International Symposium on Youth and Faith Tendencies in the 21st Century Sessions Attract Attention
The conferences attracted attention within the framework of International Symposium on Youth and Faith Tendencies in the 21st Century, held on 11-12 November 2022 by Pamukkale University Faculty of Theology and Graduate School of Islamic Sciences with the support of Denizli Governorship, Denizli Metropolitan Municipality and Turkey Religious Foundation.
Karadaş: "Every question of our young people is very valuable!"
Prof. Dr. Cağfer Karadaş: "Everyone has questions and problems. Young people are the ones who voice these questions and problems. That is why this courage of young people is useful for us. At least they teach us what our questions and problems are, and this is how we learn. Every question of our young people is very valuable."
Karadaş answered the questions of the students with great interest and chatted with them by telling short stories from his own life. Karadaş explained the answers to questions about Islamic sciences and advised young people to visit the Islamic Technology Museum in Istanbul.
The first of the special sessions of the symposium continued with researcher and writer Taşkın Koçak's speech on "Metaverse and Religion". Koçak started his speech by thanking Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kutluhan, Rector of Pamukkale University, for being instrumental in this symposium.
Koçak said: "We need the dreams of young people."
Researcher-Author Taşkın Koçak, in his speech on the History of Virtual Reality (VR) and Developing Technology, first talked about the unity of the physical realm and the meta realm. "The world and education are going to very different places. The classical education system as we know it is disappearing," he said, emphasizing that the education system may change in the 2030s.
Talking briefly about the companies that support the Metaverse and enable their growth, Koçak said that the Metaverse will affect many areas of life, including education, religion, tourism, entertainment, clothes, trade and even senses such as smell, feeling and taste.
Koçak said: "It is the youth who initiate technology in the world. We need young people's dreams in this regard. Young people need to read and develop on these issues" and expressed his belief in the youth. At the end of the symposium, Koçak answered questions and shared the VR device he brought with young people who wanted to try it.
The second special session of the symposium continued with Prof. Dr. Ahmet Rumeli's conference titled "Two Civilizations".
Prof. Dr. Rumeli: "The West took science from Eastern civilization."
Prof. Dr. Rumeli drew attention to the atrocities committed by the West in the Muslim geography and mentioned that it tries to keep the world under its hegemony with its subcontractors and tutelage. In the continuation of his speech, Prof. Dr. Rumeli stated that Europe experienced the "dark age" between 600-1600 and underlined that Islam is a civilization of peace and tranquility. In his presentation, Prof. Rumeli also emphasized that Western civilization inherited knowledge from Eastern civilization.
In his speech, Prof. Dr. Rumeli explained that the whirling dervishes in the Mevlevi ritual (sema) revolve around the whirling dervish master while at the same time revolving around themselves, and that this is the same as the electrons revolving around the atomic nucleus. At this point in his speech, Rumeli said that the inside of electrons has not been discovered so far and called on physicists to conduct research to discover this. In the following part of his speech, Prof. Rumeli said: "The way to reach the level of contemporary civilization and to be truly independent and powerful is through science and technology. The source of this is universities" and emphasized the importance of universities.
