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Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

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Articles

Suffering and Mercy

30 June 2008 | The Fountain | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Last month marked a great loss in world literature; on June 10 Chingiz Aytmatov died. This author, who had earned worldwide fame, surrendered to his fate and left behind a long list of remarkable works that have been translated into almost every language, and which have won a popular readership. Th…

Sources of Happiness

30 June 2008 | Salih Uslu | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Happiness is a subjective concept that evades accurate definitions or objective measurements. Social scientists, philosophers, and ordinary people have different perspectives when they are asked to describe their feelings about happiness. People’s moods, such as being optimists or pessimists, influ…

Al Feliz Pescador

30 June 2008 | Firat Kocol | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

As I stroll in the park on a Saturday afternoon, I enjoy the gentle touch of sunrays coming through the trees. A flute is playing Bach’s Badinerie in the distance. It is a beautiful day. I find a warm and quite spot to read the last chapter of the book I started today. After one or two pages, for s…

Longing for Love

30 June 2008 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

It seems that we have forgotten how to act like human beings. We are far removed from representing our unique status among all of existence. Despite all the qualities we possess which the angels envy, we engage in acts that even evil spirits would be embarrassed of. We are overcome with rancor and…

Confinement Systems for Fusion

30 June 2008 | M. Fatih Yilmaz | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

The world’s energy sources are limited and in four or five decades they will be in short supply. However, the world’s increasing energy demands have led scientists to investigate alternative energy sources. One alternative, discovered during the twentieth century, was that there are nuclear fusion…

Bacteria: The Real Stewards of the Environment

30 June 2008 | Melih Cubuklu | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

As a result of campaigns that have been led by number of celebrities, we are now aware that it is us, human beings, who have contaminated earth. As a result, the general public now has an increased awareness about environmental pollution, a matter that has become one of the greatest threats to huma…

The Appeal of the Qur'an to Observation and Reason

30 June 2008 | Yuksel A. Aslandogan | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Humans are endowed with the faculties of reason and intellect, and to ask them to abandon their intellectual faculties in developing their faith and relationship with God would be inconsistent with their God-given autonomy. On the contrary, the Qur’an asks its readers to make observations, relate e…

Darwinism and Altruism, Is There A Problem?

30 June 2008 | Yigit Alarcin | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

In Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest, those individuals best adapted to their environments are most likely to live another day and are therefore more likely to reproduce. Consequently, the fittest individuals have more offspring and these share some of their parents’ adaptive character…

Neighborliness Common Ground for the Children of Abraham

30 June 2008 | Samuel Riccobene | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Perhaps the most famous of all of the parables of Jesus is the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37). Jesus told parables, or stories, to convey a moral meaning. His parables were told so that people hearing about how others behaved would have a guide for how to behave in their own lives. I…

Crime in the Mind of Dostoyevsky

30 June 2008 | Alice Bolton | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

The theoretical study of crime, due to its potential to provide us with a way to understand the human mind, has been one of the topics that have attracted the greatest interest in human philosophy. One author who has dealt extensively with this problem is Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881). As a writer…

A Pair of New Shoes

30 June 2008 | Mirkena Ozer | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

A pair of young feet in a pair of very old shoes walked along an awfully muddy road. The nine-year-old girl prayed with every squelch of the mud, “Isn’t it time for a new pair of shoes yet? Oh please, a brand-new pair for once!” She stopped in front of a vast puddle. “What do you think? Is it poss…

Radar-Evading Moths

30 June 2008 | Arif Osmanli | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Members of the animal kingdom are equipped with amazing features. Every species has a particular gift for communication, feeding, or defense. They communicate through various means, such as smell, vibration, sound, light, and heat. For example, fireflies use light for communication and ants use dif…

Qalb (Heart) - 2

30 June 2008 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Belief is the life of the heart; worship is the blood flowing in its veins; and reflection, self-supervision, and self-criticism are the foundations of its permanence. The heart of an unbeliever is dead; the heart of a believer who does not worship is dying; and the heart of a believer who worships…

Scope of the Scientific Method and What Remains Beyond

30 June 2008 | Janibek Alpishev | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Once Newton published his Principia in 1687, the world was never the same again. In a mere 750 pages a brand new world was presented where the same law governed both the falling of an apple and a galaxy cluster. The world was henceforth describable; science introduced a new way of comprehending the…

Is the Suffering in the World in Agreement with God's Mercy?

30 June 2008 | Mesut Sahin | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

To some individuals who want to believe, in particular, young minds, the pain and suffering that exist in the world today do not seem to be compatible with the Mercy of a Loving God. It is just too difficult for them to comprehend that there can be so much injustice and suffering around the globe…

On the Unscientific Basis of the Crusade of Some Scientists against Religion

30 June 2008 | Kaan Kerem | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

The voices as well as popularity of certain anti-religion scientists have increased lately. Such figures as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins1 and neuroscience researcher Samuel Harris2 enjoy fame and credit that their predecessors could only have dreamed of, and they owe most of their fame to…

A Journey into Our Body with B12

30 June 2008 | Ihsan Omeroglu | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Vitamins are organic (carbon-based) compounds that are necessary in tiny amounts for the biochemical activities that take place in our body. Since vitamins cannot be synthesized in our body (except for a few), we take them in with our food. Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is a complex ringed structure with…

It's me, Peter, your Stomach!

30 June 2008 | Irfan Yilmaz | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

Dear Peter, when your heart was telling you about itself in the previous issue (and perhaps you got a bit annoyed with him) I realized that it was talking for your own good. It not only was giving you advice about your health, but it was also directing you to the horizons of thought that will lead…

We should think well of others

30 June 2008 | Hikmet Isik | Issue 64 (July - August 2008)

People’s way of thinking shapes their behavior. The way they are is parallel to how they think, and is connected to their potential. While a person keeps looking at things or events from the perspective of certain considerations, their character and temperament will gradually take shape in line wit…

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