When religion treads on science

The Malaysian government is hosting a two day international Islamic conference with the specific agenda to find out how a Muslim astronaut should fulfill his religious duties in space. The main task of the conference is to address practical issues which a Muslim astronaut will face when he gets ready to pray in space.

Experts and religious scholars will discuss and debate how the astronaut will get clean water to wash in space before praying. Also in the consideration are matters on how the spaceman will locate Mecca while in zero gravity and how he will determine prayer times on space as in orbit the sun appears to rise and set more than a dozen times a day.

You might want to ask why the need for such a conference in the first place? Is it because these matters are so important for the Muslim world and that Malaysia is taking the lead in organizing a first-ever serious discussion of the issues?

Actually the truth is that Malaysia is sending its first astronaut to space with the Russians next year. But what if the Malaysian astronaut is not a Muslim? Would that mean the findings of this conference are in vain?

Actually I don’t see a chance of that happening and it is very likely that our first spaceman will certainly be a Muslim – a man selected from about 11,000 who had applied for the honour – although there is a Malaysian Indian in the final four.

In the first place I don’t see the need for us to spend so much money for the venture (I think close to millions and it comes as a part of arms deals with the Russians).

Malaysia is not a nation with traditional space related industry, neither are we one which is blessed with numerous intellects and scientists of world prominence.

We don’t even have a readily identifiable candidate to fly our flag on space and we had to undergo a search from scratch to look for one – just like running a Pop Idol contest.

So why are we doing it then? Is it because we want to eagerly join the space club, to be one of the first Muslim nations to have a man in space? Or that we have suddenly developed some interesting scientific theories that need to be tested in space? Can’t be this as well as the only scientific research our man will be involved in is to taste how our local delicacies will taste in space.

Could it be just for pride then, especially to nail down our reputation as a leading Muslim nation in the developing world.

That explains the need for the conference. Again I would ask why must we spend more money on such meaningless conferences, especially if it comes from the public fund and obviously have no public interest in it.

But more pertinent is that question of why should religion come into the picture of a scientific expedition at all?

I could be wrong here but I am sure there are exceptions in Islam for a person in not obliging his religious duties to pray in certain conditions.

I hope some smart person in the conference will highlight this and say that it is not important to worry about missing prayers in space.