The Stupid Religious Idea of the Month – Mecca Time
May 4th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Religious Fundamentalism
Via Jonathan Turley, who himself got it from the BBC,
“Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth. Mecca is the direction all Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers. The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice. One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca’s was in perfect alignment to magnetic north. He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed.”
Ok, fine, yes, a lot of things have been established by evil Western people, but really, this one is harmless and is pretty much institutionalized by now, so, who cares? That’s not what will reconcile Islam with modernity. But wait, there’s more: behold the Mecca watch!
“The meeting also reviewed what has been described as a Mecca watch, the brainchild of a French Muslim. The watch is said to rotate anti-clockwise and is supposed to help Muslims determine the direction of Mecca from any point on Earth.”
Are you kidding me? Isn’t there any common sense left in that community?
“The underlying belief is that scientific truths were also revealed in the Muslim holy book, and it is the work of scholars to unearth and publicise the textual evidence. But the movement is not without its critics, who say that the notion that modern science was revealed in the Koran confuses spiritual truth, which is constant, and empirical truth, which depends on the state of science at any given point in time.”
This need to find proof in religious texts of scientific discoveries is a very annoying – to put it mildly – trend, not just in Islam, but in all fundamentalist movements. Richard Dawkins has disposed of such nonsense repeatedly, so, just go read him.
Bottom line: science and religion do NOT mix, so, any attempt is a disguised to hijack science in the name of religion.
Posted in Religious Fundamentalism | 2 Comments »
May 5th, 2008 at 7:31 am
What’s wrong with the watch? Not sure what they mean by rotating anti-clockwise; the handles or the fascia?
Casio already do a decent line of prayer compass watches anyway, so it’ll be a total flop, and therefore completely inconsequential.
I’d say a more pressing and practical concern is having a universal and standardized astronomical Islamic calendar.
[Reply]
May 5th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hi Naadir,
I am always suspicious of ethnic / religious separatist tendencies. I am willing to blame my French background for this. This seems to me no different than driving by a housing project in France and seeing all the satellite dishes on the balconies… that is, when the largely North African community “leaves” every evening to listen to TV channels from the Arab world.
Where others see pluralism, again, I see separatism (and of course, there is always a market for everything, hence the watches)
Why do we have to have a universal Islamic calendar… how about just a calendar? Why is there a need to ethnically mark all these things?
[Reply]