Neil Tysons warning to America

[Darkstar]

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Saw the video, but I didn't hear Neil Tyson make any specific references to religion itself to show that this was the cause for the 'erosion of progress,' as suggested by the title of the video. He was just basically talking about all the great contributions in the areas of science, art, mathematics, science, technology, architecture, creativity, etc. made by the Arabs at one period in history, only to briefly mention the eventual downfall of all of this in a way as to imply as if Islam was the cause behind it.

I think that is not a correct idea because the reasons that the Muslim advancement fell into a decline is not because of Islam. Rather, I read that a large part of it was caused by the Mongol and Crusader invasions which as a result burned and destroyed many of the madrasahs, libraries, and books during that time.

There are several other political and economical reasons for such a decline which is not a result of Islam itself. See the article below:

Muslim Civilization (Book Review), by Tarek Ezzat

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Perhaps there were other reasons, but knowledge dies pretty violently under a theocracy. First, there are the dark ages. Then, there was the situation with the taliban preventing females from attending school and lacing everything with an unhealthy dose of Islamic extremism. Any religion, when strictly enforced, will squelch the knowledge of the populace. Doesn't it ever occur to moderate theists that the people who are doing crazy things are only doing them because they are more devoted to the religion than they are? What does it say about the fundamentals of a religion when the ones who most strictly adhere to them, the fundamentalists, are the crazy ones?

(Note: I say Islamic extremism, rather than fundamentalism. I do not know enough about Islam to say if these actions are condoned or condemned by the koran. Now, if it's anything like the bible, then...)