Letters to the Editor
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Interesting interview
That the Muslim world preserved and developed the ancient wisdom while Christian Europeans were mired in darkness and ignorance is not news to me, since my family comes from Southern Spain, one of the greatest centers of learning in the medieval world at the time. But I am interested to learn about the difficulties that science encounters today in the Muslim world. I must admit that I've pondered the question of morality and science, specifically the idea that just because we can do something doesn't mean we should, which seems to be anathema to many in the scientific world. It's the kind of mindset that leads to scientific knowledge being placed at the service of rather horrendous ends, at times.
I'm also interested (I guess that's the word, *sigh*) that the current religious craze for irrational literalism resulting in "creationism" is rearing its ugly head in other religions as well. It may sound cozy to try and come up with a way to square ancient religious fables with modern science, but what happens when scientific inquiry runs smack up against a wall that religion says cannot be breached? How do you develop biology, physiology and medicine without evolution? I always wonder what a "creationist" scientist does mentally when hit with that kind of quandary - just slap a big blind spot on the problem and pretend it doesn't exist? Kinda hard to get usable results if you keep riddling your science with holes like that.
But I think the most interesting thing for me here is (looks upward on the letters page) how many comments that can be called snarky, dismissive, bigoted and/or insulting are signed Anonymous. One might actually think the commenters are hiding something. I wonder what that might be?
Yes, very interesting indeed.