Dear Peter

Submitted by AAA (India), Aug 17, 2012 at 22:14

Dear Peter,

Alexandria, Baghdad and Constantinople became centres of knowledge and learning after Islam spread into those areas. Dumbing down and decrease in inventiveness of a population cannot occur due to religion. There are many other influencing factors like political and economic. And if you have a penchant for robbing from muslims all their inventions and discoveries, then by the same logic, someone can snatch these privileges from christians. Someone (though not I) may claim that the inventions and discoveries attributed to christians were in fact inherited from their non-christian ancestors after christianity spread in those areas.

Can you show me one valid reference with proof that muslims inherited their scientific achievements from their non-muslim predecessors?

If you say that "The main constant to the decline of intellect is Islam" then tell me the reason why there are so many underdeveloped non-muslim countries. Not every underdeveloped country in the world is muslim. Still do you think that Islam is responsible for their plight?

You are giving examples of some misguided people from Egypt, Afghanistan and Mali. Why don't you give some examples from countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey and Iran where significant scientific progress has happened in recent years?

About the quote by Bertrand Russell about Islamic science, don't you think that being "admirable in many technical ways" and lacking the "intellectual energy required for innovation" is a self contradictory statement?

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