Comment 8 by The Plc :

Comment 7 by AtheistEgbert :

The Islamic 'advancement' in science is a myth. It annoys me when people somehow use this as an argument that Islam is a positive force.

I don't understand, it really is true that Islamic culture preserved a lot of ancient Greek philosophy while Christainity had largely stultified European intellectual culture. Not to mention the great polymaths who produced all those important advancements in Maths and so on.

Yes, there certainly were scientists in the first half-millennium of Islam who built on and expanded the work of the ancient Greeks. Around 1200 CE, I think it was, a new theological movement ended all that -- the idea of "occasionalism", promulgated by Al-Ghazali, that everything that happens happens because God wills it to be so, and that therefore there is no point looking for physical causes and laws.

Creationism poses the same kind of threat for Western science, at least biology, today. In fact, when you think about it, that's exactly what ID is -- biological occasionalism.