"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion. Alas, Islam which is a natural religion in which God's miracles are the very law and order of nature drifted away and is still drifting away, even in Pakistan, from science which is the study of those very laws and orders of nature.……Islam is a natural religion of which the Ayats are the universe in which we live and move and have our being………..The God of the Quran is the one whose Ayats are the universe……"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
IIS Publishes Second Volume from the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’
Another publication was released by the IIS in October: On Logic: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 10-14, edited and translated by Professor Carmela Baffioni. This is the second volume of primary text from the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’), which is being published in its entirety, over sixteen bilingual volumes, by Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies. This series is vitally important as it presents for the first time a critical edition and English translation of this pervasively influential tenth-century text.
The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa’) were an anonymous group of learned men who met regularly in both Basra and Baghdad, syncretistically collating the philosophies and sciences of their age with the ultimate goal of providing an epistemological pathway for the salvation of the soul. Although the identity of these men remains unsettled, scholars agree on the strong Ismaili character of the work, which draws also on Greek, Persian, Indian and other sources. The encyclopaedic corpus as a whole spans four broad areas of knowledge, from the mathematical, natural, and ‘psychical’, through to theological sciences.
This volume collects those epistles dealing with logic, from the end of the first (mathematical) section of the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’. The five epistles cover Porphyry’s Isagoge, Aristotle’s Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics; the fundamentals of logic presented here are derived principally from Aristotle’s Organon, popularly circulating in Arabic at that time, under the Neoplatonising influence of Plotinus via Porphyry and with some additional interpretation of the Ikhwan themselves. The work is contextualised by the comprehensive introduction and extensive annotations to the English translation by Carmela Baffioni.
Professor Carmela Baffioni is an expert on the Ikhwan al-Safa’, having published many articles on their Rasa’il, as well as having written extensively on other medieval Islamic philosophers such as al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina. She currently holds the position of Full Professor of History of Muslim Philosophy at the Universita degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”.
Related Pages on the IIS Website
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112085
Introduction to Academic Publications
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series
Related Posts:
The Ikhwan Al-Safa(Brethern Of Purity), The Original Encyclopedists: Balancing Revelation And Reason; A Collection Of Posts; Quotes Of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/05/483the-ikhwan-al-safabrethern-of-purity.html
ISMAILIMAIL Makes A Post On The Ikhwan Al-Safa Or Brethren Of Purity (Via One Land, One King’s Blog)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/09/647ismailimail-makes-post-on-ikhwan-al.html
My Favourite Cosmologist-Philosopher-Theologian-Poets: Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw And Ikhwan Al-Safa; A Collection Of Posts On My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/428my-favourite-cosmologist-philosopher.html
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112055
All posts on ISMAILIMAIL relating to the Ikhwan Al Safa
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/?s=ikhwan+Al+safa
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Friday, November 26, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
664)The Center For Middle Eastern Studies At The University Of Chicago Publishes 'Ismaili And Fatimid Studies In Honour Of Paul Walker'.
The Center For Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago has published a book 'Ismaili And Fatimid Studies In Honour Of Paul Walker'
http://chicagostudiesonthemiddleeast.uchicago.edu/pwalker.html
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/chicago-studies-on-the-middle-east-ismaili-and-fatimid-studies-in-honor-of-paul-e-walker/
Contents:
Hidden Imams and Mahdis in Ismaili History by Farhad Daftary
Kawn al-'Alam: The cosmogony of the Isma'ili da'i Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Nasafi by Wilferd Madelung
Maqriziana XII. Evaluating the Sources for the Fatimid Period: Ibn al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi’s History and Its Use by al-Maqrizi (with a Critical Edition of His Résumé for the Years 501–515 A.H.) by Frédéric Bauden
Sources for al-Qadi al-Nu'man’s Works and Their Authenticity by Ismail K. Poonawala
Was Nasir-e Husraw a Great Poet and Only a Minor Philosopher? Some Critical Reflections on his Doctrine of the Soul by Daniel De Smet
A Shi'i-Mu'tazili Poem of al-Sahib b. 'Abbad (d. 385/995) by Maurice A. Pomerantz
An Illustration of the Caliph al-Hakim together with his Astronomer/Astrologer Ibn Yunus by David A. King
The Almohads and the Fatimids by Maribel Fierro
Church Building, Repair, and Destruction in Fatimid Egypt by Marlis J. Saleh
Urban Violence at Baghdad in the Rivalry between the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates by Abbas Hamdani
Professor Paul Walker's writings feature very prominently on my Blog on the link between Science and Religion in Islam, especially his writings relating to Philosophical Ismailism:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/463a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
My Favourite Cosmologist-Philosopher-Theologian-Poets: Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw And Ikhwan Al-Safa; A Collection Of Posts On My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/428my-favourite-cosmologist-philosopher.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
Quotes Of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Imam Jafar As Sadiq and Others making reference to Philosophical Ismailism:
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
Kathalika yubayyinu Allahu lakum ayatihi la'allakum ta-'aqiloona: "Allah thus makes clear to you His Signs that you may intellect"(Holy Quran 2:242)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"According to a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: The first(and only) thing created by God was the Intellect ('aql)"(circa 632CE)
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
http://chicagostudiesonthemiddleeast.uchicago.edu/pwalker.html
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/chicago-studies-on-the-middle-east-ismaili-and-fatimid-studies-in-honor-of-paul-e-walker/
Contents:
Hidden Imams and Mahdis in Ismaili History by Farhad Daftary
Kawn al-'Alam: The cosmogony of the Isma'ili da'i Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Nasafi by Wilferd Madelung
Maqriziana XII. Evaluating the Sources for the Fatimid Period: Ibn al-Ma'mun al-Bata'ihi’s History and Its Use by al-Maqrizi (with a Critical Edition of His Résumé for the Years 501–515 A.H.) by Frédéric Bauden
Sources for al-Qadi al-Nu'man’s Works and Their Authenticity by Ismail K. Poonawala
Was Nasir-e Husraw a Great Poet and Only a Minor Philosopher? Some Critical Reflections on his Doctrine of the Soul by Daniel De Smet
A Shi'i-Mu'tazili Poem of al-Sahib b. 'Abbad (d. 385/995) by Maurice A. Pomerantz
An Illustration of the Caliph al-Hakim together with his Astronomer/Astrologer Ibn Yunus by David A. King
The Almohads and the Fatimids by Maribel Fierro
Church Building, Repair, and Destruction in Fatimid Egypt by Marlis J. Saleh
Urban Violence at Baghdad in the Rivalry between the Abbasid and Fatimid Caliphates by Abbas Hamdani
Professor Paul Walker's writings feature very prominently on my Blog on the link between Science and Religion in Islam, especially his writings relating to Philosophical Ismailism:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/463a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
My Favourite Cosmologist-Philosopher-Theologian-Poets: Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw And Ikhwan Al-Safa; A Collection Of Posts On My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/428my-favourite-cosmologist-philosopher.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
Quotes Of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Imam Jafar As Sadiq and Others making reference to Philosophical Ismailism:
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
Kathalika yubayyinu Allahu lakum ayatihi la'allakum ta-'aqiloona: "Allah thus makes clear to you His Signs that you may intellect"(Holy Quran 2:242)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"According to a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: The first(and only) thing created by God was the Intellect ('aql)"(circa 632CE)
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
663)An Exchange On My Facebook Wall On Why I Find The Al Sijistani-Khusraw Cosmological Doctrine So Attractive And Supremely Appropriate To My Blog.
A Facebook friend made this comment on a thread on my Facebook wall:
You have many posts relating to Nasir Khusraw on your Blog; makes sense since both he and Abu Yakub Al Sijistani subscribed to the same cosmological doctrine based partly on Neoplatonism and this doctrine is central to your blog linking science and religion in Islam;
To which I replied:
The attraction of this particular cosmological doctrine for me stems from the fact that it has a slot where empirical scientific discoveries can fit in neatly. Equally as important, perhaps even more important, is how this doctrine originated, developed and evolved: Plato(around 340BC) was one of those 'pagan' Greek philosophers whose ideals and thinking had a definitive spiritual flavour to them. No doubt he was influenced by earlier Hindu, Persian and Jewish traditions. After Christianity emerged another Greek philosopher Plotinus(around 250CE) took the ideals of Plato and seasoned them with the monotheism of Judeo-Christianity, creating Neoplatonism. You can see why this philosophical doctrine was so appealing to the Muslims when they arrived on the scene around 600CE. Firstly the they took the prophetic hadith "Seek knowledge, even in China" very seriously and translated all the texts they found in Byzantine from Greek to Arabic. This is where they discovered Plato, Aristotle and others. The monotheism of judeo-Christianity was naturally appealing to them as well. Philosophers like An-Nasafi, Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw, Hamid al Din Kirmani, Ibn Sina, Alfarabi and others seized on this doctrine and gave it a decidedly Islamic character, changing it to suit their purposes. So the Ismailis added the Natiq and Asas to Universal Intellect and Universal Soul to give the 4 wellsprings of knowledge, others did other things and the whole thing evolved further. For me then the cosmological doctrine of Al Sijistani and Nasir Khusraw has many traditions embedded in it: Judaism, Hinduism, early Persian thinking, pagan Greek philosophy, Judeo-Christianity and Islam, ie, all the Abrahamic traditions and many others. I then took this doctrine and married it to the last 400 years of amazing scientific discovery and decided to write a Blog about it: a multiplicity of traditions that all lead to Unity.
Epilogue comment by me:
In a post islamist-jihadist world remaining Muslims could possibly use a doctrine like this to become an integral part of the community of civilizations.
Related posts:
A 600-Post Blog Summarized: The Story Of My Blog Told Through Collections Of Posts To Date; Spring And Summer Reading For Those Who Are Interested
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/04/599a-600-post-blog-summarized-story-of.html
My Favourite Cosmologist-Philosopher-Theologian-Poets: Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw And Ikhwan Al-Safa; A Collection Of Posts On My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/428my-favourite-cosmologist-philosopher.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/463a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
Quotes Of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Imam Jafar As Sadiq and Others making reference to Philosophical Ismailism:
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
Kathalika yubayyinu Allahu lakum ayatihi la'allakum ta-'aqiloona: "Allah thus makes clear to you His Signs that you may intellect"(Holy Quran 2:242)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"According to a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: The first(and only) thing created by God was the Intellect ('aql)(circa 632CE)
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
You have many posts relating to Nasir Khusraw on your Blog; makes sense since both he and Abu Yakub Al Sijistani subscribed to the same cosmological doctrine based partly on Neoplatonism and this doctrine is central to your blog linking science and religion in Islam;
To which I replied:
The attraction of this particular cosmological doctrine for me stems from the fact that it has a slot where empirical scientific discoveries can fit in neatly. Equally as important, perhaps even more important, is how this doctrine originated, developed and evolved: Plato(around 340BC) was one of those 'pagan' Greek philosophers whose ideals and thinking had a definitive spiritual flavour to them. No doubt he was influenced by earlier Hindu, Persian and Jewish traditions. After Christianity emerged another Greek philosopher Plotinus(around 250CE) took the ideals of Plato and seasoned them with the monotheism of Judeo-Christianity, creating Neoplatonism. You can see why this philosophical doctrine was so appealing to the Muslims when they arrived on the scene around 600CE. Firstly the they took the prophetic hadith "Seek knowledge, even in China" very seriously and translated all the texts they found in Byzantine from Greek to Arabic. This is where they discovered Plato, Aristotle and others. The monotheism of judeo-Christianity was naturally appealing to them as well. Philosophers like An-Nasafi, Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw, Hamid al Din Kirmani, Ibn Sina, Alfarabi and others seized on this doctrine and gave it a decidedly Islamic character, changing it to suit their purposes. So the Ismailis added the Natiq and Asas to Universal Intellect and Universal Soul to give the 4 wellsprings of knowledge, others did other things and the whole thing evolved further. For me then the cosmological doctrine of Al Sijistani and Nasir Khusraw has many traditions embedded in it: Judaism, Hinduism, early Persian thinking, pagan Greek philosophy, Judeo-Christianity and Islam, ie, all the Abrahamic traditions and many others. I then took this doctrine and married it to the last 400 years of amazing scientific discovery and decided to write a Blog about it: a multiplicity of traditions that all lead to Unity.
Epilogue comment by me:
In a post islamist-jihadist world remaining Muslims could possibly use a doctrine like this to become an integral part of the community of civilizations.
Related posts:
A 600-Post Blog Summarized: The Story Of My Blog Told Through Collections Of Posts To Date; Spring And Summer Reading For Those Who Are Interested
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/04/599a-600-post-blog-summarized-story-of.html
My Favourite Cosmologist-Philosopher-Theologian-Poets: Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw And Ikhwan Al-Safa; A Collection Of Posts On My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/428my-favourite-cosmologist-philosopher.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Philosophical, Theological, Doctrinal, Historical, Scientific And Esoteric Underpinnings Of My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/568a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Ethos Of My Blog On The Link Between Science And Religion In Islam; Quotes Of Aga Khans And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/463a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
Quotes Of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III, Imam Jafar As Sadiq and Others making reference to Philosophical Ismailism:
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
Kathalika yubayyinu Allahu lakum ayatihi la'allakum ta-'aqiloona: "Allah thus makes clear to you His Signs that you may intellect"(Holy Quran 2:242)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"According to a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: The first(and only) thing created by God was the Intellect ('aql)(circa 632CE)
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
662)Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Lung Transplant And Cancer Innovator, Urges Citizenry To Step Up To The Plate And Donate Lungs And Other Organs To Save Lives.
On Call With Dr Karl Kabasele, CP24 Television Talk Show, Monday October 18th 2010: This 3-part interview with Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist, Surgeon-In-Chief of the University Health Network(comprising Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital) covers the latest breath-taking discoveries in Lung Transplantation, Regenerative Medicine, Lung Cancer Treatments among other things:
http://www.cp24.com/servlet/HTMLTemplate?tf=ctvlocal%2Fhub%2Fhub.html&cf=ctvlocal%2Fcp24.cfg&hub=CP24Oncall
Click on the 'Watch It Now' for Parts 1, 2 and 3 on October 18th 2010
Related posts on my Blog:
Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: A Collection Of Posts; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/640dr-shaf-keshavjee-master-surgeon.html
Behind The Scenes-Dr Shaf Keshavjee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlnP_r32PSQ
Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred:
"All human beings, by their nature, desire to know."(Aristotle, The Metaphysics, circa 322BC)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
“The physician considers [the bones] so that he may know a way of healing by setting them, but those with insight consider them so that through them they may draw conclusions about the majesty of Him who created and shaped [the bones]. What a difference between the two who consider!”(Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Muslim Theologian-Philosopher-Mystic, d1111CE)
"My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the Universe so that I may know all its conditions."(Ibn Sina, aka Avicenna, 11th century Muslim Philosopher, Physician and Scientist, author of the Canon of Medicine, circa 1037CE)
"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)
"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)
"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith if it is used properly. Seek out that knowledge and use it properly"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
http://www.cp24.com/servlet/HTMLTemplate?tf=ctvlocal%2Fhub%2Fhub.html&cf=ctvlocal%2Fcp24.cfg&hub=CP24Oncall
Click on the 'Watch It Now' for Parts 1, 2 and 3 on October 18th 2010
Related posts on my Blog:
Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: A Collection Of Posts; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/08/640dr-shaf-keshavjee-master-surgeon.html
Behind The Scenes-Dr Shaf Keshavjee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlnP_r32PSQ
Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred:
"All human beings, by their nature, desire to know."(Aristotle, The Metaphysics, circa 322BC)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
“The physician considers [the bones] so that he may know a way of healing by setting them, but those with insight consider them so that through them they may draw conclusions about the majesty of Him who created and shaped [the bones]. What a difference between the two who consider!”(Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Muslim Theologian-Philosopher-Mystic, d1111CE)
"My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the Universe so that I may know all its conditions."(Ibn Sina, aka Avicenna, 11th century Muslim Philosopher, Physician and Scientist, author of the Canon of Medicine, circa 1037CE)
"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)
"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)
"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith if it is used properly. Seek out that knowledge and use it properly"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Thursday, October 14, 2010
661)Bacteria Strut Their Stuff: Videos Catch Microbes Walking On Hairlike Appendages; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they Trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth; (Here) indeed are Signs for the people of intellect"(Noble Quran)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
“The physician considers [the bones] so that he may know a way of healing by setting them, but those with insight consider them so that through them they may draw conclusions about the majesty of Him who created and shaped [the bones]. What a difference between the two who consider!”(Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Muslim Theologian-Philosopher-Mystic, d1111CE)
“Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.”(Aga Khan IV, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 13 April 1984)
"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith if it is used properly. Seek out that knowledge and use it properly"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)
"Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation, and therefore it is a faith which is eminently logical. Islam is a faith of reason"(Aga Khan IV, Spiegel Magazine interview, Germany, Oct 9th 2006)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Bacteria strut their stuff
Videos catch microbes walking on hairlike appendages
By Tina Hesman Saey
Web edition : Thursday, October 7th, 2010
View the video
Jokes that open with a bacterium walking into a bar just got a little less far-fetched.
Some bacteria can just stand up and toddle away on hairlike legs, a new study shows. The finding, reported October 8 in Science, could help scientists better understand how bacteria form dense antibiotic-resistant communities called biofilms and may lead to better ways to combat troublesome and sometimes deadly microbes.
Researchers had already documented bacteria swimming through liquids or crawling on their bellies across a surface, but no one had ever seen bacteria getting up and walking. No one, that is, until a group of undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign made movies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria moving on a microscope slide. Working under the supervision of Gerard Wong, a biophysicist now at UCLA, the students adapted a technique used by physicists to track microscopic particles. Computer programs allowed the researchers to quickly sort through video footage of teeming bacteria to find out what individual cells were up to.
“My students started seeing all this neat stuff,” Wong says. “They’d tell me, ‘Yeah, sometimes they just pop wheelies and stand up.’”
What the students saw were rod-shaped P. aeruginosa bacteria standing up on end and then staggering around the slide. The unsteady walks required the use of hairlike appendages called Type IV pili, the scientists found. Without pili, bacteria just lie there. But with pili, P. aeruginosa bacteria “have the ability to both be a sprinter and a long distance runner,” says George O’Toole, a microbiologist at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H.
The stringy appendages were already known to be needed for twitching motility, a type of locomotion in which pili at one end of a bacterium pull the cell across the surface. “When the bacteria are lying down flat it’s almost like front wheel drive,” Wong says. Crawling bacteria move in relatively straight lines over fairly long distances — an average of six micrometers by Wong’s measurements — possibly enabling the microbes to move toward chemical attractants.
Walking bacteria stand on splayed pili. Tugging on one of the pili sends the cell lurching in that direction. As each pilus gets tugged the bacterium staggers and stumbles, moving randomly across the surface. Walking bacteria covered more ground and moved faster than their crawling counterparts, the researchers found. Such behavior could enable microbes to explore the local environment quickly.
As it turns out, walking is a common activity for bacteria. After a cell divided in two, about 67 percent of the time one of the newborn cells would get up and walk away from its sibling, the researchers observed.
Interactions with the surface are important for forming biofilms. Bacteria need to attach to the surface and release if conditions aren’t favorable. “And it really seems like standing upright is a key transitional step,” O’Toole says.
In the new study, Wong and his colleagues watched as P. aeruginosa bacteria used their pili as launch platforms. A bacterium first rises up on its end and then spins itself around, powered by a molecular motor that drives a whiplike swimming apparatus called a flagellum. Pili adjust the angle at which the cell is tilted. Finally, the microbe builds up momentum and shoots off the surface.
“They don’t just fly off a surface,” Wong says. “There’s a whole coordinated series of pirouettes.”Blocking bacteria’s ability to stand up may prevent biofilms from forming on medical implants and other surfaces, O’Toole says.
Standing up means bacteria can move in three dimensions, not just on flat surfaces, says John Kirby, a microbiologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “That’s a real eye-opener,” he says. “It’s like the Earth was flat, but now it’s not flat anymore.”
See video:
PRECOCIOUS WALKER from Science News on Vimeo.
A newborn bacterial cell stands up and walks away from its sister cell.Credit: Courtesy of Gerard Wong, UCLA Bioengineering, CNSI
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64083/title/Bacteria_strut_their_stuff
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they Trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth; (Here) indeed are Signs for the people of intellect"(Noble Quran)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
“The physician considers [the bones] so that he may know a way of healing by setting them, but those with insight consider them so that through them they may draw conclusions about the majesty of Him who created and shaped [the bones]. What a difference between the two who consider!”(Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Muslim Theologian-Philosopher-Mystic, d1111CE)
“Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.”(Aga Khan IV, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 13 April 1984)
"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith if it is used properly. Seek out that knowledge and use it properly"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)
"Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation, and therefore it is a faith which is eminently logical. Islam is a faith of reason"(Aga Khan IV, Spiegel Magazine interview, Germany, Oct 9th 2006)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Bacteria strut their stuff
Videos catch microbes walking on hairlike appendages
By Tina Hesman Saey
Web edition : Thursday, October 7th, 2010
View the video
Jokes that open with a bacterium walking into a bar just got a little less far-fetched.
Some bacteria can just stand up and toddle away on hairlike legs, a new study shows. The finding, reported October 8 in Science, could help scientists better understand how bacteria form dense antibiotic-resistant communities called biofilms and may lead to better ways to combat troublesome and sometimes deadly microbes.
Researchers had already documented bacteria swimming through liquids or crawling on their bellies across a surface, but no one had ever seen bacteria getting up and walking. No one, that is, until a group of undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign made movies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria moving on a microscope slide. Working under the supervision of Gerard Wong, a biophysicist now at UCLA, the students adapted a technique used by physicists to track microscopic particles. Computer programs allowed the researchers to quickly sort through video footage of teeming bacteria to find out what individual cells were up to.
“My students started seeing all this neat stuff,” Wong says. “They’d tell me, ‘Yeah, sometimes they just pop wheelies and stand up.’”
What the students saw were rod-shaped P. aeruginosa bacteria standing up on end and then staggering around the slide. The unsteady walks required the use of hairlike appendages called Type IV pili, the scientists found. Without pili, bacteria just lie there. But with pili, P. aeruginosa bacteria “have the ability to both be a sprinter and a long distance runner,” says George O’Toole, a microbiologist at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H.
The stringy appendages were already known to be needed for twitching motility, a type of locomotion in which pili at one end of a bacterium pull the cell across the surface. “When the bacteria are lying down flat it’s almost like front wheel drive,” Wong says. Crawling bacteria move in relatively straight lines over fairly long distances — an average of six micrometers by Wong’s measurements — possibly enabling the microbes to move toward chemical attractants.
Walking bacteria stand on splayed pili. Tugging on one of the pili sends the cell lurching in that direction. As each pilus gets tugged the bacterium staggers and stumbles, moving randomly across the surface. Walking bacteria covered more ground and moved faster than their crawling counterparts, the researchers found. Such behavior could enable microbes to explore the local environment quickly.
As it turns out, walking is a common activity for bacteria. After a cell divided in two, about 67 percent of the time one of the newborn cells would get up and walk away from its sibling, the researchers observed.
Interactions with the surface are important for forming biofilms. Bacteria need to attach to the surface and release if conditions aren’t favorable. “And it really seems like standing upright is a key transitional step,” O’Toole says.
In the new study, Wong and his colleagues watched as P. aeruginosa bacteria used their pili as launch platforms. A bacterium first rises up on its end and then spins itself around, powered by a molecular motor that drives a whiplike swimming apparatus called a flagellum. Pili adjust the angle at which the cell is tilted. Finally, the microbe builds up momentum and shoots off the surface.
“They don’t just fly off a surface,” Wong says. “There’s a whole coordinated series of pirouettes.”Blocking bacteria’s ability to stand up may prevent biofilms from forming on medical implants and other surfaces, O’Toole says.
Standing up means bacteria can move in three dimensions, not just on flat surfaces, says John Kirby, a microbiologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. “That’s a real eye-opener,” he says. “It’s like the Earth was flat, but now it’s not flat anymore.”
See video:
PRECOCIOUS WALKER from Science News on Vimeo.
A newborn bacterial cell stands up and walks away from its sister cell.Credit: Courtesy of Gerard Wong, UCLA Bioengineering, CNSI
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64083/title/Bacteria_strut_their_stuff
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
660)Studying Tropical Genetic Blood Diseases: A Conversation With David J. Weatherall On Thalassemia; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
"In fact this world is a book in which you see inscribed the writings of God the Almighty"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"In sum the process of creation can be said to take place at several levels. Ibda represents the initial level - one transcends history, the other creates it. The spiritual and material realms are not dichotomous, since in the Ismaili formulation, matter and spirit are united under a higher genus and each realm possesses its own hierarchy. Though they require linguistic and rational categories for definition, they represent elements of a whole, and a true understanding of God must also take account of His creation. Such a synthesis is crucial to how the human intellect eventually relates to creation and how it ultimately becomes the instrument for penetrating through history the mystery of the unknowable God implied in the formulation of tawhid."(Azim Nanji, Director, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, U.K., 1998)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Quotes from article below:
What exactly is Thalassemia?
"It’s a defect in the genes that makes it impossible for hemoglobin to properly form. Of course, in the 1950s, we understood little about hemoglobin’s biochemistry. Thalassemia was, and is, a terrible disease. The children generally don’t live to adulthood — and then only with constant transfusions. In the case of this little girl, her parents eventually took her to their village in Nepal, where she died."
"Eventually, we were able to employ newly invented biochemistry techniques to work out how a gene expresses the proteins that make the molecules of hemoglobin. It would turn out that hemoglobin is made up of two different strings of amino acids, alpha and beta, that should bind together. My colleagues and I found that there are two main types of the disease due to the defects in the alpha or beta chains.
A Conversation With David J. Weatherall
Studying Tropical Genetic Blood Diseases
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS
Published: October 12, 2010
Sir David Weatherall, 77, an Oxford researcher-physician, was among the first to use the tools of molecular biology to understand thalassemia. He was in New York to receive the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award for “50 years of international statesmanship in biomedical science.” A condensed version of conversations with him follows:
Q. YOU GREW UP IN LIVERPOOL. HOW DID TROPICAL GENETIC BLOOD DISEASES BECOME YOUR LIFE’S WORK?
A. In 1956, after I’d finished my medical training, I was drafted for compulsory military service. At the time, there was an insurgency in Malaya, where the Commonwealth forces were fighting the Communists, and I was not anxious to get involved with that. Nonetheless, I soon found myself on a troop ship for Singapore.
When I got there, because I had no pediatric training, the army put me in charge of a children’s ward looking after the families of Commonwealth soldiers. And there I encountered a 2-year-old, the daughter of a Gurkha from Nepal. She had profound anemia. No one understood why. We kept her alive with transfusions.
So in my spare moments, I went to the biochemistry department at Singapore University Hospital, and worked with people there to try to figure it out. Within six months, we had an answer: thalassemia. That was a big surprise. This genetic disease was thought to occur only in the Mediterranean.
Q. WHAT EXACTLY IS IT?
A. It’s a defect in the genes that makes it impossible for hemoglobin to properly form. Of course, in the 1950s, we understood little about hemoglobin’s biochemistry. Thalassemia was, and is, a terrible disease. The children generally don’t live to adulthood — and then only with constant transfusions. In the case of this little girl, her parents eventually took her to their village in Nepal, where she died.
Q. SO SHE WAS THE BEGINNING OF YOUR INTEREST?
A. Yes. The army next sent me up to northern Malaya, where the last of the fighting was going on. I used this time to search for more thalassemia. I’d construct equipment from old car batteries and filter paper, and that’s how I separated the different hemoglobins in the blood samples I’d collect. Whenever I found anything abnormal, I’d post the slides to a good old boy, Herman Lehman, at a laboratory in London. We actually found one or two more cases that way.
By 1960, when I was done with my service, I was totally hooked on genetic blood diseases. I wrote my mentor at medical school back in Britain that I wanted to go somewhere to learn more about genetics, blood and protein chemistry. He wrote back, “If you try to do this in England, you will be sent for psychiatric advice. Better go to America.”
Q. AND THAT’S HOW YOU ENDED UP AT JOHNS HOPKINS FOR FOUR YEARS?
A. Exactly. But they failed to tell me that there were no thalassemics in Baltimore! So I found myself making frequent trips to New York to locate Greeks and Italians with the gene. I’d take the blood samples back on the train and sit all night working them up.
Eventually, we were able to employ newly invented biochemistry techniques to work out how a gene expresses the proteins that make the molecules of hemoglobin. It would turn out that hemoglobin is made up of two different strings of amino acids, alpha and beta, that should bind together. My colleagues and I found that there are two main types of the disease due to the defects in the alpha or beta chains.
Q. WAS THAT THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE DISEASE?
A. Yes. Later, when I returned to Britain, we and others were able to use that to develop a prenatal test for it — you looked for that imbalance of chain production. Also, in 1974, we found a form of it where there was no alpha strand present at all, causing babies to be stillborn. From that came the first demonstration of a gene deletion.
What was so important about our thalassemia research was that the techniques we pioneered became a kind of template for understanding genetic diseases. Breakthroughs from other researchers soon followed in cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s. This was an example of where studying something considered rare had truly widespread consequences.
Q. HOW COMMON IS THALASSEMIA?
A. No one knows precisely. It’s believed that there are about 60,000 births with it in a year in the poorer parts of the world. So there are hundreds of thousands of these children. What we certainly know that the impact is devastating.
That hit me very hard with the families we’ve come to know in Sri Lanka, where my Oxford research institute has a partnership to provide health care. Genetic diseases are sometimes difficult to explain, and people there are often unwilling to accept that both parents’ genes are equally responsible for the disease. The men blame the women, who suffer enormously. Lots of the families break up. There’s quite a high suicide rate, as well.
Q. WHEN YOU OFFER PRENATAL TESTING, YOU ARE ALSO OFTEN OFFERING ABORTION. IS THAT A PROBLEM IN SOME COUNTRIES?
A. It’s a problem in predominantly Catholic countries like the Philippines. It’s not been a problem in Cyprus, where 20 percent of the population carries the gene. It was a problem in Islamic countries, but that has now been rethought. In the intensely Buddhist countries, the reaction varies. In Sri Lanka, it’s not acceptable. In Thailand, they’ve come to some kind of an arrangement.
Q. IN YOUR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH FOR THE LASKER PRIZE, YOU COMPLAINED THAT MANY OF THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS IGNORE GENETIC DISEASES. WHY IS THAT?
A. They don’t think enough people are impacted, so they are more interested in solving communicable diseases. Well, they are making progress with those, but they recognize that once you do that the frequency of the genetic diseases increases. As you start to control infections, you lower childhood mortality and many children with genetic diseases who might have died in their first years are living long enough to present for treatment. They have to deal with that.
Q. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR LASKER PRIZE MONEY?
A. Probably use it for research. I’m 77, and I’ve been officially retired since 2000. In Britain, it’s not easy to stay working when you’re older. People don’t like it, which is foolish because some researchers are burned out at 30 and then someone like Max Perutz did 100 papers after his “retirement.” But it’s hard to get grants at my stage, though I’ve been very kindly supported with a small one from the Wellcome Trust.
If I’m spared another year or two, I want to look into a form of Asian thalassemia where there’s a strong hint that a high proportion of the kids might be able to go through their lives with low hemoglobin and without transfusions. We don’t know if this is genetic or perhaps something about their environment. That’s what I’d like to sort out before I depart. And that’s what the prize will probably finance.
Sir David Weatherall, 77, an Oxford researcher-physician, was among the first to use the tools of molecular biology to understand thalassemia. He was in New York to receive the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award for “50 years of international statesmanship in biomedical science.”
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
"In fact this world is a book in which you see inscribed the writings of God the Almighty"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"In sum the process of creation can be said to take place at several levels. Ibda represents the initial level - one transcends history, the other creates it. The spiritual and material realms are not dichotomous, since in the Ismaili formulation, matter and spirit are united under a higher genus and each realm possesses its own hierarchy. Though they require linguistic and rational categories for definition, they represent elements of a whole, and a true understanding of God must also take account of His creation. Such a synthesis is crucial to how the human intellect eventually relates to creation and how it ultimately becomes the instrument for penetrating through history the mystery of the unknowable God implied in the formulation of tawhid."(Azim Nanji, Director, Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, U.K., 1998)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Quotes from article below:
What exactly is Thalassemia?
"It’s a defect in the genes that makes it impossible for hemoglobin to properly form. Of course, in the 1950s, we understood little about hemoglobin’s biochemistry. Thalassemia was, and is, a terrible disease. The children generally don’t live to adulthood — and then only with constant transfusions. In the case of this little girl, her parents eventually took her to their village in Nepal, where she died."
"Eventually, we were able to employ newly invented biochemistry techniques to work out how a gene expresses the proteins that make the molecules of hemoglobin. It would turn out that hemoglobin is made up of two different strings of amino acids, alpha and beta, that should bind together. My colleagues and I found that there are two main types of the disease due to the defects in the alpha or beta chains.
A Conversation With David J. Weatherall
Studying Tropical Genetic Blood Diseases
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS
Published: October 12, 2010
Sir David Weatherall, 77, an Oxford researcher-physician, was among the first to use the tools of molecular biology to understand thalassemia. He was in New York to receive the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award for “50 years of international statesmanship in biomedical science.” A condensed version of conversations with him follows:
Q. YOU GREW UP IN LIVERPOOL. HOW DID TROPICAL GENETIC BLOOD DISEASES BECOME YOUR LIFE’S WORK?
A. In 1956, after I’d finished my medical training, I was drafted for compulsory military service. At the time, there was an insurgency in Malaya, where the Commonwealth forces were fighting the Communists, and I was not anxious to get involved with that. Nonetheless, I soon found myself on a troop ship for Singapore.
When I got there, because I had no pediatric training, the army put me in charge of a children’s ward looking after the families of Commonwealth soldiers. And there I encountered a 2-year-old, the daughter of a Gurkha from Nepal. She had profound anemia. No one understood why. We kept her alive with transfusions.
So in my spare moments, I went to the biochemistry department at Singapore University Hospital, and worked with people there to try to figure it out. Within six months, we had an answer: thalassemia. That was a big surprise. This genetic disease was thought to occur only in the Mediterranean.
Q. WHAT EXACTLY IS IT?
A. It’s a defect in the genes that makes it impossible for hemoglobin to properly form. Of course, in the 1950s, we understood little about hemoglobin’s biochemistry. Thalassemia was, and is, a terrible disease. The children generally don’t live to adulthood — and then only with constant transfusions. In the case of this little girl, her parents eventually took her to their village in Nepal, where she died.
Q. SO SHE WAS THE BEGINNING OF YOUR INTEREST?
A. Yes. The army next sent me up to northern Malaya, where the last of the fighting was going on. I used this time to search for more thalassemia. I’d construct equipment from old car batteries and filter paper, and that’s how I separated the different hemoglobins in the blood samples I’d collect. Whenever I found anything abnormal, I’d post the slides to a good old boy, Herman Lehman, at a laboratory in London. We actually found one or two more cases that way.
By 1960, when I was done with my service, I was totally hooked on genetic blood diseases. I wrote my mentor at medical school back in Britain that I wanted to go somewhere to learn more about genetics, blood and protein chemistry. He wrote back, “If you try to do this in England, you will be sent for psychiatric advice. Better go to America.”
Q. AND THAT’S HOW YOU ENDED UP AT JOHNS HOPKINS FOR FOUR YEARS?
A. Exactly. But they failed to tell me that there were no thalassemics in Baltimore! So I found myself making frequent trips to New York to locate Greeks and Italians with the gene. I’d take the blood samples back on the train and sit all night working them up.
Eventually, we were able to employ newly invented biochemistry techniques to work out how a gene expresses the proteins that make the molecules of hemoglobin. It would turn out that hemoglobin is made up of two different strings of amino acids, alpha and beta, that should bind together. My colleagues and I found that there are two main types of the disease due to the defects in the alpha or beta chains.
Q. WAS THAT THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE DISEASE?
A. Yes. Later, when I returned to Britain, we and others were able to use that to develop a prenatal test for it — you looked for that imbalance of chain production. Also, in 1974, we found a form of it where there was no alpha strand present at all, causing babies to be stillborn. From that came the first demonstration of a gene deletion.
What was so important about our thalassemia research was that the techniques we pioneered became a kind of template for understanding genetic diseases. Breakthroughs from other researchers soon followed in cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s. This was an example of where studying something considered rare had truly widespread consequences.
Q. HOW COMMON IS THALASSEMIA?
A. No one knows precisely. It’s believed that there are about 60,000 births with it in a year in the poorer parts of the world. So there are hundreds of thousands of these children. What we certainly know that the impact is devastating.
That hit me very hard with the families we’ve come to know in Sri Lanka, where my Oxford research institute has a partnership to provide health care. Genetic diseases are sometimes difficult to explain, and people there are often unwilling to accept that both parents’ genes are equally responsible for the disease. The men blame the women, who suffer enormously. Lots of the families break up. There’s quite a high suicide rate, as well.
Q. WHEN YOU OFFER PRENATAL TESTING, YOU ARE ALSO OFTEN OFFERING ABORTION. IS THAT A PROBLEM IN SOME COUNTRIES?
A. It’s a problem in predominantly Catholic countries like the Philippines. It’s not been a problem in Cyprus, where 20 percent of the population carries the gene. It was a problem in Islamic countries, but that has now been rethought. In the intensely Buddhist countries, the reaction varies. In Sri Lanka, it’s not acceptable. In Thailand, they’ve come to some kind of an arrangement.
Q. IN YOUR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH FOR THE LASKER PRIZE, YOU COMPLAINED THAT MANY OF THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS IGNORE GENETIC DISEASES. WHY IS THAT?
A. They don’t think enough people are impacted, so they are more interested in solving communicable diseases. Well, they are making progress with those, but they recognize that once you do that the frequency of the genetic diseases increases. As you start to control infections, you lower childhood mortality and many children with genetic diseases who might have died in their first years are living long enough to present for treatment. They have to deal with that.
Q. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR LASKER PRIZE MONEY?
A. Probably use it for research. I’m 77, and I’ve been officially retired since 2000. In Britain, it’s not easy to stay working when you’re older. People don’t like it, which is foolish because some researchers are burned out at 30 and then someone like Max Perutz did 100 papers after his “retirement.” But it’s hard to get grants at my stage, though I’ve been very kindly supported with a small one from the Wellcome Trust.
If I’m spared another year or two, I want to look into a form of Asian thalassemia where there’s a strong hint that a high proportion of the kids might be able to go through their lives with low hemoglobin and without transfusions. We don’t know if this is genetic or perhaps something about their environment. That’s what I’d like to sort out before I depart. And that’s what the prize will probably finance.
Sir David Weatherall, 77, an Oxford researcher-physician, was among the first to use the tools of molecular biology to understand thalassemia. He was in New York to receive the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award for “50 years of international statesmanship in biomedical science.”
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
659)2010 Nobels Recognize Potential Of Basic Science To Shape The World; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
About the United States of America: "I'm less hypnotized by this country's material wealth than by its wealth of knowledge. This country today represents, without any doubt in my mind, the greatest intensity of human knowledge on the face of the earth. And that is an exhilarating thought, one perhaps not perceived by Americans as much as by non-Americans"(Aga Khan IV, LIFE magazine interview, December 1983)
"The United States' position as a world leader, in my view, grows directly out of its accomplishments as a Knowledge Society - and this Knowledge - rightly applied - can continue to be a resource of enormous global value"(Aga Khan IV, Austin, Texas, USA, 12 April 2008)
"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)
"Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded al-Azhar University in Cairo some 1000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world. The form of universities has changed over those 1000 years, but that reciprocity between faith and knowledge remains a source of strength"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"A thousand years ago, my forefathers, the Fatimid imam-caliphs of Egypt, founded al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. In the Islamic tradition, they viewed the discovery of knowledge as a way to understand, so as to serve better God's creation, to apply knowledge and reason to build society and shape human aspirations"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 25th June 2004, Matola, Mozambique.)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"...As we use our intellect to gain new knowledge about Creation, we come to see even more profoundly the depth and breadth of its mysteries. We explore unknown regions beneath the seas – and in outer space. We reach back over hundreds of millions of years in time. Extra-ordinary fossilised geological specimens seize our imagination – palm leaves, amethyst flowers, hedgehog quartz, sea lilies, chrysanthemum and a rich panoply of shells. Indeed, these wonders are found beneath the very soil on which we tread – in every corner of the world – and they connect us with far distant epochs and environments.
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration"(Aga Khan IV, Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)For the full version of this quote see:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/easy-nashs-blogpost-four-hundred-updated-with-quotes-from-the-opening-of-the-delegation-of-the-ismaili-imamat/
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation"(Closing Address by His Highness Aga Khan IV at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre Museum, Paris, France, October 17th 2007)
"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)
"....in Islam, but particularly Shia Islam, the role of the intellect is part of faith. That intellect is what seperates man from the rest of the physical world in which he lives.....This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain"(Aga Khan IV, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, August 17th 2007)
"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)
"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"Consider, for example, the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer: "Allah-o-Akbar". What does that mean? There can be no doubt that the second word of the declaration likens the character of Allah to a matrix which contains all and gives existence to the infinite, to space, to time, to the Universe, to all active and passive forces imaginable, to life and to the soul. Imam Hassan has explained the Islamic doctrine of God and the Universe by analogy with the sun and its reflection in the pool of a fountain; there is certainly a reflection or image of the sun, but with what poverty and with what little reality; how small and pale is the likeness between this impalpable image and the immense, blazing, white-hot glory of the celestial sphere itself. Allah is the sun; and the Universe, as we know it in all its magnitude, and time, with its power, are nothing more than the reflection of the Absolute in the mirror of the fountain"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
Quote from a letter written by Our 48th Imam to a friend in 1952 under the title: 'What have we forgotten in Islam?':"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan).
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
"My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the Universe so that I may know all its conditions."(Ibn Sina, aka Avicenna, 11th century Muslim Philosopher, Physician and Scientist, author of the Canon of Medicine, circa 1037CE)
"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
All human beings, by their nature, desire to know."(Aristotle, The Metaphysics, circa 322BC)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
2010 Nobels recognize potential of basic science to shape the world
Prizes go to IVF, graphene and ‘carbon chemistry at its best’
By Rachel Ehrenberg, Laura Sanders and Nathan Seppa
October 23rd, 2010; Vol.178 #9
Medical Nobel goes to developer of IVF
Robert Edwards receives prize for work that led to 4 million births Read More
Physics Nobel goes to graphene
Two-dimensional carbon sheets discovered in 2004 Read More
Basic tool for making organic molecules wins chemistry Nobel
Three researchers get prize for methods used to make drugs, electronics, plastics Read More
BLOG:Swedish academy awards
As Nobel season opens, one researcher looks back on a century of steadily increasing U.S. dominance.
A technology that has brought 4 million babies into the world over the past three decades has been recognized with a Nobel Prize, along with two innovations that promise to revolutionize how those children live in the 21st century.
The 2010 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to Robert Edwards of the University of Cambridge in England for pioneering in vitro fertilization, a process that overcomes many causes of infertility by creating embryos outside the body and implanting them in a prospective mother’s uterus.
Edwards began research on IVF in the 1950s and later worked with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe. In the late 1960s Edwards was the first to try human egg removal and fertilization in vitro, a Latin term meaning “in glass.”
“By a brilliant combination of basic and applied medical research, Edwards overcame one technical hurdle after another in his persistence to discover a method that would help to alleviate infertility,” the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute stated in announcing the prize.
Ultimately, Edwards’ efforts gave rise to both a medical breakthrough and a now-outdated term — test-tube baby. The first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born July 25, 1978.
One winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics, Konstantin Novoselov, was little more than a toddler at the time. Now 36, he and Andre Geim, both of the University of Manchester in England, published their Nobel-winning discovery just six years ago in Science (SN: 10/23/04, p. 259). Since then almost 50,000 research papers have been published on graphene, the material the pair isolated from graphite using ordinary adhesive tape.
Graphene is made of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, forming a single layer so thin that it’s nearly see-through. For such a humble material, graphene displays some remarkable properties: It conducts electrons with extremely low resistance, can conduct heat 10 times better than copper and exhibits strange quantum effects. Graphene is also flexible and stronger than steel. The substance could form the basis for new kinds of electronics, transparent displays, efficient solar panels or lightweight plastic composite materials for use in aerospace and other applications.
“When you couple it with all of the applications, that’s what whips physicists into a frenzy,” says Joseph Stroscio of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Gaithersburg, Md., campus. “It’s an amazing little material.”
The winners of the chemistry prize developed ways to use another amazing material, the precious metal palladium, as a catalyst to build large molecules out of carbon atoms. The techniques the trio developed are already used in producing thin-screen displays and a host of drugs, including antibiotics, chemotherapy agents and the anti-inflammatory naproxen. More applications are bound to come as chemists continue to refine the technique, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in naming the winners: Richard Heck, who retired in 1989 from the University of Delaware in Newark; Ei-ichi Negishi of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.; and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
All three figured out ways to make chemical reactions go by using palladium to disconnect and connect particular atoms with speed and efficiency. Known as palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, different versions of the process already bear the names of each Nobel winner and are familiar to organic chemistry students, as well as those in industry and academia. The research that led to the prizes began back in the 1950s and has become part of the standard toolkit of chemists.
“This is fundamental carbon chemistry at its best,” says Joseph Francisco, a Purdue chemist and president of the American Chemical Society.
This year’s Nobel Prizes are worth 10 million Swedish kronor each, or about $1.5 million. Geim and Novoselov will split their prize evenly, as will Heck, Negishi and Suzuki.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64079/title/2010_Nobels_recognize_potential_of_basic_science_to__shape_the_world
Related:
Pioneer of in Vitro Fertilization Wins Nobel Prize
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/health/research/05nobel.html?ref=science
Physics Nobel Honors Work on Ultra-Thin Carbon
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/science/06nobel.html?ref=science
3 Share Nobel in Chemistry for Work on Synthesizing Molecules
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07nobel.html?ref=science
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"The United States' position as a world leader, in my view, grows directly out of its accomplishments as a Knowledge Society - and this Knowledge - rightly applied - can continue to be a resource of enormous global value"(Aga Khan IV, Austin, Texas, USA, 12 April 2008)
"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)
"Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded al-Azhar University in Cairo some 1000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world. The form of universities has changed over those 1000 years, but that reciprocity between faith and knowledge remains a source of strength"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"A thousand years ago, my forefathers, the Fatimid imam-caliphs of Egypt, founded al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. In the Islamic tradition, they viewed the discovery of knowledge as a way to understand, so as to serve better God's creation, to apply knowledge and reason to build society and shape human aspirations"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 25th June 2004, Matola, Mozambique.)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"...As we use our intellect to gain new knowledge about Creation, we come to see even more profoundly the depth and breadth of its mysteries. We explore unknown regions beneath the seas – and in outer space. We reach back over hundreds of millions of years in time. Extra-ordinary fossilised geological specimens seize our imagination – palm leaves, amethyst flowers, hedgehog quartz, sea lilies, chrysanthemum and a rich panoply of shells. Indeed, these wonders are found beneath the very soil on which we tread – in every corner of the world – and they connect us with far distant epochs and environments.
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration"(Aga Khan IV, Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)For the full version of this quote see:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/easy-nashs-blogpost-four-hundred-updated-with-quotes-from-the-opening-of-the-delegation-of-the-ismaili-imamat/
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation"(Closing Address by His Highness Aga Khan IV at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre Museum, Paris, France, October 17th 2007)
"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)
"....in Islam, but particularly Shia Islam, the role of the intellect is part of faith. That intellect is what seperates man from the rest of the physical world in which he lives.....This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain"(Aga Khan IV, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, August 17th 2007)
"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan)
"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"Consider, for example, the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer: "Allah-o-Akbar". What does that mean? There can be no doubt that the second word of the declaration likens the character of Allah to a matrix which contains all and gives existence to the infinite, to space, to time, to the Universe, to all active and passive forces imaginable, to life and to the soul. Imam Hassan has explained the Islamic doctrine of God and the Universe by analogy with the sun and its reflection in the pool of a fountain; there is certainly a reflection or image of the sun, but with what poverty and with what little reality; how small and pale is the likeness between this impalpable image and the immense, blazing, white-hot glory of the celestial sphere itself. Allah is the sun; and the Universe, as we know it in all its magnitude, and time, with its power, are nothing more than the reflection of the Absolute in the mirror of the fountain"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
Quote from a letter written by Our 48th Imam to a friend in 1952 under the title: 'What have we forgotten in Islam?':"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan).
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
"My profession is to be forever journeying, to travel about the Universe so that I may know all its conditions."(Ibn Sina, aka Avicenna, 11th century Muslim Philosopher, Physician and Scientist, author of the Canon of Medicine, circa 1037CE)
"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
All human beings, by their nature, desire to know."(Aristotle, The Metaphysics, circa 322BC)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
2010 Nobels recognize potential of basic science to shape the world
Prizes go to IVF, graphene and ‘carbon chemistry at its best’
By Rachel Ehrenberg, Laura Sanders and Nathan Seppa
October 23rd, 2010; Vol.178 #9
Medical Nobel goes to developer of IVF
Robert Edwards receives prize for work that led to 4 million births Read More
Physics Nobel goes to graphene
Two-dimensional carbon sheets discovered in 2004 Read More
Basic tool for making organic molecules wins chemistry Nobel
Three researchers get prize for methods used to make drugs, electronics, plastics Read More
BLOG:Swedish academy awards
As Nobel season opens, one researcher looks back on a century of steadily increasing U.S. dominance.
A technology that has brought 4 million babies into the world over the past three decades has been recognized with a Nobel Prize, along with two innovations that promise to revolutionize how those children live in the 21st century.
The 2010 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to Robert Edwards of the University of Cambridge in England for pioneering in vitro fertilization, a process that overcomes many causes of infertility by creating embryos outside the body and implanting them in a prospective mother’s uterus.
Edwards began research on IVF in the 1950s and later worked with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe. In the late 1960s Edwards was the first to try human egg removal and fertilization in vitro, a Latin term meaning “in glass.”
“By a brilliant combination of basic and applied medical research, Edwards overcame one technical hurdle after another in his persistence to discover a method that would help to alleviate infertility,” the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute stated in announcing the prize.
Ultimately, Edwards’ efforts gave rise to both a medical breakthrough and a now-outdated term — test-tube baby. The first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born July 25, 1978.
One winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics, Konstantin Novoselov, was little more than a toddler at the time. Now 36, he and Andre Geim, both of the University of Manchester in England, published their Nobel-winning discovery just six years ago in Science (SN: 10/23/04, p. 259). Since then almost 50,000 research papers have been published on graphene, the material the pair isolated from graphite using ordinary adhesive tape.
Graphene is made of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, forming a single layer so thin that it’s nearly see-through. For such a humble material, graphene displays some remarkable properties: It conducts electrons with extremely low resistance, can conduct heat 10 times better than copper and exhibits strange quantum effects. Graphene is also flexible and stronger than steel. The substance could form the basis for new kinds of electronics, transparent displays, efficient solar panels or lightweight plastic composite materials for use in aerospace and other applications.
“When you couple it with all of the applications, that’s what whips physicists into a frenzy,” says Joseph Stroscio of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Gaithersburg, Md., campus. “It’s an amazing little material.”
The winners of the chemistry prize developed ways to use another amazing material, the precious metal palladium, as a catalyst to build large molecules out of carbon atoms. The techniques the trio developed are already used in producing thin-screen displays and a host of drugs, including antibiotics, chemotherapy agents and the anti-inflammatory naproxen. More applications are bound to come as chemists continue to refine the technique, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in naming the winners: Richard Heck, who retired in 1989 from the University of Delaware in Newark; Ei-ichi Negishi of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.; and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.
All three figured out ways to make chemical reactions go by using palladium to disconnect and connect particular atoms with speed and efficiency. Known as palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, different versions of the process already bear the names of each Nobel winner and are familiar to organic chemistry students, as well as those in industry and academia. The research that led to the prizes began back in the 1950s and has become part of the standard toolkit of chemists.
“This is fundamental carbon chemistry at its best,” says Joseph Francisco, a Purdue chemist and president of the American Chemical Society.
This year’s Nobel Prizes are worth 10 million Swedish kronor each, or about $1.5 million. Geim and Novoselov will split their prize evenly, as will Heck, Negishi and Suzuki.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64079/title/2010_Nobels_recognize_potential_of_basic_science_to__shape_the_world
Related:
Pioneer of in Vitro Fertilization Wins Nobel Prize
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/health/research/05nobel.html?ref=science
Physics Nobel Honors Work on Ultra-Thin Carbon
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/science/06nobel.html?ref=science
3 Share Nobel in Chemistry for Work on Synthesizing Molecules
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07nobel.html?ref=science
Easy Nash
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
658)The Movie Story Of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Very Relevant To Me Because My Blog Is Cross-Posted To My Wall And To NetworkedBlogs On Facebook.
"All human beings, by their nature, desire to know."(Aristotle, The Metaphysics, circa 322BC)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Review: The Social Network
The story of Facebook, from a bad date to an online empire, is traced with genuine insight
By JOHN GRIFFIN, The Gazette October 4, 2010
The Social Network
Rating 4.5 out of 5
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara
Playing at: Angrignon, Banque Scotia, Brossard, Cavendish, Cinema du Parc, Colossus, Cote des Neiges, Kirkland, Lacordaire, Marche Central, Sources, Spheretech and Taschereau cinemas.
Parents' guide: Some Language, Drug Use.
The Social Network is the great romance for the first decade of the 21st century.
David Fincher deftly directs an outstanding script from TV guru Aaron Sorkin about a curious moment in history when people fall hopelessly in love with themselves and their machines. It is, of course, the story of Facebook.
The year is 2003. The setting is Harvard University. In a brilliant opening scene in a crowded college bar, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg is having a beer with girlfriend Erica (live wire Rooney Mara, about to become the face of The Millennium Trilogy's Lisbeth Salander). In the parry and thrust of two frighteningly smart people with all their brain cells intact, the arrogant, insecure Mark manages to insult Erica on any number of fronts, revealing a complex, naive, class-conscious personality with a dysfunctional self-edit button.
"Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster," she observes as the conversation turns upon Mark's obsessions with the caste system at Harvard and his position as a Jewish tech nerd peering in on America's most privileged products of WASPdom.
The breaking point comes when he says, "You don't have to study. You go to B.U." It is one condescending remark over the line. She breaks up with him. "You're not a nerd," she notes. "You're an a--hole."
Stung, and slightly drunk, he goes back to his dorm room and writes a scathing, adolescent blog riposte to his rejection, involving her family history and bra size. It is a defining act in what would become the social networking institution known as Facebook, a $25-billion global phenomenon with 500 million members whose "friends" share 30 billion pieces of information a month. And it all started with hurt feelings on a date gone wrong.
This could have been just another boring business movie, but for Fincher's thoroughly contemporary, yet seamless, mix of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Sorkin's rapier dialogue (his TV classic The West Wing was no fluke), an entirely believable cast and a tale that could only have been spun over the last seven years.
Mark's intelligence far outweighs his common sense. When a cruel, sexist computer game he hatches by hacking into Harvard student sites takes off like wildfire, he decides there may a function in linking people up. It's raw and unformed, but rapidly comes together with information allegedly lifted off fellow Harvard students, the blue-blooded Winklevoss twins and their partner in a fledgling enterprise, Max Minghella's Divya Narendra.
Their subsequent lawsuit against Zuckerberg for intellectual property theft forms the dramatic core around which The Social Network so smoothly revolves. The other arc is an evolving relationship between Mark and "only friend" Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Eduardo provides the $900 start-up money for the project, and functions as business partner and lightning rod. Until Sean Parker shows up.
As played with scene-stealing charisma by Justin Timberlake, Parker is the reclusive wunderkind technology entrepreneur who began as a busted 16-year-old hacker, went on to found Napster at the ripe old age of 19, and saw promise in what was then known as TheFacebook that far exceeded Saverin's vision but mirrored Zuckerberg's own.
After dazzling the socially inept Mark at a sleek New York restaurant, he persuades him to spend the summer of 2004 in Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, while Eduardo woos potential advertisers back East. The freeze-out begins as consummate hustler Parker begins to take the shaky 5-month-old service global. Eduardo will have a lawsuit of his own to file.
You want to experience The Social Network, even -or perhaps especially -if you value privacy and despise Facebook as a prime enabler in this sorry age of acute narcissism. The movie looks great, sounds great (thanks to an edgy score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), moves through its substantial running time at a comfortable clip and radiates intelligence, charm, wit and real insight into human nature. I can't imagine a more entertaining movie this fall, or a better movie about the Web, ever.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Social+Network+online+romance/3606304/story.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Review: The Social Network
The story of Facebook, from a bad date to an online empire, is traced with genuine insight
By JOHN GRIFFIN, The Gazette October 4, 2010
The Social Network
Rating 4.5 out of 5
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara
Playing at: Angrignon, Banque Scotia, Brossard, Cavendish, Cinema du Parc, Colossus, Cote des Neiges, Kirkland, Lacordaire, Marche Central, Sources, Spheretech and Taschereau cinemas.
Parents' guide: Some Language, Drug Use.
The Social Network is the great romance for the first decade of the 21st century.
David Fincher deftly directs an outstanding script from TV guru Aaron Sorkin about a curious moment in history when people fall hopelessly in love with themselves and their machines. It is, of course, the story of Facebook.
The year is 2003. The setting is Harvard University. In a brilliant opening scene in a crowded college bar, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg is having a beer with girlfriend Erica (live wire Rooney Mara, about to become the face of The Millennium Trilogy's Lisbeth Salander). In the parry and thrust of two frighteningly smart people with all their brain cells intact, the arrogant, insecure Mark manages to insult Erica on any number of fronts, revealing a complex, naive, class-conscious personality with a dysfunctional self-edit button.
"Dating you is like dating a Stairmaster," she observes as the conversation turns upon Mark's obsessions with the caste system at Harvard and his position as a Jewish tech nerd peering in on America's most privileged products of WASPdom.
The breaking point comes when he says, "You don't have to study. You go to B.U." It is one condescending remark over the line. She breaks up with him. "You're not a nerd," she notes. "You're an a--hole."
Stung, and slightly drunk, he goes back to his dorm room and writes a scathing, adolescent blog riposte to his rejection, involving her family history and bra size. It is a defining act in what would become the social networking institution known as Facebook, a $25-billion global phenomenon with 500 million members whose "friends" share 30 billion pieces of information a month. And it all started with hurt feelings on a date gone wrong.
This could have been just another boring business movie, but for Fincher's thoroughly contemporary, yet seamless, mix of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Sorkin's rapier dialogue (his TV classic The West Wing was no fluke), an entirely believable cast and a tale that could only have been spun over the last seven years.
Mark's intelligence far outweighs his common sense. When a cruel, sexist computer game he hatches by hacking into Harvard student sites takes off like wildfire, he decides there may a function in linking people up. It's raw and unformed, but rapidly comes together with information allegedly lifted off fellow Harvard students, the blue-blooded Winklevoss twins and their partner in a fledgling enterprise, Max Minghella's Divya Narendra.
Their subsequent lawsuit against Zuckerberg for intellectual property theft forms the dramatic core around which The Social Network so smoothly revolves. The other arc is an evolving relationship between Mark and "only friend" Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Eduardo provides the $900 start-up money for the project, and functions as business partner and lightning rod. Until Sean Parker shows up.
As played with scene-stealing charisma by Justin Timberlake, Parker is the reclusive wunderkind technology entrepreneur who began as a busted 16-year-old hacker, went on to found Napster at the ripe old age of 19, and saw promise in what was then known as TheFacebook that far exceeded Saverin's vision but mirrored Zuckerberg's own.
After dazzling the socially inept Mark at a sleek New York restaurant, he persuades him to spend the summer of 2004 in Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, while Eduardo woos potential advertisers back East. The freeze-out begins as consummate hustler Parker begins to take the shaky 5-month-old service global. Eduardo will have a lawsuit of his own to file.
You want to experience The Social Network, even -or perhaps especially -if you value privacy and despise Facebook as a prime enabler in this sorry age of acute narcissism. The movie looks great, sounds great (thanks to an edgy score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), moves through its substantial running time at a comfortable clip and radiates intelligence, charm, wit and real insight into human nature. I can't imagine a more entertaining movie this fall, or a better movie about the Web, ever.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Social+Network+online+romance/3606304/story.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Friday, October 1, 2010
657)Scientists Find The First "Goldilocks" Extrasolar Planet: Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold But Just Right; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
"...As we use our intellect to gain new knowledge about Creation, we come to see even more profoundly the depth and breadth of its mysteries. We explore unknown regions beneath the seas – and in outer space. We reach back over hundreds of millions of years in time. Extra-ordinary fossilised geological specimens seize our imagination – palm leaves, amethyst flowers, hedgehog quartz, sea lilies, chrysanthemum and a rich panoply of shells. Indeed, these wonders are found beneath the very soil on which we tread – in every corner of the world – and they connect us with far distant epochs and environments.
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration"(Aga Khan IV, Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)For the full version of this quote see:http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/easy-nashs-blogpost-four-hundred-updated-with-quotes-from-the-opening-of-the-delegation-of-the-ismaili-imamat/
"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)
"Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)
"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth."(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan)
Chapter 21, Verse 30: Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder, and of water fashioned every thing? Will they not then believe?(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
Chapter 51, verse 47: We built the heavens with might, and We expand it wide(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
Chapter79, verse 30: And then he gave the earth an oval form(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
Chapter 86, verse 11: I swear by the reciprocating heaven.....(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
September 29, 2010
New Planet May Be Able to Nurture Organisms
By DENNIS OVERBYE
It might be a place that only a lichen or pond scum could love, but astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a very distant planet capable of harboring water on its surface, thus potentially making it a home for plant or animal life.
Nobody from Earth will be visiting anytime soon: The planet, which goes by the bumpy name of Gliese 581g, is orbiting a star about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
But if the finding is confirmed by other astronomers, the planet, which has three to four times the mass of Earth, would be the most Earthlike planet yet discovered, and the first to meet the criteria for being potentially habitable.
“It’s been a long haul,” said Steven S. Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who, along with R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, led the team that made the discovery. “This is the first exoplanet that has the right conditions for water to exist on its surface.”
In a recent report for the National Academy of Science, astronomers declared the finding of such planets one of the major goals of this decade. NASA’s Kepler satellite — which was launched in March 2009 as a way to detect Earthlike bodies — is expected to harvest dozens or hundreds.
Gliese 581g (whose first name is pronounced GLEE-za) circles a dim red star known as Gliese 581, once every 37 days, at a distance of about 14 million miles. That is smack in the middle of the so-called Goldilocks zone, where the heat from the star is neither too cold nor too hot for water to exist in liquid form on its surface.
“This is really the first Goldilocks planet,” Dr. Butler said.
Other astronomers hailed the news as another harbinger that the search for “living planets,” as Dimitar D. Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics calls them, is on the right track.
“I’m getting goose bumps,” said Caleb Scharf of Columbia University.
But they expressed caution about this particular planet, noting uncertainties about its density, composition and atmosphere, and the need for another generation of giant telescopes and spacecraft in order to find out anything more about it. Other Goldilocks planets have come and gone in recent years.
The discovery was announced at a news conference Wednesday in Washington, and the findings have been posted on the National Science Foundation’s Web site and will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.
The authors said the relative ease by which planet was found — in only 11 years — led them to believe that such planets must be common.
“Either we have just been incredibly lucky in this early detection, or we are truly on the threshold of a second Age of Discovery,” they wrote in their paper.
Pressed during the news conference about the possibility of life on Gliese 581g, Dr. Vogt protested that he was an astronomer, not a biologist. Then he relented, saying that, speaking strictly personally, he believed that “the chances of life on this planet are almost 100 percent.”
Asked the same question, Dr. Butler squirmed and said, “I like data.” After a pause he added: “And what the data say is that the planet is the right distance from the star to have water and the right mass to hold an atmosphere. What is needed simply to find lots and lots of these things is lots and lots of telescope time.”
The latest results from Gliese 581 were harvested from observations by two often competing teams, using telescopes in Chile and Hawaii to measure the slight gravitational tugs the star gets as its planets swing by.
This is hardly the first time around the block for Gliese 581, which is a longtime favorite of planet hunters and now is known to have six planets in its retinue. It is a dwarf star about one-third the mass of the Sun and only about one-hundredth as bright, allowing planets to huddle closer to the campfire. “It hauntingly reminds us of our own solar system,” Dr. Butler said.
Two of Gliese’s planets have already had their moment in the limelight as possible Goldilocks planets. One, known as Gliese 581c, circles just on the inner edge of the habitable zone and was thus thought to be habitable three years ago. But further analysis suggested that the greenhouse effect would turn it into a stifling hell. Another planet, just on the outer edge of the Goldilocks zone, is probably too cold.
“One is on the hot side, the other is on cold side,” and the new planet is right in between, Dr. Vogt said. “It’s bookended.”
He and his colleagues estimated the average temperature on the surface of Gliese 581g to be between 10 and minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit, about the same as a summer day in Antarctica.
But that means very little, he said, because the planet, like all the others in that system, keeps the same face to the star all the time. So the temperature could vary wildly from the day-side to the night-side of the planet, meaning that an organism could perhaps find a comfortable zone to live in.
But nobody really knows what is going on on Gliese 581g, said Sara Seager, a planetary astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If it was all carbon dioxide, like Venus, it would be pretty hot,” she said, adding that she would give the planet a 90 percent chance of holding water.
That, she pointed out, is faint praise in scientific circles. “Sounds high, but would you fly on a plane that only had an 8 or 9 chance out of 10 of making it?” she asked.
“Everyone is so primed to say here’s the next place we’re going to find life,” Dr. Seager said, “but this isn’t a good planet for follow-up.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/science/space/30planet.html?_r=1&ref=science
Related:
Planet hunters find exoplanet that could potentially support life
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/09/planet-hunters-find-exoplanet-that-could-potentially-support-life.ars
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration"(Aga Khan IV, Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)For the full version of this quote see:http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/easy-nashs-blogpost-four-hundred-updated-with-quotes-from-the-opening-of-the-delegation-of-the-ismaili-imamat/
"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)
"Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"God has given us the miracle of life with all its attributes: the extraordinary manifestations of sunrise and sunset, of sickness and recovery, of birth and death, but surely if He has given us the means with which to remove ourselves from this world so as to go to other parts of the Universe, we can but accept as further manifestations the creation and destructions of stars, the birth and death of atomic particles, the flighting new sound and light waves. I am afraid that the torch of intellectual discovery, the attraction of the unknown, the desire for intellectual self-perfection have left us"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, 1963, Mindanao, Phillipines)
"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth."(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan)
Chapter 21, Verse 30: Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder, and of water fashioned every thing? Will they not then believe?(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
Chapter 51, verse 47: We built the heavens with might, and We expand it wide(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
Chapter79, verse 30: And then he gave the earth an oval form(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
Chapter 86, verse 11: I swear by the reciprocating heaven.....(Noble Quran, 7th Century CE)
"One hour of contemplation on the works of the Creator is better than a thousand hours of prayer"(Prophet Muhammad, circa 632CE)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
September 29, 2010
New Planet May Be Able to Nurture Organisms
By DENNIS OVERBYE
It might be a place that only a lichen or pond scum could love, but astronomers said Wednesday that they had found a very distant planet capable of harboring water on its surface, thus potentially making it a home for plant or animal life.
Nobody from Earth will be visiting anytime soon: The planet, which goes by the bumpy name of Gliese 581g, is orbiting a star about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
But if the finding is confirmed by other astronomers, the planet, which has three to four times the mass of Earth, would be the most Earthlike planet yet discovered, and the first to meet the criteria for being potentially habitable.
“It’s been a long haul,” said Steven S. Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who, along with R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, led the team that made the discovery. “This is the first exoplanet that has the right conditions for water to exist on its surface.”
In a recent report for the National Academy of Science, astronomers declared the finding of such planets one of the major goals of this decade. NASA’s Kepler satellite — which was launched in March 2009 as a way to detect Earthlike bodies — is expected to harvest dozens or hundreds.
Gliese 581g (whose first name is pronounced GLEE-za) circles a dim red star known as Gliese 581, once every 37 days, at a distance of about 14 million miles. That is smack in the middle of the so-called Goldilocks zone, where the heat from the star is neither too cold nor too hot for water to exist in liquid form on its surface.
“This is really the first Goldilocks planet,” Dr. Butler said.
Other astronomers hailed the news as another harbinger that the search for “living planets,” as Dimitar D. Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics calls them, is on the right track.
“I’m getting goose bumps,” said Caleb Scharf of Columbia University.
But they expressed caution about this particular planet, noting uncertainties about its density, composition and atmosphere, and the need for another generation of giant telescopes and spacecraft in order to find out anything more about it. Other Goldilocks planets have come and gone in recent years.
The discovery was announced at a news conference Wednesday in Washington, and the findings have been posted on the National Science Foundation’s Web site and will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.
The authors said the relative ease by which planet was found — in only 11 years — led them to believe that such planets must be common.
“Either we have just been incredibly lucky in this early detection, or we are truly on the threshold of a second Age of Discovery,” they wrote in their paper.
Pressed during the news conference about the possibility of life on Gliese 581g, Dr. Vogt protested that he was an astronomer, not a biologist. Then he relented, saying that, speaking strictly personally, he believed that “the chances of life on this planet are almost 100 percent.”
Asked the same question, Dr. Butler squirmed and said, “I like data.” After a pause he added: “And what the data say is that the planet is the right distance from the star to have water and the right mass to hold an atmosphere. What is needed simply to find lots and lots of these things is lots and lots of telescope time.”
The latest results from Gliese 581 were harvested from observations by two often competing teams, using telescopes in Chile and Hawaii to measure the slight gravitational tugs the star gets as its planets swing by.
This is hardly the first time around the block for Gliese 581, which is a longtime favorite of planet hunters and now is known to have six planets in its retinue. It is a dwarf star about one-third the mass of the Sun and only about one-hundredth as bright, allowing planets to huddle closer to the campfire. “It hauntingly reminds us of our own solar system,” Dr. Butler said.
Two of Gliese’s planets have already had their moment in the limelight as possible Goldilocks planets. One, known as Gliese 581c, circles just on the inner edge of the habitable zone and was thus thought to be habitable three years ago. But further analysis suggested that the greenhouse effect would turn it into a stifling hell. Another planet, just on the outer edge of the Goldilocks zone, is probably too cold.
“One is on the hot side, the other is on cold side,” and the new planet is right in between, Dr. Vogt said. “It’s bookended.”
He and his colleagues estimated the average temperature on the surface of Gliese 581g to be between 10 and minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit, about the same as a summer day in Antarctica.
But that means very little, he said, because the planet, like all the others in that system, keeps the same face to the star all the time. So the temperature could vary wildly from the day-side to the night-side of the planet, meaning that an organism could perhaps find a comfortable zone to live in.
But nobody really knows what is going on on Gliese 581g, said Sara Seager, a planetary astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If it was all carbon dioxide, like Venus, it would be pretty hot,” she said, adding that she would give the planet a 90 percent chance of holding water.
That, she pointed out, is faint praise in scientific circles. “Sounds high, but would you fly on a plane that only had an 8 or 9 chance out of 10 of making it?” she asked.
“Everyone is so primed to say here’s the next place we’re going to find life,” Dr. Seager said, “but this isn’t a good planet for follow-up.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/science/space/30planet.html?_r=1&ref=science
Related:
Planet hunters find exoplanet that could potentially support life
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/09/planet-hunters-find-exoplanet-that-could-potentially-support-life.ars
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
655)Lorne Gunter: Trudeau’s Impact Is Obvious. It’s Also Mostly Bad
Lorne Gunter September 29, 2010
Pierre Trudeau died 10 years ago this week, so of course the tributes and legacy analyses have been coming thick and fast. Among my favourites was offered up by Chantel Hebert, one of the few people worth reading at the Toronto Star.
Well, I have one, too. But unlike most commentators, I come to bury Trudeau (or at least make sure he’s still buried), not to praise him.
While he certainly had a profound impact on Canada, it was mostly destructive. Even the few positive changes he made might be called inevitable; they were the type of changes that were coming to every western society by dint of cultural evolution anyway.
Trudeau was by and large a social engineer convinced of his own intellectual superiority and the cloddish unimaginativeness of nearly everyone else. Not only was he arrogant enough to believe that the natural laws of society and economics can be ignored by determined central planners without consequences, he was also arrogant enough to imagine the light had been given to him more than anyone else, so that he alone possessed the superior knowledge required to see what needed doing and everyone else should defer to him.
Some have argued that legalizing abortion, divorce and homosexuality were bold innovations by Trudeau. Yet nearly every Western nation did the same at around the same time. Trudeau merely ensured Canada was riding the same waves as the rest.
Give him some due. Trudeau faced down the FLQ during the October Crisis of 1970 and a decade later, while much of our chattering class trembled with fear at the prospect of Quebec separation, he shouldered the burden of defeating the sovereigntists in Quebec’s 1980 referendum.
Still, he backed down the separatist terrorists by invoking the War Measures Act and proving just how shallow his vaunted commitment to individual liberties truly was at crunch time. And he won the 1980 referendum at the price of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — which opened the Pandora’s box of judicial activism — as well as two decades of expensive Quebec appeasement that ended in Adscam.
Of course Adscam came long after Trudeau left office. Still, it was a natural and predictable outcome of throwing gobs and gobs of money at Quebec in an attempt to win the province’s federalist loyalty. When the first money thrown failed to buy Quebec’s love, more and more was thrown until there was so much money being sloshed around at projects of diminishing significance that it was inevitable sticky fingers would grab up some.
While not directly Trudeau’s fault, Adscam was a by-product of his chosen method of fighting Quebec nationalism.
His impact on culture was devastating. He implemented official bilingualism in the vain hope that Quebecers would feel more at home in Canada if they knew the post mistress in Houston, B.C. was fluently bilingual. In the process, though, he failed to placate the Quebecois, but managed to alienate millions of anglophones.
Today, four decades and several billion tax dollars later, we are barely more bilingual as a nation than we were when Trudeau began this social experiment and just as divided (or more so) along linguistic lines.
He imagined that multiculturalism would unify us in our diversity – although he never explained how, practically, that logical non sequitor was supposed to happen. Instead, it has led to divisive ethnopolitics, political correctness dictating national policy, the importation of overseas animosities and the ghettoization of large blocks of new Canadians. Even the inflow of refugee claim jumpers can be traced back to the way that Trudeau thought multiculturalism and easy immigration would make Canada more cosmopolitan.
Human rights commissions are part of his legacy, as was the Court Challenges Program that paid minority plaintiffs to file court cases demanding that they be given Charter rights.
After he left office, Trudeau frequently insisted he had fought for a Charter of Rights to protect individuals from the state, and claimed Court Challenges and the Charter’s provisions authorizing judges to “read in” in rights had both been meant to make that protection easier.
How naive.
Activist judges and activist special interest groups quickly learned they could use one another to advance a radical social remake of Canada, and Ottawa would pay for their court appearances. What was meant to be a shield from the power of the state instead created a cozy little cabal among lefty legal scholars and judges that simply shifted the might of the state from the elected Parliament to the unelected judiciary. Both are, after all, branches of government. So the Charter didn’t protect citizens from the excesses of the state, it merely managed to change the whip from one had to another.
Sure, having politicians vote away our rights is bad, but is it really worse than having overreaching judges do the same? At least the politicians we can vote out of office from time to time. Thanks to the Charter, the new boss is the same as the old boss, only also unreachable by the people.
The CRTC is a Trudeau creation, the people who tell us what we may watch on television and listen on radio. So, too, is the notion of the CBC as mouthpiece of social and political activism.
But as bad as that litany is, it is probably on the economy that Trudeau was at his worst.
Inflation, national debt, lost opportunities due to protectionism and economic nationalism — all were Trudeau’s legacy. Because he understood so little about economics and entrepreneurship, Trudeau was easily convinced that history would leave capitalism behind and replace it, if not with socialism, then with some form of command-and-control economy.
His reforms to unemployment insurance (now euphemistically renamed Employment Insurance) ensured our labour market would be badly distorted for nearly 30 years. His scheme of regional transfers — that at one time accounted for 40% of have-not provinces revenue — helped freeze poorer regions’ economies in amber and delay the day when their own desperation would lead to innovation and growth.
He presided over the largest expansion of government in our history; from 1974 to 1976, alone, Ottawa’s spending increased by 50%. He believed we could inflate our way out of debt, so never concerned himself with budget deficit, the consequence of which is an enduring national debt (although Conservative prime ministers have helped him out there). And he implemented wage-and-price controls that further damaged the economy they were meant to resurrect.
He even convinced himself it made sense to beggar a productive region — the West – for the enrichment of less productive ones. So he implemented the National Energy Program, which hurt both the economy and national unity.
Trudeau may have been a great theoretician, but if a solution required even a centesimo of practical understanding — and all successful solutions do — he wasn’t interested.
He may have had more impact on Canada than any other 20th century prime minister. Yet on balance, that impact was mostly bad.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/29/lorne-gunter-trudeaus-impact-is-obvious-its-also-mostly-bad/
Easy Nash
Pierre Trudeau died 10 years ago this week, so of course the tributes and legacy analyses have been coming thick and fast. Among my favourites was offered up by Chantel Hebert, one of the few people worth reading at the Toronto Star.
Well, I have one, too. But unlike most commentators, I come to bury Trudeau (or at least make sure he’s still buried), not to praise him.
While he certainly had a profound impact on Canada, it was mostly destructive. Even the few positive changes he made might be called inevitable; they were the type of changes that were coming to every western society by dint of cultural evolution anyway.
Trudeau was by and large a social engineer convinced of his own intellectual superiority and the cloddish unimaginativeness of nearly everyone else. Not only was he arrogant enough to believe that the natural laws of society and economics can be ignored by determined central planners without consequences, he was also arrogant enough to imagine the light had been given to him more than anyone else, so that he alone possessed the superior knowledge required to see what needed doing and everyone else should defer to him.
Some have argued that legalizing abortion, divorce and homosexuality were bold innovations by Trudeau. Yet nearly every Western nation did the same at around the same time. Trudeau merely ensured Canada was riding the same waves as the rest.
Give him some due. Trudeau faced down the FLQ during the October Crisis of 1970 and a decade later, while much of our chattering class trembled with fear at the prospect of Quebec separation, he shouldered the burden of defeating the sovereigntists in Quebec’s 1980 referendum.
Still, he backed down the separatist terrorists by invoking the War Measures Act and proving just how shallow his vaunted commitment to individual liberties truly was at crunch time. And he won the 1980 referendum at the price of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — which opened the Pandora’s box of judicial activism — as well as two decades of expensive Quebec appeasement that ended in Adscam.
Of course Adscam came long after Trudeau left office. Still, it was a natural and predictable outcome of throwing gobs and gobs of money at Quebec in an attempt to win the province’s federalist loyalty. When the first money thrown failed to buy Quebec’s love, more and more was thrown until there was so much money being sloshed around at projects of diminishing significance that it was inevitable sticky fingers would grab up some.
While not directly Trudeau’s fault, Adscam was a by-product of his chosen method of fighting Quebec nationalism.
His impact on culture was devastating. He implemented official bilingualism in the vain hope that Quebecers would feel more at home in Canada if they knew the post mistress in Houston, B.C. was fluently bilingual. In the process, though, he failed to placate the Quebecois, but managed to alienate millions of anglophones.
Today, four decades and several billion tax dollars later, we are barely more bilingual as a nation than we were when Trudeau began this social experiment and just as divided (or more so) along linguistic lines.
He imagined that multiculturalism would unify us in our diversity – although he never explained how, practically, that logical non sequitor was supposed to happen. Instead, it has led to divisive ethnopolitics, political correctness dictating national policy, the importation of overseas animosities and the ghettoization of large blocks of new Canadians. Even the inflow of refugee claim jumpers can be traced back to the way that Trudeau thought multiculturalism and easy immigration would make Canada more cosmopolitan.
Human rights commissions are part of his legacy, as was the Court Challenges Program that paid minority plaintiffs to file court cases demanding that they be given Charter rights.
After he left office, Trudeau frequently insisted he had fought for a Charter of Rights to protect individuals from the state, and claimed Court Challenges and the Charter’s provisions authorizing judges to “read in” in rights had both been meant to make that protection easier.
How naive.
Activist judges and activist special interest groups quickly learned they could use one another to advance a radical social remake of Canada, and Ottawa would pay for their court appearances. What was meant to be a shield from the power of the state instead created a cozy little cabal among lefty legal scholars and judges that simply shifted the might of the state from the elected Parliament to the unelected judiciary. Both are, after all, branches of government. So the Charter didn’t protect citizens from the excesses of the state, it merely managed to change the whip from one had to another.
Sure, having politicians vote away our rights is bad, but is it really worse than having overreaching judges do the same? At least the politicians we can vote out of office from time to time. Thanks to the Charter, the new boss is the same as the old boss, only also unreachable by the people.
The CRTC is a Trudeau creation, the people who tell us what we may watch on television and listen on radio. So, too, is the notion of the CBC as mouthpiece of social and political activism.
But as bad as that litany is, it is probably on the economy that Trudeau was at his worst.
Inflation, national debt, lost opportunities due to protectionism and economic nationalism — all were Trudeau’s legacy. Because he understood so little about economics and entrepreneurship, Trudeau was easily convinced that history would leave capitalism behind and replace it, if not with socialism, then with some form of command-and-control economy.
His reforms to unemployment insurance (now euphemistically renamed Employment Insurance) ensured our labour market would be badly distorted for nearly 30 years. His scheme of regional transfers — that at one time accounted for 40% of have-not provinces revenue — helped freeze poorer regions’ economies in amber and delay the day when their own desperation would lead to innovation and growth.
He presided over the largest expansion of government in our history; from 1974 to 1976, alone, Ottawa’s spending increased by 50%. He believed we could inflate our way out of debt, so never concerned himself with budget deficit, the consequence of which is an enduring national debt (although Conservative prime ministers have helped him out there). And he implemented wage-and-price controls that further damaged the economy they were meant to resurrect.
He even convinced himself it made sense to beggar a productive region — the West – for the enrichment of less productive ones. So he implemented the National Energy Program, which hurt both the economy and national unity.
Trudeau may have been a great theoretician, but if a solution required even a centesimo of practical understanding — and all successful solutions do — he wasn’t interested.
He may have had more impact on Canada than any other 20th century prime minister. Yet on balance, that impact was mostly bad.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/29/lorne-gunter-trudeaus-impact-is-obvious-its-also-mostly-bad/
Easy Nash
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