Sam Kean Quotes
Things look especially bleak for common killers such as diabetes and heart disease. Those ailments clearly have a genetic component. But when scientists survey genes looking for which mutations patients have in common, they come up empty.
Kean, Sam. The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code. Little, Brown and Company, 2012.
This quotation illustrates one of the contemporary problems that Muslims face. The problem of overeating and especially obesity are now known to be serious health problems. The Prophet had called attention to this while the majority of the world, afraid of starvation, considered obesity and overeating as a sign of affluence and health. In that sense the Prophet provided sound medical advice. However, for those Muslims who take the words of the Prophet literally, they take the statement literally and therefore pay little or no attention to immunization, water pollution, sanitation other than specified by the Prophet. To them, there are no other causes of disease because Muhammed said so. The wisdom from Aristotle to Einstein typically moved knowledge and mankind ahead with new and critical insights and revelations but all were wrong in some respects and future science has determined that. But for the fundamentalist Muslim, there can be no error in the word of the Prophet, just as for the fundamentalist Christian or Jew, there can be no error in their Bibles. Although valid for Muslims, the Hadith is less well known than the Koran which is recited by all good Muslims.
Sam Kean is an American writer. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, Psychology Today, and The New Scientist. He has also published five books which discuss scientific discoveries in a narrative style. His books received positive reviews in The Wall Street Journal Library Journal, and The New York Times. He was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and lives in Washington, D.C..
