Saturday, April 05, 2014

Traditionalism and Natural Science

Stefano Bigliardi has just published Islam and the Quest for Modern Science.Conversations with Adnan Oktar, Mehdi Golshani, Mohammed Basil Altaie,Zaghloul El-Naggar, Bruno Guiderdoni and Nidhal Guessoum (Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 260 SEK).

Guiderdoni is a scientist--an astrophysicist, director of the Lyon Center for Astrophysics Research, well known for his 1998 paper on "Semi-analytic modelling of galaxy evolution in the IR/submm range"--and a Traditionalist Sufi, following Shaykh Abd Al Wahid Pallavicini of Milan. He is less famous than, for example, Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya, the Islamic creationist whose very heavy Atlas of Creation was given away across the world in 2007. But his views are rather more sophisticated.

Those interested may watch Guiderdoni lecture in English (University of St Andrews, 2008) or lecture in French (c. 2013), or can read Bigliardi's book.

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