For three decades Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Professor of Particle Physics at Qaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, has been promoting science and humanism in Pakistan. His was one of the earliest voices to sound the alarm not only against the Pakistan Taliban movement but also against the perils of developing nuclear weapons and the deepening religious intolerance that has been aided in large part by the Pakistan state. In this fascinating and insightful encounter, journalist Mustafa Qadri speaks with Professor Hoodbhoy about science, Islam, and the challenges faced by Pakistan.

MQ: There is a tendency in Muslim communities to look at past advancements in science by Muslim societies. In Pakistan, the development of the nuclear bomb was hailed as a marvel of modern Islamic science. What do you think is the relationship between Islam and science today?

PH: Well, of course theological inquiry has nothing to do with the physical sciences today and it can provide no guidance in my opinion. Theology relates to an entirely different set of issues. It has to do with how humans perceive their role in the universe, what is right, what is wrong, what is the purpose of life, and so forth. Whereas natural science has a very defined purpose; which is to understand the workings of the natural universe. And I’m afraid that religion, any religion, no longer has anything to say about how we should investigate nature, what we expect to find.

MQ: There have been a slew of books by authors like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and a number of others talking about atheism and trying to distance society and the way it is governed by religion. Is that barking up the wrong tree? Does science have a role to play in social policies?

PH: No, I don’t see that. I see that our ethical and moral principles are perhaps defined by the species instinct within us to propagate us and to become more evolutionarily capable. However, the relation between morality, ethics and science is a distant one. I see that there are some things in society that we can ascribe to the need for us to survive… But other things, I think, are built on human experience and there does not seem to be a clear link between what is in existence in the field of morals and ethics and between science and rationalism.

SOURCE: http://pakistaniaat.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/an-interview-with-professor-pervez-hoodbhoy-forthcoming-suumer-issue/