Reaction to Sin

One’s reaction to a sin that he or she has committed is closely related to one’s moral and spiritual situation. There may be an instance in which, because of a sin, you prostrate yourself before God and implore Him to forgive you. There may also be a case when such actions do not satisfy you, when your sorrow lights an internal fire in your heart. But we can hope that the sorrow disturbing your heart in the name of repentance may be more acceptable to God.

Repentance is indeed regret and an internal fever. In this respect, one should regard sins as being in the company of serpents and poisonous centipedes. Only such a firm attitude is acceptable from a believer, for any contrary one implies doubts about the outcomes of a sin in the Hereafter. Therefore, it is essential that every sin be confronted in an alert manner and, if committed, be succeeded by regret. 

Sins Must Be Short-Lived

Since every sin engenders a new sin, whenever a person commits a sin, he or she must seek purification without delay. After all, no one knows when he or she will pass away. Those who are conscious of God cannot be at ease until they have cleansed themselves from sin. It is detrimental to a person’s spiritual well-being if he or she allows a sin to survive for even one second. Moreover, such an attitude implies revering something that God does not like. Sins do not have the right to live. They must be ephemeral, because if they are not removed through repentance they become serpents constantly biting one’s heart. And once the heart gets a stain, it is easier to get more. The end result is a vicious circle. Every sin engenders a new sin and, at last, bal rana ‘ala qulubihim (83:14, trans. “Indeed, on their hearts is the stain of the (ill) that they do”) becomes evident on them.

For this reason, it is very important to remind people of these realities and alert them to sins. Moreover, if you can do so, you must reveal the ugly nature of sin to people and make them renounce their sins.

Apparently, sensitive and alert souls can smell the offensive odor that sins exude.

Sins Must Be Regarded as Detestable

When repenting, one of the most important things is to view the particular sin as something detestable and disgusting. If we do not abstain from sins, believing that they are like being with serpents and scorpions and therefore deserve our disgust, we will not have the resolve to struggle against them through repentance. When you break a priceless crystal vase, for example, you feel sorrow. In the same way, every sin you commit cracks and dirties your life lantern. Thus it is necessary to feel regret and sorrow after each sin, at least to the degree of sorrow felt after breaking a crystal vase. Otherwise, you are not taking your sins and your repenta nce seriously. 

The Correspondence between Sin and Repentance

One’s repentance for a given sin must match the sin’s degree of seriousness, for every sin resembles a well filled with pitch. In other words, it is easy to fall into but very hard to get out of (83:14).

Recognizing Sin

If we belittle the outcomes of a sin, we are committing another sin equivalent to the first one. For instance, if one considers fornication or violation of another’s property rights as sins exaggerated by religion and says that “we benefit from them, so why consider them sins?,” he or she is committing an even bigger sin. Thus, we have to resist sins and condition ourselves in this way: “O sins, the doors of my heart are locked, so your zeal to get into my heart is in vain.”

The simile of the great scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi is very expressive: “Run away from a sin as if it is a poisonous serpent or a centipede.” Note that he likens sin to a serpent and a centipede, rather than a lion or a tiger. One can take measures before a lion or a tiger attacks, forthey attack bravely, whereas a serpent and a centipede attacks unexpectedly and maliciously. Backstabbing and treachery may be considered examples of such sins.

In short, vigilance against sins must be an attribute of a true believer. We have to keep in mind that vigilance against sins is an indication of our loyalty and fidelity to our Lord, the Almighty.

To realize the true nature of sins, we can look from the point of view of holy saying of Prophet Muhammad: Eznebe ‘abdi zenben…,which is about a servant of God who sins and then repents. In this saying, the words used have a very deep meaning: zenb (sin) and zeneb (tail) come from the same root in Arabic. Thus, a believer who says: “O my Lord, I have committed a sin,” means to say: “O my Lord, I have put on a tail again. In my present state, You may consider me a fox with a furry tail, a scorpion stinging others with its tail, or a serpent whose tail is a long part of its body! And that is me!” In other words, those who confess their sins in reality confess that they have scorned and belittled the humanity granted to them by God and, as a result, have fallen to the level of the animals.

As for the one who sins and is unaware of it, he or she is a mirror of ula’ika ka al- an’am bal hum adallu (7:179, trans. “They are like cattle; no, they are even more astray”) and has fallen to a level below the animals. As a matter of fact, the results of a survey conducted among Western youth prove this point, thus showing that every system and path other than reality and truth takes people to destinations other than truth.

The great transformation that followed the Industrial Revolution at the end of Middle Ages created imbalances between the legitimate use of resources and environmental well-being. The Industrial Revolution brought about improvements in agriculture, the large-scale production of iron and steel, the development of machinery, and the factory mode of production. Behind these changes lay a new energy system based on the rapid expansion of the use of coal as fuel. Coal dominated industrial society’s energy production until well into the twentieth century, when oil and gas superseded it. These cheap, concentrated, and abundant fossil fuels led to the explosive growth of population, wealth, technology, production, and trade. Cheap energy tilted the balance between the careful use of resources with a maximum effectiveness and the polluting effects of these resources.

Contemporary industrial civilization differs strikingly from traditional civilizations in two important ways. Both these differences have impacted upon the present environmental crisis. First, the huge consumption of fossil fuels and use of modern technology have enabled unprecedented production levels of goods and wealth accumulation, and have allowed large numbers of people to live in luxury. Although this production has not required traditional forms of slavery, a large portion of humanity has been left out of the productive process or benefits little from the wealth it produces. Second. industrial society exhibits growth and innovation rates so much faster than any previous civilization that a new situation has emerged. The increase of the world’s population is the most obvious kind of growth: It doubled between 1850 and 1930, and then doubled again between 1930 and 1975. Though growth rates have peaked. the world’s population may double again between 1975 to and 2010. Meanwhile, technological innovation has accelerated so rapidly that many persons living today can remember a world into which no cars, airplanes, or radios existed. Technological changes in transportation and communication have been viewed, until quite recently, as instruments of progress. Now they are being reexamined for the rate of energy consumed and the quality of life delivered. Further innovations may have a different character.

Innovative, energy-intensive technology exacerbates two tendencies found in both industrial society that it shares with and traditional civilizations:

” These civilizations developed large integrated economic and political systems. Industrial (and post-industrial) society is rapidly incorporating the whole world into its integrated economy.

” Traditional civilizations tended to be so unstable that few flourished for more than a few centuries. Industrial society becomes dysfunctional as it depletes resources, pollutes the environment, and manufactures weapons, all at a rate that many believe cannot be sustained for even a century longer.

The development of large-scale technology in the service of extensive, complex institutions has engendered a new situation. Never before has so much energy been available for human use. The novelty of the sheer quantity of energy is matched by its concentration. In this century, the governments of industrial nations have increased and centralized their power. In recent decades, the appearance and expansion of multinational corporations and energy conglomerates has allowed the leaders of a few institutions to determine much of our planet’s future. These firms are drawing the whole world into a single integrated economy dedicated to establishing a universal, high-energy consumer culture. No previous time has seen, on a global level, such an acceleration of growth and social change as that caused by these institutions.

Better living conditions for all is the well-publicized promise offered by the present industrial society. And although in absolute numbers more people are hungry than ever before, it is true that today more people, and a higher percentage of people, are wealthier than at any time in the past. The revolution of rising expectations suggests that the world’s poor increasingly believe that economic development and industrialization will bring affluence even to them.

But the costs and dangers of the present order are no less familiar. The growing world economy’s voracious appetite exploits resources at an unprecedented and accelerating rate. Huge though the global reserves of usable natural resources are, present trends ensure their depletion within an ominously brief time. The processes of the world global economy poison the environment on which we all depend, and the accompanying misuse of land and water threatens, over time, to transform large parts of the planet into desert.

The shift from a world consisting of many societies with largely self-reliant economies to a single global society with an integrated economy makes the whole system vulnerable to disaster, should one essential part of the system malfunction. War or large-scale revolution anywhere in the world may disrupt the economic and political stability of the entire world. Thus, while the global economy serves us, it makes us dependent and transforms us into its slaves, for when its smooth functioning becomes necessary for our survival, its perpetuation, whatever the cost, becomes our most urgent and necessary task. When its smooth functioning depends on a disciplined, rational, careful work force, all that is spontaneous, emotional, exuberant, and unpredictable-qualities that make up part of our humanity-must be sacrificed. Such issues are already beginning to emerge in the nuclear power debate.

In this age of cheap and abundant energy, we feel as powerless to affect the decisions of Exxon as of OPEC. We can feel the edge of the old adage that technological advance does not give power to people generally, but gives some people greater power over many other people. Environmental costs in the form of stripped landscapes, polluted waterways, marine oil slicks, and smog are increasing. If we do not act now, we will continue to pay the human costs in increased regimentation and rising cancer deaths.

The decline of what Muslims ethicists call “contentment” (qana’at) and the rise of a consumer society have made every whim and appetite worth pursuing. Unmitigated pleasure can be enjoyed without struggle, self-discipline, or hang-over. Advertising often gives the impression that advancing technology and a high-energy life style can fulfill all our desires at the touch of a finger. A high-energy life style offers instant gratification in the form of fast food, electronic entertainment, high-speed travel, air conditioning and central heating, painkilling drugs, and laborsaving machinery.

The human aspiration to overcome biological limits, to extend the boundaries of human knowledge, power, and experience as far as possible, regardless of the cost, has led to the space program, supersonic transport, and the development of fusion power. These infinite aspirations are enclosed in finite flesh, and thus present a contradiction that must be resolved by religion, for it is religion that makes us aware of the limits by showing us death as an imminent reality.

It is ironic that although we witness death almost every day, the certainty of our own death always lurks on the fringes of consciousness. In his book The Denial of Death (New York: Free Press, 1974). Ernest Becker argues that since we know we are to die and are therefore doomed to live in a tragic and terrifying world, the situation calls for new heroism (basically matters of belief and will), dedicated to a vision. “But modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing.”

The vision to be free includes not only freedom from human finitude and death, but also repudiation of the smelly, messy, and transient fleshiness of our own bodies. Bodies originate in the soil. They feel hunger and thirst. They eat and drink and defecate. They fall sick, deteriorate with age, die, and rot in the dirt. They also generate passions, irrational emotions, and “lower” impulses. They engender lust, lechery, and fornication. How could anyone with such a body become free? Repudiating the body and physical work only encourages our penchant for mechanization.

We live and make public policy in industrial culture as if we half-believed these dreams to be real. We pursue scientific research as if the knowledge gained will improve rather than threaten human well-being. We talk and plan as if industrial civilization will continue forever. Such a pretense has a long historical lineage in history. The Pharaohs and Qaruns, as the Qur’an reminds us, believed in their own divinity and hence eternity. The Greeks observed that those whose ambitions and success raised them too high suffered a fatally distorted perception of reality-called arrogance-that led to a form of madness inevitably resulting in their downfall.

Fortunately, an alternative does exist. Environmentalism has an important religious dimension. It does not demand a sudden end to technological advancement, but rather calls for stringent measures to develop a morally and spiritually satisfying life style for all. Only such a strategy might succeed in arresting environmental deterioration and establishing and then maintaining satisfying and egalitarian human communities for long into the future.

RELIGIOUSLY INSPIRED ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Religion remains an important source of moral-spiritual awareness that engenders responsibility and accountability for the individual as well as the collective good. Religious beliefs help make sense out of many otherwise inexplicable human conditions. It is religion that reminds humanity of its creatureliness. Belief in the transitory nature of life and final judgment in the Divine court means abandoning the aspiration to surpass human limits and of the pretense that gaining power will not bring with it the often irresistible temptation to misuse it.

This must not mean an end of scientific enterprise, but rather a careful directing of science and technology to those activities that really will improve the quality of human life. Mortality remains the greatest measure of human limitation, and a spiritual-moral culture must find ways to help people face the sorrow connected with their own death and the deaths of those they love. At the same time, it must reconcile us to our limited sojourn on Earth without denigrating our bodies. The pious life must involve physical labor as well as prayer.

These considerations soon become a question about the meaning of human life. Whether a high-energy, consumerist society can for long preserve humane conditions is much in doubt. The choice of the right path to arrest the deteriorating condition is, in part, ours.

If we, as Muslims, believe that the Earth’s resources are a part of God’s creation, we must use them in a way that ensures that all life, present and future, will have access to its needed resources. We must also make sure that any threats to life from the pollution engendered by our use of these same resources are minimized.

As followers of Islam, the religion that encourages us to prove the existence of the “Master of the Day of Judgment” through natural phenomena, we should reflect seriously upon the relationship between religion and the environment.

Why should Muslims pay attention to environmental ethics? I can think of at least three answers:

First, the Qur’anic imperative: “Do not defile the Earth…” (7:54). The Islamic revelation calls upon humanity to avoid corrupting the Earth. Although “corruption” here means defiling the material as well the spiritual environment, the Qur’an underscores the interrelationship between the material and spiritual dimensions of the problem. Spiritual problems cannot be worked out apart from correcting humanity’s relations with the physical environment. Human beings must live in harmony with the environment if they want to avoid becoming alienated from nature. The Qur’an repeatedly points toward the portents of God’s existence in nature, for it states that both terrestrial and celestial bodies are all the ayat (signs or proofs) of the Divine presence. In order to overcome their alienation from God, human beings must learn to live in harmony with their physical and mental environments.

Second, humanity is entrusted with the khilafa of God. This position can be interpreted as conveying humanity’s “lordship” over God’s creation and that nature exists to serve human beings. In fact, some environmentalists claim that such an anthropocentric view, commonly held by Abrahamic religions, is the source of our environmental crisis. However, it must be pointed out that although religion has an important place in determining people’s ideas and culture, it is too simplistic to extract such “lordship” from the creation story. Quite the contrary, for this khiafa implies God’s commandment to human beings to assume “stewardship” over His creation, to continue to watch over the world and its creatures as benevolent, responsible guardians. For Muslims, humanity is God’s trustee and therefore must serve the purposes of the “Master of the Day of Judgment.” The Earth belongs to God, and He has entrusted us with its safekeeping. As such, all human beings are answerable for their actions, for how they use or abuse this Trust of God.

Third, there is a purpose in human life: to worship (‘ibada) God. I am using the word ‘ibada here in its essential meaning of “serving” God by fulfilling all that God requires us to do. This includes living in harmony and peace with one another. In Islam, faith in God means being aware of matters of ultimate concern. There is a sense of urgency in such an understanding of faith. The Qur’an speaks about of the Day of Judgment in terms of urgency and calls upon human beings to respond to their limited life on Earth.

The spiritual and physical environments face constant challenges by human behavior. Just as awareness about moral dangers should create in us a sense of urgency when we are warned that excessive materialism will damage spiritual well-being, pollution of the physical environment must be treated as a matter of ultimate significance. Environmentalists all over the world warn us that our oceans are rising and so we are going to be drowned, that our food and water are filled with chemicals and so we are going to die of cancer, that the ozone hole will introduce lethal radiation from outer space, and that we actually are going to destroy ourselves, thereby proving that the cosmic experiment of intelligent life on Earth has been a failure. These issues are related to the ultimate value of human life.

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

The Qur’an declares that “reforming the Earth” is the ideal human endeavor. It also criticizes humanity for several very basic human traits: that human beings are too proud and petty, narrow-minded, and selfish. “Man is by nature timid,” says the Qur’an. “When evil befalls him, he panics, but when good things come to him he prevents them from reaching others.” This pettiness causes individuals to become so submerged in nature that they lose sight of its Creator. Only when nature fails them do they turn, in utter frustration, to God. Their shortsightedness deludes them into thinking that charity, altruism, and sacrificing for others will impoverish them. This, however, is Satan’s influence, for God promises prosperity in return for generosity to the poor.

The Qur’an insists, therefore, that individuals transcend their pettiness and enlarge themselves in order to develop the inner moral quality of taqwa (usually translated ‘fear of God,” but actually meaning, “to guard against danger”). Using taqwa, individuals can discern right from wrong and, above all, evaluate their own actions properly and so avoid self-deception, a danger to which they are always exposed. People often think they have done something consequential, although in the long run the deed has no importance. The real worth of one’s deeds can be judged only through taqwa, and an individual’s aim should be the ultimate benefit of humanity, not the self’s immediate pleasures or ambitions.

The Qur’an (6:38) declares in no uncertain terms that: “There is no creature upon the Earth or in the skies that does not form part of a community as you do. All things progress through life thanks to Divine guidance: some are more advanced, some are less advanced.” This means that humanity is not the only community living on the Earth. God’s sustaining provisions reach all of His creatures, and thus all are worthy of respect and protection. Prophet Muhammad regarded all living creatures as worthy of protection and kind treatment. When asked whether kindness to animals will be rewarded, he said: “For charity shown to any creature with a wet heart, there is a reward,” (wetness indicates life). This tradition also suggests humanity’s stewardship over nature.

The Qur’an does not regard nature as opposed to God for, in reality, nature is muslim, meaning “submitted to God’s Will.” Every creature that exists in the heavens or upon the Earth bows its head in submission to God’s laws, willingly or unwillingly. “The seven heavens and the Earth and all that exists within them sing the praises of God; there is no atom that does not praise God with thanks and gratitude, although you may be unaware of how this praise is expressed.” (17:44; 3:38). Giving thanks imparts worth and value, and the Qur’an emphasizes God’s greatness and glory by including animate and inanimate creatures in His worship. Such inclusion is designed to create a respect and reverence for nature in human beings. Nature is in harmony with those individuals who give thanks. Just as when people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds overcome their fear of each other when they pray together, this shared aspect of creatureliness overcomes the alienation between humanity and nature.

There is a total harmony between God and nature. There is however, an unfolding process and progression in nature, for God placed in it a creative power that made it grow, bifurcate, and ramify. The Qur’an asks: “Do the unbelievers not see that We have created the planets [in this solar system from the burning, swirling gases that] We tore away from [the sun as it revolved]? Do they not see that We created every living thing from water [that is, this viscous soup of solar gases]?)” (21:30).

God gave nature the power of growth, bifurcation, progression, and change. The Qur’an abounds in statements that nature is the proof (ayah) of God’s existence, unity, and wisdom. Nature is well-knit and originally without any flaw. God has created every thing according to a its proper measurement (qadar). Nature is therefore one of His prime miracles. Thoughtful reflections on this divine miracle and keen observation of it can lead us to faith in God and encourage us to worship God. Nature is the reminder (dhikr) of God. The Qur’an calls upon humanity to reflect on nature and learn from it:

“In the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and in the alternation of night and day [in which the means of livelihood are found] there are signs [of Truth] for those with the ability and will to understand. Those who, whether sitting, standing or reclining on their sides, remember God and deliberate upon the creation of the heavens and the Earth [and the purpose that underpins the whole cosmos] saying: “0 Lord! You have not created all this in vain. May You be glorified: You are far above the creation of playthings and trifles. So, 0 Lord, deliver us from the fires of Hell!'” (3:190-91).

The Qur’an emphasizes three dimensions of the human-nature relationship, with nature functioning as the proof of God’s existence:

• Worship engendered by nature

• Appreciation of beauty and aesthetics derived through nature

• Gratitude based on the realization of utility and value in nature.

The Qur’an teaches that nature has surrendered itself to the laws of God and thus is muslim. Nature is not only muslim in the sense that it obeys God’s laws and rules; the Qur’an (17:44) goes one step further and says that all nature sings God’s praises, although ordinary human senses cannot grasp that form of worship.

Whereas nature is the handiwork of God and the Qur’an speaks of its beauty, value, and goodness, it also underscores the purposefulness of creation. Everything in creation has a purpose, and everything functions as a sign of God’s existence. Moreover, God created the natural world long before human beings, thus making human beings dependent on the natural order for their survival. There is no reason why human beings should be valued more than other creatures when the human body depends on and is connected with the biotic and abiotic parts of this ecosystem. All living creatures are part of the divine purpose, and are interconnected in the ecological system. Human beings must realize this interconnectedness with the rest of nature and must reach out to all other sentient beings (17:44: 22:18).

The Qur’anic verse: “Every created being has a size [and proportion known to God alone]” (13:8; 15:21) proclaims the natural balance that needs to be preserved for ecological systems. The massive ecological damage caused by humanity indicates its disobedience to God. It is humanity’s responsibility to maintain ecological balance as a proof of its gratitude to the Creator. In Islam, the requirement of tahara (ritual purity), usually understood in the context of Muslim ritual cleansing, has an extended application: the elimination of internal and external impurities that pollute our body and spirit. Thus water, an important source of ritual tahara and human consumption must be kept pure. This general rule applies to other ecological systems, mountain ranges, and waterfalls also, because they are essential for healthy living.

THE HUMANITY-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONSHIP

In Islam, an individual’s relationship with the environment is governed by certain moral precepts. These originate with God’s creation of humanity and the role it was given as God’s vicegerent (khalifa) on Earth. This vicegerency covers every aspect of life, be it individual, social, or environmental. It regulates a whole spectrum of relationships with God, one’s own self, other human beings, and with animate and inanimate objects. Diverse elements in God’s creation, including humans, form essential parts of God’s measured and balanced creation.

The role of human beings, however, is not only to benefit from their surroundings. They are expected to preserve, protect, and promote their fellow creatures. The Prophet emphasized this interdependency in a tradition: “All creatures are God’s dependents, and the best among them is the one who is most beneficial to God’s dependents.” Through his own example, the Prophet laid down the rules of caring for trees, animals, and all natural elements. He encouraged others to do the same as part of their religious-ethical responsibility by making such assertions as: “The only reasons God does not cause His punishment to pour over you are the presence of the elderly, the suckling babes, and the animals that graze upon your land.”

Humanity has an ethical responsibility, then, to face the challenge of acting as God’s trustee over His creation, for human beings have been given the gift of intuitive reasoning. This means that human beings are responsible for their actions:

“We offered the Trust to the heavens, the Earth, and the mountains [namely that they attain autonomous existence and acquire total responsibility for their own actions]; but they declined, afraid that they would be unable [to meet the challenge]. But humanity accepted [the Trust], for it was ignorant and unjust” (33:73).

But, as history shows us, human beings often act with arrogance and injustice, not only toward one another, but also toward nature. They think they control nature by discovering, domineering, and then exploiting the laws undergirding natural phenomena. However, since it is God Who has given these laws to nature, He sometimes disrupts its natural course to remind human beings that He is still in control. The Qur’an reminds humanity of its arrogance and forgetfulness by underlining the alienation and desperation of human beings when nature departs from its ordained path:

“It is He Who enables you to travel across land and sea. [Picture this:] a boat full of [passengers is crossing] the waters carried along by gently winds. Suddenly the weather changes; a fierce storm tosses the vessel this way and that, while huge waves threaten to capsize it. [Forsaking their false gods, the terrified seafarers] cry out [to the One True God] with complete sincerity saying: ‘0 God! We swear that if You save us from this [storm] we shall be truly grateful!’ But when God delivers them [safely to the shore) they return to their selfish and evil ways. 0 people! Your selfishness and arrogance will be your downfall” (10:22-23).

Human beings, however, are the most honored creation of God (17:70). That which distinguishes humanity from nature is humanity’s possession of reason, knowledge of right and wrong, and its moral agency to act with freedom. Cognition and volition were specifically given to human being so they could exercise authority over and take responsibility for preserving the natural order. The Qur’an records the angels’ doubts about humanity’s ability to fulfill the responsibilities of stewardship: “Will they not abuse the authority and corrupt God’s creation?” God silenced the angels by reminding them that He knew what they did not know (2:30).

Although the Qur’an does not draw the following conclusion, it is not difficult to demonstrate that the test for human beings has always remained the just exercise of authority over those under their stewardship, including nature. The just exercise of power without fully and sincerely submitting to the will of God and accepting social responsibility and personal accountability to maintain a healthy spiritual and material environment can-and has-lead to the present ecological injustices. There is nothing more dangerous to human well-being than the unsupervised exercise of power. According to Seyyid Hussein Nasr: “There is no more dangerous a creature on the Earth than a khalifat Allah who no longer considers himself to be ‘abd Allah and who therefore does not see himself as owing allegiance to a being beyond himself. Such a creature is able to possess a power of destruction which is truly Satanic in the sense that ‘Satan is the ape of God’; for such a human type wields, at least for a short time, a god-like but destructive dominion over the earth because this dominion is devoid of the care which God displays towards all His creatures and bereft of that love which runs through the arteries of the universe.”

The Qur’an says that God created everything in the heavens and Earth for the sake of humanity (22:65; 45:13). However, it is not primarily a relationship of subjugation and utilization of nature. Rather, the meaning of this statement suggests that human beings are the most important beneficiaries of the natural world and possess priority over the other creations of God. At the same time, their moral agency places upon them responsibilities toward other creatures who also depend for their survival on the resources of this biosphere. The Prophet said: “The earth is made for me as a place of prostration (masjid) and as a purifier.” This means that the soil has to be kept pure and be used with care and reverence, since it is the place on which a Muslim prostrates as a symbol of complete humility and submission to God.

Thus, the fundamental aspect of environmental ethics in Islam requires human beings to intervene to protect the Earth. They cannot claim exclusive rights over everything in nature, as some interpreters have done. They cannot stand back while the environment is being destroyed. Furthermore, human responsibility is not limited to a particular period of history, for all must work to leave this world in a better shape and order for future generations and other animate and inanimate species.

The Prophet is reported as having said: “God is beautiful and loves everything beautiful. God is generous and loves generosity, and is pure and loves purity.” Islam emphasizes nature’s beauty, goodness, and value, and creates among its followers an attitude of reverence and respect for nature without making them its worshippers or slaves. In Islam, human beings are neither the masters nor slaves of nature; humans and nature are interrelated in their worship of God, and it is humanity’s duty to serve God and take care of His creation.

THE SACRED LAW OF ISLAM AND ECOJUSTICE

The Shari’a is the Divine blue-print for the Islamic social order. It is a network of duties and responsibilities toward God, one’s own self, other human beings, and the rest of creation. It is important to note that the Shari’a is a comprehensive system that considers life an organic whole. Human beings and all biotic and abiotic members of the biosphere are components of this whole. The Shari’a creates a moral order where humans, individually and collectively, on the micro-level and the macro-level recognize their worth and value, fulfill their duties toward others, and establish an order of peace, justice, and equilibrium.

The fundamental principles of the Shari’a are justice and balance. It seeks to establish a balance between human freedom and welfare, human rights and duties, and individual and communal goals. Seyyid Hussein Nasr has highlighted the following guidance of the Shari’a in matters of environmental ethics:

“The divine law (al-Shari’ah) is explicit in extending the religious duties of man to the natural order and the environment. One must not only feed the poor but also avoid polluting running water. It is pleasing in the eyes of God not only to be kind to one’s parents, but also to plant trees, and treat animals gently and with kindness.”

The ethical concerns of Islam are summed up in the following five guidelines provided by the Qur’an and the Sunna:

• Use of the natural environment is permissible, but should not involve unnecessary destruction. “Do not be wasteful” (7:31) is the Qur’anic dictum.

• Life’s component elements must be protected so that their use may continue in a sustainable way.

• Preservation of the environment must be undertaken in an altruistic fashion, and not merely for its benefit to human beings. Other members of the biosphere who share this planet must be kept in mind.

• The process of development must sustain life, even if one anticipates no direct benefit from it.

• Sustainable use of the ecosystem requires that life is maintained with due balance in everything. Human beings are not the owners, but rather the maintainers, of this balance. 

In conclusion, it is worth remembering that as we prepare for the world to come, and even as we run toward our Lord, the Prophet has reminded us to care for the environment. He said: “If the last day comes and one of you has a palm-seedling that he was going to plant, let him plant it, because God will reward him for doing so.”

What this tradition seems to emphasize is that even when the world is ending and a person sees no apparent reason for planting trees, he or she is still commanded to do so because it is pleasing to God. This statement sums up Islam’s environmental ethics: at no time should a Muslim neglect his or her responsibility to think about the environment and its protection. This responsibility is engendered by our faith in God’s wisdom and our own well-being. It is the convergence of faith and action in Islam that essentially links the environment to religion: one who does not use natural resources carefully so that all beings, present and future, have access to the resources they need, has violated the divinely ordained ecosystem.

This means that the One Who looks after the universe does so very well. Its Owner sweeps, cleans, and orders the vast universe and Earth as though they were small rooms. In relation to the size of the universe, there is no dirt or rubbish. Indeed, considering the size of the universe, its cleanliness and tidiness are remarkable.

If some people do not wash themselves or clean their small room for a month, they become extremely dirty. That is to say, the cleanliness, purity, and luminosity of the Earth arise from a continuous, wise, and diligent cleaning. If it were not so, in one year all of the 100,000 animal species on this planet would have choked to death.

Also, the debris of the planets and the heavens, which manifest life and death, and of satellites and stars would have smashed not only our heads and those of animals, but also the head of the earth itself. They would have rained down on our heads rocks the size of mountains, and driven us away from our homeland in this world. However, a few meteorites, as a warning, have fallen on this planet but have not broken any heads.

Furthermore, the corpses of 100,000 animal species and the debris of 200,000 plant species each year on our planet resulting from the alternations and struggles of life and death would have so dirtied the land and the sea that conscious creatures, rather than loving and delighting in our planet, would have felt disgust and aversion and fled to death and non-existence.

Just as a bird cleans its wings with ease and a scribe cleans his or her pages, so are the wings our planet, the birds of the heavenly bodies, and the pages of the Book of the Universe cleaned and made beautiful. This is true to such a degree that those who do not consider the infinite beauty of the Hereafter and do not think with belief become lovers of this world’s cleanliness and beauty. They worship it.

The Earth and the universe display the greatest manifestation of the Divine Name of the Most Holy (Quddus). Not only do meat-eating cleaners of the seas and eagles of the skies obey the commands proceeding from that sacred cleansing, but those cleansing officials that gather up corpses, like worms and ants, also do so. Just as red and white blood corpuscles flowing in the body obey those sacred commands to cleanse the body’s cells, so does breathing purifly and cleanse the blood.

As eyelids obey the command to cleanse the eye and flies to brush their wings, so do the atmosphere and the clouds obey the same command. Wind blows upon the particles of dust and soil settled on the face of the earth and cleans it. The sponge-like clouds sprinkle water on the garden of the earth and becalm the dust and soil. Then, in order not to dirty the sky, the wind quickly collects the earth’s rubbish, withdraws, and hides itself with perfect orderliness. It displays the beautiful face and eye of the skies as swept and polished, all sparkling and shining.

All stars, elements, minerals, and plants obey the command to clean, as do all particles and atoms. They pay attention to cleanliness within the astonishing upheavals of change and transformation. They never congregate anywhere unnecessarily and get in the way. And if they somehow become soiled, they are quickly cleaned, for they are impelled by a hand of wisdom to acquire the cleanest, neatest, and most shining states, and the most beautiful, pure, and subtle forms.

Thus this single act of cleansing, which is a single truth, is the greatest manifestation of the Greatest Name, the Name of the Most Holy, which shows itself throughout the universe. Like the sun, it shows itself directly to far-seeing and broad-sighted eyes as the Divine existence and Unity together with the Most Beautiful Divine Names.

It has been established with decisive proofs in the Risale-i Nur that since the act of ordering and order manifest the Names of Sapient and All-Wise; the act of weighing and balance manifest the Names of Justice and All-Just; the act of adorning and munificence manifest the Names of Beauteous and All-Generous; the act of sustaining and bestowal manifest the Names of Sustainer and Most Compassionate-as each is a single truth and a single act, they demonstrate the necessary existence and Unity of a Single Being. In the same way, the act of purifying and cleansing manifest and display the Name of the Most Holy, and demonstrates, just as the sun does, the existence of the Necessarily Existent One, and, just like daylight does, His Unity.

Just as these wise acts of ordering, balancing, adorning, and cleansing point to a Single Maker by reason of their unity of kind in the universe, so do most of the Beautiful Names. Indeed, each of the 1,001 Names has its greatest manifestation in the universe. The act proceeding from that manifestation points to the Single Unique One with clarity and decisiveness in relation to its extensiveness.

The self-evident truths and single acts that illuminate the universe and make it smile, like the universal wisdom causing all things to conform to its law and order, the comprehensive munificence that adorns all things and causes them to smile, the all-embracing mercy that makes all things pleased and happy, the universal provision of sustenance that nurtures and gives pleasure to all things, and the life and the giving of life that connects each thing with all things and makes each thing benefit from, and to some extent own, all things point to a single All-Wise, All-Generous, and All-Compassionate One, a single Sustainer, a single Ever-Living Giver of Life as plainly as light points to the sun.

If those hundreds of extensive acts, each of which is a clear proof of God’s Unity, are not attributed to the Single Unique One, each necessarily becomes impossible in hundreds of respects. For example, let alone such self-evident truths and single evidences as wisdom, providence, mercy, sustaining and giving of life, if only the act of cleansing is not attributed to the Creator, then the following becomes necessary:

• All creatures connected to this act of cleansing, from particles and flies to the elements and the stars, would have to know and consider the adorning, balancing, and cleansing of the vast universe and would act accordingly, or

• Each would have to possess the sacred attributes of the Creator of the world, or

• Each would have to be present at a consultative meeting the size of the universe in order to regulate the equilibrium of the adorning and cleansing of the universe and its incomings and outgoings.

Moreover, innumerable particles, flies, stars, and other elements of creation would have to attend this meeting. Hundreds of such impossibilities would have had to occur so that the universal, comprehensive, and exalted adorning, purifying, and cleansing seen and observed everywhere could exist. It is not impossible only once, but millions of times over.

If daylight and the imaginary miniature suns reflected in all shining objects on the planet were not attributed to the sun and were said to be something other than the manifestation of the sun’s reflection, it would be necessary for the actual sun to be present in all fragments of glass, drops of water, and snowflakes glistening on the earth’s surface, and even in all particles of air, so that the universal light could exist.

Thus, wisdom also is a light; all-embracing mercy is a light; adorning, balancing, ordering, and cleansing are each an encompassing light in the sense that they are rays of the Pre-Eternal Sun. So, see how misguidance and unbelief have entered a bog from which there is no way out! See just how ridiculous is such a view. Say: “Praise be to God for the religion of Islam and complete and perfect belief!”

This exalted, universal cleansing that keeps the universe clean is the manifestation and requirement of the Divine Name of the Most Holy. And just as the glorification of all creatires looks to the Name of the Most Holy, so does the Name of the Most Holy require the cleanliness of all of them. It is because of this sacred connection of cleanliness that a hadith states 1: “Cleanliness is a part of belief,” 2 thereby deeming it to be a light of belief. And the verse: “Indeed, God loves those who turn to Him constantly, and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean” (2:222) shows that cleanliness attracts God’s love.

From The Risale-i Nur Collection, The Thirtieth Flash, The First Point.

FOOTNOTES

1. We must not forget that bad qualities, false beliefs, sins, and mistaken beliefs and practices are all instances of moral and spiritual dirt.
2. Muslim, Tahara, 1; Darimi, Vudu’, 2; Muslim, Musnad 5:342; al’Ajiuni, Khashf al-Khafa’, 291.

As we approach the new millennium, satellite-based communication systems will be the next frontier for this industry. They will assume a vital role in infrastructure, securing telecommunication links during disasters and supporting humanity’s space-based efforts.

A new epoch in space-based wireless communications has already begun with the deployment of two low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) communication satellite systems: Iridium and Globalstar. The Motorola-led Iridium consortium successfully launched the last five satellites in its strong network during the last year. The entire Iridium network integrates terrestrial phone systems and satellites.

Several other satellite systems having global or broad geographical coverage will join this new arena within the next 3 to 4 years, thereby complementing and extending existing terrestrial wireless services. Users of conventional terrestrial cellular services, business people, travelers, maritime vessels, aeronautical and industrial facilities, journalists, government agencies, the Coast Guard and emergency-related organizations, others on the go, and people living in sparsely populated areas will be able to communicate with each other via these services.

Satellite-based mobile communication systems are characterized by the distance of their satellites from Earth. LEO satellites are typically located 310 miles (500 kms) to 932 miles (1,500 kms) above the planet, whereas medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) versions are located from 3,100 miles (5,000 kms) to 7,456 miles (12,000 kms) above the planet. Geosynchronous Earth-orbit satellites, located 22,245 miles (35,800 kms) above the equator, move in synchronism with Earth’s rotation. While GEO satellites seem to be stationary to an Earthbound observer, LEO and MEO satellites appear to be in constant movement.

GEO SYSTEMS

GEO satellites have been used in such commercial communication services as television broadcasting and long-distance telephone trunking, and for maritime communication services since 1965. With the exception of the polar regions, global coverage can be provided by three GEO satellites equally spaced above the equator. In the past, GEO satellites were not viable for hand-held phone communications due to the lengthy signal propagation delay and large power loss. Advances in space technology, however, allow satellites equipped with large-aperture phased array antennas to increase their transmitting power, thereby making the GEO approach viable for delivering telephony to hand-held phones in vast areas of the world.

Several operators have opted for regional GEO systems, which typically require a single satellite. The Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS), which is being developed by a three-company consortium from Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, will provide services in 26 Southeast Asian countries, including Japan, China, India, and Pakistan. ACeS’s satellite, positioned over the equator at 118 degrees east longitude above the island of Borneo, offers mobile phone, facsimile, data, and paging services. Hence, many people in this region who have no access to terrestrial communication links will one day be able to roam anywhere they wish and still keep in touch with each other.

Another regional GEO satellite, Thuraya, will furnish mobile satellite services to 1.8 billion people in 58 countries ranging from the Middle East and North Africa to eastern Europe, Turkey, the Indian subcontinent, and Central Asia. Thuraya will be positioned over the equator at 44 degrees east above the Somali coast. The program, a consortium of 14 telecommunications organizations in various Arab countries, is run out if its headquarters in the Thuraya Satellite Communications Co., located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The Thuraya system will use a time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) scheme and support 13,750 voice channels. Hughes Network Systems will supply the dual-mode handsets. The satellite will connect calls from users to other users through its 256 reconfigurable spot beams. The company presently envisions an air-time price of US $0.50 per minute for system users.

LEO SYSTEMS

LEO satellites at very low altitudes differ from GEO satellites in two main ways: they are close enough to receive hand-held device signals with a very small propagation delay, and they form cellular towers in the sky. The major disadvantage of LEO systems, when compared with GEO systems, is that they require more satellites with a smaller size and lighter weights to provide global coverage. Complicated ground-based tracking systems are needed to control LEO satellites.

The Iridium system operated by the Motorola-led international consortium of 20 telecommunications and industrial companies is the first LEO system to turn the promise of global wireless service into a reality. By integrating ground-based cellular infrastructures with 66 LEO satellites and thus forming a cross-linked grid 485 miles (780 kms) above the Earth, Iridium provides such global telecommunications as telephony, data, and pager services.

Each satellite in the Iridium constellation rotates around the Earth within a period of approximately 100 minutes at one of the six orbital planes of 86.4 degrees inclination. With one global telephone number and an Iridium satellite phone, you can contact anyone on the planet. The satellite’s on-board processor processes calls placed by hand-held subscribers or forwarded by gateways and routes to other Iridium satellites in the constellation or to gateways on the ground. This inter-satellite networking capability and direct access of hand-held subscribers to the satellite is a significant distinguishing feature of the Iridium system.

The system operates at four different links and in four different frequency bands. Each satellite in the constellation is connected by radio transmission to four others at frequencies between 23.18-23.38 GHz. Hand-held users can communicate directly with the satellite in the 1.616-1.626 GHz band. Links between the satellite and ground gateways also operate in 19.4-19.6 GHz (downlink) and 29.1-29.3 GHz (uplink) frequency range. Iridium handsets are dual-mode, working both as a typical cellular telephone and as a satellite telephone. Both TDMA and frequency-division-multiple-access (FDMA) technologies are embedded in the handsets, as in cellular GSM handsets. The satellites are controlled by a master control center located in Lansdowne, Virginia, USA.

Iridium launched its final satellites in early May 1998. The system is now operational and offers a wide variety of services to travelers, aeronautical industries, and military and governmental organizations. It provides voice, facsimile, and data communications for the cockpit and at passenger seats across all aviation segments. According to a recent press release by Stratos, an Iridium service provider, the American government had a contract with it and Hughes Global Services to obtain access to multi-network Iridium satellite services.

Another LEO satellite system that will provide global voice and data services is Globalstar. This system is global in nature, except for the polar regions. It is a constellation of 48 satellites orbiting with a period of 113 minutes in eight circular planes, and is inclined at 52 degrees at an altitude of 879 miles (1,414 kms). Global-star’s satellites are less complicated and cheaper than their Iridium counterparts. They have no on-board processor or intersatellite links (Iridium does), and thus act like well-established reflectors in the sky relaying signals directly to ground gateways. Rather than directly connecting one caller to another by satellite, calls are first routed to gateways and then uplinked to the satellite. The satellite then downlinks this received call to another gateway.

The primary owners of Globalstar are Loral Space and Communications Ltd., and Qualcomm Inc. The system is operated and serviced by 12 telecommunications companies. In order to avoid communication linkage drops, three or four 16-foot to 20-foot (5-meter to 6- meter) dish antennas are installed at Globalstar gateways. Unlike Iridium, Globalstar handsets utilize code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) technology. Globalstar’s unique capability is that signals from three or four visible satellites are combined at the gateways, and the strongest one is chosen to maximize power efficiency and eliminate call interruption. Therefore, satellites will be seamlessly added to and removed from calls in progress, as they are constantly moving in and out of view. So far, Globalstar has put 24 satellites in orbit. “With only two more successful launches of four satellites each, Globalstar will have the coverage required to initiate a regional roll-out of service in September,” says Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer of Globalstar.

OTHER LITTLE LEOs and MEOs

Other LEOs, notbly Orbcomm and Teledesic, provide such telecommunication services as broadband Internet access, videoconferencing, and multimedia; however, they do not allow phone calls. These satellites are relatively small compared with those of Iridium and Globalstar, and were designed for two-way data communications. Orbcomm is a consortium of Orbital Science Corp., Canada’s Teleglobe Inc., and Malaysia’s Technology Resources Industries Bhd. Orbcomm’s total of 36 little LEOs will travel in two different circular orbits: one is located 460 miles (740 kms) above the Earth with 70 degrees inclination in pair, and the other is located at 523 miles (825 kms) in planes of eight with 45 degrees inclination. The Teledesic system will consist of 288 little LEO satellites in 12 polar orbital planes. It will provide data rates of 64 Mb/s, data rates 2,000 times faster than standard telephone modems. The system’s operation frequency will be 27.5 GHz in the uplink (from user to satellite), and 28.5 GHz in the downlink (from satellite to user). The company plans to start commercial service in 2002. Its investors are Microsoft founder Bill Gates, cellular phone pioneer Craig McCaw, Boeing, and the AT&T Corp.

ICO Global Communications will feature 10 operational MEO satellites located at an altitude of 6,434 miles (10,355 kms) in 45 degrees and 135 degrees inclined orbits. ICO’s ground network will consist of 12 ground stations with multiple antennas distributed strategically around the globe. Its gateways will function in ways similar to those of Global- star. The ICO system will launch its full service in 2000. ICO satellites are derived from an existing Hughes GEO satellite, and are four times heavier than Iridium satellites: 6,063 pounds (2,750 kgs) in orbit. ICO satellites travel more slowly than LEO satellites, thereby reducing the need for frequent handovers from one satellite to another.

Ellipso, an MEO system owned by Mobile Communications Holding Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., Harris Corp., and three others from Australia and South Africa, will become fully operational in 2001. With 17 satellites in three orbital planes, it can provide almost complete global coverage. Seven equally spaced satellites located above the equator at an altitude of 5,008 miles (8,060 kms) will serve a 25 degrees north and a 55 degrees south latitude region. Another 10 satellites will orbit in two elliptical orbits inclined at 116 degrees. Each satellite will be able to handle 3,000 simultaneous phone calls.

REFERENCES

• Big LEO/MEO/GEO Market and Financial Review (1998).
• Glenister, Simon. “Iridium to Offer Aeronautical Service.” Integrating Global Air Traffic Management, ICAO/ISC (June 1998). (See also: www.
• iridium.com/english/industry/wero/medialarticle_index.html.)
• http://www.globalstar.com.
• http://www.iridium.com.
• Miller, Barry. “Satellites Free the Mobile Phone.” IEEE Spectrum Magazine (March 1998): 26-35.

The brain is probably the most complex organized biological structure in existence. We think, learn, compute, memorize, feel, show emotion, and love. The brain is the center of all these activities, and of many other mental and physical functions as well. Each human being has a unique personality, and each individual behaves in a certain way. Our behavior reflects how our brain thinks.

Throughout one’s life, a person’s brain constantly learns. Each input, such as events that affect us, leaves its traces in the brain. We recollect these events later. But how do we learn? How do we remember things? What is the physical dimension of learning, feeling, and remembering? What is the physical significance of brain dynamics? Some of these questions are probably the most difficult questions for neuroscientists and other interdisciplinary brain researchers to answer.

Studies of the brain are as old as the practice of medicine. Although advancements in medicine, with the help of engineering and computer technologies, have been significant in recent years, brain research progresses much slower. Brain research has been a focus of such interdisciplinary sciences as neuroscience, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, medicine, artificial intelligence, and psychology. However, an exact and detailed understanding of the brain’s dynamics and associating its neuronal activities with certain physical phenomenon remains largely beyond our grasp. The fact that the human brain cannot be used for experimental purposes is another factor in brain research. 

THE BRAIN’S STRUCTURE

The brain is considered the human body’s central commanding unit. Along with the spinal cord, it forms the human being’s central nervous system. It poses a modular structure, each module of which is known to be responsible for certain functions, and possesses its own respective complexity. Readers wanting to know more about the brain’s structures should check the literature produced by specialists in the field of neuroanatomy.

Figure 1 illustrates the brain’s structure. The cerebral cortex, essentially a biological sheet of tissue covering the brain, is about 0.08 inches (2 mm) to 0.24 inches (6 mm) thick, and gives a geometrical representation of the brain’s shape. The brain’s stem (not shown) is the area between the thalamus and the spinal cord. It is the center of the most of the brain’s basic functions, such as breathing and the heart rate. The area behind the brain stem is the cerebellum. Located at the brain’s base is the hypothalamus, which, among other things, controls the body’s temperature. It reacts to hot and cold temperatures by sending out signals to adjust the body’s temperature. The thalamus serves as a sink for sensory information, and communicates the received information to the cerebral cortex. Although not proven in human beings, the thalamus serves as the center of sleep spindles, sinusoidal signals emitted by animals while they sleep.

NEURONS

Neurons, the brain’s building blocks, are the only cells that do not renew themselves (all other cells die and are replaced). Each human being is born with approximately 100 billion neurons in his or her brain. Thus, a certain neuron in the brain of a newborn human being is the same neuron when he or she is old. A normal brain loses 3 to 5 neurons each second. Stress, drug and alcohol consumption, and aging may cause more neurons to be lost. For an ordinary human being, however, the total number of neurons lost during an average lifetime is very negligible.

Neurons are probably the most complex and intelligent communication networking ever created. The brain contains billions of cells, each one of which is connected to another. All of them share and transmit and, more importantly, process the information. This feature introduces the intelligence of neurons, the nature of which is not yet completely known to scientists, who remain fascinated by the engineering behind this intelligent networking.

To better understand neurons’ functionality, imagine yourself cruising in your convertible on a two-lane road. As you start to pass the car in front of you, you suddenly notice a car coming toward you. You have no more than 2 or 3 seconds to evaluate the options and respond accordingly: you either accelerate and complete the pass, or slow down and get behind the car you were passing. In either case, you have to consider the speed of the oncoming car, its distance, and some other safety parameters. You eventually evaluate your options and reach the safest decision in less than 2 seconds.

What is the big deal? This is just another ordinary event that we are used to experiencing every day. Behind this seemingly ordinary event, however, a tremendous amount of communication and computation is taking place among the neurons. Stimuli invoked by visual information (the oncoming car) observed by the eyes make their way through the central nervous system to the brain. Neurons receive the stimuli, evaluate them, and pass their response to nearby neurons by electrochemical polarization. Billions of neurons are involved in the process.

This information flow among neurons depends on learning (one’s driving experience). The response, the final decision of neuronal computation combined with learning and consciousness, is delivered to central nervous system so that it can act. The nature of consciousness and how it is linked to neuronal computation remain unknown.

These processes are so automated that we do not consciously realize that each physical, mental, and emotional function is governed by our brain, which, in turn, is governed by its tiny component neurons. These neurons enable us to make such judgments every day, and to communicate with the surrounding environment through sound, sight, touch, smell, taste, emotion, feeling, thinking, and so on.

THE HUMAN BRAIN AND COMPUTERS

The human brain and computers are two different things. One is a living, thinking, learning, feeling, crying, and loving organism. Happiness and sadness, in the form of marginal emotions, are reactions of the brain. Such terminology makes no sense to computers. In that sense, it might be misleading to compare the human brain and computers. However, there are some common functionalities that make such a comparison logical.

Both the human brain and computers have memory. Memory in human brains is defined as “stronger synaptic connections,” whereas computer memories are formed by semiconductor chips. Both can adapt and learn. The human brain can learn easier and faster than a computer, which can only “learn” certain tasks by being programmed with special algorithms. The nature of such “learning” is very limited.

On the other hand, computers can perform many complex tasks much faster than human brains. For example, try multiplying two numbers, dividing the result by 7, and then subtracting 9 from that result. The computational speed of a human brain is much slower than that of a computer.

Due to their high speed, computers perform parallel jobs relatively faster. The human brain also can perform parallel tasks at the same time. For example, it controls the heart rate and blood pressure while performing computational tasks. In addition, the human brain is better at interfacing with the outside world and coming up with new ideas; computers only do what they are instructed to do, regardless of the task’s simplicity or complexity. The human brain distinguishes itself from computers by its extraordinary capability in the areas of imagination and innovation.

Another common functionality is that both transmit information. Computers use semiconductor switches that are either on or off. Everything inside of a computer is represented by either a one (1) or a zero (0). Although neurons in the human brain are either on or off, meaning that they are or are not firing an action potential at a particular point in time, an accumulated charge that activates neurons gives the human brain more flexibility. Neurons are more than just on or off, for their excitability is always changing as they constantly receive information from other cells through synaptic contacts. As stated earlier, this information is carried through electrochemical polarization. Although this electrochemical process does not always result in an action potential, it may alter the chance that an action potential will be produced by raising or lowering the neuron’s threshold.

Another important distinction between computers and the human brain is that the human brain never rests, while computers do after they have been turned off. Even during sleep, the human brain continues to work dynamically. Indeed, it produces distinct signals, called sleep spindles, that may be observed externally while the person is asleep. While an individual’s body rests during sleep, his or her brain recollectively refreshes itself.

UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN’S DYNAMICS

All activity inside the human brain is conducted through electrochemical polarization, a process that can be observed by placing electrodes on an individual’s scalp. The brain’s dynamics can be observed in the form of an electroencephalograph (EEG) or a magnetoencephalograph (MEG). An EEG, which is relatively less sophisticated than a MEG, maps the brain’s dynamics into electrically recorded brain waves. Multiple electrodes are systematically placed on the scalp, and potential differences are measured with respect to a reference point. In the case of a multichannel EEG, the number of electrodes may be as high as 64 or even 128. Figure 2 shows a single-channel recorded EEG. Potential differences measured through electrodes are sampled and stored in a computer for analysis.

The challenge presented to researchers is how to read multichannel EEGs and extract the information that really reflects neuronal activity. If the patient is epileptic, brain abnormalities may be easily distinguished in a multichannel EEG. From the location of electrodes, it may be possible to identify the general part of the brain giving rise to epileptic EEGs. In clinics, neurosurgeons usually open the patient’s scalp and measure the EEG directly by placing electrode grids over the cortical tissue. Even then, it is a real challenge to identify the defective region and proceed accordingly.

The EEGs of epileptic patients distinguish themselves from other brain activities by their relatively high amplitude. But what about other physical and mental tasks? Can we detect and identify those EEGs that reflect a certain mental task? Scientists from many disciplines are focusing on such questions. Many researchers are combining EEGs, MEGs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and such engineering tools and algorithms as digital signal processing and spectral analysis to identify and understand the brain’s dynamics. The clinical need for such solutions are in high demand.

THE HUMAN BRAIN AND INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE

The human brain has been a research focus of scientists from many disciplines. Scientists in medicine, neuroscience, engineering (electrical engineering and biomedical engineering), mathematics, physics, physiology, and computer science have been conducting either sole or interdisciplinary research for many years. The brain has so many dimensions that no single discipline can cover all of its aspects. Some of these disciplines are described below:

• Artificial intelligence attempts to build knowledge representation on the hypothesis that intelligent systems act intelligently. Hence, if the human brain’s intelligence were represented in a finite domain, this domain could be used by computers to mimic human intelligence. This approach faces a major challenge: human intelligence cannot be represented to the degree that artificial intelligence requires to mimic human intelligence.

• Computational intelligence, on the other hand, approaches the problem from the perspective of such engineering tools and algorithms as neural networks, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms. Neural networks and genetic algorithms can learn an underlying task to some degree, whereas fuzzy logic relaxes information representation by providing one more degree of freedom to the binary representation of information: a membership function concept. In this concept, the information has a probability of being a member of a certain class. The human brain’s electrochemical process may not always result in an action potential for a certain neuron(s). The binary concept cannot represent this phenomenon, whereas fuzzy logic may be helpful in modeling the chance of a neuron to produce action potential.

• Engineering provides technical tools and algorithms for conducting research on the human brain. Electrical engineering provides signal processing tools and algorithms for filtering and imaging, and other tools to process EEGs. Many scientists use these tools and algorithms to understand and localize EEGs. It would be very effective to localize human brain abnormalities with the help of engineering tools and algorithms.

Each science and method mentioned above has its own limitations. Combined interdisciplinary research provides more promising results for understanding the brain’s dynamics. Many other methods not mentioned in this article also are being used to study the human brain.

SOME FACTS

An average adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds (1.36 kilograms). A stegosaurus weighed about 3,528 pounds (1,600 kilograms) but had a brain that weighed only about 0.15 pounds (70 grams), or just 0.004 percent of its total body weight. In contrast, an adult human being weighs about 154 pounds (70 kilograms) and has a brain that weighs about 3.1 pounds (1.4 kilograms), or about 2 percent of his or her total body weight. That makes a human being’s brain-to-body ratio 500 times greater than that of the stegosaurus.

DISCUSSION

This is only a very brief description of the human brain and its functionality. As scientists and researchers learn more about the human brain, they realize that what they know is very small when compared with how much they still do not know. All scientific efforts undertaken thus far have opened only a small window on a large universe: our own galaxy, located inside our brain, with the neurons as its stars. Let each neuron be a moon. How much do we know about the moon compared with the universe in which it resides? The answer is the same for the following question: How much we know about the human brain’s neurons and the universe in which they reside?

REFERENCES

• Chudler, E. H., S. Pretel, and D. R. Kenshalo, Jr. “Distribution of GAD-like immunoreactive neurons in the first (SI) and second (SII) somatosensory cortex of the monkey.” Brain Research (1988) 456:57-63.
• Nunez, P. L. “Neurocortical Dynamics and Human EEG Rhythms.” New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Figures 1 and 2 are courtesy of Eric H. Chudler, Research Associate Professor, University of Washington.

Since the mid-1980s, there has been increasing interest in developing so-called “electronic noses” (e-noses), that is, electronic instruments that can detect and recognize simple and complex odors.1 And since the mid-1990s, nearly 20 years after the concept was originally published, the commercialization of e-noses has started to take place. The main reasons for this delay were the complex nature of the problem and the need for advanced technologies. However, the recent development of microsensor technology has led to low-cost integrated chemical sensors and application-specific microprocessing devices. This, coupled with our greater understanding of artificial intelligence, has allowed us to construct electronic instruments that perform in a manner similar to our own olfactory system.

E-noses are now being developed as systems for the automated detection and classification of odors, vapors, and gases. They are generally composed of a chemical sensing system (e.g., sensor array or spectrometer) and a pattern recognition system, such as an artificial neural network (ANN). At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), e-noses use ANN technology for the automated identification of volatile chemicals used in environmental and medical applications.2

The electronic nose works as follows. While a chemical vapor or odor is blown over a sensor array, sensor signals are digitized and fed into a computer. The ANN (implemented in software) then identifies the chemical. The benefits of e-noses include compactness, portability, real-time analysis, and automation.

FOOD INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS

Currently, the largest market for e-noses is the food industry. In some instances, e-noses can augment or replace panels of human experts and can reduce the amount of analytical chemistry performed in food production, especially when only qualitative results will do.

An electronic smelling device is a valuable tool for analyzing whether a product has gone bad. Potential applications of e-noses in the food industry are numerous: inspecting and grading food quality by odor; inspecting fish and beverage containers; controlling fermentation, automated flavoring, and microwave cooking; monitoring the ripening of cheese; verifying if orange juice is natural and/or fresh; testing plastic wrap for containing the odor of onions; and classifying grains and blueberry ripeness.

Using human odor panels to evaluate and control the quality of raw materials or finished products is extremely labor intensive, time consuming, expensive, and error prone. E-noses can quickly identify a characteristic odor classified as “good” or “bad” by the odor panel, thereby decreasing the workload, improving throughput, and reducing the cost of screening many samples at different stages of the manufacturing process. The system is applied easily to the manufacture and quality control of perfumes, cosmetics, and fine chemicals, as well as to packaging, monitoring environmental quality, the automotive industry, medical and diagnostic matters, and microbial classification.

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

The PNNL is exploring the technologies required to perform cost-effective environmental restoration and waste management. This effort includes developing portable, inexpensive systems that can identify contaminants in the field in real time. Environmental applications of e-noses include identifying toxic wastes and household odors; analyzing fuel mixtures; detecting oil leaks; monitoring air quality, factory emissions, and hazardous chemicals; and testing ground water for odors.

MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Since the sense of smell is important for physicians, an e-nose can be used as a diagnostic tool to examine bodily odors (e.g., breath, wounds, bodily fluids, etc.) and identify possible problems. Odors in the breath can indicate gastrointestinal, sinus, and liver problems, as well as infections and diabetes. Infected wounds and tissues emit distinctive odors, and odors coming from such bodily fluids as blood and urine can indicate liver and bladder problems. Currently, an e-nose for examining wound-related infections is being tested at South Manchester University Hospital.

In similar applications, ANNs have been used to track glucose levels in diabetics, determine ion levels in bodily fluids, and detect such pathological conditions as tuberculosis.

While the inclusion of visual, aural, and tactile senses into telepresent systems is widespread, the sense of smell has been largely ignored. PNNL recently proposed a more futuristic application of e-noses for telesurgery. In this application, an e-nose would identify odors in a remote surgical environment. These identified odors then would be transmitted electronically to another site, where an odor generation system would recreate them.

The next decade should see the cost of e-noses fall dramatically, with the result that they will be used not only in industry but also in everyday life. They can be used, for example, to detect tainted foods in the refrigerator, ensure clean clothes in the washing machine, detect poor air quality in the car, and perhaps even help us monitor our own health.

FOOTNOTES

1. J. W. Gardner and P. N. Bartlett, Electronic Noses (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999).
2. http://www.ivanhoe.com/docs/backissues/electronicnose.html.

While almost everybody who has access to a computer is somehow involved with the Internet for a variety of personal reasons, scientists and the academic community also use it for their own purposes. Examples are sharing data and information, browsing technical papers, searching for related documents, and posting their research activities to colleagues and other interested parties. Recent developments have proven to researchers and academia, both of which publish large amounts of technical literature, that the day of electronic publishing is close at hand.

The easiest way to publish electronically is to post documents on the Internet by generating Web pages. In this case, however, the user remains a passive recipient of information, for the Internet’s interactive communication ability is not being used. This particular capability of the Web allows a scientist or researcher to generate Web pages with which the user can interact. One example of such interaction is performing mathematical operations over the Internet. This is very useful and powerful, for it allows the user to become an active receiver by gathering the needed information from that particular home page.

For instance, if you visit Rice University’s home page for its Department of Mathematics, you will find several interactive math tools designed to help students taking the Ordinary Differential Equations course.3 These tools are activated by using Java or MATLAB programming language. For example, Figure 1 shows a tool called PPLANE, which draws the magnitude and direction of a differential vector in an x-y plane. PPLANE also graphs the linearization about equilibrium points, and displays eigenvalues, eigenvectors, nullclines, and stable and unstable orbits. The user can change the differential equation’s variables and then run the associated MATLAB code over the Internet. A licensed MATLAB copy in the user’s personal computer is not required, for the MATLAB routine is run on the server and displays the output on the user’s browser. This makes it easy for the student to understand how the changes made alter the equation’s features.

This technique is very efficient and powerful for a student who is still in the learning process. It also suggests that the Internet’s interactive feature will affect the education system and the way courses are taught in the future.

Another home page that contains a wide variety of interactive math tools is found at the Web site for Dartmouth College’s mathematics department.4 Professor Richard Williamson has written about 30 interactive math programs for common scientific problems. These vary from differential equations to heat equation solvers, from Newton’s method of calculating the root of an equation to simulating a swing’s motion. All of these programs are activated by the user’s input parameters, and display the answer in the same manner.

Another interesting and very useful Web site is http://www.integrals.com (see Figure 2). This interactive site allows the user to take any symbolic integral over the Internet. It is provided by Wolfram Research, which also produces the well-known and widely used Mathematics tool MATHEMATICA. After the user enters an expression, the integrator automatically runs MATHEMATICA on the server, integrates the expression, and sends the result back to the user’s browser.5 This site is already helping many calculus students with their homework, and is quite handy for researchers who deal with complex integrals in their everyday research.

Another useful interactive math Web site can be found at the Geometry Center Web page of the University of Minnesota, Science and Technology Center.6 This site offers such interactive math tools as hyperbolic triangles, Lorenz simulation, and interactive proofs of popular theorems. There is also a tool for taking numeric integrals. If you get tried of doing mathematics, you can take a break and play some Tetris games at the same site. In fact, interactive games on the Internet are also a particular type of interactive math tool. A better graphical version of Tetris can be found at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/522 7/tetris.htm.

All of the above Web pages show that cybermath has found its way onto the Internet, thanks to the Web’s interactive communication capability. It is not difficult to imagine that students in other majors will apply this useful and efficient tool to their own field, thus making the Web even more interactive

FOOTNOTES

1. http://www.flifo.com/and http://www.reservations.com/, respectively.
2. http://mallblvd.net/and http://www.internet.net/index.html, respectively.
3. http://math.rice.edu/.
4. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rewn/index.html.
5. http://www.integrals.com.
6. http://www.geom.umn.edu/.

For instance, those seeking scientific information limit themselves to concrete and physical knowledge. Furthermore, they have to form the mechanisms of causality from natural causes and then refine the resulting knowledge through a sieve of doubt. Likewise, those who seek religious knowledge, which mainly depends on belief, must learn the pillars of faith by searching and then using their minds and logic, rather than mere imitation, to check the information’s authenticity by consulting the primary sources. Religious knowledge is gained through belief and using the principles of reason and logic, rather than experimentation and observation, to analyze the resulting knowledge.

Human knowledge that can be known can be divided into three subgroups: that which is unknown, unknowable, and known. If we subdivide these further, the following classes emerge: the knowable that is known; the knowable that is unknown; the unknowable that can be known thorough the use of various means; and that which will never be known by humanity. This classification is based on having the means to acquire and learn information, as well as the type of information demanded.

There is other knowledge that belongs only to God, and that can acquired only via revelation (wahy), divinely inspired Prophets, and divinely revealed books. As the bulk of such knowledge has absolute meaning, its application, validity, and meaning can be acquired only after appropriate education and training. Since most religious information is like medicine, it must be applied at the appropriate place and taken in the proper dosage to give the greatest benefit. Otherwise, this information could lead people astray.

In today’s information age, useful communication is possible if we know what information we want and how to obtain it. Adherents of scientific ideologies and societies that view scientific and religious-moral information as contradictory and mutually exclusive should realize the differences and boundaries between the knowable, that which remains unknown by scientific methods, and the unknowable. We must understand that information seen as contradictory and mutually exclusive is actually complementary, for nature’s diversity reflects the principle of the “unity and entirety of differences.” Only this understanding will ensure peace and security among the different parts of society that represent the different types of information.

Scientific and religious (faith-related) information represent different types of information gained by various methods. At the same time, however, they form a “meaningful unity” in human life. The critical task is to synthesize these two types of information and then apply the results to one’s daily life.

The boundaries and characteristics of unknowable, long-time subjects in philosophy and epistemology have been (and still are) debated by philosophers for centuries. Based on this understanding, we will discuss the meanings of the unknown and the unknowable concepts of modern science.1

THE PROBLEM OF THE UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWABLE

In 1931, logician Kurt Godel shocked scientific circles with a new discovery: some basic mathematical propositions and premises, the common language of science, cannot be proven or refuted. He called this the Theorem of Uncertainty. In the 1980s, British mathematician Alan Turing used a digital computer (the Turing Machine) to prove that one could not give a correct answer before posing an abstract problem. Do these two discoveries tell us something about the place and grade of the unknowable in science?

Science seeks to explain and understand all of the universe’s elements and happenings. Scientific questions can be very general or very specific: Will the universe expand continuously? Will human activity engender large-scale change on the Earth? There is no prior knowledge or premise on which to base answers to such questions. Science, which uses mathematics as a means, is different from mathematics. All discoveries are made in mathematical fields by using models formed by manipulating symbols. Can we apply all appropriate mathematical findings to other sciences?

Ralph Gomery, head of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, states that we can understand science by dividing it into three parts: the known part of the scientific universe, the unknown, and the unknowable. The subjects taught in schools and universities form the known part of science. At the same time, exhibits in science museums and elsewhere are summaries of what has been discovered. Scientists and researchers feel the excitement of searching the unknown in order to make it known. According to Gomery, that which is now unknown will be knowable in the future, and the unknowable will remain unknown forever. The limits of science are determined by the subtle lines between what is unknown and what is unknowable. According to some, these boundaries are very rigid, predetermined, and cannot change (i.e., the boundaries of science and religion). Following are some unknown “facts” and questions that might be known and answered in the future.

Models that can forecast the Earth’s dynamic functions, and thus predict the currently unforeseeable nature of earth quakes, might be successfully developed. What negative ecologicial changes will be wrought upon the Earth through human production and consumption, and how can they be prevented or mitigated? Is there intelligent life in outer space? If so, how and by what means can we communicate with it? How does human consciousness develop? What is the relation between free will and the brain’s physico-chemical reactions? How can a national or global economy be kept stable without driving it into chaos? Can we prove which of these questions are unknowable?

According to Joseph Traub, Godel’s theorem only limits the power of mathematics; it has nothing to do with whether or not a scientific question is answerable. Traub believes that there are causes in science that make some questions unanswerable. Examples are insufficient archeological and historical data, as well as the first appearance of language; the fact of coincidental events and simultaneous discoveries, which make these events indistinguishable and hence their explanation harder (e.g., we cannot distinguish the cause-and-effect relations between events that took place isochronally in the first appearance of life); and insufficient sources, methods, and experimental designs to test the correctness and validity of today’s prevalent theories.

We must be careful when claiming that something is unknowable, for doing so without exposing the reasons may hinder scientific progress and development. On the other hand, many scientists accept the presence of that which is unknowable and unanswerable by science, and view science as trying to solve and understand the knowable universe.

DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF SCIENTIFIC REALITY

In America, scientists from various branches gather in periodical meetings at the Santa Fe Institute in an attempt to model a prototype university of the 21st century by drawing lines between the unknown and the unknowable. They emphasize that scientific truth and reality have five different aspects: the reality of the physical and concrete universe, the reality based on the mathematical modeling of the preceding reality, the reality produced and interpreted based on the depictions and descriptions of the preceding models, the virtual (cyber, imaginary) reality produced in a computer environment, and the reality produced by simulations in computerized environments. Thus, “reality” and “models of reality” are not identical.

Some researchers claim that there are only two worlds of reality: the physical universe (or nature) and computers. They also state that these two different worlds should be modeled differently. From this aspect, which reality or model is of interest becomes an important issue when scientists try to classify what is unknown and unknowable.

Let’s concretize these distinctions. Every living organism consists of proteins, which should be folded in a specific three-dimensional form to become functional. One or several of these possible foldings are functional; the rest are meaningless. The formation of folding in a living organism takes a few milliseconds. But scientists, even if they use the best supercomputers in existence, cannot simulate this process. Since the theories and algorithms of the computer environment are insufficient, there is no conformity between the model and reality, for the living system folds the amino acids properly. We do not have enough knowledge to model this amino acid structure in a computer environment, because there is no one-to-one correspondence between reality and the perception and visualization of the reality in the mind.

Niels Bohr summarized what could be done: “I cannot grasp reality, but [I can] produce a mathematical model that can predict reality.” This opened new doors to philosophy. Albert Einstein believed that there is a reality that can be defined by mathematical models. Today, a similar debate continues in scientific circles between Stephen Hawking (who defends Bohr) and Roger Penrose (who defends Einstein).

THE END OF SCIENCE?

The main argument of those who state that science has come to an end is as follows: The basic discoveries about the physical reality of the universe have been made. All that remains is to fill in its content. For example, subatomic particles have been discovered. Molecules that code life have been discovered, and hence new genes are being produced. The basic theories that enabled space technology have been developed. Perhaps future technological innovations will be limited to improving existing ones, rather than making new discoveries. Besides, science alone could not solve humanity’s problems or prevent bloodshed, although it received a considerable amount of financial support. Thus from now on, these sources should be used to discover the real nature of humanity and the sciences (e.g., social, religious, and moral) that ensure human welfare and well-being, for solely scientific information is not everything. It seems that we need religious and moral knowledge to use our scientific findings in the best interests of humanity. Today, ethics is a compulsory course in Western universities, and some scientists believe that research should focus on more concrete, answerable, and functional topics.

On the other hand, others believe that science has not ended and that many things remain to be discovered. They point out that scientific discoveries are not so numerous, and that new research areas appear by intermingling physical sciences with themselves and the social sciences. They stress that until now, scientific findings have been reached by deduction. Now, however, the dominant scientific paradigm is being transformed into systematic thinking, and the interaction of all things will be studied in database networks. This will engender new views of science and the universe. They also claim that those sciences that focused on the information of the particles will begin to focus on systems and understanding the nature of their interactions.

FOOTNOTES

1. “Modern science” signifies scientific information about the universe that is gathered by one’s five senses, observation, experimentation, and mathematical modeling and explanations. It does not include religious studies and knowledge.

REFERENCES

• Horgan, John. The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age. New York: Helix Books, 1996.
• Traub, Joseph. “The Unknown and the Unknowable.” The Third Culture. Interview. 1998.
• http://www.edge.org/documents/brockman.html.
• —. Information and Complexity. N.p: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Cultural diversity has two vital benefits. First, individuals from different groups and cultures get to know each other, which engenders respect and consideration for each one’s beliefs, values, and ways of life. Achieving such a goal is a must for countries like America, which hosts many different cultures and groups. Such an understanding is becoming crucial for all nations, even for quite homogenous ones, as all are quickly becoming dwellers of the same global village. Humanity needs examples of successful multicultural societies. The second benefit is the exchange of knowledge and experience. This article elaborates on the second benefit.

Today, in many American-made movies and television serials (such as Kung Fu), we see a wise Asian man who is always calm, never panics, and brings such unique, humanitarian solutions to problems that the Americans on the scene are amazed. Although these are not real stories, they give the flavor of possible benefits to be derived from exploring different perspectives and philosophies.

The fact that all individuals living in the vast variety of societies found on our planet are human beings is often overlooked by individuals, communities, and even social science professionals, depending on the rate of their self-containedness. All individuals living in different societies are, without doubt, human beings; the differences separating them are merely external elements. Thus everyone, regardless of his or her society, experiences common problems; only the context changes. For example, a beggar and a king both feel anger at times. The beggar’s anger may lead him to hit his wife, whereas the king’s anger may cause him to engulf the nation in war. Another analogy is that of a pickpocket to a computer hacker illegally transferring funds.

Throughout history, human cultures and groups have dealt with the same characteristics and problems as we, the people welcoming a new millennium, are dealing with now. As contemporary cultures reflect inherited perspectives and philosophies, centuries-old cultures and civilizations may be invaluable resources for finding new points of view and approaches to our problems.

The emphasis placed on such a cultural exchange by both American individuals and institutions at all levels is not as great as that which has been placed on other, but less important, issues. For example, a typical American secondary school student’s knowledge of world geography and foreign languages has long been inferior to that of his or her European counterpart. This indicates a lack of interest toward the rest of the world.

The same indifference can be observed in American nightly news programs, even on national television channels. For example, the “World Report” news programs usually give domestic news (unless there is a war going on in which America is heavily involved). Might such an ethnocentric view of the world stemming from being the sole superpower be responsible for this attitude?

Sometimes people living in a system, even a well-functioning system, cannot solve their social and individual problems because they cannot raise themselves above the flow of events. The most frequently used tool to solve any problem is power, especially if it is abundant and readily available. Power often is seen as the best shortcut to the solution due to the deceiving ease of its exertion, which also allows its user to ignore or to not consider its potentially serious side effects.

The power applied may be physical, economic, military, or technological, depending on the nature of the problem. However, its exercise is not always the key to the solution. A mighty lion caught in a hunter’s net should have the modesty to request help from a tiny mouse, for the latter’s sharp teeth may work where the lion’s devastating paws cannot. One should have the wisdom to know a gallon of gas cannot attract that which can be attracted by a teaspoonful of honey.

A simple but enlightening example of how different perspectives can help to solve problems is given below. During the heated negotiations between two political parties for a coalition in Turkey, a simple but totally satisfactory suggestion by a Turkish newspaper columnist attracted my attention. The two parties, having an almost equal number of representatives in Parliament, could not share the ministries, for ministries have varying degrees of political weight. The columnist’s suggestion was not inspired by a similar case from a contemporary democracy, but from a parable describing King Solomon’s approach to a similar problem: Two heirs could not agree on how to divide their inheritance equally, because they could not agree on the value of the items to be inherited. King Solomon suggested that one heir divide the inheritance into two equal halves, after which the other heir would have the first choice. Thus, an ancient parable offered a practical solution to a conflict in a contemporary democracy. Whether his suggestion was considered or not is beyond our concern here.

One can find books of ancient and contemporary philosophers and different cultures in bookstores, but who reads them? The general public, especially the youth, should be made aware of these resources and directed to make use of humanity’s historical experience. For example, various herbs used in some parts of the world for centuries to treat specific illnesses are now preferred over drugs developed in laboratories, for they are all-natural, non-addictive, and have no side effects. Obviously, cultures and civilizations have much more to offer each other than herbs. I wish that Americans would look sincerely for the wisdom that different civilizations and cultures have to offer.

Note: Since this article is intended to reflect a broad perspective, I gave no specifics about the methodology to realize the goals indicated and no thorough examples. Such examples in different fields, along with their methodologies, can serve as the content of separate articles.

As mentioned above, a survey seeks to make inferences about a population based on information obtained from the sample. This objective is related to cost and time constraints, because, as in our example of American teenagers, it would be very costly to measure all of their IQs. Instead, a representative subset (a “random sample”) of teenagers is taken, and then their IQs are measured. In some situations, the entire population might be surveyed, as in a census or when dealing with small populations. Even if the population is small, the test to obtain particular information from an element might require that element’s destruction. For example, to determine one’s blood cholesterol level, a blood sample consisting of a few milliliters of blood, not all of it, should be taken. If we want to determine the average lifespan of light bulbs manufactured on an assembly line, we should take a reasonably sized sample, such as a few hundred, and test them to see how long they last. Otherwise the company would go bankrupt.

The basic problem of a survey is the validity and reliability of its results. The solution lies in the three segments of conducting a survey: planning, data collection, and analysis and reporting. Usually the public sees the reporting segment. However, since the public does not know how the survey was conducted, it is prone to be misled by the reported results. To determine a survey’s reliability, one must know the sources of bias affecting its outcome. These biases can be traced to the interviewer or the researcher, the format of the questionnaire or the experiment, the availability of information, and other causes.

From a researcher’s point of view, these source biases must be kept as small as possible. The most serious bias problems arise from the questionnaire type and the sampling methods used. For example, if the questionnaire refers to a socially desirable situation, respondents tend to answer in accordance with the social desirability. Say people are asked whether they read the front page or the sports page of the newspaper first. Many will answer that they read the front page first, even if they really read the sports page first, because reading the front page first makes one look more sophisticated. Hence it is a socially desirable attribute.

A more interesting example is provided by a survey done by the American Society of Microbiology. Its researchers wanted to determine the percentage of people who wash their hands after using public restrooms. When they surveyed a randomly selected sample in the Washington, DC, area over the phone, 94 percent said that they washed their hands afterwards. However, researchers who observed 6,333 people using public restrooms in five major American cities found that only 68 percent did so. Here, the socially desirable situation is, of course, washing one’s hands after using public restrooms.

A researcher also has to be very careful when interpreting the results of a question seeking potentially incriminating or embarrassing (i.e., socially undesirable) information. Suppose we distribute to the people of a particular town a questionnaire asking whether they have used marihuana during the past 12 months. The responses will give a very low estimate of the exact percentage of marihuana users, because drug usage is a serious crime in this country. Fortunately there is an interesting solution to this problem: Randomized Response Technique (RRT).

This is how it works. Suppose that the interviewer presents a 6-sided die to the respondents and gives them a paper that contains the following instructions: Roll the die first, but do not show the outcome to the interviewer. Then:

i) If it shows 1 or 2, answer YES regardless;

ii) If it shows 3 or 4, answer NO regardless;

iii) If it shows 5 or 6, answer truthfully.

Give your answer in the following boxes:

[]Yes []No

By using this clever method, one can estimate the exact percentage more accurately, because there is no way to match the answers to the respondents. Here’s how it can be done: Say we surveyed 1,500 people and received 700 “yes” answers. First, the probability of the die showing 1 or 2 is 2/6 (or 1/3). The odds for the die showing 3 or 4, as well as 5 or 6, are the same. Hence we expect that the die will show 1 or 2 in 500 respondents, 3 or 4 in 500 respondents, and 5 or 6 in 500 respondents. According to the directions, we expect 500 respondents to answer “yes” and another 500 respondents to answer “no” regardless of the truth. If the total “yes” responses is 700, then the number of “truthful yes” responses is 700-500=200. Now, we see that 200 out of 500 answered “yes” when the questionnaire asked for a truthful answer. This result gives 40 percent (=200*100/500) as the estimated percentage of actual marihuana users.

Another source of serious bias stems from the sampling plans and methods employed. In practice, various time, space, and cost constraints prevent us from dealing with actually random samples (samples that are representative of the population). Given this, let’s analyze the most common sampling methods.

Haphazard Sampling: Many biological studies use this method to select specimens to be examined from a cage or a tank. This technique involves catching the animals by hand or by a net “at random” in that particular cage or tank. However, those animals that are caught in such a manner are usually the ones that are more friendly, weaker, or less agile. This problem can be solved with more effort and money. Therefore, when the results of a biological research study are presented, one should check the randomness of the sample and then reach his or her own conclusion, because if the results are the based on haphazard sampling they will be quite biased.

Judgment Sampling: In this method, “a couple of experts” determine the “typical units” that represent the population. This method is also extremely poor, because “experts” tend to disagree on which items are typical. Yates (1981) presents a good example. He had 12 experts collect a total of 1,200 stones, and then asked them to select three distinct samples of 20 stones as typical of the population according to their weight. Surprisingly, 30 out of 36 samples selected overestimated the true average weight.

Volunteer Sampling: If respondents are chosen from volunteers (generally human beings), then the results have considerable bias. This method is widespread in medical studies, because usually it is the only way to get relevant results. Since the medical profession’s ethical code does not allow one to obtain random samples in medical experiments, various animals, such as guinea pigs, are used in labs. However, because drugs that are effective on animals are usually not all that effective on human beings, their relevance is not so clear. For example, we often hear that a particular “study shows that such and such an ingredient is harmful to your health, or cures such and such a disease.” These are very poor statements, and hence not so reliable. However, they were the only results we could obtain. This bias is somewhat removed by continual progress in medicine.

Restrictive Sampling: This method is particularly important, because it yields very strange results when applied to social science research. Here, one takes a sample that is easy to obtain for a couple of different reasons. For instance, in archeology and history, the possessions of a king or an aristocrat are more likely to survive than those of a serf or a vassal, for the belongings of the rich and powerful are more durable and of a much higher quality and therefore survive for a longer time. In the United States, for example, a great deal of furniture and many houses of slave owners have survived; only very little of their slaves’ possessions have survived. In Egypt, the artifacts discovered by archeologists belong mainly to the upper class (pharaohs, the noblility, etc). As a result, historians and archeologists produce very biased results, for their conclusions are based mainly on evidence belonging to members of the rich and/or aristocratic classes.

Is there a solution? Obviously, researchers only accept tangible items as evidence. Even though these artifacts are “hard” evidence, they cause the poor, and those who led modest and humble lives, to be under-represented in history. For example, many Prophets left virtually no personal items behind, except for ones like Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses (peace be upon them all), who were considerably recent.

Such an absence of personal items might be due to the fact that they led modest lives and shunned luxury. Hence, historians and archeologists should reconsider their position on this issue. In order to correct the bias engendered by restricting their conclusions only to tangible evidence, they should add the Holy Books and written religious texts to their category of “acceptable” evidence.

Another example is the media, whose usage of restrictive sampling produces very bigoted and biased results. The image of Islam presented in the Western media is a good example of this, for its depiction of Islam contains many misconceptions. First, Islam is presented as an exclusively Arab religion, despite the fact that Arabs account for only 15 to 20 percent of all Muslims. So either obtaining a representative sample of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims seems very hard to journalists, or else they deliberately restrict their samples to Arabs.

The most serious and severe misconception, however, is the media’s equating Islam and terrorism, although the word “Islam” literally means “peace.” On the other hand, the Western media somehow manages to mention Muslims and terrorism together many times. This is also quite odd, for only 1 percent or less of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims favor so-called “militant” groups. When news about such people is broadcast, this little percentage is strangely magnified, and the stereotype is generalized to include all Muslims.

It is also incorrect to label these militant groups as “Islamic.” This is definitely a sampling problem, which seems to be done either on purpose or in a cursory way. Are there no good Muslims among 1.2 billion Muslims of the world? Rationally, if we suppose the impossible (that all Muslims really are terrorists), they would have destroyed the entire world already. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, there are stereotypes for Jews and Christians (mostly Catholics).

There is an urgent need for collaboration and cooperation between different religious groups to get rid off such damaging misconceptions and stereotypes. Muslims, having the worst stereotype, should be in the forefront of this undertaking. According to my experience and knowledge, many religious beliefs and teachings, and their followers, bear no resemblance to these misconceptions.

Such restricted sampling results in many seriously flawed conclusions in social science disciplines. Consider the case of Sigmund Freud, who still has many advocates and fans, as well as opponents, of psychology. From a sampling perspective, his analysis of the ego (psychoanalysis) cannot be considered reliable, for he based his hypothesis on just two persons: himself (at 1897) and an 18-year old female hysteric (Dora). Even from the statistical point of view, two people (the first one probably obsessed with sexuality, and the second an obviously abnormal person) can in no way be considered representative of the 2 billion people living at that particular point in time. Here, of course, I consider the severe time and cost restraints, but still, the existence of such difficulties does not justify the validity of Freud’s conclusions.

CONCLUSION

In this article, we approached different issues in the social and physical sciences from a sampling (statistical) point of view. Surprisingly, this approach gave very interesting results in various sciences. The validity of any survey or research does not depend on its publicity (whether it is published, broadcast, or widely accepted); what is essential is that the whole picture be covered. Newly emerging interdisciplinary areas can help keep track of the whole picture. Also, the validity and reliability of results obtained through research, surveys, hypotheses, and theories depend upon the researcher’s morals and honesty and ability to see “the big picture.” Scientists and journalists should be very careful and responsible in their research, for most people are inclined to accept, without further exploration, whatever they hear or read.

REFERENCES

• Bill, James A. “Islam: Misunderstood throughout the World.”
• http://www.muslim.net/isla /intro8.html.
• Freud, Sigmund. “Chronology.” http://freud.t0.or.at/ freud/index-e.htm.
• “Misconceptions about Islam.”
• http://www.muslim.net! islam/miscons.html.
• Warde, William D. Sampling Methods. Oklahoma State University, 1990.