Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the International Forum on Islam (Kalif 2002) said the Muslim world was at its lowest ebb, and was probably continuing to decline and to fall because of its failure to seek knowledge, especially technological knowledge, and in the process missed the Industrial revolution ( New Straits Times today).

What the PM commented about Islam would probably apply to most religions of which there is a tendency to emphasise on human moral conduct and practices and how these will assist in one's place hereafter.

There is, in religious systems, no emphasis on knowledge of the material world, as it now exists, the investigation of which requires empirical tools of logic, questioning and emphasis of evidence and proof.

The reason is because the emphasis on questioning, logic and empirical veriafiability of beliefs required for technological advancement is precisely that, which is feared, will, when turned against and applied to religious precepts, undermine the religiosity of the people.

An example of this will be to ask of proof of the hereafter, and the questioning of the rationale of principles laid down by religious leaders.

Though many great scientists were/are religious, they may well be a minority amongst the religious who could demarcate and compartmentalise their religious faith and beliefs from their questioning approach and insistence of proof and verification in the pursuit of their professional interest structured around science and technology.

For most and the majority of others amongst the religiously devout, such intellectual demarcation and compartmentalisation between religious beliefs and their work and practical daily pursuits are not possible, and they tend, even in the latter pursuits, to adopt an unquestioning attitude and neglect investigation of the physical and material phenomena. |

Generally speaking, modernity and technology are structured upon a bedrock of an amalgam of the various values  an investigation of the truth no matter how emotionally unpleasant; a demand for proof for every assertion; a certain intellectual and personal freedom to speak and publish one's findings, and to listen to others' differing opinions, in a culture of debate free from reprisals and persecution.

These values are inconsistent with those of a religious system and order.

Obviously these attitudes will have no hope of thriving and flourishing in a social and political order in which religion, religious education and observances are held in great reverence in denigration of the secular and the non-conformist — and in which citizens are legally non- persona grata or ostracised if they were not within the faith and fail to observe the practices prescribed by it nor if they were otherwise punishable by death for leaving it.

Even in cultures that were not particularly religious like ancient China, the equally great emphasis on the metaphysical (eg The Tao by Lao Tze) and proper social relations and observances (eg Confucious teachings) to the neglect of investigation of the physical material world have cost the Chinese the loss of their initial advantage of discovering gunpowder. Gunpowder was successfully used by the British colonialist to bombard and subjugate the Chinese by gunships up the Yangtze River.

One should not forget that the British then had the benefit of the Industrial revolution and although they did not then abandon the religion of Christianity, they were influence by Luther's Reformation of the Church that removed much traditional strictures.

In passing, one also notes that the worldwide, the extent to which societies and nations technogically advance and become economically prosperous is inversely proportional to the grip of traditional religious faith and observances .

The question of whether it is feasible or a fantasy for Malaysia to send an astronaut for a mission to Mars by 2020 must be evaluated in the context of the issues raised.