iERA Challenges Prof. Myers, Maryam Namazie & Richard Dawkins

37:15

28 Oct 2012

Embryology, Evolution

Hamza Tzortzis

Richard Dawkins

This video compilation shows interactions between the Hamza Tzortzis and Adnan Rashid and three atheist scholars at the World Atheist Convention 2011 in Dublin Ireland, June 2011.

The format of the video presents rolling text describing each of the three interactions, but little other context.

The first segment, lasting approximately 29 minutes, presents PZ Myers (a biologist from the University of Minnesota) and Hamza Tzortzis (with Adnan Rashid and An Ra joining later).  They discuss the following topics:  cosmology, history of science, sources of evidence, mountains holding the crust in place.

The second segment, which apparently was shot during the question and answer period of a talk by Maryam Namazie.  This runs from 29:10-32:32.  If Namazie answered, it was not included in the video; this segment is only Adnan Rashid’s response to the talk, and does not include any discussion of science.

The third segment, between Richard Dawkins and Hamza Tzortzis runs from 32:33 to the end.  The topics they address:  evolution, cosmology, physics and the “fine tuning” of the universe, philosophy of science, multiverses, spontaneous quantum fluctuation.  Dawkins leaves when an onlooker asks about circumcision, and the video ends.

The iERA (Islamic Education & Research Academy) is a UK-based proselytization group.

This video is often clipped and one may occasionally find versions of it with footage added from some of the other people who are visibly filming as well.

Evaluation:

The scoring here is cumbersome to disaggregate.

P.Z. Myers’ presentation of science is accurate, but his representations of Islam would not be accepted by most Muslims.  Notably, it is Myers who pushes for the 7th century Arabs not to be represented as unknowing fools rather than Adnan Rashid.

Hamza Tzortzis generally avoids addressing science directly, rather talking about philosophy and concepts that are beyond empirical science.  His representations of Islam is within the bounds of what Muslims have historically understood as acceptable.

Adnan Rashid, who is off-screen in the first segment and speaks at length during the second segment, also presents an Islam that is within the bounds of what Muslims have historically understood as acceptable.  The degree of on-the-spot re-interpretation of the Qurʾān (sequential actions reinterpreted as simultaneous actions) would probably make most Muslims question his authority.  His presentation on sharīʿa (second segment), for which we do not hear the answer, is ahistorical; the sources he mentions by name are dated.  Scholars of Islamic law always start from a standpoint of when and where, and perhaps which school of law, in order to begin to discuss details of how the law affected society.  Rashid also suggests in the first segment that “there were only 17 people in Muhammad’s tribe who could read and write”, which may or may not be true, but information passed among people in many ways others than through books, and Muḥammad lived (and traveled) through many areas beyond those controlled by his tribe.

Richard Dawkins suggests that evolution is something that happened in the past.  This is not accepted by evolutionary biologists; seeing the traces of evolution is sometimes difficult because, depending on the species studied, the time required for natural change is quite large compared to human lifetimes.  The results of evolution are often observable; it can be seen in cases such as antibiotic resistance and pesticide resistance, for instance.  That God is “complicated” and therefore unlikely is not something that most Muslims would accept.

The rolling text between the segments presents at least a few negative personal characterizations of each of the atheists with whom the group claims to want an open, intellectual discussion.