January 2008 - Monthly Archive

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

The Fountain

20182

Building Bridges

How can we define The Fountain in a single word? As the editors we have been thinking about this question for a few weeks now, and we have reached a conclusion: “bridge.” What kind of a bridge is The ... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

M. Fethullah Gulen

21872

Language and Thought

Language is one of the fundamental dynamics in the composition of a culture. The power of a nation is directly proportional to the power and richness of its language and thought. A perfect command of ... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Ali Fethi Toprak

20989

The Cell Bank of Our Body: Stem Cells

Injuries, illnesses and aging are inevitable parts of our lives. The human body can deal with basic injuries and illnesses in daily life by cell regeneration. However, aging and certain injuries have ... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

A. Kadir Yildirim

23562

Islam and Democracy: A Critical Perspective on a Misconstrued Relationship

Nowadays, there is hardly any topic in the field of political science more interesting than the question of the relationship between Islam and democracy: Is Islam compatible with democracy and democra... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Omur Yilmaz

22118

Blue Light, Daytime Sleep and the Prophetic Tradition

Sleep is a blessing from God. Humans spend around one third of their lives sleeping. Sleep is essential for the performance of important daily acts such as speech, memory, and original or flexible thi... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Nathan Ruler

19254

What Fuzzy Logic Lets Us Think

Fuzzy logic is a new systemized model which is just as important as the more familiar classical logic because of its successful application to certain technological areas. There are scholars who consi... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Mirsad Tasmaz

18183

Do Not Underestimate Small Things

Who does not want to know the future? Is it not one of our impossible dreams to obtain advance information about tomorrow? Events developing in time have such a complicated structure that small things... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Sophia Gallant

24848

Beware of ''Others''

In My Fair Lady, a satirical movie based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Henry Higgins makes a wager with his friend that within six months he can transform a coarse Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doo... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Mirkena Ozer

20473

Who Wants a Transformer?

He is God, the Creator, the Evolver, the Giver of Forms and Colors. (Hashr 59:24)Halima was making her shopping list when the door bell started ringing wildly like there was a fire somewhere. She drop... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

M. Fethullah Gulen

20506

Halwat and Uzlat (Privacy And Seclusion)

Literally meaning solitude and living alone, halwat and ‘uzlat (privacy and seclusion) within the context of Sufism denote an initiate’s going into retreat to dedicate all of his or her time to worshi... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Ertan Salik

21972

Peer Instruction: A Better Way to Learn

Teaching and learning are two common human activities. If we need to name a great difference between humans and animals, this is the one. As Nursi points out1 almost from the very moment of birth an a... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

M. Fethullah Gulen

18849

Rainbow

Sky in blue, earth in green, dyes of all shades.Rainbows in all directions across the horizon,Touched by all these dazzling colors, humankind.Angels look on them with praise.Their faces to the ground,... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Ozgur Yilmaz

17609

Citadel of the Self: Incompleteness Theorem

What is consciousness? Is it established in the brain, or distributed throughout the whole body? Is it physical? Can I jump out of my own consciousness? These are the questions that have occupied the ... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Alice Bolton

55308

The Construction of Intelligence in Terms of Cultural Differences between East and West

As human beings, we live in societies that create their own systems of meanings through the process known as culture. This system of meanings is encoded in language and other symbols and maintained by... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Suleyman Candaroglu

18166

Quantum Entanglement: Illusion or Reality?

Science has always influenced philosophy. Trivial and not instantaneous effects of change in scientific thought eventually result in changes in social thought. For example, by the end of the nineteent... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Ozgur Yilmaz

19474

The Wonderer

When you travel long enough and become a stranger to every land you step on, you stop having a journey, but the journey starts having you. A motorcycle passes by very close with a groovy sound and dis... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Mark Scheel

22240

A Communitarian Imperative: Fethullah Gulen's Model of Modern Turkey

If there has been one great political lesson the twentieth century has taught us, surely it is the undeniable truth of Lord Acton’s dictum, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolut... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Seth Mette

17544

Descent from the Ivory Tower

Refugee in a tower of agony Hungry for ceaseless beauty In love with eternity Refugee in a tower of agony In an early, rainy morning When the birds started singing He woke into a vision crying ... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Kaan Kerem

20133

The Qur'an: A Biography

The Qur’an: A Biography. Such a title would normally suggest a book that deals with the history of the revelation of Qur’anic verses. However, Bruce Lawrence, professor of Islamic Studies at Duke Univ... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Hikmet Isik

20065

The Relationship between Our Prayers and Deeds

What are the ways of internalizing good ethical conduct and high virtues so as to make them a part of our nature? Virtues such as sincerity (ikhlas1), loyalty, refraining from backbiting or suspicion... read more..

01 Jan

Issue 61 (January - February 2008)

Sophia Gallant

19280

The Nature of the Closeness of God

Is God close to human beings? If so, how close is He? Or is defining Him in terms of His distance from the creation impossible? Perhaps we should question our own remoteness and ask, “Are we close to ... read more..