Friday, March 21, 2014

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There were very few if any great Moslem medieval scientists, contrary to propaganda

An embarrassingly small, and quite irrelevant list indeed.

by Ferdinand III


Moslem propaganda. It is as endless, apocryphal, drenched in anti-reality as the disinformation spread by the German National Socialists, the Russian Communists, or the cult of globaloneywarming. Apparently for 'educators', the media and the elite Moslem lies are now science and fairy tales of Moslem genius, solid facts.


Moslem propaganda, funded by Arab money in the form of a Jiyza tax on Westerners for use of Moslem/Arab energy supplies; constitutes a serious threat to mental clarity and understanding our own superior civilization. According to Moslems a handful of 'thinkers', most of whom were not Arab and who were 'forced' converts to the moon cult [ie not Moslem]; are equal to the hundreds of Catholic scientists, innovators, philosophers, artists, literary geniuses and men of action from 500 AD to 1500 AD.



In fact when you analyze the pathetically small list of Arab-Moslem 'geniuses', you will find very quickly, that they neither invented what the Moslems say they invented; nor did they add much value to concepts and ideas which long preceded them. Some obvious examples are:



Avicenna or Ibn Sina:

He was a Persian, not an Arab, of the 11th century. Of all the 'scientists' quoted by Moslems as being in the front-rank, only Ibn Sina – a convert in Iran – might be worthy of such a position. And even this proposition is entirely doubtful. Avicenna pales in comparison to Catholic scientists of the same era [see below] since he did not extend, deepen or create anything of value. Avicenna was indeed prolific in the areas of medicine and interpreting Aristotle. However, he developed very little which was either of practical value, truly scientific [he did not follow a scientific method of experimentation], or of lasting impact. He was a noted failure in meteorology, astronomy and in trying to understand why rainbows formed [a riddle which did torment many scientists for a long time]. Sina also, like all Moslems of the Middle Ages, supported Jihad and the forced eradication of non-Moslems. Not very scientific.



Averroes:

Truly a non-scientist. His claim to 'scientific' fame was to restate that Aristotle was right on all matters [see here for details]. In this vein he vehemently criticized the sainted Avicenna. The problem for Averroeism is that Aristotle was markedly incorrect on most matters including; abiogenesis, the earth's immobility, celestial motion, geo-centricity, optics, gravity, laws of motion and impetus theory. Averroes was popular in Europe in the 11th and early 12th centuries, since Aristotleian theology was much in vogue [until it was synthesized or Christianized by Aquinas and Scotus]. Catholic theologians and scientists such as Albert Magnus, Grosseteste, Bacon and Peter the Pilgrim amongst many others not only disproved much of Aristotleian dogma, they also invented the basis of modern physics and math, a claim that Moslems can never make.



Al-Ghazali:

Moslem big-brains trot out Ghazali as a counterpoise to the genius of Thomas Aquinas [13th c.]. Ghazali was a Moslem fundamentalist who effectively closed the door to science and inquiry within the Moslem, in the late 11th century. He was the anti-thesis of science, rejecting all non-Koranic explanations for the world and actively campaigning against naturalist science and philosophy. His ridiculous book “Incoherence of the Philosophers” denounced Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and other Greek thinkers as non-believers and labelled any who followed ancient Greek thought as Infidels. Ghazali hated Avicenna and any other philosopher who embraced some form of rationalism. Unlike Catholic scientists who built on each other's findings, in order to seek out the eternal truth of God's great creation [seeFreely's 'Before Galileo']; Moslems never cooperated to find the 'truth', but were oftentimes opposed to any ideas which contradicted the Koran.



Khwarzimi:

Algebra was invented circa 250 AD by Greek Christians in Alexandria. Higher mathematics was known to the ancient Greeks in the form of Pythagoras and his cult [circa 550 BC ]; and Euclid [circa 300 BC]. In the 3rd century AD Diophantus and others developed algebraic formulae in part to probably explain astrological events. In any event their reasoning and specific formulations to solve certain problems had a huge impact on future mathematics.



It is obvious therefore that Khwarzimi who worked in the 9th century, and who was another Persian convert to the Arab moon cult; could not have invented algebra. In fact his meagre works, or the fragments which survive, show a man, like almost all Moslem 'scientists', who simply restated what came before, especially from the ancient Greeks. He also copied from the Hindus. Thus there is no innovation in his writings and precious little that could be called algebra. Indeed the word algebra comes from the Arabic word “al-jabr”, which emanates from the name of his volume: 'Book on Addition and Subtraction after the Method of the Indians', which only comments upon the inventions by ancient Indian and Greek mathematicians. It does not add, or improve upon them [try reading the book to see for yourself].



Al-Kindi

Another 9th century Meccan cult 'philosopher' was Al-Kindi, Arab-born, and one of the few Arabs that Moslems can point to as a supposedly important 'thinker'. There is however, precious little which Kindi gives us which is either innovative, scientific, or relevant. He worked in a group which translated [sigh, yet again] the works of Aristotle accepting the ancient Greek philosopher's viewpoints on everything. This cannot be called science. He also appreciated Plato who was a metaphysical philosopher, not a naturalist like Aristotle. Such translations and acceptance are not however, part of a scientific or critical-thinking approach. All of Kindi's writings, which appear in the form of Pauline-type letters; are based on Aristotle and Plato. He did add works on math and astrology, but these too are based on what the ancient Greeks had already accomplished and no known invention or scientific innovation can be attributed to Kindi.



Summary:

The above are the usual suspects listed, when Moslems talk about their 'golden age' of science. It is a pitiable list, an embarrassingly small cadre of non-scientists who basically parroted ancient Greek thought, or in the case of Ghazali and others like him; openly attacked rational inquiry. To be fair, the Catholic scientists of the Middle Ages who did invent new methods in science, math, astrology, mechanics and physics, did use and build upon translated Arabic language works, themselves almost wholly restatements with commentaries from the ancients. This is however a conduit, not a cause of advancement.



The most important artifact in this transmission of knowledge from via the Arabs was of course the Hindu numeral system, including the zero. This was avidly seized upon by Europeans who then developed profound inventions in math and science, which the Moslems never did. Keep in mind as well, that it was the Moslem conquest of the Mediterranean basin which sealed off papyrus, trade links and knowledge from east to west. There is also ample evidence that Moslems destroyed the small remaining but important libraries in Alexandria in the mid 7th century, and other libraries around the southern and eastern Mediterranean basin and even those based in Persia.



Catholic innovations of the 11th century

[I picked the 11th century due to Avicenna who is likely the only true innovator in Moslem science and because the 11th century is really the 'birth' of modern science.]



A partial list of notable Catholic scientists and inventions from this one century alone, 1000-1099 AD:

-University of Bologna consecrated by the Church in 1008. It is the oldest university in the world. This system became a platform for scientific advancement.

-World's first water-powered wool-processing plant was established in 1008 near Milano.

-Gerbert of Aurillac, 1003 d., was an innovator in math and astronomy and became Pope Sylvester the II, perhaps the most scientifically minded Pope in history.

-Herman Contractus, 1013-1054: Built astronomical and musical instruments. Fluent in Greek and Arabic [how many Arabs then or now speak a European language ?].

-c. 1000: Beer brewing invented by monks at the zum Wurzen monstery.

-c. 1000 Romanesque architecture created which greatly enhanced both stability and aesthetics in large buildings.

-1033, Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote on how to use reason to reach faith, using naturalism, logic and coherent arguments.

-post 1050, Gothic structures start to be built, the largest enclosed spaces in the world which would dominate the 11th c to 13th centuries in the form of churches, cathedrals and palaces.

-c. 1070 innovations in cheese – making lead to new varieties being manufactured.

-Peter Abelard and the development of 'logic' and using human reason to understand god, at the University of Paris c. 1079.

-1080, Adelard of Bath, translated Arabic translations of Greek math, and commented on how to use this knowledge in areas of astronomy and physics.

-1080 Hospitaller order created [Knights of St. John], the world's first organization dedicated to hospitals and care for the sick.

-mid 11th c. Ragimold and Radolf wrote letters and treatises on algebra applying their ideas to solve astrological, and naturalist problems.

-Lanfranc, 1080+ became an Archbishop of Canterbury and applied Aristotle's naturalism to Catholic rites and metaphysical beliefs.

-Guilds were developed in England and elsewhere to protect workers wages, ensure quality and exact standards of excellence.



Other advancements and men could be listed. Nothing comparable existed in the Moslem world during the same period. While the odd Moslem 'thinker' can be plucked by Moslemophiles from the irrational cult of Mecca and hailed as 'heroic', the pickings are decidedly slim, the exaggerations excessive, the accolades apocryphal.