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h=2/hGuest Post by Ibrahim ArsalanRecently I was hipped to a presentation made by one of my favorite modern scientists, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He’s one of my favorites, not on the basis of his erudition – after all it’s my constant contention that present scholarship is increasingly devoid of erudition – but because of his lively presence and acute wit. That being said, in this presentation he ventured into a field of study far removed from his expertise, something he ought not have done without adequate research – one of my criticism of present-day scholarship is their tendency toward specialization and almost abysmal lack of knowledge on various other sciences. He’d have gone a long way toward developing his premise had he done a bit more research into this new frontier for him; History.The gist of his presentation was that the greatest scientific minds all fell back on a concept of intelligent design whenever faced with a problem beyond their reckoning.
He was doing rather well so long as he focused on individual thinkers such as Galileo, Newton, Laplace, and others. But as a rule, scholarship shouldn’t rely on individual examples to prove a universal thesis, it’s anecdotal and such a method is relegated to a bygone age despite its modern prevalence. So to support his idea he references the massive advances in scientific thought developed by Islamic thinkers in Baghdad between 800 and 1100 CE. He prefaces this with a criticism of George Bushes statement in a speech after 911, “Our God is the one who named the stars”. He used this misstep by Bush to launch into his point that two-thirds of the known stars have Arabic names because of this 300-year period of intellectual development in Baghdad. Then he contends that it was extinguished by the writing of a single man, Al Ghazali, who equated mathematical and scientific research as the works of the devil. But, as Shakespeare would say, “There’s the rub”.Al Ghazali was a religious reformer, philosopher and mystic who countered the Neoplatonist metaphysics espoused by Muslim philosophers in his work “The Incoherence of the Philosophers”.
Furthermore, he would certainly forever alter the Islamic intellectual landscape, but it was not in opposition to scientific thought, as Tyson would have us believe. After all, Ghazali pioneered “methodic doubt” and “skepticism”, both of which would play a foundational roll in all the secular movements to come. He was also opposed by one of the greatest minds the Muslim world would produce, Ibn Rashid (Averroes). Both men were renowned polymaths in their day (accomplished in multiple fields of science, as apposed to the vast majority of present-day scholarship). The dispute Al Ghazali would have with the philosophers and that Averroes would have with him in his rebuttal “The Incoherence of the Incoherence” would be over the nature of Aristotlelian metaphysics, not the demonic nature of scientific thought. Such an attack on Al Ghazali by Tyson is laughable considering he furthered the development of secular methodology and would later be praised by European secular thinkers who Tyson is so eager to praise. Also, Tyson is in error when he says of Al Ghazali, “ out of his work, you get the philosophy that mathematics is the work of the Devil”.
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Al Ghazali actually called the sciences and mathematics of his day mamduh (praiseworthy) adding, “because of their absence, the community would be reduced to narrow straits.”But that’s not what I found most remiss about his presentation. He neglected to reflect on the single most important event to occur in Medieval Western Asia, the Crusades. Just as the intellectual and cosmopolitan developments of the Islamic world were in full swing, a rag-tag band of European barbarians called the Franks, armed bearded-axes and Papal sanction, stopped massacring each other and focused their genocidal efforts on “the Holy Land”. This would occur right around 1058 and continue right into the 12SUPth/SUP century. These events would all occur in Al Ghazali’s lifetime and would radicalize the region.
Pursuits in science would gravitate toward warfare, eclipsing questions of the universe; but not completely, as they would continue in Moorish Spain and Africa until Europe would visit upon them the same fate.The true effect Al Ghazali would have on the philosophy of the Muslim world, and probably most egregious to Western thinkers, would be to steer it from the Greco-Roman stream of development and back toward an Afro-Asiatic stream by popularizing Sufism. Born from the cosmology of Ancient Egypt (Kemit) that was originally called Al-Kemi (Alchemy) by the Arabs, Sufism would come to define the philosophical teachings of the entirety of the Muslim world, as Greek metaphysics would quickly fade into obsolescence. That is until European would reclaim Greek thought from Arabic translations.
In so doing, Al Ghazali would bring the Muslim world, if only for a short while, in mental alignment with such great minds as Imhotep, the worlds first recorded polymath, among whose achievements are the construction of the first pyramids and the writing of the first book of medicine. The turn away from the classical thinking of Greece and toward unified thinking of Egypt would cement unification in scientific and religious thought, where in “Allah” was seen as the living universe and the study of the universe the highest act of worship, as was the case in Egypt. In the Muslim world there would be no conclusions equivalent to those of Europe, ergo “whatever I cannot understand is a mystery known only to God” but rather “whatever I discover is proof of the wondrous order of God as the mysteries hide in plain sight.” Furthermore, the Quran and the precepts of Sufism would support all of this. For this reason, the schism between science and religion, secularism and orthodoxy would never occur as it had in Europe. Instead, the stagnation of totalitarian regimes, entrenched in the wake of successive invasions from Europe, would grip much of the Muslim world.WAR, that’s the great death knell and silencer of all beneficial inquiry!
Since the beginning of time, scientific research has relied heavily on social investment and peaceful interaction with neighboring populations. The only sciences that can thrive in wartime are those devoted to war, and so it is today. Our country slips the dogs of war at the slightest provocation, and nowadays with no provocation at all. Then the “scholars” of our nation, hopelessly dependant on that war-machine, point their fingers at everything but the elephant staring at us from the corner of our consciousness. The best of them are often sycophants while the worst of them are always sophists, distracting us from the truth that hides plainly in our sights.Neil DeGrasse Tyson, like all scientists, should be held to a higher standard and simply ought to know better. Five minutes reading on Wikipedia could have prevented him from completely misquoting Al Ghazali and shamelessly misrepresenting history; let alone what he could have learned from actually reading his works.
All the while the answer to the question he sought was in plain sight, with just a bit of research it would have revealed itself. But in his attempt to push a separate agenda he lost sight of his attempt to be as he claims in the presentation, “a truth seeker”. What’s worse is a large number of people who trust his scholarship will also be mislead by this abject unscientific approach to history.
Carey Cranston, the first in the United States to focus exclusively on American writers, 'past and present'-scheduled to open March 2017 in downtown Chicago, Ill.-has appointed its inaugural president, Carey Cranston. Most recently, he was president of Fox College in Chicago for 12 years. Before that, he was a v-p at the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton; director of technology and e-commerce at Kemper Lesnik Communications; and director of education at the International Academy of Merchandising & Design. American Writers Museum founder Malcolm O'Hagan said that Cranston's 'experience and track record, along with his love and appreciation for writing and books, give him the ideal credentials to be a strong leader for this museum.' Cranston has bookselling roots: prior to college, he worked at Kroch's & Brentano's, once the largest bookseller in Chicago.
While earning a B.A. In English from DePaul University, he was editor of the DePaul Student Literary Journal and chief reporter for The DePaulia. Cranston also earned an M.A. In English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an M.S. In Library and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. 'This is my dream job,' Cranston said. 'I am very excited to get started in this role, and to bring to life this long overdue national museum.'
The museum, located at 180 North Michigan Avenue, expects to draw up to 120,000 visitors each year and is working with more than 50 authors' homes and museums around the country to build its exhibitions. Among the planned attractions are re-creations of writers' homes and fictional locales (including Tara, Cannery Row and the House of Seven Gables), interactive exhibits about writers' lives and methodologies (including 'travels' with Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck, for example), and ample space for film screenings, talks, readings and presentations. L.-r.: Joanna Temple, sales director, Nacogdoches, Tex.; Kathy L.
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Mark Emil Sanders, SFASU English Department chair; Kimberley Verhines, director, SFA Press.Kathy L. Murphy, founder of the, with more than 400 chapters internationally, has announced a partnership with the creative writing department of Stephen F. Austin State University to hold the annual convention on the Nacogdoches, Tex., campus of the Lumberjacks. Next year's Girlfriend Weekend is scheduled for January 12-15.The new partnership is intended to put successful authors and inspiring students in the same room, with guest authors visiting classes throughout the school year and interested students having the opportunity to attend Girlfriend Weekend panel events on campus, Murphy noted, adding that under the agreement, 'we will continue to do what we do, but just adding in the students to the mix with incredible space and state-of-the-art facilities.'
'The way I see it, we now have an excellent opportunity to showcase our Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Reading Nation to the next generation of our book club,' she added. 'Thus, the Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys meet the Lumberjacks! We will all win as we are promoting reading.' To promote the newly published second volume of its two-volume Nothing but Love in God's Water by Robert Darden, Penn State University Press is distributing a complimentary sampling of music on a 33 rpm record about the size of an old 45; it includes a brief introduction by the author and renditions of 'The Old Ship of Zion' and 'How Far Am I from Canaan?'
By the Mighty Wonders, a group that formed in the late 1960s in Aquasco, Md.The books focus on the role of spirituals, hymns, gospel and other black music in the struggle for African-American freedom and equality in the U.S. The first volume, subtitled Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, was published in 2014. Volume 2, subtitled Black Sacred Music from Sit-Ins to Resurrection City, appeared last month.Besides being used for publicity, the sampler records are being distributed to bookstores to place by cash registers or near the books, and to give to customers at no cost. Stores around the country, including Red Emma's, the Ivy Bookshop and Atomic Books in Baltimore, Md.; Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C.; Powell's Books, Portland, Ore.; Eso Won Books and Skylight Books, Los Angeles; and Seminary Coop in Chicago, are stocking the records. The records will be available through the press's reps at regional booksellers association shows, including the Heartland Fall Forum this week and the NCIBA fall discovery show later this month.According to Brendan Coyne, sales & marketing director at Penn State University Press, the press may eventually sell the two books as a set and package a record with them. Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen The Little Paris Bookshop: A Novel by Nina George (Broadway, $16, 798) as her pick of the month for October. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, she wrote: 'Reading is as essential to me as food, oxygen, and shelter.
Imagine my delight at reading this month's book buyer's pick, Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop, about a man who knows just which book will cure what ails you. 'Nursing a broken heart?
Need to feel more confident? Want to escape adult worries? Jean Perdu owns a floating bookstore on a barge on the Seine, which he calls a 'literary apothecary.' But it seems he's skilled at addressing everyone's problems but his own. 'In a life-changing moment, he sets off down the Seine, looking for answers that have eluded him for decades. 'Need a book to remind you that it's OK to take chances and really live life? Then The Little Paris Bookshop is my recommendation for you.'
A teaser clip has been released for Netflix's upcoming adaptation of that is 'so unnerving that it's caused jolly cut-up Patrick Warburton to become super-serious,' Yahoo News wrote. 'In this new clip teasing the eight-episode series, which premieres on January 13, 2017, the former Tick steps assumes the role of the narrator for these Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket, who chronicled the sad case of the Baudelaire orphans over the course of 13 books. In the middle of his stone-faced soliloquy, the actor is interrupted from off-screen by a maniacally happy singer who sounds an awful lot like Neil Patrick Harris, who plays the orphans' sinister guardian and constant nemesis, Count Olaf.' Photo: Rob Kim Gettyis the host of the popular podcast and National Geographic Channel Emmy-nominated TV show StarTalk and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which aired internationally on the National Geographic Channel. He earned his B.A. In physics from Harvard University and his Ph.D.
In astrophysics from Columbia University. He is the first Frederick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium. He's the author of 10 books, including Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries. Tyson's most recent book is StarTalk: Everything You Ever Need to Know About Space Travel, Sci-Fi, the Human Race, the Universe, and Beyond (National Geographic Books, September 13, 2016), a companion book to his late-night TV talk show and podcast of the same name. Tyson lives in New York City with his wife and two children. On your nightstand now: Letter to a Disciple by Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazali.
Favorite book when you were a child: Middle school: Mathematics and the Imagination by Edward Kasner and James Newman. This book transformed mathematics from a subject in school to an exploration of the mind. Early childhood: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. In adulthood I would discover that every word in the book has only one syllable, except for one repeating word, which has three: 'anywhere.' Your top five authors: Nonfiction: Jonathan Swift, Galileo, Richard Dawkins. Fiction: Shakespeare, Michael Crichton.
Book you've faked reading: The Odyssey by Homer, in high school English class. Book you've bought for the cover: 1706 Holy Bible. A fine leather, gilded binding. Book you hid from your parents: Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.
Favorite lines from a book: From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: HELENA: Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star. PAROLLES: Under Mars, I.
HELENA: I especially think, under Mars. PAROLLES: Why under Mars? Rome total war crashes when loading battle. HELENA: The wars have so kept you under that you must needs be born under Mars. PAROLLES: When he was predominant.
HELENA: When he was retrograde, I think, rather. PAROLLES: Why think you so? HELENA: You go so much backward when you fight. Book that changed your life: One Two Three. Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science by George Gamow, read in ninth grade. It transformed the physics of the universe into an intellectual playground of delight, and thenceforth, studying to become a scientist was no longer a task but a celebration. Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese ('Charlemagne is a dumb name for a girl and I have told my mama that about a gazillion times') has plenty of reasons to make a wish-a father in jail, a mother who can't get out of bed, 'getting shipped off to this sorry excuse for a town to live with two people I didn't even know'-but there's just one wish she makes every day.
Charlie wishes on the first star at night, three birds on a telephone wire, a camel-shaped cloud, a cricket in the house. But if you tell a wish, it won't come true, so even when she becomes friends with Howard, a 'little ole redheaded up-down boy' (one of his legs is shorter than the other, so he walks with a hitch), she keeps her wish a secret as long as she can. Charlie doesn't get off to a terrific start in Colby, N.C.
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She antagonizes her teacher and fights with her classmates. As she says, 'If I had a nickel for every time I've heard 'The apple don't fall far from the tree,' I'd be rich. Daddy fights so much that everybody calls him Scrappy.' She's baffled by Howard's refusal to fight back when kids tease him, but 'what good is that?'
After Charlie gets in trouble for kicking a girl in the shins who makes fun of her old white majorette boots, Howard advises her to say 'pineapple' when she feels herself starting to get mad: 'That'll be like a code word to remind yourself to simmer down. Mama taught my little brother Cotton to say 'rutabaga' every time he gets the urge to draw on the wall.' With the help of Howard, a stray dog named Wishbone and Aunt Bertha and Uncle Gus (her remarkably tolerant temporary guardians), Charlie begins to learn not only how to tame her temper but to understand that the long-wished-for 'family that wasn't broken' may not be the one she was born into. Barbara O'Connor ( How to Steal a Dog; The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester) captures a traumatic transition in a young girl's life without resorting to sentimentality or hard-to-believe happy endings. Charlie doesn't get exactly what she wants, but she does get what she needs, given the circumstances. Her prickly behavior is real and understandable and even charming at times, but readers will cheer as she settles and softens into authentic happiness.Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor Shelf Talker: When 11-year-old Charlie is sent to rural North Carolina for a more stable home environment, she finds surprising happiness with a friend, a dog and a kind aunt and uncle.
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