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> The fundamental difference between science and religion in my opinion is that science says "I will believe things only if I can understand them" […] There ar

> The fundamental difference between science and religion in my opinion is that science says "I will believe things only if I can understand them" […] There are certain metaphysical assumptions that you have to make before you can start science: * That there is an objective reality shared by all rational observers. * That this objective reality is governed by natural laws; * That reality can be discovered by means of systematic observation and experimentation. * That Nature has uniformity of laws and most if not all things in nature must have at least a natural cause. See: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(philosophy)#Providing_assumptions_required_for_science https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(philosophy)#Provid... Not all world views have those. Take the first one: AFAIK, Buddhism (and Hinduism?) believe that the world is an illusion. Why would do empirical experiments on illusions? I don't think it was an accident that science took off in Europe. Certainly there were individuals in other parts of the world that were curious about how the cosmos worked, but the overall worldview of their societies wasn't as receptive to such endeavours. There were many scientists in Muslim areas, but Islam generally ended up denying the fourth point above: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occasionalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occasionalism TL; DR: Science itself cannot prove science is true.

azth 4y ago
As a Muslim, Islam's stance is quite nuanced. God does lay out rules that govern our world (called Sunan in Arabic, plural of Sunnah - path or way or method, etc.), and we accept causality in general. At the same time, we believe that God is the ultimate root cause of everything. If He wills, He can break these laws (e.g. we have the narrative of how Abraham Peace be upon him was thrown into the fire when he denied and destroyed the idols of his tribe, only for the fire not to harm him because God ordered it not to: https://quran.com/21/68-69 https://quran.com/21/68-69), and nothing happens without God's knowledge or permission. This is why we have bases such as: https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2517 https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2517 As you point out, we have had many Muslim scientists in our history that pushed the boundaries of discovery and knowledge. We're proud of our history and their achievements.

azth 4y ago

As a Muslim, Islam's stance is quite nuanced. God does lay out rules that govern our world (called Sunan in Arabic, plural of Sunnah - path or way or method, etc.), and we accept causality in general. At the same time, we believe that God is the ultimate root cause of everything. If He wills, He can break these laws (e.g. we have the narrative of how Abraham Peace be upon him was thrown into the fire when he denied and destroyed the idols of his tribe, only for the fire not to harm him because God ordered it not to: https://quran.com/21/68-69 https://quran.com/21/68-69), and nothing happens without God's knowledge or permission. This is why we have bases such as: https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2517 https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:2517 As you point out, we have had many Muslim scientists in our history that pushed the boundaries of discovery and knowledge. We're proud of our history and their achievements.