Religious Conservatism and Science

Re: # 21

The Argument From Gum settles the issue for me.

majumdar:
Thanks for the correction.
Mohammad Gill

Mohammed Gill saheb,

(Neutrinos are anti-particles of neutrons.)

I don`t think that is true. The anti-particle of a neutron is an anti-neutron, the anti of a neutrino is an anti-neutrino. Neutrinos (and antineutrinos) are very small elementary particles with almost zero mass ( possibly 0.1 eVs), neutrons are by contrast fairly heavy particles and constituent of atomic nuclei.

Regards

zarrar2:
Thakns for your feedback. Wishing you well for your skeptical and freethinking attitude.
Mohammad Gill

Dr. Sahib,

Always been a fan of your work. The world, and our country, definately needs more freethinkers or what dullards might refer to as ``heathens``. It would be interesting to know how many people, who opose stem cells and ``the right to choose``, have had an actual science classes post 8th grade. My struggle with people in Pakistan has been that creationism is taught on TV to children. No one takes natural selection seriously and look down upon it as if it was someone`s attempt to disgrace religion. We need to right to the scientific authorities and enforce the fact that science and facts of life such as gravity and natural selection must be taught to children. Instead of having Islamiat and Pakistan Studies till the age of 22, students should learn physics, biology, and chemistry. No wonder people grow up actually believing in allegorical tales more than real life facts.

Dear nasah:
Thanks for your feedback. As a matter of fact I had written an article ``Dark Mysteries of Our Mysterious Universe`` at Chowk on December 28, 2003, in which I had given some elementary information about the dark matter and dark energy. One thing (there may be others also since it was only a short article) that was missing in it was the ``neutrino.`` Neutrinos are anti-particles of neutrons. Like neutrons, they have no charge. They were predicted by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930s. They have very small mass (Pauli had postulated that they were massless) but they are very numerous in the universe. It is very difficult to detect them since they have little mass and no charge. It is estimated that there are roughly one billion neutrinos for every proton or electron in the universe. Because of their abundance, they can add a huge mass to the dark matter.
With regards,
Mohammad Gill

Dear Dr. Gill -- let`s hear from you your lucid explanation of `dark energy` and `dark matter` in your next column.

Re: # 24

objections will always be overcome in long run. What will happen is that the current set of ethics will be replaced by a new set, which will not be rooted in religious mumbo-jumbo.

You can grow a liver in the laboratory ( see TISSUE ENGINEERING:Lab-Grown Organs Begin to Take Shape by Ferber in Science 16 April 1999: 422 DOI:10.1126/science.284.5413.422,) what is stopping people from growing new faces (which can then be graftred onto a human being). Nothing much, apart from a few technical hudles in growing a new face. Face grafting/Head replacement ort whatever it is called is being done (it was done in France and recently in Britain). It is the confluence of these techniques which will generate new ethics. BY which point all this religious crap and mumbo-jumbo will be dumped in the garbage can.

Use of adult stem cells as mentioned by krbhatti, and the cells obtained from in vitro fertilization clinics will obviate the ethical controversy. Use of adult stem cells also avoids the risk of rejection and need for immunodepressants.
At present, the ``plasticity (ability to divide for an indefinite period and give rise to a wide variety of specialized cells) of adult stem cells is in question.`` It is very likely that it will be overcome by future research. According to Joseph Panno (Stem Cell Research), ``..experimental results obtained in 2003 by Dr. Catherine Verfaillie at the University of Minnesota suggest that certain stem cells, isolated from adult bone marrow, may have plasticity equivalent to that of ES (embryonic stem) cells.``
Stem cell research is the science of the twenty first century as I said in the article. In due time, it will develop a viable therapy curing many of the presently incurable diseases. Ethical objections will be overcome and the medical science will be revolutionized.
Mohammad Gill

Re: # 16
``They support stem cell research.....they understand humans are former embryo..... they understand such genetic structure won`t form by chance...... and still they support darwin`s idea of man being single cell organism...``(remember)

very insightful statement -- indeed.....

my dear remember -- please let me explain -- man is not always a single cell organism -- a woman may be single-minded -- but the man most of the time is a multi-minded multicellular organism -- except when he is trying to make another man out of a woman -- by subterfuge, called love.

Then the man becomes a single (half-man) cell with a very very wiggly tail -- runs for a nearest half-woman big and generous host cell called ovum -- to parasitize it -- and make another man at the poor woman`s expense.

though most of the time the woman foils man`s devious attempts -- and makes her own kind -- that is a beautiful lovely baby GIRL.

please always remember that everybody -- you and me -- your father and mother -- my father and mother – they ALL are product of CHANCE -- a DIVINE chance may be -- NOTHING BUT A CHANCE, nevertheless .

``meiN khudd aya naheeN laya geya hooN``...

soo we all -- as previously chancy embryos -- should make extra added effort -- to take CHANCE out of stem cell research -- and turn it into an absolutely certain weapon to repair and mend broken human beings (and for that matter the animals) and give them the quality of life that the humanity rightfully demands and deserves in the 21st century.

Darwin zindabad!

A book that may cause the paradigm shift into the way you look at the universe.



A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING ISLAM.

http://www.islam-guide.com/frm-ch1-1-a.htm


AllahuAkbar

I think, from Islamic perspective, there shouldn`t be a moral restriction on stem cell research or using embryos for stem cell related development.

According to Islamic beliefs, which of course are based upon Qura`n and Hadith, the phenomenon of life and soul are two different things. According to these beliefs, all animals and living things possess life but it is only human beings that possess life as well as soul. Human souls were created long before the Big Bang and before the creation of time. These souls remain in Netherworld, of which we know little, until they are taken into an embryo, stay with human beings in their physical abodes, and after death they remain in limbo for an interim period until the Day of Judgment is called, and after that they either go to heaven or hell. The souls of those non-believers who go to hell will be destroyed for good after they have completed their punishment whereas the souls of those believers who would go to heaven will survive for ever. This is the cycle through which every soul has to pass. When a human being is conceived in his mothers womb, an angel takes one soul from the ``soul repository`` and makes it enter into the fetus at a certain stage. In other words, life may start at the moment an egg is fertilized but it does not have soul until quite later. This needs explanation.

Qura`n has very explicitly detailed various stages of human development from a zygote, to an embryo to a fetus, and finally into a baby. Please keep in mind that until 6-10 weeks human embryo is no bigger than that a grain of rice and yet the Qura`n has sketched the process of embryonic development with such vivid detail that only now science has been able to attest to its truth.

````In the Holy Quran, God speaks about the stages of man’s embryonic development:

We created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into an alaqah (leech, suspended thing, and blood clot), then We made the alaqah into a mudghah (chewed substance)... 1 (Quran, 23:12-14)

The clay part is easier to understand that we know that at elemental level human body is no different than its surrounding – same chemicals build at atomic and molecular level that the earth or clay is made of.

Next, the Arabic word alaqah has literally, three meanings: (1) leech, (2) suspended thing, and (3) blood clot.

In comparing a leech to an embryo in the alaqah stage, we find similarity between the two as we can see in figure 1. Also, the embryo at this stage obtains nourishment from the blood of the mother, similar to the leech, which feeds on the blood of others.



The second meaning of the word alaqah is “suspended thing.” This is what we can see in figures 2 and 3, the suspension of the embryo, during the alaqah stage, in the womb of the mother.



The third meaning of the word alaqah is “blood clot.” We find that the external appearance of the embryo and its sacs during the alaqah stage is similar to that of a blood clot. This is due to the presence of relatively large amounts of blood present in the embryo during this stage4 (see figure 4). Also during this stage, the blood in the embryo does not circulate until the end of the third week.5 Thus, the embryo at this stage is like a clot of blood.



The next stage mentioned in the verse is the mudghah stage. The Arabic word mudghah means “chewed substance.” If one were to take a piece of gum and chew it in his or her mouth and then compare it with an embryo at the mudghah stage, we would conclude that the embryo at the mudghah stage acquires the appearance of a chewed substance. This is because of the somites at the back of the embryo that “somewhat resemble teethmarks in a chewed substance.





The Holy Prophet (pbuh) has explained these verses in the following Hadith

Reported Abdullah ibn Masud: ‘The creation of every one of you starts with the process of collecting the material for your body within forty days and forty nights in the womb of your mother. Then you become a clot of thick blood for a similar period, and then like a piece of flesh for a similar period. Then an angel is sent to you ordered to write four things: your livelihood, the date of your death, your deeds, and whether you will be a wretched or a blessed one (in the Hereafter) and then the soul is breathed into you.’ .

Ref: Bukhari 9.546. See also 4.430, 549; 8.593 and Muslim 6393 for

Thus, three periods of 40 days, totaling 120 days must elapse when the soul is breathed into the embryo. Based on this Hadith, the law of Diyat (Compensation) has been written. According to this law, if a person causes a bodily harm to a pregnant woman whose pregnancy is less than that of 120 days causing a miscarriage, the penalty upon such person is less harsh as compared to a person who caused a miscarriage if the pregnancy were over 120 days.

It is quite clear that the period of 120 days starts from the moment of conception, which means that an embryo can be removed with in 12-14 weeks after the women misses her first period.

So even if we see a factor of permissibility in Islam for in stem cell research, we must proceed with caution since there are certain other issues at play here as well; like for example, turning women into factories of human embryos for profit causing women to forget her natural duty of propagation of a family would cause the end of human race altogether.

I think it is important to note that this debate should not be compared to the Galilieo case or the Scopes trial. In those cases religious authorities were encroaching on scientific territory. They were putting forward alternative explanations for natural phenomena without any scientific basis.
In this case what is being discussed are the ethical implications of scientific research. This doesn`t mean that religious conservatives are necessarily right. As #7 shows, there are other religious viewpoints on this issue. However, they are not encroaching on scientific territory like earlier generations.

I think it is important to note that this debate should not be compared to the Galilieo case or the Scopes trial. In those cases religious authorities were encroaching on scientific territory. They were putting forward alternative explanations for natural phenomena without any scientific basis.
In this case what is being discussed are the ethical implications of scientific research. This doesn`t mean that religious conservatives are necessarily right. As #7 shows, there are other religious viewpoints on this issue. However, they are not encroaching on scientific territory like earlier generations.

Re: # 7

masha Allah. Very good. Thanks for the link--it seems that most Muslims who are `traditional` are much more logical than the Catholics on this issue. Then again, we also have our own loony fringe!

The position taken by this Muslim doctor is most sensible and appears to be fully in concordance with the spirit of Islam.

An excellent article, Gill sahib. I am fully in support of the scientists on this. I think that the moral arguments against stem cell research are weak: a stem cell in itself is not a human being. although the potential for misuse is there the same can be said of any technology and therefore i don`t think we should stop this from restricting scientific research and inquiry.

the religious fundamentalists of all hues should be ignored: this is not their field of expertise.

imagine what the religious right will say once nanotechnology comes of age (in our lifetimes) and molecular engineering becomes a possibility!