The following goes out to the elderly and all those who aren't versed in English, to all those who are disadvantaged by the sorry state of science in Dhivehi and to all those who were misinformed and deceived. Hope this helps.

(Download the article as a PDF formatted for print)

I woke up this morning to find in my email inbox a scan of a document titled "Miureekhah Hulhagun Iru Araifi" (translated: "The Sun rose from the West in Mars"), authored by someone operating under the name of "Abu Osama" and bearing the stamp of approval by the Islaamee Kathakaa Behey Mathee Majlis (pages 1 2 3). I assumed that it was just a chain-mail doing the rounds and went off to run a few errands only to return in the evening to find yet another email in my inbox - this time from a close buddy who had spotted the (same!) article appearing in today's issue of Haveeru Daily (view clipping). It was then that I realized that the document I read earlier was a serious piece of literature produced by someone, or some religious entity, as part of organised religious evangelism.

The document was shock full of factual errors and scientific errors that I just had to take it seriously - especially since these very "errors" acted as the basis for their evangelical argument. Could they have been so scientifically illiterate?! This whole story of the Sun rising from the West and the supposed evidence for it by events on Mars is just ludicrous. I'd laugh my belly off if I weren't so worried about the sheer lack of scientific understanding and the lack of skepticism. Anyway, I'd like to go over the document in question and set the science straight...

Claims in the document
The basic claim in the "Miureekhah Hulhagun Iru Araifi" article is that [1] the planet Mars had slowed down in its trek around the Sun, [2] came to a complete stop on 30th July 2005 and then [3] resumed its trek around the sun - [4] in the opposite direction - [5] in August/September 2005. The document attributes these observations to "Retrograde motion". The document also claims that [6] this encounter meant that the Sun had started to rise from the West on Mars instead of the usual East. It further claims that [7] the same would happen to Earth someday. They then interject a Hadith that claims the Sun rising from the West as being a sign that the end is near and that once it happens no one could repent or achieve salvation. The document also claims, on the authority of religious scholars, that [8] the Sun would rise in the West on Earth once only - for one day only - and things would continue as normal thereafter.

The document then uses these claims as a premise to attempt validate, justify and promote a number of Hadith regarding the end of the world and judgement day to call upon people to stay steadfast to Islam, to repent and to call upon non-believers to the faith.

The document then gives an invalid URL to an article on space.com in an attempt to create a smokesreen to make it look more credible.

Analysis and Explanations
It is important to note that the article presents an incorrect definition of what a "Retrograde" really is. A planetary body is in retrograde motion when it moves in a direction dissimilar, i.e. opposite, to another planetary body within a system. The problem at hand deals with a specific type of retrograde motion that occurs when the motion of planets is viewed relative to the Earth - known as an Apparent Retrograde - and is applicable to all planets that lie beyond Earth in the Solar System: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Perhaps the best way to understand and help imagine the interactions betweens the planets involved in retrogrades is to watch the simulation available here. Run the simulation on that page and watch carefully how the movement of Earth and Mars in their own elliptical paths results in changes in what we see in the sky - with such amazing things as Mars apparently slowing down, stopping entirely, changing direction and then resuming as normal. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but I tell you, this simulation is invaluable. It is important to recognize that these "Mars retrograde" events are cyclical events that occur once every 26 months and has been taking place since before the earliest humans.

- The article's false claim [1] thus acquires a whole new meaning - it is the apparent behaviour of Mars that we see that is actually slowing down and not Mars itself.
- The dates given in claims [2] and [5] are false - in the 2003 Mars retrograde, Mars reached the first stationary point on 30th July, went through the loop back and reversed direction after reaching the stationary point on 29 September. In the 2005 Mars retrograde, Mars reached the first stationary point around 1 October and went through the loopback till it reached the second stationary point on 10 December and reversed direction again. A nice sketch of the movement of Mars, including the key dates, for both these years is available here.
- As said before, even during a retrograde, despite how we perceive it, Mars never actually stops or moves in any special way other than its usual motion along the elliptic orbit around the sun - thus claims [2], [3] and [4] are false if taken in the literal sense.
- Since Mars never budges from its usual orbit path nor its usual rotation direction, unlike as claimed in [6], there never is even a moment of time that the Sun rises from the West in Mars. The Martian sunrise and sunsets continue as they have been doing for the billions of years it has been in existence.
- The article quite correctly quotes scientists as saying that the retrograde happens for all planets. But the quote is placed out of context amongst the article's drive toward making it seem that Mars switched directions and had the Sun rise from its West. Truth of the matter is that scientists are actually referring to the planets other than Mars that are also affected by Apparent Retrogrades - ie Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - and does not include Earth in it. However, since Apparent Retrogrades depend on the position of the viewer, Earth would also be subject to the sort of retrograde illusions as Mars if we were to observe things from Venus or Mercury and there'd come a time every year when Earth retrogrades and the entire Earth would seem to wobble a bit as it scurries backward and then forward again. But when talking with respect to Earth, claims [7] and [8] just fall flat.

It is worth noting that one of the main tasks of the article seems to be to suggest that this is a one off event that demands our immediate attention. However, this seems absurd a suggestion given that Mars retrogrades are cyclical events that have even been documented carefully by ancient Greeks and the Mayans and that a good part of humanity has known, predicted and observed it for centuries. What more, we are currently right in the middle of such a retrograde - Mars reached its first stationary point on 15 November 2007 and has been trekking through the loopback all of December and will continue to do so for the entire January till it reaches its second stationary point on 30 January 2008.

Scientifically, there's absolutely no reason to think that Earth will change its direction of rotation or direction of orbit around the sun - hence the direction of the Sun rise - EVER! The angular momentum of earth's current spin would keep the Earth turning the way it does now until opposing forces slow it down to a complete standstill - which happens to be millions of years away. The only scenario where the Earth MIGHT change its direction of rotation is if a there is a collision with a very (very!!) large foreign object such as a very large meteor and that too only under particular conditions that depend heavily on the location of impact and speed of the object - but this act would almost certainly wipe out every single living thing on Earth and so there'd be no point to this issue of Sun rising from West. Another occasion that might allow for the Sun to rise from West - if all you have is a compass - is if the Earth flips the polarity of its magnetic field. The Earth could and IS presently slowly changing its magnetic polarization - so if/when a polarity flip occurs, what is currently shown as "West" on a magnetic compass would then register as "East". But the cardinal directions are NOT defined by the Earth's magnetic field and the Sun would still continue to rise from the same direction it has always risen - the only thing that would have then changed would probably be the compasses to make up for the switch in pole polarity.

After thoughts
I hope the above deconstructs the myth/hoax published in Haveeru and popularised in Male'. It is sad to see that people, especially with the blessings of the Islaamee Kanthakaa Behey Mathee Majlis, engage in fear-mongering and scare tactics to psychologically intimidate people into religion. Surely there are more honest means than this?

Mars has been the subject of many other hoaxes recently and it seems to be able to consistently dupe a lot of people. It is easy to be duped and had for unless one practices healthy skepticism and read up. Meanwhile, go out and have a look at Mars shining bright in the sky - that's what I was doing with a telescope during the 2003 Mars retrograde when the red planet was supposed to be the closest to Earth it will be for years and years to come...

PS: By all means, feel free to send this article to your friends who've been taken in by the hoax.



UPDATE (25/01/2007): It seems the exact same hoax article was also disseminated by the Maldivian Islamic political party Adaalath Party on on their website. Sigh.

This is just a quick short blurb to share an interesting article at the Economist. Titled "The new wars of religion", I think the article maybe an interesting read to some of you especially given the recent religiously motivated bombing in the Maldives and the sudden bold and dramatic highlighting of religion in the Maldivian public life in the past few years. The article is part of a series of articles presented as a Special Report on Religion and Public Life which observes and comments on the events in various parts of the world with a focus of religion and politics. The rest of the special report does focus on several other important issues and angles and is well worth the read.

I am a worried spectator to the growing religious discord on my home soil and elsewhere because I tend to share Carl Sagan's concern that humans may, in their intense religious fervor, wipe out each other (or even the entire animal kingdom) due to mere differences of opinion on each others differing and unprovable claims regarding the supernatural. I think we humans have enough trouble as it is that we don't have to complicate matters further with self-righteous attitudes and treating the other as infidel scum (ripe for killing).

Have a read of the articles and feel free to share your thoughts here.

Lately, I stop myself from blogging most of the time and on the occasions that I do go onto publish something, I make sure it's something pretty mundane... mostly because expressing myself has come at a cost that I do not wish to bear for the moment. However, the recent terrorist bombing in the Maldives agitated me too much to keep my big mouth shut.

One of the most shocking things to me about the incident was that there seemed to be not much of public outrage or unrest following the explosion. Maybe it is because people have, for the most part, grown apathetic to what is going on in the country or perhaps people were expecting such an attack as if it was an already overdue eventuality. Whatever it is, we all seemed to be very interested in knowing exactly who perpetrated it. Most people, apart from Maumoon & Co ofcourse, were quick to point fingers at a particular group of people in the country – the religious extremists (or rather Islamic extremists to be more precise). It may not have been fair to single out any group of people at such an early stage but given how things have unfolded and the status of the police investigation (as of now) it seems almost certain that the confessed culprits that organised and executed this utterly unjustifiable attack did what they did based on their particular religious conviction.

However it is that you choose to classify these savages, be it “extremists”, “fundamentalists”, “jihadists”, “religious fanatics” or perhaps simply “deluded insane misfits”, it is important that we skip semantic disagreements and instead concentrate on the heart of the matter – WHY. A query into their exact motives gives an independent, unbiased and more complete description of who these people are and what sort of mentality and beliefs led to the atrocity they committed. I will refrain from engaging in speculation on what their motives are/were since the investigation is still ongoing and the police have not released any statement on the issue. However, I do wish to raise my concern over the growing religious extremism which seems to be a reality that many people refuse to accept (still).

An objective, independent observer would most certainly agree that there has been sudden and dramatic increase in the religiosity of the Maldivian people in the past 2-4 years. Maldivians have been Muslims for the past 1000+ years yet there probably never was a time, atleast in my living memory, where so many men wore snipped trousers and long beards and women wore black burka covering head-to-toe and withdrew from social life and work to a place in the home. It is essential that we honestly ask where this sudden religious “enlightenment” arrived from and why it is taking root and how it is spreading because it is along with this movement that extremist thought was imported and is being cultivated.

The religious (Islamic) enlightenment in the country certainly had/has a lot to do with the growing freedom with which preachers are able to spread their message. The political “changes” that started a few years ago certainly made all the difference in that restrictions on the freedom to publish were then relaxed, making it possible to break away from the Maumoon-only fatwas. The public was then suddenly bombarded with all sorts of material from all sorts of writers and groups – both from within and without. Now, there are books, booklets, flyers, speeches, Q&A sessions and all sorts of religiously themed events going on each day where religious “scholars” preach to their heart’s desire. The freedom and reach is increasing evermore as weekly’s, radio programming and TV slots dedicate more time and space for such material. What is alarming though, is that there is nothing to keep things in check.

Maldives is a 100% Islamic nation by (implicit) assertion in the constitution and the prevalent mode of thought makes it almost impossible to say something that can be even remotely perceived as anti-Islamic. There certainly was/is no room for criticizing a preacher’s message or engaging in intellectual debate on religion and related issues. Aniya was quickly shot down due to her now famous article in Minivan for allegedly offending and attacking Islam and its principles. The reaction to her article certainly set the ground for what writers and intellectuals who disagree with the “religiously enlightened” can expect – there was zero tolerance on anything that is remotely critical, there wasn’t room for scepticism. This important lack of freedom of expression is what I think seeded the roots of extremism.

The lack of freedom to criticise or voice scepticism on any matter within the grasp of religious preachers gave them a lot of room to spread their particular interpretations of the Quran, the Hadith and Islam itself. It is essential to note that ANY position on Islam (or most, if not all, other religions for that matter!) is all down to the particular interpretations a person chooses to adopt and the resultant ideologies that a person chooses to accept. To someone that has taken the leap of faith to adopt a particular interpretation as the ultimate truth, all other competing interpretations of “truth” are invalid and sinfully wrong. Extremists justify their position using the same material and with equally valid “arguments” as any other and only differ in that they are willing to engage in immoral, unjustifiable violations of human rights to enforce their beliefs. It is all too easy to move through different religious modes of thought without realizing where the buck stops – for blind faith is deemed a virtue. It is truly saddening and worrying when people, especially young adults barely in their twenties (such as the perpetrators of the Maldivian terrorist attack), gain such conviction that they are ready to harm and kill others in the name of their beliefs.

Religious extremism may now sadly have made its first bloody mark with the first ever terrorist attack on the Maldivian people and our guests. The Maldivian WWW sites run by extremists offer a peek into what maybe really going down in their clans and how far they are willing to take it. Witness some of the Maldivian calls for jihad at the videos at http://www.raajje.tv/kokko007 and writings at http://noorulislam.wordpress.com/. How long are we going to give a blind eye to this madness???

If we do seriously intend to tackle extremism (irrespective of whether it is religious or not), we need to immediately start engaging in free, open intellectual debate on all matters, improve education (especially science) and generally open the public’s eyes to the beliefs, ideas and lives of people elsewhere in the world and throughout history.

Update (08-Oct-2007): Seems Raajje.tv decided to kill the videos that I had linked above - the videos certainly aren't available no more. How or why they censored it is beyond me but I suspect the Maldivian government had some influence. Anyway, a friend found out that the same user kokko007 had uploaded the same videos to YouTube as well.

I was rummaging through the locally revered magazine called "Dharuma" for a friend when a series of articles written by a Dr. Mauroof Hussain titled "Evolution Theory: Mulhidhunge Bahana" (translated into english as "Evolution Theory: Atheists' Excuse") caught my eye. This was interesting because Dharuma magazine has supposedly caught a particular following of readers with its team of "high profile" writers, religious teachers and allegedly educational content.

Anyway, as someone who reads dhivehi magazines only rarely, I would have had no idea what sort of arguments the article might contain were it no for the title that clearly sets the stage - this was going to be creationist ramblings. Nonetheless, I bit my tongue and read through it, reading some bits twice just to make sure I read it correctly. The article surely had a load of surprises in store and by the time I was finished reading it I was beyond speechless - the author had managed to write complete, thorough, mindless, fallacious bullshit from the very start till the very end. I encourage you all to read this "brilliant" piece, it would teach you a thing or two about making a case without really making a case, how to obfuscate, how to commit a dozen logical fallacies and still have it all fit for publishing in a magazine. If this were an intentional hoax then it surely would make Sokal blush.

The article starts off with "arguments" (attempting) to associate evolution with every sort of demonic, evil manifestation imaginable - especially to the ultra-conservative Islamic mind. Materialism, Marxism, communism, racism and atheism are served for starters as well as a claim from the outset that the theory really is devil's incarnate and no less than his greatest creation ever! The author then drops names of scientists/thinkers/inventors no less luminous than da Vinci, Galileo, Newton and Einstein themselves as having expressed belief in the existence of Allah. Many of you should know how outrageous a claim this is - I, and probably much of the rest of the world, would challenge the author to explain and show supporting evidence. First of all, philosophically speaking, it doesn't matter what who-and-who believed as it has absolutely no bearing on the truth values of those beliefs in question. However, the biggest problem with this claim regarding the belief of those scientists is the sheer dishonesty of this claim :- da Vinci, Galileo and Newton were all Christians (infact Newtons is well known to have been an extremely religious Bible believer) and Einstein was a deist/agnost. The Einstein quote "science without religion is lame and religion without science is BLIND" when read in the full context of his essay makes clear, very well, what he means by religion and what he means by a God or more precisely what he discredits as being false Gods and religions. The quote appears in his essay "Science and Religion" and is a must (short!) read for anyone who is remotely interested in Einsteins views on the relationship between science and religion - I really recommend reading it.

Anyway, the author finally finds space for dispensing something about the theory itself. Anyone with even a mild knowledge of proper evolutionary theory and its workings would just stare at the garbage inked cheerfully by the doctor. It must be said that the author fails miserably at defining what evolution theory entails. Unlike what's said in the article, evolution theory does NOT include postulations on how life arose - evolution stands independent of abiogenesis and "origin of life" theories. The article also states that evolution theory claims white supremacy but again there is no such thing inherent in evolution theory. Rather, it has to be acknowledged that Darwin indeed held racist views (very much in accordance with the then contemporary views) and did denigrate Africans. However, it would be a logical fallacy to discredit evolution theory on this basis since, again as I mentioned above, a particular person's individual views are irrelevant to the truth evaluation of a claim. I hope I can skip giving analogies to make it clearer as to why this is a such an easy argument to make and why its fallacious...

The article continues on with a hogwash of standard Creationist and/or Intelligent Design objections with arguments such as irreducible complexity, apparent design, purported perfection of creation and (current) holes in the fossil record. I'm too sleepy right now to iterate them all here but I'm sure anyone curious to know the other side of these arguments (and their answers) can find them bundled up in short neat sections at the "Objections to evolution" page on Wikipedia. Stand assured that the explanations you may read may lead to the elucidation of the false assertions made by the author, who seems to hint that humans walked and lived safely among bands of animals upto 60ft tall, 60lb heavy ferocious carnivorous animals we call dinosaurs and had been around unchanged since the Jurassic years.

Science is an evidence based enterprise that aspires to explain the world - it is not biased towards nor is hostile to any particular religion. It does not care whether its findings and theories conform to a particular preconceived framework for understanding and interpreting nature - for its goal is to build, refine and distil the best explanation of the universe and everything in it. Arguments such as the gaps in the fossil record mentioned in the article do nothing more than state a half-truth. There is no explanatory power in the creationist argument since all it does is say "God did it". Most amusingly, these particular people seem to be incapable of perceiving a God powerful enough to create a beautiful process as evolution to power the biological processes in the world just as the physical processes (or laws) govern motion, flight etc. It must be said that there are Muslims, Christians and Jews all of whom are pious and steadfast in their beliefs yet see no conflict with science and evolution - their interpretation and understanding allow for a God who creates magnificent mechanisms to drive the world without constant meddling by God himself...

After reading the article(s) in question, I was agitated enough to say something (thus the blog post!) about these sort of mindless crap being granted the authority to be published and spread without the freedom for countering arguments. I wish I am able to articulate better in Dhivehi so that I could myself write an article to respond to these sort of advocates of mysticism. I hope atleast some of you would think twice after reading articles in Dharuma and ignore the pseudoscience it packages to be passed off as modern science. It is always a delight to realize the true essences of science, the power of the scientific method and start re-learning and replacing strict ancient mysticism for a better, brighter life of knowledge and understanding. May God grant all those who aspire for such understanding the means and the will to do so.

Note (05/July/2007): My support for evolution theory does not imply anything more than just that and my criticisms of the article in question do not constitute of an attempt to support religious disbelief as some assume. I am compelled take issue with these sort of articles and ideas because it (in my view) presents bad science, incorrect information and is heavily tainted with the particular interpretation of holy books by its authors which they want to pass off as the ultimate truth. Any of you who bother to do further read up on its claims will find the extents to which most of its facts and arguments have been misquotes, misinformation and misappropriations - my post highlights a few of the more blatant ones. Such dishonesty seems to be indicative of an attempt to discredit a scientific theory that is well respected and accepted as the cornerstone in many areas of research. My goal in criticizing the Dharuma article certainly did not constitute of an attack on religion or religious belief but rather is an honest attempt to promote good science and critical thought.