All parents do everything they can to keep their children healthy. The creation of a baby in a mother’s womb still remains a wonder not fully explained by scientists. Birth has been a mystery in the life of human beings since the beginning of history. Religious sources show the phases of a baby’s growth in the mother’s womb, the perfect design of the environment that supports the needy baby with everything it needs, and its birth, all as examples of God’s mercy and power. Although the whole process of pregnancy develops with almost no interference from outside, there are some precautions that parents can take to have a healthier baby.

How to start taking care of a baby even before pregnancy

Science makes it clear that we should not wait until we hold a baby in our arms before we start taking care of him or her. But how can we take care of a baby even before conception? Well, one of the answers is quite simple: by taking folic acid! If women have enough folic acid, vitamin B complex, in their bodies before pregnancy, this vitamin B complex can reduce the risk of neural birth defects by up to 70%. Neural tube defects (NTD) are a group of congenital birth defects that influence the central nervous system. The neural tube forms in the embryo between 4 to 6 weeks after conception and then closes. The neural tube eventually becomes the baby’s spinal cord, spine, brain, and skull. If the neural tube does not close properly, the baby may have neural birth defects, in which case the baby lacks either a developing brain, spinal cord or both. NTDs occur very early in pregnancy, even before most women know that they are pregnant. The most common neural birth defects are anencephaly and spina bifida. In anencephaly, the brain is either not fully developed or is completely absent, while in spina bifida part of the baby’s spinal cord remains outside the body.

Folate deficiency and folic acid

Folate, also called vitamin B9, is a water-soluble vitamin. It is essential to human life and is found naturally in some foods such as liver, citrus fruits and juices, whole grains, and dark green leafy vegetables. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate. Folic acid can be obtained from supplements and fortified breads and cereals. Both folic acid and folate work for the same purpose, and in this article the terms are used interchangeably.

In folate deficiency, the body is unable to transport folic acid to the brain, resulting in mobility problems, blindness and seizures. Pregnant women in particular can be at great risk of giving birth to low-birthweight, premature babies who may have neural birth defects. In children, folate deficiency can slow general development. In adults, a type of anemia appears in long-term folate deficiency. There are also other signs of folate deficiency such as headaches, loss of appetite, sore tongue, diarrhea, forgetfulness and irritability.

Why folic acid is important

Folic acid plays a very important role in various body processes including cell maintenance and repair, formation of red blood cells (which provide oxygen to tissue), formation of white blood cells (which defend the body against infectious disease), synthesis of DNA (hereditary material) and amino acid metabolism. It also plays a crucial role in preventing human illness. Folic acid supplements cannot prevent stroke or heart disease, but studies have shown that it can reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Recent research shows that it supports the functioning of blood vessels, which improves the blood flow to the heart. In addition, folic acid helps to protect against the development of some forms of cancer, particularly colon, cervical, esophageal, breast, and stomach cancers.

A number of scientific experiments have shown that people who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease have low levels of folic acid in their blood. Thus, it is not surprising that folic acid is crucial for brain function and plays an important role in mental and emotional health.

If you are a married woman and have plans to have a child some day, you should definitely start to take folate because by the time you know you are pregnant, your baby’s brain and spine will already have been formed. This is why it is important for women to maintain sufficient levels of folic acid all through their child-bearing age even if they are not planning a pregnancy.

Should only women take folic acid?

No, not really. Every adult man and woman should consume it every day to reduce their risk of heart disease, colon cancer, and stroke.

If this is a vitamin that could change our life forever, how much should we consume and where can we get it from? You can get your folic acid naturally from foods such as liver, nuts, peanut butter, dried peas and beans, oranges, tomato and pineapple juice, avocados, cantaloupes, asparagus, and leafy green vegetables. Some breakfast cereals with 100% of the recommended daily allowance per serving are Crunchy Nuggets, Multi-Grain Cheerios Plus, Product 19, Whole-Grain Total, Total Corn- Flakes, Total Raisin Bran, and Special K. It can also be obtained from other, less processed grain products such as bread, pasta, and rice. Taking a multivitamin containing the recommended daily allowance of 400 micrograms is another option. The following table suggests a variety of dietary sources of folate.

Table 1: Selected Food Sources of Folate and Folic Acid

* Items marked with an asterisk (*) are fortified with folic acid as part of the Folate Fortification Program.

^ DV = Daily Value. DVs are reference numbers developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help consumers determine if a food contains a lot or a little of a specific nutrient.

Sehnaz Dogu Ekicikol obtained a master’s degree on Microbiology from Georgia State University.

References

• Zittoun J. Anemias due to disorder of folate, vitamin B12 and transcobalamin metabolism. Rev Prat 1993;43:1358–63.
• Herbert V. Folic Acid. In: Shils M, Olson J, Shike M, Ross AC, ed. Nutrition in Health and Disease. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
• Kamen B. Folate and antifolate pharmacology. Semin Oncol 1997;24:S18-30-S18-39.
• Agriculture’s Nutrient Database Web site: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl.
• http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/folate.asp
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite. David Hilbert

The concept of infinity has always fascinated humankind. The excitement and awe that are affiliated with the very idea of this concept inspire us. Poets, philosophers, artists, astronomers, mathematicians and ordinary people have pondered the questions related to infinity over the centuries. Is the universe finite or infinite? Is matter or space infinitely divisible? Is there eternal life? Where does a finite being get the idea of infinity from?

In this article, we first consider the concept of infinity from a mathematical point of view and then try to explain how that is connected to Divinity and the Attributes of God. An incorrect understanding of infinity in mathematics leads to seemingly irresolvable paradoxes; likewise, an incorrect understanding of the Attributes of God leads to an incomplete or incorrect understanding of creation.

Mathematical infinity

Any serious consideration of infinity inevitably leads to mathematics, where the concept has its deepest roots. Mathematicians use the symbol ∞ to denote infinity. To many people infinity is a sort of number that is larger than all other numbers. However, that is not an adequate description of infinity. Strange things can happen in the realm of infinity. Many intuitive ideas fail when infinity enters into the picture. This leads to apparent paradoxes. Here is one example that is attributed to David Hilbert (1862–1943), the famous mathematician whose quotation appears above.¹ Consider a hypothetical hotel with infinitely many rooms. On a stormy night all the rooms of the hotel are occupied, and a wet and miserable couple shows up asking for a room. The concierge comes up with this clever idea to make room for these people. He says, “The hotel is full but here is what I can do for you. I can move the guests from room 1 into room 2, the guests from room 2 into room 3, and so on. The guests in room n will move into the room n+1, for each n = 1, 2, 3, …”.

So, if we can have a hotel with infinitely many rooms it is possible to accommodate an incoming guest even if the hotel is totally full. But then we see that by a similar reasoning we can accommodate any number of guests, and in fact infinitely many more guests! Clearly, this is not possible in ordinary hotels with finitely many rooms that we are familiar with.

To get more sense of what might happen in the realm of infinity let us consider a couple of other examples. You would have no trouble accepting that two sets have the same number of elements if there is a one-to-one correspondence between them. For example, the set {Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday} has seven elements because it is in a one-to-one correspondence with the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} given by Monday1, Tuesday2,Wednesday3, Thursday4, Friday5, Saturday6, Sunday7. Note that there are other possible ways of setting up a one-to-one correspondence between these two sets but what matters is the existence of one such correspondence.

There is absolutely nothing surprising about this example. We all know that there are seven days in a week. However, if the concept of infinity pops up in a similar situation, counterintuitive conclusions are obtained. You may be surprised to find out that the set of all positive integers {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,…} is in a one-to-one correspondence with the set of even positive integers {2, 4, 6,…}. One way of setting such a correspondence is

1 2 3 4 5

← ← ← ← ←

2 4 6 8 10 …

Therefore, there are as many even (positive) integers as there are of all (positive) integers (this is a mathematically correct statement), even though the set of even integers is a strictly smaller subset of all integers. Such a situation is not possible with finite sets.

There are other well-known examples of “paradoxes” involving infinity such as Zeno’s paradox, and Gabriel’s horn.²

Treating infinity as if it is like other numbers, even with the assumption that it is greater than all other numbers, is a major reason for these “paradoxes.” Their resolutions are obtained with a proper understanding of the nature of infinity and the concept of limit. For example, adding or subtracting one element, or any finite number of elements, from an infinite set does not change its size. In some cases adding or subtracting infinitely many elements from an infinite set does not change its size either!

Even mathematicians struggled with the idea of infinity a great deal before rigorously formulating the concept and the rules about it. The fundamental notion of modern calculus is limit, which is intimately connected to infinity, in terms of either infinitely small quantities referred to as “infinitesimal” or infinitely large quantities. It took mathematicians a long time to formulate the modern rigorous definition of limit, the rules involving infinity and infinite quantities, and sets of infinite size.

Infinity and understanding the Attributes of God

While the concept of infinity is essential in mathematics, it is not the only field where it is so important. Another field in which the concept is very important is theology. The concept of infinity is intimately connected to the concept of Divinity. In mathematics, compared to infinity all numbers are equal, and equally small. This fact is mathematically expressed as a/∞ for any number a, whether it is 7 or 17 million. This is parallel to the theological fact that compared to God we, and the rest of the creation, are infinitely small. Nobody can claim to be greater than any other human being or any other being in the universe, no matter how powerful or wealthy he or she might be. Therefore, we cannot attribute to anybody greatness to the degree of regarding him or her as divine. Nursi expresses this view in the following words:

“O human! It is a Qur’anic principle that you must not consider anything other than God Almighty as greater than you to the degree that you worship it. Nor must you consider yourself greater than anything and thus claim greatness before and dominion over it. For, just as all creatures are equally far from being the Object of Worship, they are also equal in being creatures.”³

We have seen that treating infinity like other numbers (even with the understanding that it is greater than all other numbers) leads to seemingly irresolvable paradoxes. Similarly, treating God like humans leads to an incomplete and incorrect understanding of God and the creation. God is not only greater than all that is created, He is also not bound by the kinds of restrictions that created beings are subject to. With His infinite power, creating one flower is as easy for Him as creating all the creatures on earth every spring. Creating all the trees in the world is no more difficult for God than creating one piece of apple. He can create countless things at the same moment. Creating a trillion things is no more difficult for Him than creating one thing.

Unfortunately, it is all too common to see the evidence of attributing incorrect characteristics and restrictions to the Almighty. For example, some “try to free God from the burden of special acts of creation”4 by attributing the development of species to evolution, natural selection, and random phenomena. They do not seem to understand that it is no “burden” for God to create anything, whether it be a tiny individual or billions of species. He can create a great number of things at once. He is not forgetful or incompetent. Nothing He does interferes with another one of His actions. He continues to create every moment everywhere in the universe and He has power to do so. He is closer to every one of us every moment than we are to ourselves: Assuredly, it is We Who have created human and We know what suggestions his soul makes to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (Qaf 50:16). Therefore, there is no burden for God in dealing with special acts of creation.

Since we are subject to many restrictions as humans, we may fall into the error of attributing similar restrictions to God. So, we need to be more careful when we consider the Attributes of God. One of the restrictions by which we are bound is time. Unlike us, God is above and beyond time. Many people have difficulty comprehending the idea of destiny (or qadar, or divine decree in Islamic literature). If we understand that God is not restricted by time, it becomes much easier to understand this concept. Since He is beyond time, He does not need to “wait” to see the consequences of events in the universe. While it is not our purpose to have a full discussion of this important article of faith here, we want to point out one of its connections with the topic. A detailed explanation of divine decree can be found in Said Nursi’s Twenty-sixth Word.5 Those who do not understand that God is not restricted by time ask questions like, “What was God doing before creating the universe?” This question is meaningless with a proper understanding of the Attributes of God.

Attributing to God deficiencies by which we are constrained, such as forgetfulness, tiredness, and incompetence, is a great mistake, one similar to treating ordinary numbers like infinity. It leads to paradoxes that we cannot resolve. It prevents us from having a proper understanding of God and the creation. We can only understand the mystery of the creation by a proper understanding of its Creator, and we need to be very careful when talking about the Attributes of this Creator.

Nuh Aydin is an associate professor of Mathematics at Kenyon College, in Ohio, USA.

Notes

1. Maor, E. To Infinity and Beyond: A Cultural History of Infinity, Birkhauser, 1987. See also http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/davidhilbe181572.html; http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Quotations/Hilbert.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_paradox_of_the_Grand_Hotel
2. Ibid.
3. Nursi, Bediüzzaman Said, The Gleams, Seventeenth Gleam, NJ: Tughra Books, p. 160.
4. Collins, F. S. Language of God, Free Press, 2006, p. 140.
5. Nursi, The Words, Twenty Sixth Word, NJ: Tughra Books, pp. 479–494.

This article does not claim to provide answers about social traits or morality in general, but simply summarizes the findings of two recent scientific papers that appeared in the journals Science and Nature, describing interesting research on social ethics and moral behavior. The broader implications of the studies are left to the reader to reflect upon.

The article published in Science magazine presents a line of evidence that spending money on others makes us happier. The Nature article comes up with a – perhaps – more surprising finding: preverbal infants can evaluate social actions, and strongly prefer individuals who help others. The results of the two articles thus suggest that not only do we become happier by doing good to others, but we also feel sympathy for other individuals who do so, even before we start talking.

Spending on others makes us happier

In order to investigate the effects of spending money on others, researchers at the University of Vancouver in collaboration with Dr. Michael Norton of Harvard University, first asked a representative group of 632 Americans to rate their general happiness, report their annual income, and estimate how much they spend monthly on: i) bills and expenses, ii) gifts for themselves, iii) gift for others, and iv) charity donations.1 The first and second items of expenditure were averaged to calculate an index of “personal spending,” whereas the third and fourth items were used similarly to deduce a “prosocial spending” index. Data analysis revealed that significantly greater happiness was associated with higher prosocial spending, whereas personal spending was found to be unrelated to happiness.

Second, a group of employees who received a profit-sharing bonus from their companies were put to a similar test. All sixteen employees reported their annual income as well as their general happiness one month before receiving the bonus. Almost two months after the bonus, the same participants reported their general happiness and were asked to estimate how much of their bonus was spent personally or prosocially. The prosocial spending was again found to be the significant predictor of happiness, whilst the income and the bonus both remained insignificant.

Finally, the researchers designed experiments in order to further decipher the correlation between happiness and prosocial spending. To this end, forty-six university students were asked to assess their happiness in the morning, and were given $5 or $20 (a one time stipend) to be spent by 5 p.m. on the same day. Some participants were randomly instructed to spend the money on a bill, an expense, or a gift for themselves (personal spending condition), and the rest were told to spend the money on a gift for someone else, or a donation to charity (prosocial spending condition). After 5 pm, participants were asked to report their general happiness. The participants in the prosocial-spending group reported greater post-stipend happiness, with the effect of stipend size (i.e. $5 or $20) remaining insignificant. This work hence demonstrated that spending money on others promotes more happiness than spending money on oneself-a result that was apparently counterintuitive. Interestingly, when the conditions of the experiments were described to 109 students from the same university and they were asked their opinion on what condition would make them happiest, they were doubly wrong about their prediction: a significant proportion estimated that the $20 on personal spending would cause the highest happiness.

Preverbal infants can evaluate social actions

The second study by a Yale group describes experimental designs where preverbal infants (i.e. infants having not yet learned to speak) were made to watch animated events.2 (The group of infants chosen for the experiments were 6–10 months old.) In the first scheme (see figure, Scheme 1), a character (a red, circular object with eyes) tries to climb a slope, but fails in its first two attempts (A). At the third attempt, another character comes into the picture, either helping the climber by pushing from behind (B), or hindering it by pushing down (C). When the infants were encouraged to choose between the helper and the hinderer, they almost always reached for the helper (only 2 of 26 infants chose the hinderer). Interestingly, when the climber was made to look like an inanimate object as a control, infants did not show any preference for B or C. (Eyes were removed from the climber, and the climber no longer underwent self-propelling motion with the experiment unchanged in all other aspects.) This suggested that the infants did not choose the helper in the first experiment because they simply preferred the action or the shape or the color (further control experiments) of the helper, but instead their choice was purely social: With the eyes removed from the climber, the infants no longer identified the climber as an individual, and did not perceive the events as social interactions.

It is known that infants look at unexpected events for longer times.2 After the experiment described above, the same infants were subjected to a second test where their observation times were measured. In the display (see figure, Scheme 2), the climber sitting atop a hill initially goes back and forth (D) between the helper and the hinderer, and eventually approaches one of the two (E, the climber ends up approaching the helper; F, the climber ends up approaching the hinderer). On average, the infants stared at the display longer when the climber approached the hinderer (which is a surprising action), compared to the climber approaching the helper (which is an unsurprising action). These findings altogether suggest for the first time that the preverbal infants, although themselves unaffected as third parties (hence remaining unbiased), could make judgments about the value of a social act by differentially evaluating those who perform in positive and negative ways.

Social cooperation

Social ethics is not only puzzling for philosophers and sociologists, but also for biologists because social traits are not inherently specific to humans. For instance, altruistic forms of behavior appear to be ubiquitous in nature and occur in creatures from bacteria to mammals. Even within a rapidly growing bacterial culture, a minority of cells are known to commit to reduced growth rates.3 This slow-growing subpopulation can survive an antibiotic encounter to regenerate the colony, providing an insurance policy for the whole population despite their reduced self-benefit. Towards the other end of the spectrum of living beings, vervet monkeys have watchmen that warn fellow monkeys in the presence of predators by attracting attention to themselves,4 increasing their own risk of being attacked. On first reflection, altruism contradicts the selfishness which is the natural outcome of the underlying assumption of Darwinian evolution, survival of the fittest. If only the fittest survive, according to natural selection, how can such magnanimous behavior continue to exist, when individuals who do not maximize their own interest should have been wiped out long before we can come to know them? Biologists are nowadays trying hard to reconcile altruism with selfishness, and altruistic behavior poses yet another challenge for evolutionary biologists (see a recent article in The Fountain for a detailed review5).

Reflections

• Surely We have created human of the best stature as the perfect pattern of creation. (Tin 95:4)
• Those men and women who give alms and lend to God a goodly loan, it will be increased manifold to their credit, and they will have an honorable, generous reward in addition. (Al-Hadid 57:18)
• The Prophet (may peace be upon him) reported that God said, “I created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go astray.” Every child is born with the fitrah (an innate disposition towards virtue, knowledge, and beauty). Everyone is born in the nature of Islam. (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

Bill Sayoran is a freelance writer living in Boston. He can be contacted at billsayoran@gmail.com.

Notes

1. “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness”, Science, vol. 319, 21 March 2008.
2. “Social Evaluation by Preverbal Infants” Nature, vol. 450, 22 November 2007. Videos of the animated events can be found at the Nature magazine website: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/n7169/suppinfo/nature06288.html
3. “Is Bacterial Persistence a Social Trait?”, PLoS ONE, Issue 8, August 2007.
4. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism-biological/
5. “Darwinism and Altruism: Is There A Problem?,” The Fountain, Issue 64, July–August 2008.
6. http://saifur.tripod.com/religion.html

M&B: Dr. Mitchell, you have been teaching your course on the Bible and Modern Science for the last nine years. Could we start with the contents of this course and why you were interested in teaching it?

Dr. Mitchell: I’ve been teaching this advanced course in the religious studies minor since 2000, and it’s been a longtime interest for me. Since I started teaching at universities in 1974, I have included a study of the relationship between science and the Bible in almost all of my courses because I think that is probably the least understood controversy.

With the attempt to have a little epistemological humility-that is, I am not a scientist, I don’t claim to be a trained scientist-I am not trying to convert anybody, whether they are atheist or Christian to any particular point of view. My primary approach to this topic is to help both Christians and atheists to read the Bible because I think a lot of the confusion and a lot of the controversy about science and the Bible is the result of somebody not sitting down and explaining to people how to read the Bible. This debate is very heated in America. It splits families, it splits schools, and it splits churches.

So the course is unashamedly an attempt to help people incorporate what they are learning about science with their Christian faith, or with their faith, whatever it is. In a sense I lean in the opposite direction to some of the science teachers, in that many of them tend to lean toward mocking or making fun of the faith of people who believe, for instance, some of the more recent writers like Dawkins and Hitchens. I feel my job is to be a person on the campus who offsets that influence. So, first of all I focus on how to read the Bible. But the importance of learning how to read the Bible arises because the history of science in Europe and in the United States has been based on a conception of what science is and what faith is and how to relate the two which is really not based on knowledge; it’s just based on some poorly known incidents between Galileo and the Church.

M&B: Historical experiences?

Dr. Mitchell: Yes, historical experiences. One of the things I read when I was at Rice University was W.T. Stace’s Religion and the Modern Mind. The conclusion he came to is one that I think is very important for people to know-that among the basic things that were discovered in the Scientific Revolution, there was nothing which should have had the slightest tendency to either prove or disprove faith, or even the existence of God. So, the fact that in the West, there was an Age of Faith, followed by an Age of Reason, then an Age of Unbelief is not for any scientific reason. It’s because of a psychological transition that took place, or because people misunderstood what was really discovered in the Scientific Revolution.

The modern conception, or the modern myth, is that Christianity and other religions just went along through the Middle Ages being totally ignorant of science, which of course is a historical nonsense. If they had been totally ignorant of science, there never would have been a Scientific Revolution. People believe that science was actually suppressed so much by the Middle Ages that it took an explosion of unbelief in order for modern science to develop. So, I make sure that people understand that all of the revolutionaries of modern science were religious believers and the idea that somehow some atheist dropped out of the sky and won the battle with the Church is nonsense. There was no battle between science and the Christian faith in history. The only battle was a battle that occurred among Christians about how the Bible should be read in the light of modern discoveries. And that continued for a long time.

M&B: What was the nature of the conflict that occurred between Galileo and the Catholic Church?

Dr. Mitchell: The battle within the Catholic Church was not primarily over the Bible or over faith; it was a political battle based on the fact that the Catholic Church knew that it was then losing its hold over the entire Christian faith and was also losing its control primarily over political power.

That’s what scared them, and so when they talked about being afraid of what Galileo said, it wasn’t primarily because they necessarily disagreed with it. It was because of their fear of the confusion that it would cause among the faithful, the Christians who were not well-educated. But they obviously could not hold that back. It was going to burst. But a part of the Roman Catholic church, a very small part of the Roman Catholic church, namely the Pope and the Office of the Inquisition, treated Galileo very badly. There are some things that people need to know about Galileo, and one is that he was a very ornery person, very difficult to get along with. That’s one of the reasons they had a problem with him. The Pope was a friend of his and didn’t necessarily disagree with him; he just thought that he was being obnoxious. Galileo would never recognize the description of him as this giant anti-Christian, anti-faith person who stood up to the Church and the Church punished him for it. He considered himself to be a good Catholic, he considered himself to be in conformity with all basic Catholic doctrine. The only reason he wrote was to try to show Catholic people that they did not have to reject the new knowledge that was coming about. Not only that, the main battle was not over the Bible; it was over Aristotle. The Pope and the Inquisition did not try to punish Galileo because he was a Christian or a Catholic or because of the Bible. They tried to punish him because he was too hastily critiquing and trying to do away with Aristotle, and Aristotle had become the scientific philosophy of the medieval Church. Now, Aristotle is not a Christian, and I take a little time to point that out. So, they were fighting about Aristotle’s view of the universe, not the biblical view because the Bible doesn’t have a scientific description of what the universe is. That’s the reason why we Christians, just like Muslims, started working on science; they adopted Aristotle because Aristotle was the scientist, and Ptolemy too. One of the main points I’m trying to get across is that there never has, in the history of the world, been a battle between Christianity and science.

Also, I like to remind people that Copernicus was published by the Church, and that Galileo was published by the Church. There was nobody else to publish their works. Indeed, the foreword to Copernicus was written by the Pope-though a different Pope than Galileo’s. There is no doubt that there were ignorant people and hostile people, but they were all Catholics arguing. It wasn’t science versus faith. The same thing happened with Protestantism, as science in the west was transferred primarily through Protestants because the people in England and Holland and places like that who carried on the scientific tradition were the Puritans. The Puritans were the ones who carried science forward. In other words, to put it bluntly, science is a gift of religious people to the modern world. Religious people should know that so that they do not think that they have to be reactionary. In fact, we don’t ordinarily think that way. I would say a good portion of the people who teach science, and even philosophy, at the universities in the area where I live are faithful people.

Now, as for specific areas that Galileo dealt with, he told some folks, for instance, that he had a telescope that could see that there are more than seven planets. According to the story, Archbishop Bellarmine refused to look through it because the Bible says there are only seven planets. In fact, the Bible doesn’t discuss the subject. It was Aristotle who said there were only seven planets. Again, that was a fight between Galileo and Aristotle. But some of the Bible people would throw out things like a passage in the Book of Joshua which is taken from a poem from the Book of the Wars which we don’t have. The only thing we have from this book are quotations like the one in Joshua, and it’s poetry. In this poem in the Book of Joshua, it says that the sun stood still in the valley of Aijalon, and then Joshua was able to complete his battle against the enemies of God. Well, some of the Bible people said, “Well, that’s just absolute scientific proof that the sun moves around the earth.” But there were a lot of medieval theologians who knew that wasn’t the way you should interpret the Bible. So, Galileo did a lot of speaking on that subject when he wrote his letters to defend his case, particularly his letter to the Grand Duchess.

A lot of people today think that one of the things that bothered the Church at the time of Galileo was that they believed that the earth was flat. The Church did not believe the earth was flat at the time of Galileo or at the time of Columbus, but that’s still the street talk. In fact, Thomas Aquinas knew of only one theologian in all of the history of the Church who argued that the earth was flat. Thomas Aquinas said that he was an ignoramus because Aquinas believed, as did Aristotle and Ptolemy, that the world was round. The picture many people have of medieval science is as if it were done by ignorant people and that in order for modern science to win they had to overcome the ignorance of all of these medieval scientists including those in Seville. But of course that’s where Aquinas had gotten his science-from the Muslims in Andalusia. That’s where he’d gotten his Aristotle. So the High Middle Ages was not the Dark Ages. That’s a mistake lots of Americans make, including PhDs in universities, talking about the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages preceded the Middle Ages. And that was a dark age. But the High Middle Ages was not a dark age. It was an age of the most intense intellectual ferment in human history, and certainly in contrast to every place else in the world, except the Muslim world, where the same thing was going on. So, you see, those are ideas that I’m trying to let people know about. For instance, to explain that the idea that the sun stood still in the valley of Aswan is from a poem that’s taken from a non-Biblical book.

M&B: How about the genealogy of Prophets in the Bible?

Dr. Mitchell: There is genealogy in the early part of the Bible, which treats genealogy as if it were chronology, which is all you can do if all you have is genealogy. They treated genealogy as chronology. All traditional cultures have these genealogies, but they cannot really be used as chronology. First of all, their purpose is different from chronology. Their purpose is to keep the genealogy or lineage. So, for instance, there are some genealogists in the Christian Bible that say, “Jesus was the son of David that was the son of Abraham.” It’s a genealogy. Obviously, it is not very complete.

M&B: So, by “son,” it means “grandson”?

Dr. Mitchell: Yes, it means descendant-or an ancestor-but there are other considerations. If we consider the genealogies to be scientific chronologies, then we’re still thinking of the Bible as primarily a scientific book. But, whether it’s true or not, it became fairly accepted by Christian geologists and others in the nineteenth century that geology certainly seemed to say that the world was older than six thousand years. At that time they thought it was maybe 200,000 years old, and every few years since then it has been pushed back. But they did not consider that change a threat to their faith because they understood that the Bible was written for a different purpose. They understood that if we spend all of our time trying to make it concordant with scientific theories, first of all, the two will never be concordant because scientific theories change every generation. Second, it would mean that the people to whom these books were originally revealed could not possibly have understood them because they would be scientific books and science is not something they were interested in; it was not something that they could comprehend. So, that argument about the sun standing still did not last very long, and even most modern-day scientific creationists do not try to argue that that poem has to be taken as a literal scientific view. Otherwise, you’d have to do the same thing to the Psalms and so forth. In fact, there are several creation accounts in the Hebrew Bible that are different from the creation account in Genesis because they’re for different purposes. In fact, all creation accounts are doxological; they are praise that God is the Only One-He is the One God, that the moon and the stars and the planets are not gods, that the animals are not gods, that human beings are not gods and so forth. Even though they are not gods, they are still good. So, that’s what we should have been carrying on, instead of carrying on this debate about science-especially with these ridiculous stories that are added to it.

M&B: So, it’s not right to read the Bible as a book of science to draw strict conclusions.

Dr. Mitchell: The point I want to make is that both Christian fundamentalists and atheistic fundamentalists are too uptight about this question, and that is detrimental to religious faith. Some people come into my office crying because they just learned that the earth is maybe more than six thousand years old, and they say, “Professor Mitchell, I’m losing my faith,” and I say to them, “What do you mean you’re losing your faith?”

“Well, the Bible says the earth is six thousand years old, and my professor says it’s more than six thousand years old.”

“Well, you’ve got a Bible,” I tell them, “and I’ve got a Bible over there, so why don’t you show me where it says that the earth is six thousand years old?”

What is changing is that you may be changing a belief, and that’s not the same thing as losing your faith. You’re changing a belief, and if you’re a forty-year-old person of faith or a hundred-year-old person of faith, you shouldn’t probably have all of exactly the same beliefs that you had when you were eighteen, and that’s very important to people.

To the atheists, I want to say that they should learn a little bit about history and the philosophy of science and logic, and learn what faith is, so that they have a little bit more respect for people of faith, even if they are the extremists, because every time they write about something that is going on in a school district or whatever, they act like they’re in a panic. That is, they seem to think that if we allow people to believe that human beings are the creation of God, science is lost. Well, the problem for that argument is that all of the people who were scientists up until their great grandfathers or their grandfathers were people who believe that human beings are the creation of God, and science didn’t die.

Yuksel A. Aslandogan is the editor of Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World: The Contributions of the Gulen Movement.

The Earth’s shape is becoming rounder as a result of the construction of projects like the Three Gorges reservoir. The weight decrease due to the melting icecaps has played a major role in these changes.

From time immemorial, humanity has wondered about the shape of the Earth. Over the centuries countless studies exploring the Earth and its shape have been conducted, and they still continue today. With advancements in technology, the methods and measuring devices have constantly changed. In earlier periods the Earth was believed to be flat; nevertheless from around the fifth century bc there were varying opinions suggesting that the Earth was actually round and calculations were conducted to measure its radius. Particularly from the seventh century ce onwards, the number of studies regarding what the Earth really looked like have increased tremendously.¹

In later years, with the advent of Islam and its open encouragement of Muslims to explore the universe and make advances in science, Muslim scholars made huge progress in astronomical research. Historians who have studied these advancements in astronomical science agree that the era between the eighth and fourteenth centuries can aptly be designated as a period of Islamic astronomy. In the years following the sixteenth century, significant research was undertaken in relation to the shape of the Earth and measurements of its radius in both the Islamic world and the West.

In the eighteenth century astronomic research and the advancement of technology proved not only that the Earth was round, but that it had a distinctive shape. According to calculations, the Earth was bulging around the equator and flattened at the poles. The maps produced by satellite systems show that the Earth is not completely round or smooth, but rather it has protrusions, creating an uneven surface that resembles a face with spots.2

“Geoid” is the term scientists prefer to use when referring to the physical depiction of the Earth’s surface. The shape of the Earth is not a perfect ellipsoid, thus, scientists use this representative surface that is thought to be most approximate to sea level, in order to identify departures from the ellipsoid shape. Due to the events of nature and human-related factors the geoid constantly changes, and this is why a precise mathematical account of the geoid has not yet been possible.

The Earth is known to be a geologically active planet. Just as everything else in the universe, from atoms to galaxies, has not been left to their own fate, the Earth is also constantly being transformed, thus making our magnificent ecosystem possible. The continuous geological process of changes in the Earth’s crust is related to a variety of factors: the varying density of the rock layers which form the Earth’s crust, the activity of the tectonic plates, as well as the movement of the continents, shifts in the center of gravity, tidal activity, hydro-spherical and atmospheric phenomena, and human intervention in some regions.

Researching the variations in the gravity of the Earth with satellite systems is a relatively new method of recording the changes in geoid elevations. The distance between the center of the Earth and its surface is constant (the tallest mountains will rise or decrease 1-2cm per year at most); if we take into consideration that the Earth’s physical body does not vary much and disregard the other forces, then we can say that the main reason for these infinitesimal changes in gravity on the surface of the Earth is due to differences in mass. While there is a decrease in weight in specific regions from melting glaciers, in other areas there is an increase in weight due to melting water flowing into reservoirs; both these phenomena play a significant role in the variations of the Earth’s gravity.

Even a minor variation in mass can be detected by measuring gravity. The change of mass location on the Earth’s surface results in gravity variations in the same region; in brief, today the commonly used gravity measurements are the most important source for detecting and identifying variations in geoid elevations, as well as determining the actual reasons for these changes. Gravity measurements are conducted via satellite systems; these indicate changes in mass location by detecting an increase or decrease in weight. The most modern technological satellite systems that can detect gravity change and allow us to follow the variations in masses on the Earth’s surface are the satellite used by the European Space Agency, called GOCE, and NASA’s satellite, called GRACE. GOCE has been designed to perform accurate studies of the Earth’s gravity field as it progresses into orbit. As the satellite passes over the regions where gravity is intense or weak, it measures the variations in gravity with signals that have been conveyed by a device called a gradiometer. GRACE is a pair of identical satellites that are flying in the same orbit, 136 miles apart; they orbit the Earth at a distance of 300 miles. These satellites can measure distances with microwave signals, and can detect changes of less than 1% the thickness of human hair; thus the twin satellites are able to accurately measure the distance to the surface of the Earth. The measurements provided by this satellite system make it possible for changes in gravity to be calculated. The GRACE satellite data is 1,000 times more accurate than other gravity field detection systems.

The enormous waves that occurred on the sea surface as a result of the Sumatra Island earthquake, which measured 9 on the Richter scale, caused a level ridge, measuring about six meters in height, to form on the shore. According to data produced by GOCE, such changes in the mass of the Earth’s surface caused a variation of 18 mm to occur on the geoid; this is recognized as a relatively high degree of change.

Changes in the polar glaciers also cause variations in the geoid; data provided from satellite GRACE shows that the layers of ice in Greenland and the Antarctica are melting at a higher rate than previously expected. The melting icebergs are causing a rise in sea levels of up to 0.41 mm every year and the weight of water produced from the melting icecaps is causing changes to the shape of the Earth’s surface.3

One of the interesting facts attained by GRACE is the changes in the Earth’s gravity field that have been caused by Three Gorges in China, the largest reservoir ever built. The lake region of the reservoir that is being built measures around 372 miles long, 70 miles wide and approximately 574 feet deep; when the casing of the reservoir is completed it will house an amazing 39.3 billion m3 (9.4 cu mi) of water. The area that this reservoir will cover once the project is completed is so great that it will make an estimated 1.5 million people homeless. It has been observed that the enormous accumulation of water in the completed sections of the reservoir has increased the gravity level in that region, which in turn has caused changes in the geoid structure.4

Scientists have confirmed that the Earth’s shape is becoming rounder as a result of the construction of projects like the Three Gorges reservoir. It is also estimated that the weight decrease due to the melting icecaps has played a major role in these changes. In some regions of Scandinavia and Canada the ground is rising 1 cm every year due to the melting glaciers. The water produced from the melting glaciers is forcing the currents in the Atlantic Ocean towards the equator, while the decrease of mass at the poles and the increase of weight in the equator region have caused significant changes in the shape of the Earth.

Many scientists claim that changes in the Earth’s surface have been caused by changes in the climate. Unfortunately, according to a report published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), humans are responsible for 90% of global warming. As a result of these vast variations, the geoid shape of the Earth is becoming rounder and its radius is increasing annually by 0.4–0.8 mm. The reasons for these changes are being closely monitored by scientists. According to scientists, the variation of the geoid that has been caused by changes in mass location is having an effect on the Earth’s dynamics, with the transfer of mass demonstrated by the changes in gravity causing a reduction in the speed of the Earth’s rotation around its axis; this is expected to result in variations in the daily time-zone.

Abdullah Sancak is pursuing an academic career in engineering in Turkey.

Notes

1. For more information on this topic see James R. Smith, Introduction to Geodesy, The history and Concepts of Modern Geodesy, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997.
2. There are interesting images that show how the earth looks in the following link: University of Texas Center for Space Research and NASA (7 Haziran 2005) http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/gallery/gravity/
3. G. Ramillien, A. Lombard, A. Cazenave, E. R. Ivins, M. Llubes, F. Remy, R. Biancale, Interannual variations of the mass balance of the Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets from GRACE, Global and Platenary Change 53 (2006) 198-208.
4. San Shaoan, Institute of seismology, CEA, Wuhan, China, Gravity change before and after the first water impoundment in Three Gorges Project. http://www.sgg.whu.edu.cn/icct/html/icct_ppt/S1/sun.s.A___fourth.pdf

I have been positioned in the center of your face so masterfully and delicately that even my slightest displacement would cause your face to become disfigured immediately. You would lose your good looks if I were wounded or spoiled. It seems to me that after creating your whole face and body, God placed me very accurately so that I can be in perfect harmony with them, and even with your soul. We noses appear in countless shapes-slender, long, narrow, wide, flat, Roman (convex), sharp and stubby noses. In the past, some wise men used to comment on people’s personality by looking at the posture and shape of their faces and bodies. The different shapes of noses would give them ideas about the intelligence and the will power of each person. It is true that there is a relationship between my shape and your personality. However, it would be wrong for someone to claim to know all about you just by looking at my shape, since your other organs affect one another too; some can neutralize the effects of others. Moreover, discipline and education can change many of the characteristics of a person. So, do not judge people just by looking at their nose.

Anyway, since these are subjective matters, they are not our focus now. What I would like to tell you about is the objective truth about the delicate art and meaning in my creation. My Creator has designed me as a projecting organ on the head-and not only on your face, but also all vertebrate animals, especially mammals. I am the organ that is used most by animals to hunt for food, to feed, and to look for their young or their mate. I am placed at the front of your body, and like a detector I sensitively recognize smells. When animals find something new, they first poke me into it to understand what it is. That is why the idiom “to poke your nose into something” is used commonly among humans, meaning to interfere with something that does not concern one. Most animals use the sense of smell more than humans do. Since they do not possess the intelligence and consciousness of humans, they acquire some of the necessary knowledge to survive through their sense of smell. However, humans are given intelligence and consciousness, and so they are not supposed to “poke their nose” into everything. Of course, that does not mean that I am useless. On the contrary, I have many functions and a complex and meaningful structure.

In the middle of your face is my external component, which is shaped like a pyramid. Because it is made of cartilage, this part is quite flexible. My tip is beaked and there are plates on my two sides. The cartilage in my tip is connected to a bone in my upper part between your eye sockets. This bone, called the nasal bone, is a part of the main bone of the forehead. A cartilaginous bridge that is lined in the middle divides my nasal cavity into two nostrils which lead to the outside. The hard palate at my base also makes up the roof of your mouth. The soft palate that is behind this extends to the nasal portion of the throat (nasopharynx). During the act of swallowing, it rises and closes off the upper pharynx to prevent food and saliva from escaping from your throat and being forced up into my back. If, when eating, you feel tickling in your throat and cough, this palate cannot close off, and the food can lodge in me and come out of my nostrils. Another benefit of this system can be seen in patients and those who are about to have surgery, when their pharynx is closed off. In such situations, patients are provided with food, liquids and air via a tube which runs through me.

The journey of the air you breathe, which you have to do in order to survive, starts with me and continues as far as your lungs. The air that enters through my nostrils is not always clean and of good enough quality to enter your lungs. If low-quality air reaches your lungs, you will get cold, infected, and sick. To protect you from that, our All-knowing God created everything carefully, taking measures to ensure your well being. He has placed air-filtering hairs at the front part of my cavity, and He has covered the inner surface of my rear with a mucous membrane (mucosa) that has a fluid form. The structure of my cavity is quite complex. Along with my two lateral walls, there are three horizontal bone shelves called the concha (or the turbinate), comprising the inferior, the middle and the superior turbinates. These narrow, shell-like structures increase the surface area of my cavity and thus help to warm and humidify the air easily before it reaches the lungs. That is, the air you inhale does not pass to your lungs until it is conditioned and filtered by me. This process is initiated by the hair in my front part, which prevents the entry of dust particles. Then, the air passes through the curled aperture formed by the concha. The concha is covered by a sticky mucous membrane which produces a secretion. This slippery secretion, along with the cilia, traps smaller foreign particles such as the dust of coal, soot, bacteria or pollen. In addition to that, since the pressure inside me is lower than the pressure outside, I can easily warm and humidify the air that passes through me.

The sides and the surface of my superior concha are lined with a very special epithelium which has a role in the sense of smell. The smell receptors, which are the cilia cells, and other supporting cells constitute the olfactory epithelium for smell. Everything that releases molecules into the air has a smell of its own. Perception of a smell occurs in the brain as a result of a very complex chain of reactions. Indeed, I have no idea about how this process happens but people talk about several theories. Since the vibration and the structure of every molecule which reaches me through the air currents differ from every other, each molecule causes different chemical reactions and electrical impulses. The molecules that come through the air dissolve in the moisture which lies on my epithelium and they chemically stimulate the cells for smell. If my mucosa dries out and loses all its moisture in dry air, it becomes more difficult for the molecules to dissolve and for you to breathe. My sense of smell also weakens or gets lost in the event of a lack of the element of zinc, which normally exists in small amounts in your body.

There is a reason why the color, taste and smell of garlic are different than that of a rose or jasmine flower: it is because each creature is created out of different compounds, as if in a laboratory of its own. Therefore, the molecules that spread into the air from those different compounds and the impact they cause will naturally be different. Indeed, what is interesting here is the wonderful system which perceives each of the molecules of so many different compositions as a different smell, categorizes it, and stores its information in memory. Whenever I experience a new smell, by its composition and vibrations, I instantly figure out its difference from other smells. Then, I help to store it in the brain’s memory related to the smell so that I can recognize that smell if I come across it again. All of those functions in their complexity remain an enigma which is still being studied by physiologists of smell. Another wonderful attribute of my smell-receptor cells is the fact that they sense the smell very strongly at first and after a while, they are not as strongly stimulated as before, resulting in a temporary paralysis of those cells. Thus, a situation called “habituation” occurs, and this is an indication of God’s mercy. If God had not created this “fading” of constantly existing smells, the sewage, garbage, tannery or butchery workers would not be able to do their work.

The mucosa that lines my cavity can easily become swollen with blood and tissue liquids. During viral or bacterial infection, or an allergy like hay fever, my cavity might become blocked completely, which makes it hard for you to breathe. Infection of your upper respiratory tract causes me to run and get blocked. You know how stagnant water gets smelly and swampy, whereas running water does not hold dirt. Similarly, when I get blocked, bacteria reproduce very fast and get transmitted to other respiratory organs. That is why, when you catch cold, you must do your best to prevent my getting blocked. Hot, aromatic or spiced teas might help you, but the best thing is to pour a weak solution of saline (salt water) into your nostrils, which will clear the congestion. As for nasal drops, do not use them unless you have to, since they will cause addiction and other side effects.

Your skull also contains four major pairs of air-filled cavities (sinuses) at my sides behind your cheeks and above me behind the forehead. In the event of infection of your sinuses, inflammation of your tonsils, or the growth of polyps, my discharge becomes constant and turns into flu or chronic rhinitis. Besides that, if I bleed it may be an important first symptom of many illnesses. Many conditions, including high blood pressure and several illnesses with fever cause bleeding inside me. Indeed, bleeding from me in patients with high blood pressure can be seen as a warning and protection against serious conditions. If, because of high blood pressure, my blood vessel did not split, bleed and decrease the pressure, a vessel in your brain would split, which would result in a much worse scenario.

Peter, from now on, do not ever forget to give thanks to God when you smell a flower or anything else with a beautiful scent. Inhale the air deeply with the pleasant impression the scent leaves on your soul. Our Lord God Almighty, who has given you the air as a blessing, bestowed you with me as a filter to clean the harmful particles from that air. If He had not done so, your lungs would fill with soot and dust and they would fail eventually. You would not be able to sense the taste of food because the experience of flavor cannot be achieved by the taste buds alone. It is me that helps them to do that. For instance, a person whose olfactory epithelium has been ruined cannot tell whether it is an apple or a radish that he or she is eating. If you cannot sense the odor of the foods you eat, you will not be able to get their flavor, either.

Dear Peter, I think I have described myself to you sufficiently. I even support your spectacles for you! I have given you brief information without too much detail about my microscopic intricacies. While even one hair inside me cannot be placed by itself, do you think it is possible for me to have formed myself when I am equipped with thousands of intricate elements, each with a reason? Which sculptor, do you think, can make the nose of a sculpture, without a hammer and chisel in his hands and without a model and will in his mind? Other than the belief in God, there is no way of explaining my creation, which is a thousand times more splendid than the making of the nose of a sculpture. So, whenever you wash your face and look into the mirror, examine me carefully again and remember our God Almighty who created us out of nothing.

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.

Answer: Self-confidence, or self-esteem, is usually defined as a person’s believing and trusting in himself, relying on his personal abilities and opportunities, living in peace with his own person and environment, and being content with himself in general. Even though it has a positive aspect in terms of urging us to look at life positively, this term is an expression of a notion whose underlying meaning and connotations do not comply with universal humane values. The term “self confidence” expresses a perspective which originates from an egotistic worldview.

Naturally, a person’s character needs to be revealed in order to be able to improve his or her talents and capabilities. However, while seeking their development we should not flatter individuals excessively and throw them into whirlpools of egotism. We should not make a person become a know-it-all and act insolently; we should not let issues rely on a single individual’s restricted personal capabilities, limited power, and feeble will.

First of all, it is inevitable for a person who approaches every issue with respect to his or her personal talents, power, and capacity and keeps saying “I” to become totally egocentric; it is inevitable for them to grow more and more arrogant by feeding their ego with every achievement and everything they do. On the other hand, it is also obvious that a self-centered person who has too much trust in himself will become completely desperate at the slightest slip or fall; he will not find anything to hold on to and will not be able to rise again.

People have the sense of and need for confidence engrained in their nature. However, a person who does not know whom he should trust and who cannot correctly identify the true source of reliance will finally turn into a complete egotist and he or she will ascribe every matter to himself or herself. Such a person will even nurture some perspectives leading to unbelief; she or he will go too far and-God forbid-say, “I have created…”, or “such and such has created….” In time, these people will become narcissists, self-admirers who are fond of themselves, their behavior, their manners, and their appearance. They will be ready to reject and criticize any thought, measure, and solutions other than their own.

In this respect, a principle of “fulfilling what befalls on the free will and then relying on God” should replace the notion of self-confidence in the eyes of a true believer of God. Humans are blessed with the “free will,” which is a very special gift. We are responsible for using all the senses and feelings granted by God Almighty as capital, but expect the result and reward from Him again. Likewise, the feeling of confidence is always ascribed to God in the Qur’an and the practical example of the Prophet, since God Almighty is the one who creates everything and who directs every affair. If we use the potentials placed in our nature as seeds and then put them to practice as an intention and wish to be realized, God Almighty grants us the power and possibility to accomplish that act. Regarding it as mental power, as directing one’s own thoughts and actions with that power, or as God’s direct favor on the human free will within the sphere of causes, no matter how we define fulfilling what befalls the free will, when we wish to do something and incline towards it, the Creator of the Universe renders it possible for us to realize that intended act. Therefore, we should always put our faith in God and rely on His execution. Accordingly, true believers firstly have faith in God in every matter and make use of the abilities He has bestowed on them. In addition, they ascribe achievements not to themselves but to Divine Providence. They know that all of these come from God and they have complete faith that future achievements also lie in the power of God. Such people, while fully acknowledging their impotence and weakness, are very powerful at the same time, for they are well aware of the true source of power. Such people are very rich, since they are conscious that they are fed from the treasures of Divine Mercy. They become heroes of the fact that “belief is both light and power. Those who attain true belief can challenge the universe.” (Nursi, Twenty-Third Word). Therefore, they have the courage to defy worlds. The fortress they take refuge in and the sword they make use of is the truth, “There is no power except with God.”

Yes, true believers make use of the free will granted by God in the best way possible. On the other hand, they pray as “O God, please do not leave me with my carnal self even for a span as short as the blink of an eye,” putting their trust not in their own selves, but in God Almighty. They take their carnal self and carnal desires as their archenemy and take only God as their best supporter, sole friend, and helper. In the face of every event, they croon, God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Guardian He is! (Qur’an, 3:173), and they voice the truth, O Our Lord! It is in You that We have put our trust, and it is to You that we turn in utmost sincerity and devotion, and to You is the homecoming (Qur’an, 60:4). They always keep loyal to the divine decrees:

“And put your trust in God. God suffices as One on Whom to rely (and to Whom to refer all affairs).” (Qur’an, 33:3)

“God is sufficient for me; there is no deity but He. In Him have I put my trust, and He is the Lord of the Supreme Throne (as the absolute Ruler and Sustainer of the universe and all creation, Who maintains and protects it).” (Qur’an, 9:129)

Nevertheless, nowadays saying “I” in everything one does and overflowing with arrogant considerations is more common than ever. Egotism is so widespread today that most people use even what has been granted by Divine Providence in the name of their arrogance and use it as elements to feed their ego. For example, most of those who put emphasis on self-confidence contract the plague of vanity in time; they are seized by a feeling of superiority and catch the egotist disease of talking about themselves at every opportunity. Therefore, the term “self-confidence” or “self-esteem” is impossible to reconcile with the perspective of a believer in the true sense of the word. It is a very unnatural term from the standpoint of faith, for it misguides minds and hearts like other spurious expressions do. With an understanding based on the essential values of belief, we all need to pray, “Hold me, O God. Hold me, please. I cannot do without you!”

“There were no lovers left for me in the world, I used to think,
Then I took leave of my self and saw all were nothing but lovers.”

The above couplet from Niyazi Mýsri describes the state of a “perfect human,” or insan al-kamil in Sufi terminology. Departing from glorifying our own virtues at the expense of fair judgment of others, is an important challenge for anyone who seeks truth in this transient life. For a true believer who has managed to “take leave of” the carnal self, the universe is a palace, all things in existence are servants welcoming him or her in, and every event in the cosmos is an entertainment glorifying its Owner, Who deserves all praise. For those who cannot attain this level, this life is a horrifying tunnel of darkness, and far from being a true lover, every object and person is a potential threat to their security. The recent Gulen conference in Germany in May, the Turkish festival in Turkey in June, and the coming conference in Melbourne this month have made me ponder this couplet once again. An attraction on this scale with such wide-reaching global reach could only be possible for a person if he can represent insan al-kamil, in the true sense, with an all-embracing love for the whole of humanity.

Reflecting this summer’s busy schedule of activities related to the Gulen Movement, this edition of The Fountain features articles by two scholars who study this civil society movement. Kerim Balci of Today’s Zaman shares with us his observations of the conference “Muslims between tradition and modernity-the Gulen Movement as a bridge between cultures,” jointly organized by the University of Potsdam’s Institute of Religion and the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, Berlin. He mentions the paper of Dr. Bekim Agai of Halle University, Germany, who commented that thanks to the activities of the Gulen Movement, Turkish migrants in Europe are no longer a part of the problems of Europe, but are problem solvers, and not only on issues relating to migrants themselves.

The second article comes from Maimul Ahsan Khan, a professor of law in Bangladesh, who introduces Gulen as a “modern-day Rumi.” For Khan, “Gulen has brought [Rumi’s] glorious tradition [that cut across the lines between nationalistic and sectarian differences] back to the minds of millions of modern and religious Turks.” Professor Khan notes that for Gulen the question is how well Muslims can represent the universal message of Islam to build a global society based on equality, tranquility, and humane treatment for all.

Also in this issue comes a thought-provoking interview with Dr. Lynn Mitchell, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Houston. Having taught a course titled “The Bible and Modern Science” for many years, Dr. Mitchell offers noteworthy insights into the history of the relationship of science and religion.

Do not, then, be faint of heart, nor grieve, for you are always the superior side, if you are (true) believers. (Qur’an, 3:139)

The situation before our eyes is as horrific as it could be, but with faith, hope, and turning to God it is not impossible to rise above it. Walking towards the sun, a person’s shadow falls behind them, but if one turns one’s back to the sun, one will look only into the darkness of one’s own shadow. Our eyes should always observe the infinite source of light. In the words of Akif the poet, it is necessary to “rely on God, hold tight to our efforts, and submit to wisdom.” Although we are currently in a string of uninterrupted crises, whenever we have been aware of the causes and confronted them with faith, hope, and determination, we have almost always triumphed over such periods. At other times, once these crises have been stirred up with groundless fears and delirium or abused for political means, problems appeared inflated to a size larger than they really are, and their psychological damage has yielded no way out.

Today, another cycle of historical events is recurring. There are disasters all over, society is shaken by misfortunes of all kinds-earthquakes, floods, fires, road deaths; tyranny, oppression, conspiracies, murders, subjugation of conscience. In the face of all this misery and abuse, on the one hand there are people devoid of willpower, who are mute, senseless, revealing no sign of restlessness in these troubles; while on the other hand we have deceitful tyrants who act cruelly and shed crocodile tears in an effort to incriminate the oppressed; there are unbalanced masses incessantly rising in rage for various reasons; exclusive circles pushing these masses further into violence and fury: despots, people impervious to sympathy, incapable executives, and provocateurs; we see bandits for whom fraud is smart and robbery is virtuous, opportunists who cooperate with the bandits, victims of a sinful life deprived of any morality taking refuge in legal immunities; we see the sons of Yazid and Shimr1 who exploit to the bottom their self-proclaimed birthright immunities claiming “right belongs to the powerful”; we witness corrupt individuals, extortionists, robbers, arms traffickers, drug networks and all kinds of narcotics; and there are so many other accursed organizations yet to be given a name.

The season of fall has hit every town, humane values are trodden underfoot everywhere; respect for humankind and universal values is nowhere to be seen. Only a handful of people behave respectfully, but in fact they are after a reward in return. The masses with all their sub-groups are of no more value than mobs, mobs which are so pathetic that even seeing them in this way is heartbreaking. Promises of jobs and food are frequently heard during election campaigns. Not having yet found any truth in them, no one takes such promises seriously any more. Search for knowledge (‘ilm) is in a deplorable situation… knowledge of God (marifa) is in a far away land behind Mount Qaf; art is in the service of ideologies; most learning centers have surrendered to imitation; love for truth, passion for knowledge, motivation for research all go without praise; unrewarded efforts to learn are perhaps nothing more than hobbies. There is no single sign of life in those key institutions to which the fate of our present day and tomorrow are entrusted. According to the propaganda, we are powerful enough to challenge multiple worlds; but in reality our power is not enough even to govern a town. We are way below universal standards in terms of moral values, sense of responsibility, observing human rights, and upholding justice. Most of us do not possess any sense of shame, good manners, or respect for others’ rights or thoughts. Fear of God and a sense of virtue have long been consigned to oblivion, and we are now trying to rid ourselves of that “disturbing” sense of shame before our fellow humans. Our faces tell what a heartless, spiritless mob we have become; we have long forgotten mercy, compassion, and respect. The number of those who consider religion and religious life as prehistoric and tattered is not small. Religious sentiments are destroyed, religious life is defeated. Insolence is abundant, and morality has collapsed. Betrayal permeates everywhere and cries of agony are in every home. Apathy and dullness govern spirits from which human sentiments have been eroded. “Am I supposed to save the world all by myself?” is the excuse uttered by many. Hearts enslaved to fervor and imbalance; some are restless chanting, “Today is the day, the time is ripe.” God knows the number of those who are committed to becoming rich the easiest way or to grabbing a higher position. In the face of all this, those minds that can still just about perceive and think have to endure brute force; those who serve the society are doomed to be trampled on. Sincere hearts face wicked traps at every turn. For now, those who keep quiet are untouched. We will wait and see what will ensue tomorrow or the day after.

A marginal but audacious group, which always stands against belief, Islam, and humane values, shows atrocious impertinence towards free thought, true democracy, and human rights with the same degree of loathing they have for religion and belief in God. This group declares war the very moment they encounter a thought or an idea that they do not endorse; they defame all those who think differently, harm their good reputation, and they go so far as to silence all those opposing views they cannot otherwise defeat by terminating them with counter-guerilla operations. From among such people are there some unprincipled types who by no means have no true allegiance to their self-proclaimed philosophy or “uprightness in spirit.” They can consider a lie tomorrow something they call true today; or they could condemn tomorrow someone they praise to the skies today. These two-faced abominations have two features that never change: they swing from one camp to another constantly and they enjoy being as venomous as snakes. Do not even ask about their blasphemous fundamentalism! They do not acknowledge God Almighty or any of His Messengers; they are blind in their hearts, they cannot see; they are deaf, they cannot hear. They have no connection whatsoever with their spirit or with their intellect. Respect for God or admiration for the Prophet is out of the question. Most of them are so swamped with ignorance that they have no knowledge and they are not aware of it, but they fancy they know everything.

In brief, today on the one hand the world is replete with all kinds of vice we never wished to happen, while on the other hand there seems to be no sign of the things we have been looking forward to for years. Given all this, it is not easy to speak about hope or determination, but we have to overcome this challenge. Today’s challenge could emerge multiplied tomorrow. The world may turn into a graveyard; the determination or hope of our society may turn into its burial shroud; rivers may turn into Revan,2 deserts into Karbala, enemies into Shimr, months into Muharram.3 Acts of sabotage may come one after another, causing conflagrations which will turn to ashes not only our homes but also our expectations and plans. We may be abandoned by both our friends and enemies; we may even be stabbed in the back by the least likely assailant. But even if the circumstances are so inauspicious that the roar of our enemies overpowers the voices of all others and the disloyalty of our friends leaves us all alone, we still should not surrender or bow; relying on our faith and hope, we should stand upright and race like a thoroughbred that never slows until its heart bursts.

No matter if the calamities and fears of the present spread on a massive scale and we are surrounded by cries of pain that reach the heavens; no matter whether sufferings swell like magma burning hearts and people are doubled over in the agony of helplessness; notwithstanding swords slicing through the air over severed heads and brains crushed with hammers; even if all corners of the world echo the growl of tyrants and pitch-dark despair covers the most animate and purest souls; even if all settlements are demolished and our homes destroyed; though the moon sets, the sun burns out, hearts as well as eyes are blinded in darkness; if indeed the powerful grow wild and the truth is quashed under the belts of brute force; even though those who have teeth stroll displaying their sharpness and the weak remain silent; no matter if all souls who cannot resist fall one after the other and those without heart are toppled over… No matter what happens, we must do our duty and stand our ground without changing the way we are. We must strive to be a source of power for everyone to seek refuge in, a source of light and hope to revive all the torches that have almost died away.

If our faith in God is firm, then hope and perseverance must be our distinctive feature and community service our duty. So vast must be our respect for God and so immersed must we be in seeing our existence as bound to the happiness of others that once they see how we do not eat our fill but let others do so, how we do not dress up but let others do, and how we sacrifice our own desires, others will feel the pleasure of meeting some people who are trustworthy. In such an untainted fashion must we pursue a living that not only our physical presence but even the horizons of our dreams are kept free of the contamination of forbidden things-who knows to what unexpected levels we are lowered because of such contamination. Salvation is not to be expected for those who cannot make the best of their positions and who lose their footing. Let alone worldly ambitions, for us just the craving for life or seeking personal interests are like suicide. We must even abstain from considering Paradise as a goal in our servanthood to God; our hearts must be fixed on the infinite blessings of God’s good pleasure, and we must raise resolute objections to our personal desires. We must always give, without the slightest thought of taking anything. We must grant with no expectation of return. And on this path of righteousness toward the Beloved, we must never fall into the love of our own souls.

Under circumstances when antagonism was fanned and unfaithful allies acted in favor of foes, at times when some monsters-whose existence is bound up with revenge and detestation-marched against the devoted souls of this righteous path, these souls never lost heart or hope, and they never even conceived of retaliation or hatred and hostile motives. They have always paid back evil with kindness, rehabilitating ill-treatment with good behavior, kind words, and favors; in this way they restored all breakages and damage and responded to destructive thought with constructive action. If, God forbid, one day everything in the world were to fall apart, the masses were to drown in darkness, all roads and bridges were to be destroyed, since for these devoted souls panic is disrespectful to their faith and willpower, instead of projecting deadly views of despair and inactivity, they would attempt to act upon events so as to inspire life in others and cry out that the roads are open for those who are willing to walk.

I wholeheartedly believe that a helping hand will be extended to these heroes of determination tomorrow, if not today; thunderstorms that obstruct their path will subside; the ice will melt away, and the surrounding deserts that dried out a few centuries ago will turn into heavenly gardens; their fate will smile warmly on them one day.

Despair is a ghoulish bandit, and delusions of incapacity and helplessness are a disease that kills one’s spirit. Those who covered long distances were successful in their faith and hope. Submitting to despair has always left travelers stranded. Those who lack attentiveness and activity cannot make progress; those who slumber cannot reach their goal; those who have lost their determination and willpower cannot stand for a long time.

If tomorrow is our consideration and if we are dreaming of fresh successes in the future, we must always remember that distances are covered by increasing pace and peaks can be reached by perseverance, willpower, and planning. So many times have impossible mountaintops and insurmountable heights bowed before determination and willpower. In any era, those who were aware of the path they were following, the goal they were heading towards, and the power they were relying on have triumphed over these summits repeatedly thanks to their awareness and internal dynamics. The surface of the earth shrank beneath their feet, the heavens embraced their knowledge, distances greeted their efforts, and obstacles became bridges to their destination. Darkness has always been defeated by these heroes, calamities have transformed into mercy, troubles have become salvation, and oppression a ramp toward progress.

Someone of this nature heads for tomorrow if today is completely destroyed; if their tomorrow is also lost, then they spur their horse on to the days after. Such people cannot be held back and they should not. With their faith, resolution, and hope, they have always become rejuvenated by the prospects of new achievement and victory even when repeatedly defeated or knocked down. They never fall into despair or alarm, notwithstanding any rancor or hatred swelling against them, and the fact that their horizons are covered with darkness, for their belonging is not merely to yesterday, nor today or tomorrow. They are the masters of the day, children of their time. They can speak the language of their time just as well as they can observe the spirit of their faith in awareness of the mysteries of the Book. In every place where they are found or their presence is perceived, the community of the Age of Happiness is remembered. With their decent feelings and thoughts, unspoiled, innocent nature, loyalty, faithfulness, and firm character that cannot be twisted, each of them is like a granite statue; even if everything around them topples down, not even a sliver will be detached from them, by God’s will.

It is our heartfelt hope that, thanks to this strong character, yearning will soon be over, those bent double for centuries will straighten up and cry out their presence, defeated souls will revive to cast away the darkness, and will reach the summit of their destiny with the utmost effort and highest performance, reuniting with their essence and overcoming all obstacles to the guidance of their true spiritual roots and value.

Notes

1. Shimr is the murderer of Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet. In 680, the army of Yazid, the Umayyad Caliph, sent an army to Karbala to convince Husayn to accept Yazid as the ruler of the state. Husayn, his family, and his small company were ruthlessly massacred, a tragedy after which the names of Yazid and Shimr have become infamous with evil, murder, and tyranny throughout the Islamic world.
2. “Revan” refers to the “ab-ı revan” (river) in a poem by Muhammed Lutfi (d. 1956), also known as Alvarlı Efe Hazretleri, famous scholar and poet from Erzurum, a sad poem commemorating the Karbala. “Revan” in this article alludes to this poetic reference to the river which Husayn and his family were not allowed access to, as narrated in the literature developed in dedication to this tragedy.
3. The names and places in this sentence are from the tragic events of Karbala mentioned in note 1.

“The work of Gulen’s followers in Turkey shows that Islam-as taught by Gulen-seeks tolerance, not conflict; it aims for a better society, not political power; and it manifests itself in prayer and concrete local action.”

“As early as the eighteenth century, Goethe knew that the East and the West were inseparable. However, today’s society has not been able to fulfill Goethe’s dream, although plenty of time has passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Societies remain trapped in prejudices and stereotypes that strengthen the view of a separate East and West. European enlargement has made this even more pronounced and overwhelming. But fortunately, today there are voices in the world which inspire courage; voices which are not given due attention, voices which, nevertheless, have for years promoted a different world view and have successfully served people and the public good,” read the invitation to a Potsdam University conference about the renowned Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen and the movement named after him. The conference, titled “Muslims between tradition and modernity-the Gulen Movement as a bridge between cultures,” was jointly organized by the University of Potsdam’s Institute of Religion and the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, Berlin and was supported by the German Orient Institute, Abraham Geiger College, and the Protestant Academy of Berlin.

Attended by thirty-two academics who presented papers and about 500 observers from all over the world, the conference was the first of its kind in that it had no Turkish or Muslim scholars on its editorial board, which instead featured academics such as Professor Karl-Josef Kuschel from Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Professor Christina von Braun from Berlin’s Humboldt University, and Professor Markus Witte from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt. Judging by this fact only, it may be said that the conference was a platform of outsiders looking at and discussing the Gulen Movement.

An outsider’s observations are always fruitful for a social movement, both when they are affirming and when they are critical. An outsider’s eye is the mirror where a social entity, whether it be an individual self or a collective personality, watches and re-defines its self. There were both admiring and critical presentations in the Potsdam Conference. Participants in the Gulen Movement must have recorded both the “commendations and condemnations” and will probably act to strengthen the former and correct the latter.

Strikingly there was a common point between the laudatory and critical presentations: both groups believed that the Gulen Movement offers the Western world a series of opportunities that should not be missed. Both affirmed that the principles of the Gulen Movement may help the Western world to deal with its problems, not only when they relate to Muslims, but also when they relate to the very roots of Western civilization. This point necessitates further discussion and may even open new “zones of activity” for the Gulen Movement and other similar Muslim social entities.

Professor Dr. Leonid R. Sykiainen, a professor of Islamic law and comparative legal studies as the State University–Higher School of Economics in Moscow, suggested, for example, that the Gulen dialogic approach should be adopted to the comparative study of Islamic and Western legal systems. Sykiainen claimed that at developed levels of dialogue the universal language of law should be utilized. “A comparative study of Islamic jurisprudence, which is on its own a magnificent art, should be one of the topics of a future Gulen conference,” he said. This call was important in the sense that it digressed from the established conference mode of “speaking about Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement” and suggested “speaking about a legal issue through the Gulen paradigm.”

A similar suggestion came from Professor Dr. Reverend Simon Robinson, a professor of applied and professional ethics at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, who underlined that the work of Gulen provides a basis for expanding the theory and practice of corporate responsibility. Robinson related the Gulen Movement’s sense of responsibility to the strong creation theology that develops a complex view of responsibility in terms of accountability, imputability, and moral liability. He observed how this core view of responsibility reinforces and validates plural responsibilities, including civil and global responsibility. “Hence, a conceptual bridge is established between religion, corporate responsibility, citizenship, and sustainability,” he said. Robinson called on the Gulen Movement to become involved more explicitly in the ongoing dialogue about global responsibility and to extend further the dialogue and practice of responsibility in business beyond its present networks to include, wherever possible, other faith networks and secular corporations.

Dr. Sylvia Powels-Niami, a lecturer in the Religious Studies and Jewish Studies departments of Potsdam University, claimed in her paper that with its focus on intercultural and interfaith dialogue, the Gulen Movement has assumed the important task of continuing the ancient Islamic dialectical tradition that gave birth to the development of Kalam as speculative theology by bringing reason and religion into harmony. Powels-Niami observed that the Gulen Movement’s activities are not only building bridges between the East and the West, faith and science but they have also the potential to revive the abandoned religious sciences of Islam and even develop new ones.

A suggestion for furthering Muslim–Christian–Jewish scholarly contacts and thus facilitating the emergence of new multi-disciplinary studies came from Professor Dr. Admiel Kosman, an organizer of the conference from Abraham Geiger College. Urging that the findings of the conference should be conveyed to the general public, Kosman suggested that a “joint study house” should be founded in either Berlin or in Istanbul where Muslim, Christian and Jewish texts and traditions can be studied and a new generation of imams, priests and rabbis can be educated with the kind of openness and tolerance Gulen promotes. Kosman was also the person who read the greeting letter which Fethullah Gulen sent to the conference.

In his letter Gulen reaffirmed his conviction that dialogue will bring about universal peace and the good nature of the human being is going to come to the fore sooner or later. “What we need to do in order to reach this hopeful day is to set off on the journey. In this journey, every single step is important and is worth respect and praise. On this way, each step has to be based on mutual respect and understanding and this is not true only for states and nations, but also for individuals. Leading this dialogue is not a duty that falls only on the shoulders of governments or governmental organs. In order to light this torch of respect and peace, voluntary services run by civil society and individuals are at least as important as official ones. Humanity needs people that will carry that torch,” Gulen wrote in his letter.

A paper that received much applause from the audience was that of Dr. Rainer Hermann, an academic and a journalist with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Dr. Hermann has been observing the Gulen Movement for more than ten years. He was the very first western intellectual to realize that the Gulen Movement did not offer an alternative to the secular-democratic system, but to the politicization of Islam. At Potsdam, Hermann skillfully placed the Gulen Movement on the social map of modern Turkey: “The Republic of Turkey is not a secular state with a separation between religion and state, but rather a laicist state whose elites have long attempted to banish religion from society. Indeed, the ruling Kemalist elites still believe that the moment a religion expands beyond the private domain, it must necessarily become political and impose a theocratic order upon the state and society. Fethullah Gulen deserves the credit for overturning these prejudices. Gulen has made Islam into a social force that has fuelled much of Turkey’s democratization and modernization. People, and not politics, form the focus of his sermons and ideas… All this is new for Turkey, where the official discourse has never focused on the individual, but rather on the perceived need to fight the motherland’s inner and outer foes to preserve national security,” he told the conference. “Gulen’s work has fostered a form of Islam in Turkey that lives in harmony with the West and modern ideas without sacrificing any precepts of its faith. The work of Gulen’s followers in Turkey shows that Islam-as taught by Gulen-seeks tolerance, not conflict; it aims for a better society, not political power; and it manifests itself in prayer and concrete local action,” he said.

Dr. Rainer Hermann focused on the activities of the Movement in Turkey only. Hermann had seven points for the audience: (1) the Gulen Movement is a social and apolitical movement; (2) Gulen is a modern Muslim who looks for a synthesis of Islam and science and of Turkish culture, a culture of dialogue and tolerance, and Western civilization; (3) Gulen has promoted science as a means to understand the creation and as a means to prosperity; (4) Gulen leaves no doubt that Islam and democracy are compatible; (5) Gulen’s interpretation of Islam fits to Europe; (6) Gulen owes his success to various reasons, including the elevated social position of preachers; (7) Fethullah Gulen makes a crucial contribution to the modernization of Turkey.

Hermann was not the only one who expressed appreciation of the work of the Gulen Movement. Dr. Bekim Agai of Halle University, Germany, told the audience that thanks to the activities of the Gulen Movement, Turkish migrants in Europe are no longer a part of the problems of Europe, but are problem solvers, and not only on issues relating to the migrants themselves. Ercan Karakoyun, a PhD candidate at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, and a participant in the Gulen Movement himself, informed the audience about the activities of the Movement in Germany and the contribution these activities have made to the integration of Turkish migrants into the general German society.

A controversial paper was presented by Swedish academician Dr. Klas Grinell. Though he accepted that the Gulen Movement is not engaged in party politics and is not attempting to gain political power, Grinell claimed that the Movement has a political stance: “This Movement supports democracy, human rights and EU membership for Turkey. This is a political position,” he said. Grinell said that having studied Gulen textually he regards Gulen as a conservative leader. But on the other hand he named Gulen as a perfect match for decolonial political theory. “Gulen is looking for dignity from within and not from outside when it comes to producing knowledge,” he said. This is a revolutionary position in epistemology indeed. Grinell had no explanation for labeling Gulen as both a conservative and a revolutionary, but his contribution underlined the fact that the Gulen Movement should not be studied in reference to the Jesuits, Opus Dei, or the Focolare Movement. If decoloniality is a party of Gulen’s revolutionary epistemology, it should be studied in reference to its own dynamics only. This should be the theme of a future conference.

Thus, the conference ended with the clear conviction that further studies need to be done on the Gulen Movement and on the solutions it proposes for the problems of the modern world. Though several questions were left untouched, the conference was a great success in the sense that it not only clarified certain reservations of the participants, but it also managed to reach the general public through media attention to the issue.

Kerim Balci is a columnist at Today’s Zaman, a leading English newspaper published in Turkey. He is also a PhD candidate on Philosophy of Language, Durham University, UK.