This lecture will begin at 18.00 BST.
It is commonly claimed that faith and the pursuit of rational inquiry cannot co-exist, and that a committed believer must necessarily suspend his/her pursuit of rational inquiry. It has also been claimed that in Islam, the relationship between faith and the pursuit of rational inquiry has been largely harmonious. However, the reality — both present and historical — is much more convoluted and it can be dangerous to ignore the fault-lines that have the potential to affect both beliefs and knowledge and can exacerbate polarisation. Here, I will discuss my ongoing struggles to grapple with the complexity of this issue.
This presentation will comprise a short introduction, followed by a conversation with Professor Nader El-Bizri and an audience-informed Q&A session.
Speakers
Arif Babul
Professor Arif Babul is an astrophysicist and a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. He has made numerous groundbreaking contributions to the fields of astrophysics and cosmology, and especially to the study of the formation and evolution of cosmic structure in the universe. In recognition of his contributions, he has been awarded several prestigious awards and honours, including being elected U.S. National Academy of Science Kavli Fellow in 1993 and Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023. In addition, he currently holds the prestigious Infosys Visiting Chair Professorship at the Indian Institute for Science and has been named a rare second-time recipient of the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship in the UK, this time at the University of Edinburgh.
In addition, Professor Babul has made significant contributions to the areas of computational neuroscience and applied AI. He is a co-author of a published article on the Ismaili community’s devotional literature, curated an Art of Science exhibition, contributed an article on art of scientific visualisation, and is presently working on projects in quantum computing. Pre-Covid, he was the lead organiser of the Ismaili Centre Public Lectures on Science and Technology in Canada and has also delivered numerous public lectures on astrophysics as well as on science and faith. Professor Babul has been interviewed on CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks, on BBC Radio 4’s The Forum, and on ITREB USA’s Critical Conversations, and was invited to contribute an essay on science and faith in a published collection titled "Belonging and Banishment: Being Muslim in Canada".
Professor Nader El-Bizri
Professor Nader El-Bizri is a philosopher and architect. He is currently affiliated with the University of Cambridge, and he was until recently the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Sharjah. Prior to that he was a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Durham University and a tenured Professor at the American University of Beirut, where he served as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and as the Director of General Education. Before that he taught and conducted research across the academic ranks at the universities of Harvard, Nottingham, Lincoln, and at the CNRS in Paris and the IIS in London. He serves on various academic boards internationally and is the General Editor of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity series that is published by Oxford University Press in association with the IIS. He has acted as advisor to the Science Museum in London, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in Berlin, UNESCO in Paris, and Expo2020 in Dubai. He has been interviewed by the BBC and France Culture cultural programs, and in recognition of his contributions to the field, he has received awards and honours, including the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Prize.
Please note filming and photography may take place during the event, and be used across our website, newsletters and social media accounts. These could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, speakers during the talk, and of audience members participating in Q&A.
Views expressed in this lecture are those of the presenting scholars, not necessarily of IIS, the Ismaili community or leadership. Promotion of this lecture is not an explicit endorsement of the ideas presented.
Cover image: a fusion of two images: L'atmosphère : météorologie populaire ("The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology"), published in 1888 by the French astronomer and writer Camille Flammarion and a section of Hubble Deep Field. Both images are originally public domain and have been edited and combined by Prof Arif Babul.
