I don’t know one from another. But Obama is quoted here:
“As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar University — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing.”
The top four definitions of develop from Dictionary.com is this.
Develop:
1.to bring out the capabilities or possibilities of; bring to a more advanced or effective state: to develop natural resources; to develop one’s musical talent.
2.to cause to grow or expand: to develop one’s muscles.
3.to elaborate or expand in detail: to develop a theory.
4.to bring into being or activity; generate; evolve.
Then Tipler charges of Obama that…
“Almost every advance he attributes to the Muslims was due to someone else.
“The non-Muslim Chinese invented the magnetic compass and printing (Gutenberg invented not printing, but movable type). The non-Muslim Hindu Indians invented algebra and the decimal numbering system. The non-Muslim European Christians invented the university.
“I can’t address advances in medicine, but I have studied the history of astronomy and physics. The Muslims contributed nothing.”
Again, I’m totally ignorant to what the Muslims actually did or did not do, but Tipler argues that Muslims did not invent or discover things that Obama merely said were developed by them. If this is true, then Tipler seems to be suggesting that Obama flunks history because Tipler himself does not understand what the word “develop” means.
