Quote:I never said I believed he is the greatest
And I never said that you said you believed he is the greatest. Well done.
Quote:use your brain for once, and look at the entire quote
You could try the same. You even quoted me saying what is obviously not what you attributed to me.
Quote:the idea that this episode hampered his scientific career is ridiculous
Actually I thought it was kind of ironic that he got a lot of his work done because of his house arrest.
Quote:Finally, what the frying truck has this got anything to do with islam stifling science??
That's why I am asking you to explain why this guy would feel the need to pretend to be crazy. You brought him up. He is your example. The house arrest thing, pretending to be crazy, impossible engineering feats... It's not a good look, but I don't claim to be able to make sense of it. All I know is that every counterexample you bring up seems to undermine your own case, and this looks like going the same way.
Quote:He dissapointed a civic minded caliph - not insulted the prophet or renounced his religion - as Baron tried to convince us.
I am not talking about what Baron said. You brought him up. Check the wikipedia article about him. I see this time you were smart enough not to post a link to the information that undermines your argument. It is all in there. Can you explain why he feared for his life, and why pretending to be crazy was a way out?
Quote:Its like saying something stupid like an engineer who couldn't build a bridge for King John of England - after promising that he could - then rightly fears for his life - and that is a perfect example of how christianity stifles science.
Except that kings are not mandated in the Bible. Caliphs are. Muhammed was one. We can add that to the list of mechanisms for when we get round to discussing that. In many ways the church shielded early scientists from this sort of BS.
Also, the article says nothing about him promising anything. He was ordered to do the impossible.
Quote:There is enough proof in the secondary sources alone to believe that he did what is claimed.
Except that you can not even figure out what that claim is. You parroted the propaganda line that he built the first hang glider, then attempted to attribute that to your own personal error, even though 30 seconds on google will show you countless examples of Muslims spinning the same BS story. Then you said his invention was identical to some other guy, whose invention is also unknown. You keep insisting we have all this evidence to prove he invented what is attributed to him - the only problem is that you still don't even know what that is.
Quote:This is the standard we set for most historical knowledge we have going that far back in time. Case in point is the Eilmer of malmesbury character who's feat no one disputes - despite coming from a single secondary source.
The internet is not full of Christians falsely attributing things to him. He is a mere footnote in history. He doesn't top lists like Abu's.
Quote:Why don't we dispense with this infantile debate and accept that 1. there is no good reason to believe that it was an "obvious fabrication" as you originally claimed
Except that it was an obvious fabrication. You admitted this. The fabrication is widespread and accepted unquestioningly by Muslims. This is the sort of thing that should have been in Abu's "setting the record straight" thread. Maybe then you wouldn't have been caught up the in absurd Islamic propaganda.
Quote:Why don't you do some actual research and find out for yourself what muslims did during the golden age.
That's why I am asking you who you think the greatest Muslim scientist was. Was it the guy who pretended to be crazy out of fear for his life? Was it Mr Gibberish? Was it the guy who outflew the phoenix? Can you refer to to any other poems making fun of great Muslim scientists?
Quote:Read "Science and Islam: a history" by Ehsan massood - as I have just started.
Nice. I hope he does a better job than Abu of setting the record straight. Somehow I doubt it. Let us know what you figure out.
Quote:Or at least give me a valid argument or source demonstrating how either 1. muslim scientists during the golden age made no meaningful contributions
How about this: not a single Muslim scientist deserves to be on the top 100 list.
Quote:or 2. islam actively "stifles" science - which is what this thread is supposed to be about remember?
Your own arguments here are evidence of that. We even have you trying to take personal credit for the fabrications of other Muslims about the grand contributions from Muslim scientists. It is not enough for you people to falsely claim credit for the science, you also have to falsely claim credit for falsely claiming credit. It's like some kind of weird game.