by Salman Hameed

It seems that faith as faith is not enough. There is a huge temptation to "prove" one's religion based on science. What these individuals don't realize is that such efforts devalue religion and often makes a mockery of faith (also in the literal sense of the word, faith).

The trend of seeking science in sacred scriptures in not unique to Islam, but it is certainly quite popular in the Muslim world (see this post on: On the futility of finding science in the Quran and other scriptures). Some of this has to do with the loss of intellectual prestige. The argument is that "you" (meaning the West) may have the science, but that very science validates the faith of Muslims. The problem is that these claims are always based on awful understanding of science. But then the point often is not curiosity about how the world works - but rather just to have a confirmation of one's own faith from a method whose power is recognized the world over.

There are many examples of this matter. Some of these relate to Mecca. Two years ago, there were calls to replace GMT with Mecca Time. One of the reasons provided was a "scientific" claim that Mecca is the center of the Earth. Yes, even apart from the logical problem of the lack of center on a surface of a sphere, there were a number of other problems. I had three posts on the topic and if interested, you can check these out: a) The problem with peddling pseudoscientific claims regarding Mecca Time, b) Move over GMT, here comes a call to adopt Mecca Time, and c) Mecca Clock: Seeking prestige via borrowed science.

Unfortunately, there is more pseudoscience in this matter. I recently came across this website that provides a "scientific" reason of why the Tawaf around Ka'aba in Mecca is done in a counter-clockwise direction. Here are the claims on the website:

Worshipping Allah in one direction. Praising Allah in one direction.
When we revolve around the Ka'aba we are orbiting in the same direction as the whole universe and all the creations of Allah from the tiniest particles, to the largest galaxies, along with the human race unite in praise of Allah.
When we go around the Ka'aba, we are travelling in the land travelled by all the prophets of Allah, from the prophet Adam (alaihis salaam) to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)
The Ka'aba in Makkah is never free from circumbulators.
The Blood inside the human body begins its circulation "Anticlockwise"
The electrons of an atom revolve around its nucleus in the same manner as making Tawaf, in an anti-clockwise direction.
the moon revolves around the earth anti-clockwise.
The earth rotates around its own axis in an anti-clockwise direction
The planets of the Solar system revolve around the sun in an anti-clockwise direction
The Sun along with its whole Solar system orbit in the galaxy in an anti-clockwise direction.
All the galaxies orbit in the space in an anti-clockwise direction
Tawaf around the Ka'aba is "Anticlockwise"
Truly Islam is from Allah

Now - sure one can talk about the sacredness of the Ka'aba and its centrality to Islam. But, as you can imagine, to tie the counter-clockwise direction of Tawaf with physical processes in the universe might be a bit of a problem, especially when the claims are just simply wrong. At worst, these claims are based on gross misunderstandings. What is shocking for me is that this website (and its claims) came up in a positive way in an academic discussion!

So lets take a look at some of the examples. First of all, there is a fundamental problem of logic when ascribing direction of motion in space. This is because there is preferential frame in space. For example, a counter-clockwise motion from the "top" would appear clockwise from the "bottom" (and there is no absolute top or bottom). Astronomers ascribe a direction for the Solar system by using Earth north's pole is "up". But as our friends in the southern hemisphere know, that there is nothing absolutely unique about picking Earth's north as the reference point.  

But apart from the logical problem, there are also factual errors on the website: 

a) The universe - as far as we know - is not revolving around anything. It is expanding - and the rate of expansion is accelerating. But there is no axis of rotation, as there is no "center" of the universe. 

b) There is no preferential rotation directions for particles. The orbit of the electron can only be described in terms of probabilities (because of quantum effects). Textbooks usually simplify diagrams to show an atom like a solar system. But to say that electrons orbit in a plane - let alone in a counter-clockwise direction - would be wrong (see here for the visualization of electron cloud model).
c) The orbits of stars in most galaxies are not systematic (for example, elliptical galaxies are dominated (and supported) by random orbital motions). Even in spiral gales, only the disk stars can be said to have

systematic orbits. The bulge stars and halo stars do not.

d) On the largest scale, there are no generalized orbits around which galaxies are orbiting. As mentioned earlier, there is no preferential plane is space, so it is impossible to come up with a general direction of the motion of galaxies. But all galaxies are moving. But they are moving in the direction of their nearest strong gravitational tug. Here is what we have measured with respect to the Milky Way (remember, Milky way is not at the center of the universe, but since we are making the measurements in all directions, we appear to be at the center):

And there have also been attempts to present galaxies with respect to their distance from us. Here is how the wedge looks like (these are positions of galaxies within 2 billion light years of us): 

From the press release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS): The SDSS is two separate surveys in one: galaxies are identified in 2D images (right), then have their distance determined from their spectrum to create a 2 billion lightyears deep 3D map (left) where each galaxy is shown as a single point, the color representing the luminosity - this shows only those 66,976 out of 205,443 galaxies in the map that lie near the plane of Earth's equator.

Also see: What does the universe looks like beyond our Galaxy. And if you are interested seeing how it would be like to fly though the universe, here is a 3D simulation of the universe:

As you may have guessed by now, there is no sense of making a connection between the direction of Tawaf and stars or galaxies. But such claims serve as a good warning sign of the folly of using modern science to support one's faith. Let's keep faith as a matter of faith alone. But lets also ponder about the workings of the universe from a scientific perspective. 

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by Salman Hameed

Last week, a few people in Amherst, Massachusetts, saw something in the sky that could not be identified... (cue the X-files music, please :) ). From WWLP:

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - A "flying saucer," signs of extraterrestrial life, or an unidentified flying object; whatever you call it, some people in Amherst say they saw it. 

Witnesses told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that on Tuesday night, an object the size of two or three cars was seen hovering over Belchertown Road in Amherst.  One woman said that it wasn't far from her car. 

The unusual news was all the talk at the Black Sheep Deli on Main Street Thursday.
“If people saw something, they saw something. But I don't believe that an object in the sky was necessarily or was at all alien,” Amy Ware of Sunderland said. 

“I believe in it, because we are such a speck in the universe,” said Juliet Rose of Bernardston. “Who are we to think that we are the only ones?” 

Police say they did receive one call, but didn't investigate. Westover Air Reserve Base has a radar tower in Amherst, they told the Gazette radars didn't pick up any aircrafts in the area at that time.

So I had a chance to talk about this UFO sighting with Bill Newman on WHMP (last 15 minutes of the show). And then I also had a chat with Monte Belmonte of The River-93.9 not just on this sighting, but also on the petition to the US government to build a Death Star. Plus, a caller called Monte about a couple of more local UFO sightings. There you have it. Enjoy!

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by Salman Hameed

There are crazy ideas - and then there are CRAZY and offensive ideas. I used to teach a class on critical thinking and one of the topics we used to tackle was the Moon landing hoax (in case you are interested, here is an explanation of the hoax claims). Now that is an idiotic but  relatively innocuous idea. Then after 9/11, there was a whole new cottage industry on 9/11 hoax. In fact, I had a chance to sit through a movie that connected the Kennedy assassination, Moon landing hoax, and 9/11 in one go.

I'm also quite familiar with conspiracy theories in Pakistan (9/11 as an inside job is also quite popular in Pakistan). A prominent Pakistani scientist even suspected conspiracy behind recent floods (see this post: A prominent Pakistani scientist is stoking conspiracy fires).

But then there are offensive conspiracy ideas. For example, Malala was shot by the Taliban. They had threatened her before, and they explained it multiple times why they shot her, and if given a chance, they would do it again. There was a tremendous outpouring of support for Malala. But so were claims that the shooting was fake - or that this was all a ruse to justify an army operation in North Waziristan. After a 14 year old has been shot in the head by bearded "adults", it is offensive to hear outrageous conspiracy theories.

It is not that there are no conspiracies at all (heck - the fake vaccination program run by the CIA was offensive, unethical, and is partly responsible for the recent killings of health workers in Pakistan). However, if one starts believing in every nutty theory out there, then there will be no ground to stand on. And it is just way too easy nowadays to spread crazy conspiracy ideas.

So that brings me to the latest offensive crazy idea, that the Newtown killings of 20 elementary school kids was all fake, staged by the government to promote stricter gun laws!! So there you have it folks. The Malala conspiracy theories seem much tamer compared to this. Though to be fair, in Pakistan, some of these ideas have broader following than the fringe in the US. In any case, here is Anderson Cooper tackling the Newtown conspiracy theory. Absolutely nuts and offensive!!

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by Salman Hameed

Well, the End is near. The Mayan calendar is about to end on December 21st. In order to better prepare you for Finality, here is our recommendation of 5 best End of the World films - and one film to avoid at all cost.

Here is our Film Autopsy:

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by Salman Hameed

An engineer in Pakistan, Agha Waqar Ahmad, is claiming that he has invented a "water-kit" that allows cars to run on water alone. Okay - so lets cut to the chase. This is most likely bad science (a violation of 2nd law of thermodynamics) or possibly outright fraud. But that is not the point of this post. There are a number of good articles that have come out challenging the claim - and I have posted Pervez Hoodbhoy's article below. What is striking about this story is not the claim itself. There are many people who make bold, audacious claims that are often wrong. I get regular e-mails from people who have solved some of the ultimate questions in cosmology - and they are often making simple mistakes. That is no big deal. One always has the delete button.

The key surprise in the water-kit story is the reaction of the media, the government, and some of the scientists. The media not only covered the story, but framed it in the context of elevating Pakistan's image in the world. Some of the senior government officials peddled it as a solution to the energy crisis - and a diversion from the myriad of problems currently facing Pakistan. And the credulous reaction of some of the scientists - including the infamous AQ Khan - hmm...well...I'm at a loss for words to possibly explain this reaction of scientists.

I was trying to figure out how to evaluate this episode. This is indeed Exhibit A in the demonstration of the lack of scientific culture at some of the most important levels of Pakistani society. In particular it exposes the hyper-reactive media and the way they frame the story in a jingoistic manner. But this media-reaction is now a world-wide problem - and therefore, we need some basic critical thinking skills in evaluating claims.

It is this area that exposes the credulity of some of the senior government officials. For example, a basic knowledge of the nature of his claim (the violation of the second law of thermodynamics) and how such breakthroughs are announced. Just look the academic spat over the discovery of possible life forms in Martian meteorite, ALH 84001, or the more recent debunked claims of faster than light neutrinos. It is not that new discoveries are not made or that the second law of thermodynamics is sacred. But rather that any news regarding the violation of a well-tested law requires multiple tests before we can sure of the new claim, let alone being peddled as a solution to energy crisis.

The pertinent question is: Has there been decline of a scientific culture in Pakistan? I don't know the answer. After all, the government did host a hilarious Islamic Science conference in the 1980s (some of the details were presented by Pervez Hoodbhoy in his 1992 book, Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the battle for Rationality). This puts to rest the idea that there were more institutional checks when it came to science. From this perspective, the more sensationalist media is the new ingredient that may be be providing a particular frame to fuel claims like the water car. But I'm also heartened by the number of op ed pieces being written to shame all those who succumbed to this claim.

In any case, I don't think the central blame for this debacle lies with the engineer who made the claim of the water car. There are always people making outrageous claims. The blame, in this particular case, lies with the people who used the claim to propagate their own agendas - be it the ratings or a short-lived political slogan.

Here is a clip of a relatively well-respected talk show that features the 'inventor' of the water kit (tip from Zakir Thaver):



And here is an excerpt from an excellent article by Pervez Hoodbhoy on this whole episode:

At first, it sounded like a joke: a self-styled engineer, trained in Khairpur’s polytechnic institute, claims to have invented a ‘water kit’ enabling any car to run on water alone. It didn’t matter that the rest of world couldn’t extract energy from water; he had done it. He promised a new Pakistan with limitless energy, no need for petrol or gas, and no more loadshedding. For an energy starved nation, it is a vision of paradise. 

Agha Waqar Ahmad is now a national celebrity thanks to Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah. Federal ministers Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and Qamar Zaman Kaira have added their commendations. President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed his delight. The cabinet has met three times to discuss the water vehicle, and a fourth meeting is scheduled. Reports suggest millions may be spent on the ‘water fuel kit project’. 

The media has rushed in to celebrate the new national hero. For TV anchor Talat Husain, thanks to Agha Waqar Ahmad’s invention, Pakistan’s image can go from a country ravaged by terrorism to one of boundless possibilities. Anchor Hamid Mir and Senator Parvaiz Rasheed drove around Islamabad sitting next to the inventor, wondering how to protect the man’s life from Western oil companies. Anchor Arshad Sharif was euphoric about the $14 billion Pakistan would save on oil imports. 

Pakistan’s most celebrated scientists were not far behind. Asked by Anchor Sharif whether a car could run only on water, nuclear hero Dr Samar Mubarakmand replied without hesitation: “jee haan, bilkul ho sakta hai” (yes, absolutely possible). For his part, Hamid Mir asked Dr AQ Khan if there was any chance of this being a fraud. The response was clear: “Main nay apnay level per investigate kiya hai aur koi fraud waraud nahi kiya hai” (I have investigated the matter and there is no fraud involved). The head of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr Shaukat Parvaiz, went further: “hum nay bhi iss pay kam karaya tha” (we had some work done on this too). 

So, what is the problem? It’s that the laws of physics, in particular a fundamental scientific principle known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, impose inviolable constraints. Every machine constructed anywhere uses the Second Law. This is something that I learned in my first year as a student at MIT and have taught for 40 years. No serious scientist would dream of challenging the Second Law. Agha Waqar Ahmad’s ‘water kit’, if one believes science to be right, simply cannot work. What the inventor, the ministers, the anchors and scientists claim on TV is wrong.
...
But this episode raises bigger questions. Scientific frauds exist in other countries, but what explains their spectacular success in Pakistan? Answer: our leaders are lost in the dark, fumbling desperately for a miracle; our media is chasing spectacle, not truth; and our great scientists care more about being important than about evidence. It is easy for them all to get away with this. As a nation, we have proven unwilling to do the hard work needed to learn to reason, to be sceptical, to demand proof, to understand even basic science. It is easier to believe the world is run by magic and conspiracies, to wish and wait for Aladin’s magic lamp. We live in the age of jahilliya.

Read the full article here. You can also find a story on this claim in the New York Times here.

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by Salman Hameed

I have written before about the futility of finding science in the Qu'ran and other scriptures. None of these efforts actually lead to any scientific developments (because this is as far away from science as you can get - and lacks a fundamental curiosity about the natural world), but instead are used by followers of each individual religions mostly for proselytization purposes. The same is true for seeking premonitions in sacred texts.

I'm currently listening to a fascinating Teaching Company course titled, The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meanings in Western History. It us taught by Professor Craig Koester, and is one of the best courses I have done there (One of my absolute favorites has been the series of three course on the Middle Ages by Philip Daileader). The first 12 lectures are spend on exploring the context in which the Book of Revelation was written and how people understood it in their own times. For example, the seven-headed dragon stood for the various aspects of the Roman Empire at the time of the writing of the book - and the infamous 666 stands, most likely, stood for the name of Emperor Nero (his name's numerical value adds up to 666). Koester calls the example of the dragon as a word-picture, and compares it to editorial cartoons in modern times (for example, a donkey and an elephant in political cartoon in the US would be interpreted by all to be the Democratic and Republican party, respectively).

But one of the fascinating bits in the lectures is about a particular change in the 12th century, where the Book of Revelation was interpreted by a reformer, Joachim of Fiore, to be a map of history. Apart from other things, for him, the seven heads of the dragon meant seven periods of history where the Christian Church was under a serious threat. Of course, he believed that he was living in a special time. And so he divided up the time periods from birth of Christ to the present. Some of the early Roman emperors represented couple of heads and early Islam was also included as one of the heads of the dragon. He assumed that the 6th and 7th heads were in his own time - and Saladin was considered as the 6th head, and his potential collaborator - the anti-christ - to be the 7th and final head.

Here is the relevant bit for this post: He also believed that the year 1260 was of paramount importance, as it will launch the final stage of history. Why 1260? He derived this from the Gospel of Matthews, that mentioned that there were 42 generations before Christ. Well, 42 times 30 years for each generation, leads to 1260 years. He assumed time to be symmetrical around Christ, and so he believed that the age of Jesus would last 1260 years after his death. Joachim of Fiore died in 1202, but some of his followers did believe in a drastic change in the world in the year 1260. Nothing major happened.

But this mapping of history onto the Book of Revelation then took hold, and it transformed the book from a purely spiritual document to providing a roadmap of history and future events. And of course, people see themselves - no matter in what century - as playing an important role in the ultimate history of the world. If Joachim and his followers saw apocalyptic events in the 13th century, then it is not much of a surprise that many see signs in the of end-of-times today.

Many Muslim interpreters have done the same with the Qur'an and the Hadith (For a recent example, you can check out this sensational Urdu TV special, Hidden Truth by Shahid Masood). The impulse comes from the drive to make one's existence more meaningful and to envision the ultimate triumph of one's own religion (be it Christianity or Islam) over all others.

This mining of clues in the sacred texts for premonitions reminds me of the search for modern science in the same books (and yes, Muslims find modern science in the Qur'an, Christians find it in the Bible, Jews in Torah, Hindus in the Gita, etc). Both approaches are clearly flawed and problematic. The science one stymies intellectual growth - and that is a loss for that particular culture. The obsession with end-of-times can lead to actions be some that can be harmful to others as well. I hope people keep their worse-righteous impulses in check.

And I hope that people use their Sacred books for their spiritual value.

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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.

‘Roqia’, which I’ve translated above as “Islamic healing”, is the tradition of having some Qur’anic verses read over a sick person in order to achieve some betterment, most people assuming it to be medical. There are hadiths relating that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) practiced it, and it is still widespread in many Muslim communities around the world, including ones in the west (more on that below).

I do not intend to get into the controversy of whether one should believe (or accept) that prayers do produce healing of some sort. First, it depends on whether we’re talking about a spiritual or a medical effect. Secondly, it makes much difference (in my view) whether the praying is done by the sick person himself/herself or whether someone is praying for them. Thirdly, it comes down to whether one believes that spiritual effects within a person can and do lead to a physiological effect or not. I will leave all these issues hanging, although if people want to debate them in the comments section, I’ll gladly oblige.

The problem today is that this practice has turned into a widespread scam. First, there is a social phenomenon to be investigated, namely the strong return of tradition “Islamic” medicine, including bloodletting, “Prophetic”/herbal medicine, and ‘Roqia’/healing through prayers performed by a sheikh. A year ago, I had written a post on this effect, focusing on Muslims’ (and to some extent other peoples’) current infatuation with herbal medicine. Indeed, there is today a huge social trend toward old, medieval medical procedures, such as bloodletting. For Muslims, it is on the one hand because the Prophet practiced that and sometimes recommended it (what else could he have recommended?), and on the other hand, because modern medicine is western and suspect with all its secondary effects and (perceived) disregard for human “wholeness”.

More importantly, however, this social shift toward traditional medicine has been noticed and taken advantage of by the charlatans. There are now “roqia clinics”, both in the Muslim world and in Europe, where charlatans administer “roqia treatments” to ignorant and gullible patients who suffer from anything ranging from “evil eye” to cancer, not to mention sexual problems, which are easier to explain (through allusions) to a sheikh than to a physician. They charge anywhere between $2 for a quick consultation and prayer (in poor places in Algeria) to 100 euros in France, and oftentimes the “healers” ask their patients to undergo regular treatment sessions (weekly or 2-3 times weekly), and to pay for the “medicine” (often in the form of a bottle of mineral water which has been “infused” with the proper verses), hence increasing their scammy wealth… Oh, and some have come up with “group roqia” procedures to multiply the income in each session.

Some of these charlatans have even opened up satellite TV stations, taking international orders for their medicines, which usually consist of herbs, oils, and honeys, and cost up to $150. Others have set up 900-type phone systems, making money just through the calls.

Finally, and most shockingly, a series of cases have recently appeared (at least in Algeria and in Saudi Arabia), where charlatan “raqis” were charged with raping innocent and naïve young women, in one case as many as 30 (sorry, the links are in Arabic and French)!

This is turning into a social catastrophe, combining ignorance, abuse of religious tradition, and multiple frauds and crimes. This needs to be denounced and exposed. Educators and sincere and clear-minded religious scholars need to speak up and address this, in the classrooms and in the mosques. It is truly painful and depressing to see Muslim communities even in the west succumb to this kind of socio-cultural corruption. We must, however, remain steadfast and hardworking in our ongoing efforts to educate everyone at various levels and from many perspectives.

We have a long way to go…

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by Salman Hameed

Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya, thrives on publicity. In particular, he has been successful in gaining attention from western media on the issue of evolution (for example, see these earlier post: The Media Coverage of Harun Yahya and Yahya still desperately seeking attention). This has happened because his brand of creationism fits neatly into the evolution-creation debates in US and in Europe - and these are framed as a threat to the educational system. The problem is that Harun Yahya has been writing about every crazy thing - from the end of the world and the return of Mahdi (he thinks of himself as a pretty good candidate) to the denial of reality itself (he believes in a Matrix-style world). But only his rejection of evolution really gained any traction outside of Turkey - and he started shaping emphasizing creationism more and more in his books - culminating in his laughably amateurish The Atlas of Creation (see this earlier post: The Evolution of Harun Yahya's "Atlas of Creation").

While science education people in Turkey remain concerned about Harun Yahya's influence, my sociologist and anthropologist friends always considered him a joke, a local oddity, and really a nobody. Yes, he did harass academics with lawsuits - but then that may be more consistent with the bullying nature of his organization - whose source of money is still unknown. Well, it seems that the latter group might have been right all along. Below is Harun Yahya on a show that he regularly hosts. Is there really a reason to take him seriously? Here is our "creationist intellectual" (hat tip from Berna Turam):



I had to get some help about his profound Turkish words in the video. It seems that he keeps on repeating "Wow, look at the music. How amazing. No prejudices." And, of course, his moves are untranslatable :)

Enjoy!

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by Salman Hameed

Last month I had a chance to give a talk as part of TEDx Pioneer Valley program: How Learning Happens. It was actually a fantastic experience and had a chance to sit through some fascinating talks and interact with some very interesting people. I will be posting some other talks in the coming days. In the mean time, here is the video of my talk When Evidence is Powerless... (about 19 minutes). Here is a brief description:

Millions of individuals in the United States believe in UFOs and ghosts; yet we know that there is no credible evidence for any visitation from outer space or for dead souls hanging out in abandoned houses. In contrast, there is now overwhelming evidence that humans and other species on the planet have evolved over the past 4.5 billion years; yet 40 percent of Americans reject evolution. It seems that for many there is no connection between belief and evidence. If evidence is powerless, what are some other factors that shape their beliefs, and what are the implications for science education?

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by Salman Hameed

This was published in Pakistan Tribune. This is familiar territory for Pervez. He has been calling out on the pseudoscience of finding science in the Qur'an for over two decades. The real problem is that some of the proponents have scientific degrees - and that is a scary thought. This business of I'jaz, I think, is one of the most damaging pseudoscience prevalent in the Muslim world. It is not that other cultures and religions don't have their own versions (just see the popularity of The Bible Code books in the US). But at least there already exists a large base of scientists in the US - and 99% of those don't subscribe to this nonsense (you can always find occasional oddballs: for example, see Tipler and his Pseudoscience). I hope budding scientists in Pakistan (or anywhere for that matter) don't fall for the pseudoscience of I'jaz. Nidhal and I have also written about it: You can read Nidhal's post Critiquing I'jaz - The Claim of Scientific Miracles in the Qur'an, and my post On the futility of finding science in the Qur'an and Other Scriptures. 

Here is Pervez on Neutrinos and Angels:

The news from CERN was stunning: the European nuclear science laboratory had just discovered (September 2011) that particles known as neutrinos — called so because they are neutral and carry no charge — habitually travel a little bit faster than light. This threatened to shake the very foundations of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which had laid the basis for the atomic bomb, nuclear energy, and most of modern day physics. Relativity theory starts from the postulate that the speed of light is the absolute maximum that anything can travel at. 

Pakistanis are generally unmoved by developments in the world of science. But this time the excitement was palpable. A TV channel called me up, requesting an interview. Fine, I said, specifying the time when I would be available. The producer was profoundly apologetic: this was exactly when they would be interviewing Dr Zakir Naik, an Islamic scholar who frequently pontificates on issues of science and religion. Would I therefore please give another time? Since the good doctor’s claim to fame is his understanding of religious texts rather than of physics, I declined and do not know what transpired subsequently.
Speed of light issues have often moved sections of religious people in rather strange ways. 

Way back in 1973, as a young physics lecturer at Quaid-i-Azam University, I had been fascinated by the calculation done by the head of our department. Seeking the grand synthesis of science and faith, this pious gentleman — who left on his final journey last month — had published calculations that proved Heaven (jannat) was running away from Earth at one centimeter per second less than the speed of light. His reasoning centred around a particular verse of the Holy Quran that states worship on the night of Lailat-ul-Qadr (Night of Revelation) is equivalent to a thousand nights of ordinary worship. Indeed, if you input the factor of 1,000 into Einstein’s famous formula for time dilatation, this yields a number: one centimeter per second less than the speed of light! 

These days the internet groans under the weight of claims that the Holy Quran had specified the speed of light 1400 years ago. Dr Mansour Hassab El Naby, said to be a physicist from Egypt, announces that according to his Quranic calculations, this speed is 299,792.5 kilometres per second. He even gives error bars! Another video gives a still more precise figure of 299792.458 km/sec. Given the unrestrained leaps of logic made by the authors, it is not surprising that they all arrive at more or less the same numbers. 

Interested readers may also wish to visit an intricately-designed website that has clocked up over 750,000 visitors so far. Chockful of mathematical formulae, diagrams, and pictures, it starts from the premise that “angels are low density creatures” taking orders from a “Preserved Tablet” and says “the speed at which they commute to and from this Tablet turned out to be the known speed of light”. To enhance the visual impact, the website has a Java applet showing a white Caucasian scientist who moves his eyes up, down, and around in wondrous rapture. While doing so he sonorously pronounces — in what sounds like an Australian accent to me — that the extra space-time dimensions demanded by the physics of string theory are exactly those predicted in the Quran. The final conclusion: “Einstein’s theory of General Relativity proves the Quran right”. 

Well, there’s a huge problem here! No scientist is sure that General Relativity (GR) is absolutely correct. In fact, the phrase “absolutely correct” does not belong to the lexicon of any science, even one as well developed as physics. Excellent as GR is — with hundreds of careful tests — physicists are pretty sure that there are places, such as at the edge of a black hole, where GR simply has to fail. Placing the absolute correctness of Allah’s Word on the knife-edge of an imperfect theory is pretty dicey. 

Certainly, no working scientist takes seriously any of stuff on Islamic science websites. In spite of their wonderful graphics and scientific appearance, they are wholly unscientific. Science comes from persistently and patiently checking hypotheses, building upon earlier discoveries and knowledge, and systematically sifting out all which cannot pass stringent tests of logic and observation. For example, experiments at CERN consume the working lives of some of the most brilliant people on earth, require billions of dollars of equipment, and stretch human capacities and ingenuity to the limit. When real scientists eventually publish a result, it comes from solid evidence and not from uncontrolled spurts of imagination and strident assertions of faith. 

Returning to neutrinos: today we do not know if the results from CERN on faster-than-light neutrinos are actually correct. Like most other particle physicists, I am sceptical. Explanations will surely be forthcoming once similar experiments are done in other laboratories; time will tell. But right or wrong, this is just another interesting puzzle for physicists to mull over. With deep foundations, the edifice of science has survived bigger earthquakes. 

On the other hand, if the CERN results are right, “Islamic scientists” like Dr Naby would need to do much explaining. High above in the heavens, neutrinos would easily out-chase angels — the messengers of Allah — because, if Islamic websites are to be believed, angels are limited by the speed of light. So does that mean these naughty neutrinos are outside of God’s control? Using a holy text as a physics book makes little sense. But, sadly, it is all too common. 

Worried by the cancerous growth of claptrap masquerading as science, the late Carl Sagan, one of my heroes, spoke to Bible Belt Americans with matchless eloquence:
“I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonise about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us — then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.” 

Pakistanis need to listen again, and yet again to this. Sagan is also speaking to us.

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by Salman Hameed

This is simply insane. It is sometimes really hard to maintain perspective on issues related to religion, politics, and science. Just this past Sunday I had a post about Islamophobia in the US and the utter idiocy of  a conservative US group that is upset about the "normal" portrayal of Muslims in the reality show All-Ameircan Muslims. But then, just to provide fodder for the bigots, Saudi Arabia decides to execute a woman on sorcery charges. Again - a woman has been killed in Saudi Arabia in the 21st century because of charges of practicing sorcery!

Saudi authorities have executed a woman convicted of practising magic and sorcery.
The Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that the execution had taken place on Monday, but gave no details of the woman's crime.
The London-based al-Hayat daily, however, quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, the chief of the religious police who arrested the woman, as saying she had tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging them $800 a session.
The paper said a female investigator followed up the case, and the woman was arrested in April 2009 and later convicted in a Saudi court.

Shame on Saudi Arabia! This is not just simple idiocy. This is dangerous lunacy and people are paying the price with their lives. The problem is that this is not the first time. Here are some earlier posts related to other sorcery charges:

Sibat's life may be spared...

"Sorcery" execution delayed

Beheading on "sorcery" charges expected on Friday

Still no sense from Saudi Arabia on sorcery death sentence

Sorcery Charges: Saudi Arabia boldly marches into the 15th century

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by Salman Hameed

I have written before about the pseudoscience of claims that Mecca is the physical center of the world (see Mecca Clock: Seeking Prestige via Borrowed Science). Mecca is definitely the spiritual center of the Muslim world and one of the most important religious places in the world. In fact, we can see its important right now as more than 2 million people have gathered there for the annual pilgrimage of Hajj (Eid Mubarak!). But the pilgrims must also be seeing a gigantic clock towering over the most scared place in Islam. When the clock was inaugurated last year, some called to replace GMT with Mecca time, with some justifying it with a litany of pseudoscientific claims.

I have an article at Religion Dispatches on the impact of such claims on Muslims. Here are some sections from the article. You can read the rest of the article here: .

However, what makes this case interesting is the fact that after the inauguration of the clock, there were calls from many Muslims to replace Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)—the world standard for 125 years—with Mecca Time. Some have argued that GMT is the remnant of a colonial heritage, and it is time to turn over a new page. 

Surely, there is nothing special about where the Greenwich Observatory is located. The reason that the meridian is 0 at Greenwich is because the British figured out how to calculate longitude at sea first, so they got to make a part of England the main reference point. Names associated with science are often, if not always, symptomatic of political power of the time. This is why many of the elements discovered in the 20th century—like berkelium, americium, and californium—have American names (though sometimes there were competing claims from Soviet laboratories also). Similarly, because Arab astronomy was dominant in the late medieval period, and Arabic atlases played a key role in the development of modern astronomy, more than half of the brightest stars in the sky have Arabic names. But for some Muslims today, that’s not enough. 

Even if we concede the colonial legacy of GMT, what would justify Mecca to be the replacement reference point for the entire world?

But then here is the problem with some of the science itself:

Things start to get messy pretty fast. There is now a widespread belief amongst Muslims that one can prove “scientifically” that Mecca is really the true “center of the world.” This line of reasoning has been heavily promoted and popularized by a prominent Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawy, who claims that, unlike other longitudes, Mecca is in perfect alignment with the north magnetic pole. Some Arab scientists have also lent their authority to these claims. For example, Abdel-Baset al-Sayeed of the Egyptian National Research Centre claims that Mecca is a “zero-magnetism zone.” In fact, he goes on to say, “That’s why if someone travels to Mecca or lives there, he lives longer, is healthier, and is less affected by the earth’s gravity. You get charged with energy.” 

All of these claims are complete bunk. For example, even if one assumes that there is a special alignment with the northern magnetic field, the position of the magnetic north changes every year. It is currently in northern Canada and moving towards Russia at 40 miles per year. (The magnetic south pole is also moving in Antarctica.) So unless one wants to move Mecca at a similar speed, it may have a hard time keeping whatever alignment Youssef al-Qaradawy is talking about.

This, in fact, is not much different than the pseudoscience of I'jaz (the efforts to find modern science in the Qur'an. For a critique of I'jaz, see this post and another one by Nidhal Guessoum). But this also feeds into Islamophobia in the West that portrays Muslims as backwards in terns of science:

The emotional appeal of such ideas, and the backing of some Muslim scientists, makes it very hard to challenge them. Such a challenge can only come from within the Muslim world, as any other approach will directly feed into the resurgent anti-Western narrative, which unfortunately the Western media often only reinforces. For example, the Daily Telegraph ended its story on the calls to adopt Mecca Time and the geological uniqueness of Mecca with the following disclaimer: “Western scientists have challenged such assertions, noting that the Magnetic North Pole is in actual fact on a line of longitude that passes through Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Antarctica.” The problem here is the qualifier, “Western” before scientists. Virtually all respectable scientists, Western or non-Western, would agree with the above statement, including many Muslim scientists. But by adding “Western” before “scientists,” the sentence creates an impression of a clash between Muslims—clinging to pseudoscientific ideas—and the rational West. 

To complicate things further, these pseudoscientific claims and the subsequent news coverage provide fodder for those who want to portray Islam as an inherently anti-modern and anti-scientific religion. For example, the Mecca clock got the attention of the conservative website Jihad Watch, which connected the calls for Mecca Time to an “Islamic Supremacist agenda”: “Amid the absurdity, the common thread with other manifestations of the Islamic supremacist agenda, is that they’ll say anything to get what they want. And all too many will go in for it, hook, line, and sinker.” Even a blog post for Foreign Policy was titled, “Mecca’s Plan to Steal Time,” and began with the following lines: “Forget the clash of civilizations—the next grand battle between East and West will be over Time itself.” 

Mecca matters deeply to Muslims because of its religious importance. Building such an enormous clock may make it all the more a source of pride to the religion of over a billion people, though I can also imagine some objecting to the presence of such a large structure next to the holy grounds. Nevertheless, the efforts by some to seek religious legitimacy of Mecca with bad science do a disservice to both religion and science, and perhaps diminish the dignity of the very place they seek to glorify.

Read the full article here.

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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah and is the author of Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science.

We humans have a strong tendency to find correlations where oftentimes there are none, and to blame external factors for serious events when most of the time they are entirely human induced.

A few months ago, when the super earthquake and tsunami in Japan came within a week or so of a “super full moon”, the latter was almost predictably blamed in a number of news stories, and I wrote a newspaper column titled “Don’t blame the moon”. In it, I mentioned that the moon used to be thought of as the reason for a variety of things, ranging from severe weather to pregnancies, but nowadays only the full moon is cited as a principal reason for increases in crime rates (during those “white nights”) to tsunamis. I explained why this is all nonsense.

These days, however, it’s the sun’s turn to be blamed. Since we’ve had major drops and wild swings in stock markets worldwide as well as extreme weather across the globe, one could almost predict that the sun, with its increase in magnetic and flare activity, would be blamed. (And let’s not forget the riots in England.) And indeed, there are articles to that effect, including one on Reuters and one on the Arabic-BBC website, though in both pieces “various views” are presented, without a clear rejection of the solar-activity “theory”. A year ago, an Algerian pseudo-astronomer predicted that Ramadan would be tough because the upturn in solar activity would make temperatures significantly higher than usual…

What’s the story exactly? Well, we know that the sun undergoes a cycle of magnetic activity every 11 years or so, resulting in greater numbers (or very few) sunspots, solar flares, and prominences. The graph on the side shows the variation of the sunspot number since 2000, with the upturn in late 2009 and the expected activity over the next several years. To what extent this affects the earth’s climate is an important issue; the short answer is “not much”; and the solar cycle can even less be called upon to explain any local or regional increases in temperatures.

But then how would anyone cite this as an explanation for the stock market’s wild ride (mostly downward) of the past few weeks? Well, people noticed that in the past week or so, several strong solar “coronal mass ejections” occurred and “coincided” with the big drops in world markets. Secondly, people noted that just like the sun goes through cycles of activity, the market seems to go through similar phases, and moreover, there seems to be some “correlation”. These people, who tend to be smart, if scientifically and methodologically challenged, explained it as a solar psychological effect on investors. They cite a 2003 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that found that such storms could affect the stock market.

OK, that’s a testable hypothesis, so someone should check. Indeed, someone (Alexander Pakhalov of Moscow State University) recently published a study titled “The Influence of Solar Activity on the Investors' Behaviour in the Stock Markets”, in which he concluded that “based on the analysis of extensive historical data, connection between solar activity and the stock market was not found.” (OK, the source is an open-access repository of papers, not a bona fide refereed journal, and I am not an expert to vouch for this research, but it’s a statistical study, and it can be checked.)

Now, here below are graphs of both the sunspot number variation and the Dow Jones Industrial average for most of the last century, so you can take a look for yourself. Of course, we don’t do correlation studies in this “take a look” way, but it is often useful to see (by eye) what the data are showing before feeding them into statistical-analysis programs.

Last but not least, it is important to reflect on how we humans are quick to correlate phenomena and to believe that “we don’t know everything, so the connection is possible…” We humans evolved a capacity to notice patterns because that served us well in our long and difficult history, but we also have a tendency to overdo it, to see patterns where there are none and correlations that do not exist. As we scientists keep repeating, just because certain events occur at the same time or one after the other, does not mean they are related in some way, especially in a causal way. And because life is too difficult (for most people) already, it’s comforting to blame external factors, especially ones that we can do nothing about. It’s our “fate”, so let’s accept it, be strong, and move on.

But it is in fact only when we refuse to accept such reasoning that we make progress and truly move forward. We need to instill in our children and students the habit of asking for evidence, of questioning “received wisdom”, of searching for explanations that can be checked and confirmed. Anything else is superstition, irrational behavior, and just primitive thinking.

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by Salman Hameed

I have to admit that living in Northampton/Amherst area, I have been stuck in numerous new-agey conversations at gatherings and at coffee shops. Alternative healing practices are certainly quite popular here - and one can get their chakras right at a number of local places. It is sad to say that I've had conversations here about energy healings, mind-shifts, quantum-related babble, and of course astrology and psychics. And this happens to be a college town! So yes, some of my conversations about these topics have indeed taken an awkward turn in the past. So here is a nice short film (about 10 minutes) that speaks for all us who have been stuck in such conversations (tip Zakir Thaver). It is a bit over the top - but then it does have a good excuse. And the music and the words make up for the rest.

 Enjoy!


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by Salman Hameed

Hold the presses. Media's favorite creationist, Harun Yahya, is touring Europe. He is currently in France and then he will be in Holland. Like usual, he has nothing new or useful to say. He is still peddling his pseudoscientific Atlas of Creation and preparing for the end-of-days (I'm still waiting for him to proclaim himself the Mahdi. Oh - he has come so close...).

All of this aside, we will possibly see a predictable round of Yahya cycle in his European tour: 1) He is going to declare victory over Darwinism 2) Modestly claim that is a genius 3) Provoke French and Dutch secular society 4) The French and Dutch secular societies will get provoked 4) Some of the media coverage will generalize his views and declare them to be a representational position of most Muslims 5) Since most of his ideas are idiotic, some will use this to stoke the fears of an Islamic takeover of Europe and the dawning of a dark-age 6) This controversy - which will be great for Yahya - will last for a couple of weeks 7) Yahya will claim slaying atheism in Europe and declare victory over Darwinism, 8) Modestly declare himself a genius 9) Will start looking for ways to create a new controversy so he can stay in the news 10) Yahya will plan another trip to Europe 11) Repeat the cycle again.

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by Salman Hameed


It is unfortunate that bad science gets transferred across continents so easily. ARY News, a major news channel in Pakistan is now producing documentaries that promote superstition (for example bad things can happen to women who go out with uncovered or open hair...) and conspiracy theories (freemasons, illuminati, and other mixtures from Dan Brown and National Treasure). Now they also have one on doomsday scenarios associated with 2012. Too bad - instead of this crap, they did not think of producing a quality science program in Urdu.

I have post on this issue at the USC Trans/Missions blog on Media, Culture, Religion, and Society. Here is the beginning of the post, and you can read the full post there:

Doomsday in 2012: A Bad Idea Goes Global

Next year is going to be an ordeal for astronomers. We regularly field (or at least endure) questions and claims about astrology, alien abductions, UFOs, crop-circles and beings from other dimensions. But we're bracing ourselves for a bumper crop of pseudoscience over the course of 2012, the end point of the cycle charted by one of the Mesoamerican calendars. Which means...well, probably nothing much.

But if you turn to the History Channel or the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel--or link to one of the thousands of 2012-related posts on the Internet--you'll find that destruction will visit us next year as a consequence of: a) Earth's collision with a black hole, b) extreme solar flares, c) an asteroid strike, d) sudden climate change due to a shift in the planet's magnetic poles, e) our alignment with the black hole at the center our galaxy, or f) a collision or a near-miss with Planet X, sometimes also referred to as Nibiru. If you have a more optimistic personality, you may believe we are headed for a consciousness-transformation event in 2012. Or perhaps all of the above. 

I'm already irked by the propagation of super-bad science on the Discovery and National Geographic channels, but I was even more dismayed last month when I was in Pakistan, where there has been an explosion in the number of cable channels. There are countless talk-show programs on more than ten 24-hour news channels. There are eight music channels and three devoted to fashion and lifestyle. Then there are six 24-hour religious channels, along with three that focus on food and cooking! This is not counting at least ten other stations that only run soaps (see the list of Pakistani cable stations here).

But it seems science is largely missing from the mix. If Americans suffer from a glut of pseudoscience, Pakistanis are in the midst of a science-media famine. Or so I thought.

Just this past Sunday, I saw a locally produced documentary in Pakistan that focused on doomsday scenarios associated with 2012--but with a distinctly Pakistani twist. The program had the same tone, music and pacing of the 2012-related content produced in the U.S., except that it featured Pakistani experts. [Here is a segment that talks about the Mayan calendar. The documentary is in Urdu, but I think you get the sense that it is trying to convey]. 

Read rest of the post here.

And in case, you are interested, here is the segment about 2012, and below that is the one that talks about women's hair and other superstitions:



and here is the one on the dangers of going out with uncovered hair and other superstitions. Please also note the infusion of religion to justify some of these:

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The Huffington Post recently huffed about Betelgeuse - a red supergiant - going supernova in 2012 (of course!). And perhaps, we will be seeing two Suns for a period of time in 2012 - just like Tatooine from the Star Wars universe. Awww. Only if this was close to reality.

So I was called in at 93.9 - The River for a brief chat about this and about the recent news that astrology may be out of whack because of Earth's precession. Basically, all your horoscope months are off by about a  month (noooo!!). Here is the link to the chat- with ample dose of original Star Trek music by our morning host, Monte.

But on a more serious and awesome note, astronomers announced the discovery of the farthest galaxy known so far. Of course it goes by the sexy name of UDFj-39546284 and it was found in the ultra-deep field image in infra-red taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (that is what UDF stands for in the name). 

How far is the galaxy? About 13.2 billion light years from us! Yup. We are looking at a galaxy when the universe was only 480 million years old. Remember, the farther we look into space, the farther back we look back in time. This is because of the finite speed of light. So we are seeing this galaxy as it was 13.2 billion years ago - since light has taken 13.2 billion years to get to us. Many of the stars that we are seeing in this galaxy are dead by now. This is like a delayed transmission. Since the Big Bang happened about 13.7 billion years, this is indeed a very short time!

There is an excellent description of the galaxy and the way it was discovered at Bad Astronomy.

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This is a weekly post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah

The Saudi English-language daily newspaper Arab News reminded us in a recent article that “The evil eye [is still] an obsession for most Middle Eastern families”.

What is the “evil eye” (for anyone to whom this might be a totally alien and unheard-of concept)? It is the belief that someone may hurt a person or an object simply by looking at it with (conscious or unconscious) ill thoughts or feelings, such as envy or dislike. Needless to say, science rules out any such phenomenon, and one can easily point out various checks (simple test-situations) that will show this to be one of those cases of selective memory (one remembers only the results that “confirm” one’s prior belief, whereas all the results, “positive” and “negative”, would should the effect to be purely random).

One should immediately emphasize the fact that the “evil eye” concept exists well beyond the Arab-Muslim culture, and indeed it predates Islam by centuries, if not millennia. This is not to excuse any such superstition, but just to be fair and objective, as well as sociologically accurate and relevant in the hopeful search for a remedy to this problem (to the concept, that is, not to the “evil eye” itself).

So the Arab News article relates to us stories about present practices by people who take full account of the “evil eye” in their lives. We are told that it can “affect children, adults, livestock, and people’s possessions” and that “[p]eople who are young, wealthy and particularly handsome are considered more at risk.” So what do people do to protect themselves? In more orthodox environments, such as Saudi Arabia, they would insist with anyone expressing admiration about any of their belongings to immediately add “Ma Sha’ Allah” (“What Allah willed!”), or they (secretly) recite some Qur’anic verses right after an admiring statement is made. Quite often, people will adorn room walls with special verses, and sometimes Imams or Ulamas are asked to come and exorcise a house from an evil eye spell.

More superstitious people will resort to various practices, ranging from keeping everything secret to sprinkling water at places where envious people have sat (in one’s home), to putting a knife under a newborn’s pillow. In other cultures (e.g. Turkey or North Africa), people often resort to talismans, such as the famous “nazar” (“nazar boncugu” or “nazalik”) in Turkey, or the “khamsa” hand (a.k.a. “hamsa”) in North Africa and elsewhere (see images below). The “khamsa” is often given an Islamic connotation by relating the five fingers to the five important members of the Prophet’s house (with Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Hussain).

Wikipedia and its sources tell us that the concept can be found in ancient cultures and religions, including those of Egypt, where it may have originated, and those of Greece and Rome, as well as in the Old Testament.

In the Islamic culture, things are a bit more interesting. To my knowledge, the only Qur’anic verse that people often take to refer to the evil eye is “[Say I seek protection by Allah…] from the evil of the envious when he envies” (113:5). It does not appear that the verse is necessarily referring to the evil eye; the “evil of the envious when he envies” could be achieved by more “normal” ways. One should note, however, that the previous verse  in this (short) chapter (sura) mentions some ancient witchcraft practice, i.e. the “blowing on knots”.

The hadiths, however, do contain a number of explicit references to the evil eye. Not only is the Prophet said to have confirmed the existence of the evil eye (“The influence of an evil eye is a fact…” Sahih Muslim – Book 026, Number 5427), we find statements explaining how to cure from its effects (washing/performing ablutions and reciting certain prayers). The Islamic literature is also replete with stories of famous Muslims (Imams and scholars) who witnessed and/or discussed cases of evil eye, which can go to the extreme of someone killing a camel by looking at it with deliberate ill intent.

How does one rationally deal with such beliefs and practices in one’s society and culture? It should be clear that dismissing the phenomenon as scientifically bogus is not enough, for the traditionalists’ argument is first and foremost religious: “if the Prophet said it, and he was receiving revelation from on high, then it must be true, no matter what your science says”; besides, people will add, “your science doesn’t know everything, especially on human nature, does it?” In other words, this is not just belief in the paranormal; it is religiously-backed belief in the paranormal. And that explains why many educated people around me, I would say an overwhelming majority of them, believe in the evil eye without hesitation.

Interestingly, on most such issues, including Evolution, Cosmology, and much of Science, Qur’anic verses are easy to deal with, for two reasons: a) they rarely contain statements that clearly make a scientifically erroneous claim; b) they are often expressed in such a style as to allow one to interpret them metaphorically. Indeed, as we saw above, the verse on the “envious” is not too difficult to deal with. The problem is much more acute with the hadiths, and this is also the case with the topics of Evolution, Cosmology, etc.

I look forward to various views and contributions.

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