darwinists.
“Evolution is the theory that all life forms are descended from one or several ancestors that were present on the early earth three to four billion years ago.” Many evolutionists are practicing monotheists and believe in a superior deity who used evolution as a process of creation.
As quoted from the book, Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project, says, “God decided to create a species with whom he could have fellowship. Who are we to say that evolution was a dumb way to do it? It was an incredibly elegant way to do it.”
On the other hand, staunch Darwinists claim that the universe as a whole, and not only humans, are here today by mere accident. Darwin, in his book On the Origin of Species, played on the concept of chance.
This simply means that “the universe [is] Godless and meaningless, and that human beings [are] a random outcome of its process”. To understand further, the key principle of Darwinian evolution was common descent by natural selection through a completely random process that came about spontaneously.
In the introduction of this book, the meaning of Darwinism is explained beautifully, touching upon the basic scientific meaning of Darwinian evolution, the theory of chance as well as the birth of social Darwinism.
According to O’Leary, this theory was welcomed both in the scientific community as well as socially due to the secular settings of the society at that time.
Scientists liked Darwin’s simplification. It especially suited the materialistic world of 19th century England. It provided a powerful support for a belief that was already rapidly growing among intellectuals …
Thus, Darwin became the popular central figure in biology in the same way that Freud had in psychology, and Marx in politics.
However, although this theory was accepted widely in the existing secular and modernist society, its scientific validity was questionable to many scientists. The unimaginable complexity of the cell and matter at microscopic level was a heavy factor at discrediting the idea that molecules such as DNA could evolve “by law acting on chance”.
Also, the idea that simple matter can ‘self-organize’ into present-day organisms composed of intricate systems and exist in a world that is “fine-tuned” for life by accident is not a sufficient nor reasonable answer, especially since no ‘self-organizing’ accidents have happened in our time.
It is important to note that, despite the debate on the credibility of Darwinism, it persists as a key element in Western curricula because it endorses the modernist religion. As stated in the book,
Some teachers have been forbidden even to bring up known problems with the theory.
This is because modernism is the unacknowledged religion of tax-supported public school systems, and Darwinism is one of modernism’s most important teachings.
Others
Before going further into Darwin’s theory, it is necessary to introduce two more schools of thought. After becoming acquainted with evolutionists and Darwinists, two other schools of thought remain: the Young Earth Creationists and the supporters of Intelligent Design.
Not everyone has been swept into secular life-style beliefs. Young Earth Creationists emerge from the evangelical Christian Church, who base their views on the history of life from the literal interpretation of Genesis.
As for my personal favorite, the ID theory (intelligent design) argues the exact opposite of Darwinism; that life “is a product of design”. Most ID supporters relate this design to an intelligent and divine creator. However, some ID scientists argue for intelligent design without the belief that it is from a divine deity.
Irreducible Complexity
Popular belief has it that evolution is a continuous series of improvements whereas, as stated in the book, it is really a continuous series of change, which happen by chance.
As chance would have it, human life, all the way from the intricacy of the eye to the infinite complexity of the brain, has evolved (by chance, they say) from life forms like the archaea (a single cell creature believed to be one of the oldest life forms on earth), with chance being on our side every time the dice is rolled.
However, ID activist and biochemist Michaeal Behe argues for ‘irreducible complexity’, a concept that he introduced publicly and is one of the backbones of the ID theory. It quite simply says.
A biological system is irreducibly complex when its operation requires the cooperation of numerous parts, none of which performs a useful function unless all are present.
A car cannot be understood as a tricycle that sprouted a four-stroke engine and an extra wheel … [just as] most of the steps that separate your computer from a typewriter were the product of intelligent design.
An example of this is the bacteria’s motorized propeller, as argued by ID scientists. Thus the bacteria’s flagellum is the logo of the ID movement. Discovered in 1973, the flagellum is the unique characteristic that enables bacteria to swim. From its complexity, ID scientists reason that it cannot “arise from a series of lucky accidents”.
This simply means that, for example, the human eye can only function as an eye, with all its parts and systems, as it is today; it could not have evolved from 10% or even 90% of an eye. Logically anything less would be of no use and so would not be able to exist in the first place. Thus, natural selection cannot select something that does not exist.
Even playwright George Bernard Shaw illustrates this point vividly, although being an evolutionist himself. He says, “if this sort of selection could turn an antelope into a giraffe, it could conceivably turn a pond full of amoebas into the French academy.”
Scientism and the Way Overboard
Scientism is based on the following belief: “Truth can be discovered only through the scientific method. Anything that cannot be discovered in that way cannot be true. The scientist assumes that religious beliefs are a form of fraud.” We cannot say that this philosophy is mainstream or the norm amongst scientists.
However, it does gain momentum in some circles especially in an increasingly materialistic world. According to ID advocate Phillip Johnson, this philosophy is appealing to many because “it gives science a virtual monopoly on the production of knowledge, and it assures scientists that no important questions are in principle beyond scientific investigation.”
Evolutionists usually challenge the intelligent design theory by accusing it to be unscientific. It is said that what cannot be falsifiable by evidence cannot be science. But logically, if someone were to demonstrate that there are no irreducibly complex systems, then ID would be falsified.
As mathematician William Dembski puts it, “Show me in detail how a nonpurposive natural process can bring about molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum.”
In the opinion of some, ID is just an excuse for monotheists to prove that there is a god. Is that really necessary? I find that assumption absurd because belief is a matter of faith and not a fact of science. Only the materialistic mind cannot grasp the notion of faith because its assertion would be too much of a responsibility. Faith does not need the affirmation of science; it is in itself an ultimate proof.
At the end, after introducing us to the Darwinists, Young Earth Creationists and the supporters of ID throughout her book, with a plethora of quotations from scientists of all sects, I anticipated a few quotes or references from Muslim scientists but was not appeased.
I understand that the Muslim contribution may not be as apparent as the Young Earth Creationists in the West; however, the title of the book indicates that the debate is universal and not restricted to only two or three groups of thought.
Islam, being a monotheistic religion, has clear convictions on the origin of life, which deserves to be noted in more detail. O’Leary does mention briefly that there are Muslim creationists as well as Muslim ID supporters, but this was not illustrated with any quotations or opinions from prominent Muslim scholars.
More deserves to be said about this book, however I will end with the epigraph Denyse O’Leary chose to begin her book with which says a lot. “The most important question for any society to ask is the one that is forbidden” – Richard Halvorson, Harvard Crimson (2003).
Revolution in Brain & Spinal Disease Treatment
For a long time, the human brain was considered a mystery concealed in a box. It was, and still is, extremely difficult to diagnose what is going on inside. But thanks to advancements in new imaging techniques, we now have the opportunity to see the brain in action and so better diagnose and treat it.
Brain cells don’t regrow or regenerate as other human cells. For instance, if someone has a liver disease, cells may regrow and compensate for those damaged ones. This doesn’t happen with brain cells, however, and whenever there is damage, it is an irreversible one. This adds to the burden of brain diseases.
The discovery of the potential use of stem cells in repairing damaged and diseased cells offers a revolution in treatment tactics, especially for those known as irreversible diseases.
What are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are the mother cells for all the cells in our bodies. They can self-renew to produce more stem cells or more specialized cells. They can grow to become bone cells, muscle cells, eye cells, skin cells, or any other type of cell in the body. They have the ability to repair damaged cells too.
They are different from other cells by two significant characteristics. First, they are capable of renewing themselves even after being inactive for long periods of time. Second, they can be provoked under certain conditions to become tissue- or organ-specific cells with particular tasks.
There are two main types of stem cells: embryonic and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells were first discovered when embryos were created through in vitrofertilization procedures and were no longer needed, and donated for research after informed consent of the donor.
Adult stem cells are present in grown up bodies and can reproduce daily to provide certain specialized cells. Adult stem cells were discovered in 2006 when researchers genetically reprogrammed some adult cells to stem cell-like model.
There are three possible sources of stem cells to use for transplants: bone marrow, the bloodstream, and umbilical cord blood from newborns.
It’s easier for both doctors and the donor to produce more stem cells from peripheral blood than from bone marrow. But the risk of graft-versus-host disease is somewhat higher with peripheral blood stem cell transplants than with bone marrow transplants. On the other hand, umbilical cord blood usually raises ethical and moral concerns.
After having the stem cells from the mentioned sources, researchers grow them in the lab. These stem cells are operated upon to make them specialize into specific types of cells. This manipulation may involve changing the material in which the stem cells are grown, or injecting genes into the cells. Then the new specialized cells can be implanted into a person.
With regards to the nervous system, stem cells are transplanted either directly into the brain or through the blood stream or by using a carrying cell to transfer the stem cells to the target place in the nervous system.
Stem Cell Therapy in Neurological Diseases
Interest is growing in creating stem cell banks either from the umbilical cord of newborns to be used for these babies later on if needed, or directly from adults themselves
Many common neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke and Multiple Sclerosis, are caused by a loss of neurons and non-neural glial cells.
Recently, neurons and glia have been generated successfully from stem cells in lab culture. This is based on the idea that through transplantation of stem cells, we can replace damaged cells and restore brain haemostasis.
In recent researches, it was found that both embryonic and adult stem cells have the ability to produce neurons and other types of nervous system cells. The first application of this was done on patients with spinal cord injury. They suffered from weakness of limbs which would have led to complete paralysis.
After transplantation of stem cells, spinal cord damage was repaired and patients were able to walk again.
Furthermore, stem cells are currently being experimented with for use in treating Multiple Sclerosis, which is a disabling disease that usually affects young adults. If approved, it will carry great and marvelous hope for those patients as this disease spoils the most energetic period of life.
It is also being tried in the treatment of muscle diseases, Alzheimer and other neurodegenerative diseases.
In such diseases, the used stem cells repair and renew muscle fibres in muscle disease, replace dead brain cells after occlusion of blood vessel as with stroke, or regenerate brain cells and neurons in other degenerative diseases.
They showed promise in the results of these trials with recorded improvement both in disease manifestation and progress. But, unfortunately, till now, none of these treatments are approved for use and they are only for clinical trials.But interest is growing in creating stem cell banks either from the umbilical cord of newborns to be used for these babies later on if needed, or directly from adults themselves.
