Mercer County Community College Part141 Essays - Human Behavior

Mercer County Community College Part141 Marriage Is A Private Affair Enormous diversity in nationalities and cultures throughout the world often can create obstacles to developing relationships between those who choose to be narrow-minded and prejudiced about ethnic groups outside their own. Conflicts that arise between Okeke and his son is an example of how affiliations with a different culture can disrupt a relationship between two people because of one's ignorance. Okeke believes that holding onto his culture's traditions is more important than keeping a close relationship with his son. Nnaemeka's father chooses to follow his tribe members' opinions and customs, rather than listen to his son and stand by his decision to marry Nene. Evidence of this is when Okeke commiserates with his fellow villagers to discuss the news of his son's disobedience. Commenting on how shocking Nnaemeka's behavior was, the villagers look down on Okeke's son. They think he is a bad son, even calling him sick and needing a doctor or herbalist to cure his disobedience. During the tribe members' discussion, Okeke does not stand up for his son or argue that perhaps the rest of them may be wrong about how serious the situation really is. He agrees that Nnaemeka cannot be an exception, he must follow the traditions no matter what. Which is why Okeke picks out a suitable girl he thinks his son should marry. By following the tribe's customs, he is able to preserve his family's history and heritage within the Ibo culture. Arranging a marriage ensures that Nnaemeka does not have conflicts with members of his tribe, and most especially his father. Tradition of arranged marriages should not be something that makes it seem like Nnaemeka's father does not care about his son, but rather an alternative to the Western values that marriages be based solely on personal preferences between the couple. Parents in the Ibo tribe, such as Okeke, want their son to follow in their footsteps and culture by allowing marriage to stay with the tradition of being arranged by them. The traditional customs that Okeke enforces seems to be more of an excuse to keep his son with him than a concern for preserving his family traditions. Okeke wants Nnaemeka to do what he wants to do since he does not care about his son's happiness. Nene is an obstacle to their relationship in the father's eyes since she is essentially taking his son away from him. She is not a member of the Ibo tribe, and therefore is not inclined to obeying Okeke and those of his community as much as a wife would have to who is of the same nationality. That is why in a sign of rage and vengeance, Okeke mutilates his son and Nene's wedding picture and then returns it with a nasty letter. Angry and frustrated, Okeke does this out of his realization that the marriage did not work out as he had planned it to be, since he is alone now without his son. Toward the end of the story, a letter is sent from Nene to Okeke explaining how Nnaemeka's children are suffering from the absence of a grandfather. This makes Nnaemeka's father upset and remorseful, and he probably regrets his selfish decision to shun his son's family. Therefore, Okeke has issues and greivances within himself that make him so regretful and sad in the end. Since the presence of grandchildren causes Okeke to feel the way he does, it is evident that there is another reason why Okeke does not want Nnaemeka to marry Nene. Grandfather Okeke simply wants his son to be with him. Family is important to him after all, and he finally realizes more fully how lonely he is. In conclusion, there is evidence that Okeke sticks by his traditional customs because of issues which he did not discuss with his son. Following the tribe's tradition of arranging marriages had a deeper meaning to him than just preserving his culture. Aviation Essays

Leonardo Da Vinnci essays

Leonardo Da Vinnci essays Leonardo Da Vinci was born on April 14, 1452 in the town of Vinci near Florence Italy. He kept the name of his town for his last name. He lived during the fifteenth century, a period when the people of Europe were becoming interested in art. This period of time was known as the Renaissance period. Leonardo Da Vinci was very talented. He was a great artist, but he became famous because he was able to do so many other things. He was an architect, a musician, inventor, sculptor, scientist, and mathematician. His artistic talent revealed its self early in his life. When he was about 15 years old Leonardo's father took him to Florence Italy, to train as a painter and sculptor in the studio of Andrea del Verroccho. He studied with this master until the age of twenty five. At this point, he set up his own business and was famous for being a painter and a man of science. As a scientist, he observed everything he could in nature. Leonardo used what he learned from nature and science to make his paintings look real. He drew and took many notes of what he observed. His notes were written backwards, probably because he didn't want people to read about his discoveries and observations. In order to read Leonardo's notes, one has to hold them up to a mirror. In 1472 he entered a painters' guild. His earliest extensive works date back to this time. In 1482 Da Vinci worked for Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan for 18 years. He fulfilled the position as court artist, but also worked as an engineer and architect. While in Milan Leonardo developed more theories about painting. Leonardo believed that knowledge should be based on observation. He believed that observation led to understanding, and artists had an obligation to record this understanding by painting accurate images. He made sketches of everything around him. This caused him to make a master plan, his plan was to record the structure of every building in the world. He believed...

How to Break and Conquer Your Worst Work Habits

How to Break and Conquer Your Worst Work Habits Bad habits. Everyone has at least one. Staying up too late, eating packaged ramen  too often, or canceling plans at the last minute- everyone is guilty of a self or social faux pas, probably regularly. It stands to reason that if no one is perfect in his or her personal life, that same person has some flaws in their professional life as well. However, while personal idiosyncrasies might just cause eye rolls from significant others or minor disagreements with friends, bad habits at work can lead to dings in your professional reputation, or even damage to your career progress. Let’s look at some of the most problematic habits that people tend to develop at work, potentially endangering everything from productivity to the job itself, and strategies for overcoming them.Chronic LatenessIt was the subway. Traffic. A freak earthquake. Whatever the reason was today, it doesn’t change the fact that you were late. Everyone has commute issues sometimes, but regular lateness is a problem. It suggests you don’t have the discipline to show up on time, or that you don’t care enough to be on time (even if that’s not the case).The solution: Adjust your routine. If you hit your snooze button three times, set your original alarm earlier. If your daily Starbucks stop makes you late, either bring your coffee or adjust your schedule. Look at your daily routines, and identify what you can change, and what you can move around to make sure getting to work on time is your priority.ProcrastinationYou may be able to get everything done at the last minute (flashbacks to writing those final papers at 4 a.m. the night before they were due), but if you do that at work regularly, you could be impacting your coworkers. If someone’s waiting on you to do something, and you wait until the last second to do it/send it, you’re putting that person at a disadvantage. Again, stuff happens, but if this becomes a pattern, it undermines your colleaguesâ⠂¬â„¢ trust in you and your ability to work toward shared goals.The solution: Set timelines, with check-in points and smaller goals throughout, so that you’re not doing everything at once at the end, in a panic.Lyingâ€Å"I never got that email!† â€Å"Oh, I thought Smith was supposed to be handling that?† Or there are more serious ones, like throwing someone else under the bus when a problem or mistake was your fault. Whatever the lies are (little white lies or more serious ones), they can have major consequences for your job and your career. At the very least, you don’t want a reputation as a liar. At worst, you could be severely disciplined or fired for lying.The solution: Be honest. If you didn’t get something done on time, own up to that, as well as why, and what you’re doing to make sure it gets done. If you made a mistake, admit it and come up with a plan on how to avoid that next time.Being Openly NegativeThere’s honesty, and then there’s being Debbie Downer. If you’re always griping and sniping, you risk getting a reputation as someone who’s difficult to work with.The solution: Find the positive. Sometimes things will just suck. In times like those, don’t start venting to the nearest coworker, or sit at your desk muttering curses under your breath. You can vent outside work to loved ones, your dog, your therapist- anyone who’s not on the job with you.Talking SmackThis one is related to being negative. If your coworkers think you’re just going to say nasty things about them behind their backs because you never have anything nice to say, why would they trust you?The solution: Resist your inner Mean Girl (and that goes for non-girls as well), and don’t say anything about anyone that you wouldn’t want repeated to their face. In email or office instant messaging, don’t write anything you wouldn’t want broadcasted to the entire company.Chro nic MultitaskingOn its face, this one seems like it would be a good thing- you’re such an efficient employee that you’re doing four things at once! However, it means you’re doing four things at once, and are giving each one a quarter (or less) of your attention. This is especially problematic if you’re multitasking while talking or meeting with others. They can tell you’re not really paying attention, and if you miss a necessary detail because you’re too busy replying to an email while talking to your coworker, that can have consequences.The solution: Set aside specific times for specific tasks, especially ones that require in-person conversations or face time.Losing Your TemperBeing professional means handling disappointments or problems with a degree of calm. If you yell, scream, or otherwise show rage at work, that can very quickly earn you a reputation as a hothead that no one wants to deal with, for fear of risking the Red Rage. Temper tantrums are never acceptable for adults in a work environment, no matter how calm and productive you feel after you’ve unburdened yourself and the rage has subsided.The solution: Find ways to channel that anger into temporary zen, so you can move on with your day and deal with the anger later, in a more appropriate way out of work. Try learning some meditation techniques that you can reach for when you feel the anger bubbling up in your brain.Lousy CommunicationIf you have poor grammar or bad email etiquette, it undermines how people see you. People may think you’re uneducated, less intelligent than you are, or uncaring about how you come off to others.The solution: If written communication is a weak point, brush up on some of the most common grammar issues you’re likely to encounter in a professional environment. If appropriateness is your issue, make sure not to use swears or slang at work.LazinessIf you’re shifting (or shirking) responsibilities becau se you don’t want the aggravation or want something easier while someone else does the heavy lifting, people notice. They’ll either think you’re incapable of accomplishing tasks, or that you just don’t care.The solution: Make the effort to go above and beyond. Offer to help people with tasks (assuming you’re not ignoring your own in the meantime). Take initiative to develop new responsibilities, and/or talk to your boss to see what else you can be doing to expand your role.Being Inconsiderate of OthersThis one is especially problematic in crowded or open plan workplaces. My office has an open plan sea of cubicles, and that makes it a minefield for poor or obnoxious office behavior. Things like being loud, eating strong-smelling food, or leaving messes everywhere you go fall into this category. Will you get fired for this kind of transgression? Not likely. Will it make your colleagues like you less and damage your rep? Quite possibly.The solution: W henever you find yourself having a phone conversation in a public place, ask yourself, â€Å"would this annoy me?† In fact, â€Å"would this annoy me?† is a good rule of thumb in general. It’s important to keep in mind that work behavior is public behavior.Not Being a Good Team MemberChances are you don’t work in a vacuum, and work as part of a team in some capacity. If you shun others as much as possible, and try to handle everything without input from others, that makes it easy to dismiss your contributions. It also amplifies any problems or mistakes- if you plow ahead on your own without input from other stakeholders, that puts the onus on you to succeed, or else.The solution: Go out of your way to initiate conversations with coworkers, whether it’s social (work appropriate) small talk or related to specific work responsibilities. If a task or project has a number of people involved, go out of your way to ask for their input, or at least make su re they know what you’re working on.Over-promisingLike the hypermultitasking, this one likely comes from a desire to be a good, productive employee. But if you say you are going to get something done at a certain time, you need to make good on your promises. If you don’t, then it undermines your reliability and trustworthiness- two of the most important workplace currencies.The solution: Set realistic priorities. If you originally said something could be done by Tuesday but now it’s looking like there’s no way it’ll be done by Thursday, be up front about that. If you’re struggling with something and it’s slowing you down, talk with your boss to prioritize tasks so you can manage expectations. If you need help, ask for it. Better organization and planning up front can also help you set more realistic timelines and help ensure that you get done what you say you’re going to do.If any of these sound uncomfortably familiar to you (I ’m definitely guilty of at least one of these), all is not lost- you’re not automatically going to end up fired and shunned for your sins. Like Ebenezer Scrooge after his revelation, it’s not too late. You can still change that future!Be conscious of what you’re doing wrong. A little extra mindfulness goes a long way.Be adaptable/open to change. According to career coach and consultant Lisa Lahey, â€Å"immunity to change† is a sure way to ensure that your bad habits don’t improve (best case scenario) or end up derailing your goals and career (worst case scenario).Understand how your bad work habits are sabotaging you. If your bad habit is your temper, which of your goals could you achieve faster/better if you didn’t fly off the handle? If you’re always late, what are the consequences? If you don’t have a handle on how your bad habits are actually affecting your job, it will be very difficult to clean them up and start t urning them around.Identifying these bad work habits is a great first step; making sure that you’re actively working on them (or at least minimizing them) is harder, but is the more rewarding task. None of us will ever be perfect, at home or at work, but the more work you put into overcoming these bad habits now, the better your professional rep and job satisfaction will be in the long run.

Career in Dental Surgery Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Career in Dental Surgery - Personal Statement Example I go to his clinic and read his books about Dental Surgery. I have found great interest in the career of Dental Surgery. I want to be like that dentist that changed world history. "The extravagant headline "The Dentist Who Changed World History" is taken from the title of an article that appeared in Harper's Magazine, in December, 1943. The dentist referred to was Maurice William (1881-1973), who practiced in New York and who, if he didn't change world history, at least influenced the course of events in China." (4) The people in rural areas have less health resources so they are migrating to urban areas. A new report says "The year 2008 will be the first time that more than half of the earth's population-nearly 3.3 billion people-will be living in towns and cities." (5) Although people are generally afraid of approaching dentist as Taylor Caldwell, "[An] Anglo-American novelist, a prolific author of popular fiction, who used often in her works real historical events or persons"(6), says "I was never afraid of anything in the world except the dentist." (7) But I love Dental Surgery Career. I believe that if I do not love a career, I can not move forward in that career. this career. Motivation is one of the best gifts people possess in all aspects of their lives, but many of them do not even realize they have it or may not know how to use it. Motivation is a feeling that compels us to strive and succeed in all that we do or intend to do. Many people achieve success beyond their wildest dreams. It is often seen that they are not necessarily the smartest people around. Generally, it is seen that the people who succeed financially are the ones who are motivated to achieve success. Human beings have enormous

Criminal Behavior and Mental Disorders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Criminal Behavior and Mental Disorders - Essay Example While the ancient Greeks argued that logic, not instinct, was what gave rise to knowledge, most people today use a combination of both. Just as a cop follows a lead on â€Å"instinct† or a mother knows her child is sick through â€Å"intuition†, humans rely on an illogical gut reaction to compliment logic in the decision making process. Ignoring this gut reaction in favor of pure logic can cause humans to draw irrational conclusions, as is the case with Backlar. Furthermore, ignoring this visceral reaction causes Backlar to defy society’s view of justice in favor one more easily dismissed by logic in her article, and causes her to not only act against her human instinct, but to also practice a lower quality of medicine. Because it contradicts her profession, society’s view of justice, the instinctual feeling of what is right, I reject Barker’s conclusion that the criminally insane should be viewed as felons. In her article, Backlar tells the story o f being a naive provider in a criminal psychiatric ward and feeling shocked upon hearing a more senior provider refer to patients as felons. Backlar then goes on to describe her transition from shock to acceptance as she begins to believe this senior provider is correct and that the patients are in fact felons. Throughout the article, Backlar repeats this conclusion, arguing that because the guilty and the criminally insane are all convicted criminals, they should all be given the same level of baseline treatment by the justice system. This conclusion defies Backlar’s medical profession, whose duty it is to treat patients. In any scientific process, bias introduces a systematic error in results. Thinking of patients as felons constitutes judgment of the patients and judging patients introduces a bias into care. This bias will lower the quality of care provided to the patients and will contradict the very reason Backlar is with her patients to begin with. This bias is why some medical personnel working in corrections settings choose not to know what crimes the patients they treat have committed. Viewing a patient you are assigned to treat as a felon introduces a judgment that medical personnel are not called on to provide. The job of any health care provider is to treat the patient. Using logic to formulate the argument that the patients are felons denies the true connotation of the word. â€Å"Felon† is more than its dictionary definition; it is a stigma in our society. To refer to a person as a felon is to pass judgment on them, and judging a patient because of his or her personal background would lower the standard of care. It is because of this compromising of the quality of medical care that I reject Backlar’s conclusion that the criminally insane are guilty felons. Beyond the bias that referring to a patient as a felon introduces, calling patients felons is also wrong because it implies their guilt. This argument gets at the root of B acklar’s true question in the article: should the criminally insane be punished or treated? Are the criminally insane culpable or innocent? Instead of choosing from the two options, I propose a third: to not categorize the criminally insane on the basis of their disease state, but on the basis of their individual case. The justice system does not say every drug crime should be

Rizal the Subversive :: essays research papers fc

Rizal as a Rational Thinker   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  During his life, Jose Rizal was described as a heretic and subversive, an enemy of both the Church and Spain. He has made tremendous contributions to the progress of the Filipino society. His political works and essays, being anti-clerical and anti-colonial, frankly aimed to expose the maladies of his time and cure the Philippines of what he calls â€Å"the social cancer†. Rizal had been the progressive radical thinker, and promptly answered the ailing call of his Motherland, who cries for a cure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rizal had been a subversive in his own time. The Church had him excommunicated, and the Spaniards had him imprisoned, and then executed in Bagumbayan. However, that does not mean that he will always be a subversive, provided that he lives in a time aside from his, as if it really is his own identity, rather than an act or decision based on the call of situations and events. And in the first place, Rizal did not go to Europe just to harbor revolutionary ideas from the people there. He sought knowledge in foreign lands, so that he may use it and the Filipinos may benefit from it. Rizal did not intentionally want to make waves or a revolution, at all situations and regardless of events. And if he really favored revolution, that would be because of necessity. Rizal is a rational thinker, will surely analyze the situations first, and then make decisions based on his analyses, just like what doctors do when treating their patients.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout the entire article, one could often read the communistic word, â€Å"struggle†Ã¢â‚¬â€struggle against foreign tyranny, against the ruling class, etc. This was what Jose Ma. Sison was aiming at since the start. He believed that individual freedom can only be achieved through national freedom and that political unity could only be gained by removing all foreign threats to it. Then, he calls for a revolution, a Philippine Revolution, so that all the struggles that the mass is currently facing, according to him, will be finally put to an end.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perhaps Sison is missing a point in this one simple thing: that this world is not perfect, and in every aspect of the society, there would always be a weakness. It is true that a revolution could end the situation, but how many revolutions? In this state of frailty and weakness, the Philippines could no longer afford another radical revolution.

Quran and Science Essay

Islam and science describes the relationship between Muslim communities and science in general. From an Islamic standpoint, science, the study of nature, is considered to be linked to the concept of Tawhid (the Oneness of God), as are all other branches of knowledge.[1] In Islam, nature is not seen as a separate entity, but rather as an integral part of Islam’s holistic outlook on God, humanity, and the world. This link implies a sacred aspect to the pursuit of scientific knowledge by Muslims, as nature itself is viewed in the Qur’an as a compilation of signs pointing to the Divine.[2] It was with this understanding that the pursuit of science was tolerated in Islamic civilizations, specifically during the eighth to sixteenth centuries, prior to the colonization of the Muslim world.[3] According to theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili, the modern scientific method was pioneered by Islamic scientist Ibn Al-Haytham (known to the west as â€Å"Alhazen†) whose contributions are likened to those of Isaac Newton.[4] Alhazen helped shift the emphasis on abstract theorizing onto systematic and repeatable experimentation, followed by careful criticism of premises and inferences.[5] Robert Briffault, in The Making of Humanity, asserts that the very existence of science, as it is understood in the modern sense, is rooted in the scientific thought and knowledge that emerged in Islamic civilizations during this time.[6] Muslim scientists and scholars have subsequently developed a spectrum of viewpoints on the place of scientific learning within the context of Islam, none of which are universally accepted.[7] However, most maintain the view that the acquisition of knowledge and scientific pursuit in general is not in disaccord with Islamic thought and religious belief.[1][7] Physicist Taner Edis argues this is because some Muslims are reading into the metaphorical language of the Holy books what is not there, including recent scientific discoveries.[8] Overview The religion Islam has its own worldview system including beliefs about â€Å"ultimate reality, epistemology, ontology, ethics, purpose, etc.†[9] Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the final revelation of God for the guidance of humankind. Science is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.[10] It is a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating empirical knowledge that explains observable events in nature as results of natural causes, rejecting supernatural notions. Islam, like all religions, believes in the supernatural that is accessible or interacts with Man in this life. One of the most important features of Science is the precise quantitative prediction. In this aspect it differs from many religious texts where physical phenomena are depicted in a very qualitative way, often by the use of words carrying several meanings. History Classical Islamic science Science in medieval Islam, Islamic cosmology, Astronomy in medieval Islam, Mathematics in medieval Islam, Physics in medieval Islam, and Medicine in medieval Islam  In the history of science, Islamic science refers to the science developed under Islamic civilization between the 8th and 16th centuries,[11] during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age.[ It is also known as Arabic science since the majority of texts during this period were written in Arabic, the lingua franca of Islamic civilization. Despite these terms, not all scientists during this period were Muslim or Arab, as there were a number of notable non-Arab scientists (most notably Persians), as well as some non-Muslim scientists, who contributed to scientific studies in the Islamic world. A number of modern scholars such as Fielding H. Garrison,[13] Abdus Salam and Hossein Nasr consider modern science and the scientific method to have been greatly inspired by Muslim scientists who introduced a modern  empirical, experimental and quantitative approach to scientific inquiry. Some scholars, notably Donald Routledge Hill, Ahmad Y Hassan,[14] Abdus Salam,[15] and George Saliba,[16] have referred to their achievements as a Muslim scientific revolution,[17] though this does not contradict the traditional view of the Scientific Revolution which is still supported by most scholars.[18][19][20] It is believed that it was the empirical attitude of the Qur’an and Sunnah which inspired medieval Muslim scientists, in particular Alhazen (965-1037),[21][22] to develop the scientific method.[23][24][25] It is also known that certain advances made by medieval Muslim astronomers, geographers and mathematicians was motivated by problems presented in Islamic scripture, such as Al-Khwarizmi’s (c. 780-850) development of algebra in order to solve the Islamic inheritance laws,[26] and developments in astronomy, geography, spherical geometry and spherical trigonometry in order to determine the direction of the Qibla, the times of Salah prayers, and the dates of the Islamic calendar.[27] The increased use of dissection in Islamic medicine during the 12th and 13th centuries was influenced by the writings of the Islamic theologian, Al-Ghazali, who encouraged the study of anatomy and use of dissections as a method of gaining knowledge of God’s creation.[28] In al-Bukhari’s and Muslim’s collection of sahih hadith it is said: â€Å"There is no disease that Allah has created, except that He also has created its treatment.† (Bukhari 7-71:582). This culminated in the work of Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288), who discovered the pulmonary circulation in 1242 and used his discovery as evidence for the orthodox Islamic doctrine of bodily resurrection.[29] Ibn al-Nafis also used Islamic scripture as justification for his rejection of wine as self-medication.[30] Criticisms against alchemy and astrology were also motivated by religion, as orthodox Islamic theologians viewed the beliefs of alchemists and astrologers as being superstitious.[31] Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1209), in dealing with his conception of physics and the physical world in his Matalib, discusses Islamic cosmology, criticizes the Aristotelian notion of the Earth’s centrality within the  universe, and â€Å"explores the notion of the existence of a multiverse in the context of his commentary,† based on the Qur’anic verse, â€Å"All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds.† He raises the question of whether the term â€Å"worlds† in this verse refers to â€Å"multiple worlds within this single universe or cosmos, or to many other universes or a multiverse beyond this known universe.† On the basis of this verse, he argues that God has created more than â€Å"a thousand thousand worlds (alfa alfi ‘awalim) beyond this world such that each one of those worlds be bigger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has.†[32] Ali KuÅŸÃ §u’s (1403–1474) support for the Earth’s rotation and his rejection of Aristotelian cosmology (which advocates a stationary Earth) was motivated by religious opposition to Aristotle by orthodox Islamic theologians, such as Al-Ghazali.[33][34] According to many historians, science in Islamic civilization flourished during the Middle Ages, but began declining at some time around the 14th[35] to 16th[11] centuries. At least some scholars blame this on the â€Å"rise of a clerical faction which froze this same science and withered its progress.†[36] Examples of conflicts with prevailing interpretations of Islam and science – or at least the fruits of science – thereafter include the demolition of Taqi al-Din’s great Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din in Galata, â€Å"comparable in its technical equipment and its specialist personnel with that of his celebrated contemporary, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.† But while Brahe’s observatory â€Å"opened the way to a vast new development of astronomical science,† Taqi al-Din’s was demolished by a squad of Janissaries, â€Å"by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti,† sometime after 1577 AD.[36][37] Arrival of modern science in Islamic world At the beginning of the nineteenth century, modern science arrived in the Muslim world but it wasn’t the science itself that affected Muslim scholars. Rather, it â€Å"was the transfer of various philosophical currents entangled with science that had a profound effect on the minds of Muslim scientists and intellectuals. Schools like Positivism and Darwinism penetrated the Muslim world and dominated its academic circles and had a noticeable impact on some Islamic theological doctrines.† There were different responses to this among the Muslim scholars:[38] These reactions, in words of Professor Mehdi Golshani, were the following: â€Å" 1. Some rejected modern science as corrupt foreign thought, considering it incompatible with Islamic teachings, and in their view, the only remedy for the stagnancy of Islamic societies would be the strict following of Islamic teachings.[38] 2. Other thinkers in the Muslim world saw science as the only source of real enlightenment and advocated the complete adoption of modern science. In their view, the only remedy for the stagnation of Muslim societies would be the mastery of modern science and the replacement of the religious worldview by the scientific worldview. 3. The majority of faithful Muslim scientists tried to adapt Islam to the findings of modern science; they can be categorized in the following subgroups: (a) Some Muslim thinkers attempted to justify modern science on religious grounds. Their motivation was to encourage Muslim societies to acquire modern knowledge and to safeguard their societies from the criticism of Orientalists and Muslim intellectuals. (b) Others tried to show that all important scientific discoveries had been predicted in the Qur’an and Islamic tradition and appealed to modern science to explain various aspects of faith. (c) Yet other scholars advocated a re-interpretation of Islam. In their view, one must try to construct a new theology that can establish a viable relation between Islam and modern science. The Indian scholar, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, sought a theology of nature through which one could re-interpret the basic principles of Islam in the light of modern science. (d) Then there were some Muslim scholars who believed that empirical science had reached the same conclusions that prophets had been advocating several thousand years ago. The revelation had only the privilege of prophecy. 4. Finally, some Muslim philosophers separated the findings of modern science from its philosophical attachments. Thus, while they praised the attempts of Western scientists for the discovery of the secrets of nature, they warned against various empiricist and materialistic interpretations of scientific findings. Scientific knowledge can reveal certain aspects of the physical world, but it should not be identified with the alpha and omega of knowledge. Rather, it has to be integrated into a metaphysical framework—consistent with the Muslim worldview—in which higher levels of knowledge are recognized and the role of science in bringing us closer to God is fulfilled.[9] † Compatibility of Islam and the development of science Whether Islamic culture has promoted or hindered scientific advancement is disputed. Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb argue that since â€Å"Islam appointed† Muslims â€Å"as representatives of God and made them responsible for learning all the sciences,†[39] science cannot but prosper in a society of true Muslims. Many â€Å"classical and modern [sources] agree that the Qur’an condones, even encourages the acquisition of science and scientific knowledge, and urges humans to reflect on the natural phenomena as signs of God’s creation.† Some scientific instruments produced in classical times in the Islamic world were inscribed with Qur’anic citations. Many Muslims agree that doing science is an act of religious merit, even a collective duty of the Muslim community.[40] Others claim traditional interpretations of Islam are not compatible with the development of science. Author Rodney Stark, argues that Islam’s lag behind the West in scientific advancement after (roughly) 1500 AD was due to opposition by traditional ulema to efforts to formulate systematic explanation of natural phenomenon with â€Å"natural laws.† He claims that they believed such laws were blasphemous because they limit â€Å"Allah’s freedom to act† as He wishes, a principle enshired in aya 14:4: â€Å"Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will,† which (they believed) applied to all of creation not just humanity.[41] Decline In the early twentieth century ulema forbade the learning of foreign languages and dissection of human bodies in the medical school in Iran.[42] In recent years, the lagging of the Muslim world in science is manifest in the disproportionately small amount of scientific output as measured by citations of articles published in internationally circulating science journals, annual expenditures on research and development, and numbers of research scientists and engineers.  Skepticism of science among some Muslims is reflected in issues such as resistance in Muslim northern Nigeria to polio inoculation, which some believe is â€Å"an imaginary thing created in the West or it is a ploy to get us to submit to this evil agenda.†[44] Scientific issues in the Qur’an and Hadith The belief that the Qur’an had prophesied scientific theories and discoveries has become a strong and widespread belief in the contemporary Islamic world; these prophecies are often offered as evidence of the divine origin of the Qur’an [45]; see scientific foreknowledge in sacred texts for further discussion of this issue. Taner Edis wrote An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam.[46] Edis worries that secularism in Turkey, one of the most westernized Muslim nations, is on its way out; he points out that Turkey rejects evolution by a large majority. To Edis, many Muslims appreciate technology and respect the role that science plays in its creation. As a result, he says there is a great deal of Islamic pseudoscience attempting to reconcile this respect with other respected religious beliefs. Edis maintains that the motivation to read modern scientific truths into holy books is also stronger for Muslims than Christians.[8] This is because, according to Edis, true criticism of the Qur’an is almost non-existent in the Muslim world. While Christianity is less prone to see its Holy Book as the direct word of God, fewer Muslims will compromise on this idea – causing them to believe that scientific truths simply must appear in the Qur’an. However, Edis opines that there are endless examples of scientific discoveries that could be read into the Bible or Qur’an if one would like to.[8] Edis qualifies that ‘Muslim thought’ certainly cannot be understood by looking at the Qur’an alone – cultural and political factors play large roles.[8] Russel Glasser (Skeptic on â€Å"The Atheist Experience† TV show with Matt Dillahunty and Jeff Dee) argues that interpreting the Qur’an like this is cherry picking and risks simply confirming the biases of the investigator.[47] Conception and inherited characteristics The most prominent of the ancient Greek thinkers who wrote on medicine were Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Hippocrates and Galen, in contrast with Aristotle, wrote that the contribution of females to children is equal to that of males, and the vehicle for it is a substance similar to the semen of males.[48] Basim Musallam writes that the ideas of these men were widespread  through the pre-modern Middle East: â€Å"Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen were as much a part of Middle Eastern Arabic culture as anything else in it.†[48] The sayings in the Qur’an and those attributed to Muhammad in the Hadith influenced generations of Muslim scientists by siding with Galen and Hippocrates. Basim Musallam writes: â€Å"†¦ the statements about parental contribution to generation in the hadith paralleled the Hippocratic writings, and the view of fetal development in the Qur’an agreed in detail with Galen’s scientific writings.†[48] He reports that the highly influential medieval Hanbali scholar Ibn Qayyim, in his book Kitab al-tibyan fi aqsam al-qur’an, cites the following statement of the prophet, when asked the question â€Å"from what is man created,†: â€Å" He is created of both, the semen of the man and the semen of the woman. The man’s semen is thick and forms the bones and the tendons. The woman’s semen is fine and forms the flesh and blood.[49] † Creation and evolution The Quran contains many verses describing creation of the universe; God created heavens and earth in six heavenly days[7:54] the earth was created in two days[41:9], and in two other days (into a total of four) God furnished the creation of the earth with mountains, rivers and fruit-gardens [41:10]. Then heavens and earth formed from one mass which had to be split [21:30], the seven heavens were created from smoke [41:11], forming layers, one above the other [67:3]. The angels inhabit the seventh heavens. The lowest heaven is adorned with lights [41:12], the sun and the moon (which follow a regular path) [71:16][14:33], the stars [37:6] and the constellations of the Zodiac.