The power to create

Freaky, funny and provocative at the same time.

Evolution and intelligent design in Pakistani schools

I came across this article talking about Pakistani schools integrating a strong religious component into their curriculum.

What prompted me to write this post was a mention of how to deal with evolution in the curriculum. From the article:

To their dismay, the book begins with a description of the evolution of man. ‘We need to give them the facts,’ says one teacher. ‘They need to know that Darwinism is just an opinion.’ Some teachers recommend books and videos by Harun Yahya, a controversial Islamic creationist, as a classroom alternative. ‘Our students should first learn the truth as stated in the Quran, and then learn about these other versions.’

I feel for the poor students whose minds will be filled with this pseudo-scientific nonsense as part of their curriculum. The evolution/intelligent design debate has been a very controversial one in America but America at least has a well established and respected body of scientists which can intervene and talk some sense into people. That is hardly the case for Pakistan. We certainly don't need an army of educated people who get their scientific 'facts' from the likes of Harun Yahya and the Quran. In the longer run, the Quran might very well shoot itself in the foot because of its claim of being the final and immutable word of God, or perhaps we might see an imaginative acceptance of evolution similar to Catholicism.

The human loss

Reading the story of the sad demise of Captain Omerzeb over at Pak Tea House made me somber. His tragic demise on the birthday of his fiance made my heart heavy. The bonds of love that bind us together can so tear our existence apart when they are snatched away like that.

While we glorify and praise all those who die fighting for Pakistan, it is very easy to de-humanize all those who we perceive to be the 'other' in such a situation. While I am not a bit sympathetic to the cause of the Taliban, that shouldn't make us forget that they are human too. Their deaths send very similar waves of agony rippling through and tearing apart their families. Then there are all the civilian casualties in this unfortunate war on terror. So many lives have been so adversely affected because of it; so many ties of love have been so ruthlessly broken apart.

While religion is only one of the sources that has fueled human conflict through the ages, it has been one of the sources nonetheless. It almost makes me very angry at all those supposed prophets of God whose teachings formed the basis of all this hatred, deceived so many and provided fodder for conflict for so many years to follow after them. How irresponsible of them.

All this makes one pine for a time when we will learn to resolve our differences through dialogue and discussion instead of mindless use of force and violence. It makes one pine for a time when human life wouldn't be so cheap and readily expendable.

Letting go of God

Came across this talk by Julia Sweeney in which she candidly and rather hyper actively narrates her de-conversion story. Nothing particularly unique about what she has to say, but enjoyed it nonetheless.



You can find the latter parts of the talk on youtube.

Do Saudi textbooks teach hate?

This is somewhat related to my previous post. The Quran contains several verses inciting ill-will towards the non-believers. The Quran and Sunnah had to define the Islamic identity in contrast to all the other existing religions, so its not very surprising, though sad and unfortunate, that they contain such verses.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Update: Found a selection of excerpts from Saudi textbooks here (look at the end of the article). They seem dangerous at one level, yet so familiar at another level so as to almost seem innocent. Disturbing.