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There is a lot of literature published about the relationship between God and science. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins has been followed by Rupert Sheldrake with The Science Delusion. Both are outstanding scientists. The latter is more in line with those who argue that the structure of the universe and life points to a Planner and Designer. The former does not believe in God, relies on the scientific method and argues that the existence of God cannot be proven. Not everyone buys this argument and responds that lack of evidence or observation is not proof of non-existence.
Science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. Science is the name of a method developed by humans to observe and explain relationships. The vast majority of scientists and thinkers throughout history have believed in God. Today, especially in Europe, the relationship can be said to be turned upside down. Scientists, like everyone else, have a private faith and culture. When individual scientists proclaim on behalf of science that God does not exist, they step over the boundaries of science.
Human need for system
We learn early on to look for connections in the world and to give meaning to our sensory impressions. Events that occur approximately together in time and place, we unite into a phenomenon. Causality, that events have a cause, is a concept that is important for creating meaning in life. We look for causes and their effects. When the white billiard ball hits the black one, the black ball begins to move. Under the same conditions, the experiment is repeated. We begin to develop hypotheses and theories. To test whether the theory can be generalized, we repeat the experiment with other objects under similar conditions. If it turns out that our theory holds water, it can be generalized to apply to collisions between all objects, even those objects that we have not tested. We formulate a law. Based on this law, engineers will dare to predict movement and collision, useful for designing new machines and structures. Often we are satisfied if the probability that the experiment does not comply with the law is less than five or ten percent.
Over the ages, we have formulated a number of laws in this way. Some of them have proven to be wrong or inaccurate. Then the laws have been nuanced or rejected. This is the scientific method that has helped humanity to systematically map nature, and through generalization (induction) predict the movement and behavior of objects. Understanding movement and change has been the focus. Chemistry is about describing the movement of molecules, physics is about the movement of objects, and astronomy is about the movement of celestial bodies. Similarly, sociology and other social sciences are knowledge about the movements of society.
It is about explaining and understanding our surroundings. In his time, Aristotle’s theories had a good explanatory power. With Kepler we got new observations of celestial bodies that could not be easily explained by Aristotle’s. Newton developed new theories, which turned out to be simpler and more accurate, and with much greater explanatory and predictive power, without using Descartes’ assumption that space is filled with a swirling ether. Aristotle’s was rejected. Later we observed other conditions that Einstein explained better than Newton’s. Einstein’s theories explained the world with neater mathematics than Newton’s. Today we have made more and more accurate observations of the world. In order to preserve the best we have, that is, to balance Einstein’s laws against observations, we have had to reintroduce Newton’s ether, but this time it is in the form of dark matter and dark energy. This is an adaptation, and a new theory is therefore expected. Stephen Hawking and many other sharp minds are working on the matter.
Why or how
Our technology and science are equipped to explain mechanisms, to search for and explain how the white ball makes the black ball move. It can be at a higher mechanical level, at a material level, atomic level or subatomic level. No matter how deep the explanation goes, it will be descriptive, and will not answer why conditions are the way they are.
The interaction of the spheres can be explained by models that use abstract concepts such as forces, energy and charges. One can always go a step further and develop new theories that describe the world even more precisely and simply. But why the world behaves the way it does is a question that will always remain. Who determined the relationships? Why must the world behave the way it does? It could just as easily have been very different. F= ma could have been F=ma/2 , F=2ma or F=3ma. The possibilities are endless. Who designed physics? Asking the question “why?” is the introduction and the door to other deeper existential questions. Questions of meaning. Science does not really have a good answer to the question of why. But that is not its task either.
The first reason
It is postulated that the Big Bang did not have a cause. In quantum mechanics, mass can come into being and disappear again seemingly without a cause. The origination has only a probability. Analogous to the Big Bang, it is conceivable that trillions and billions of big bangs have taken place, and that we happen to be in the one that had just the right balance of forces, and which therefore survived. Furthermore, the DNA molecule happened to be formed on a planet that happened to have the right conditions for life, as we know it. And by chance, man evolved to become a thinking and philosophizing being. Our existence is therefore very unlikely, but since we are clearly here, the incredible stroke of luck has taken place.
But the postulate of the Big Bang is difficult to accept. There must be “somewhere” where billions and trillions of these universes emerge. There must be some laws and conditions. And where did this space come from where trillions of universes go in and out of existence? Conceptually, we are back to square one. With the idea of causality, it is conceptually impossible to understand the first start, the first movement or beginning. It is also paradoxical to have a world full of laws, but which itself is supposed to be without cause. We cannot observe ourselves until the start. Knowledge of the origin must be sought elsewhere than in science. Science is a tool that has been developed to be able to answer questions about “how”. Philosophy and religion are knowledge that answers questions about “why”. Science and religion are therefore not completely overlapping. It is not one or the other. A deeper understanding of the observation and predication of movement in the world is something completely different from looking for answers to the meaning of this movement.
Det islamske verdensbildet
Islam is a monotheistic religion. In the Islamic worldview, there are no absolute physical laws that govern the world. The laws explain and describe, but they are not the cause of movement. The universe is Allah’s action in the present participle. Every time the white ball hits the black ball, it is His will that sets the black ball in motion. Every time, without exception. The physical laws describe Allah’s usual way of acting. It is by His goodness that we can predict some of His actions. In Islam, it is not fire that causes heat. True, fire and heat are usually associated. Where there is heat, oxygen and flammable material, there is fire, but because of Allah’s will. Allah cannot be forced or imposed to act. Abraham was thrown into the fire without the fire burning him. In Islam, deviations from the normal are called miracles. The entire universe is His action. Right down to the movement of the smallest quark and string in an atom, and right up to the overall movement of the entire universe.
All movement, consciousness, cognition, strength and mass are His creation. When we breathe, it is He who makes us breathe. When we read, it is He who gives meaning to the letters in our consciousness. And when we understand something, it is also His will. Our existence is not real, we are through Him. We are free, but at the same time controlled by Him. That is the miracle of life. Many mystics have understood this connection of unity with Allah, of His greatness and His power.
“This is the creation of God. Show me what they have created besides Him. Nay, the wrongdoers are in manifest error.” [31:11]
For Muslims, science is a useful subject for understanding how Allah acts, and for finding laws and expressions that can describe His actions. But not necessarily explain His actions. His existence is absolute. He does as He wills, and no one can put Him to justice. He is the absolute King who rules over everything.
For a Muslim, science cannot take the place of Allah. Science is not even in competition with Him. On the contrary, for a Muslim, science is about Him, and about His way of governing the world.
God is defined in Islam as a perfect being without beginning or end. He has always existed and will always exist. He has no need of anything or anyone. He is independent of everything, and everything depends on Him. He is the creator of time and space. Allah’s existence cannot be understood, and Islam asks Muslims not to speculate about Allah’s beginning or His person. Here but no further. Regarding the meaning of creation, Allah says:
“We did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them for play. If We had wished to find a pastime, We could have found it with Ourselves, if so. Rather, We will hurl the real against the worthlessness of perishability, and crush its head, and behold, it perishes! Woe to you for what you say. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth!
Those who are near Him do not feel too great to serve Him, and they do not relax. They praise Him night and day, without ceasing. Have they taken gods from the earth who raise the dead? If there were in the heavens and on the earth gods other than God, the heavens and the earth would perish. So glory be to God, the Lord of the Throne, far be it from what they say! He is not responsible for what He does, but they are responsible!
Have they taken gods besides Him? Say: “Produce your proof! This is the admonition of my contemporaries and those who passed away! But most of the people do not know the truth, and they turn away. We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him: There is no god but Me, so serve Me!” [21:16-25]
Science limits itself to only the observable. Science itself does not claim to describe absolute reality or the only truth. To generalize
The nature of the movements in our part of the observable world to apply unlimitedly is to put ourselves at the center of reality. A superiority and arrogance. Leaning on science to argue against God God’s existence is unfair and dishonest. Science only tries to explain the observations. It says nothing about how far we can go in our generalization. To limit all reality and the meaning of life to the observable is a conclusion for which science is not a premise.
Islam teaches that man is endowed by Allah with intellect, emotions, intuition and an innate insight into morality that resonates with the right message. Islam claims to be natural and rational, and thus easy to believe in. It claims to be natural, rational and thus satisfying to man’s intellectual and spiritual needs.
Islam teaches that Allah has sent prophets to mankind with clear signs as proof of their sincerity. The last of these prophets, and the only one who has left behind reliable historical sources, is the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. A study of the Prophet’s life and the message he brought provides Muslims with a strong rationale for believing in Allah.
Mohammed Juned
Approved by Imam Najeeb ur Rehman Naz
Approved by Imam Najeeb ur Rehman Naz
