ID controversy grows in Muslim world

Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol, who now has his own site, The White Path, has been writing about the intelligent design controversy from a Muslim (and generally favorable) perspective.

By contrast, Ahmed K. Sultan Salem, a PhD student at Stanford,"sort of" attacks ID at Islam On Line, eventually concluding,

Two arguments can be made. The first is that ID is an impediment to science as it moves from the deficiency of the current hypotheses to a statement that we will never succeed in explaining the phenomenon scientifically. This can be countered by another argument that ID, by showing the inadequateness of current explanations, may help awaken the scientists from their intellectual slumber, something that often takes place given the inertia of the scientific culture (and other cultures). ID can be a motivator for scientists to think outside the box and try to propose alternative hypotheses. It is extremely unlikely that all the scientists will take an ID result and stop hunting for naturalistic explanations. The point is that ID may harm science, but ignoring it may also harm science. After all, everything has its share of merits and demerits.

Um, yeah, but on a scale of one to ten, Ahmed, ... ?

Bill Dembski comments that Salem's piece "is probably the most ambivalent article about ID that I’ve ever read." Maybe a conflict of loyalties?

Meanwhile, Muslim anti-evolutionist Harun Yahya has also attacked the ID advocates, for unrelated reasons. Who said the world was a simple, straightforward place?

By the way, Akyol crossed swords recently with Robert McHenry at Tech Central Station, on the ID controversy.

(Note: In the interests of disclosure: I have written written for Islam on Line.)

If you like this blog, check out my book on the intelligent design controversy, By Design or by Chance?. You can read excerpts as well.