Re: Why do you believe?

Flawless Bridge between 'Science' and 'Religion'

One of the greatest philosophical conflicts in the dynamic vistas of
human dialectical thought, is that of the perceived incompatibility
between science and religion. In the last few decades, a spate of
books, articles and television documentaries have arisen, dealing with
this issue as circumscribed by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Yet it
appears strikingly odd and intriguingly compelling, that the general
debate on such a universal theme has turned overwhelmingly into an
exclusive debate between science and the Biblical account of the
creation of the universe and its multifarious processes. This has no
doubt contributed to highlighting the existing variances between
scientific facts and the Bible, in turn leading many people to dismiss
religion in general, whilst concomitantly fostering the growth of
atheism and agnosticism. It seems even more odd, that such a
discussion, by default, usually excludes all religions except the
Judeo-Christian tradition. Yet, once this tradition is conclusively
shown to be incommensurate with science, all religions, including the
initially excluded ones, are brought back into the fold of discussion
and summarily tainted with the stain of scientific incompatibility.
This is indeed a most bizarre state of affairs, especially when it
emanates from those who advocate the scientific method of discovery -

the very group that claims to value accuracy and objectivity.
One of these often excluded worldviews is that of Islam, and its
claimed revelatory foundation - the Qur'an. Muslims, however, claim
that no dichotomy or chasm exists between science and the Qur'anic
belief in monotheism. In fact, Muslims acknowledge that any book that
claims to describe the creation of the universe ought to accurately
reflect the essence of the universe in both principles and processes.
It would therefore be most intriguing for the interested and
contending parties to examine whether the Qur'anic model casts some
light or indeed fresh new insights into this ongoing epistemological
divide. Yet in the West, it is felt that Islam, far from being
compatible with modern science, must be the underlying reason that has
directly had something to do with fomenting retrogressiveness,
intolerance and 'fundamentalism'. In fact, in this discourse on
science and religion, Islam seems to have become unfairly excluded,
since it has been misperceived to be an exclusive religion of the
Arabs, emanating from a primitive and outmoded culture. However, it is
not generally known that the word Islam is absolutely non-exclusive,
universal and timeless, since, unlike most religions, it is not tied
to a culture, nationality, race, region, personality or somebody's
personal belief; rather, it is a description of a state of mind and
action, linguistically denoting voluntary peaceful submission to the
singular Creator, where one flows in concordance with the universal
natural order of cosmic scheme (22:18). A Muslim is anyone, anywhere,
at any time, who chooses to follow such ubiquitous natural laws in the
realm of existence.
Yet despite this misunderstanding, evolving incipiently, side by side
with the resultant inordinate rejection of Islam, is an ever-growing
realization among many Muslims, as well as some non-Muslim academics,
that the Qur'an appears to be addressing this age and the coming 21st
Century and beyond, over and above the contents and approach found in
many other scriptures.


Scientific Correlations
In the 20th Century, perhaps the greatest realization or discovery has
been that the universe has evolved from a 'singularity' - commonly
referred to as the Big Bang. Indeed, it has been admitted by leading
atheists, such as philosopher Antony Flew, that this point has become
their nemesis. This is because an origin implies that there was once
'no thing' - whatever that may mean - and that such a rude
beginning
borders on the now taboo or embarrassing question of 'God' or a
Creator. This is not to say that many scientists have not tried to
escape the dreaded 'beginning' by postulating an accidental universe;

however, their 'solutions' themselves have been highly problematic,
unprovable or wildly speculative, such as: imaginary time, quantum
fluctuation, multiple-universes, infinitely cyclical universes, etc.
In fact, it appears that all the purported solutions to escape the
singularity problem are haunted by the growing awareness that there
appears to be intelligence embedded within the processes of the
universe. This line of thought, under the right conditions, would
naturally lead to the logical question as to whether there is some
connected overall purpose to the universe and, concomitantly, a
species such as the human being.
The verifiable fact about the Qur'an in this whole debate on origins,
is that unlike other scriptures, in the Qur'an - during the depths of

the Dark Ages, 1,400 years ago - it has been unequivocally recounted
that the whole universe and the earth therein, were once, one piece
and that the Creator ripped them apart and made every living thing
from water (Qur'an: chapter 21, verse 30), that the Creator is
continuously expanding the universe (Arabic word used for expanding is
musiuna, 51:47), and that the universe has evolved to form celestial
systems and the earth, from the coalescence of dust and gas (41:11).
These concepts were not realized until the 20th century, particularly
after the discovery of galactic recession by red shift by Edwin Hubble
in 1925.
Yet another branch of knowledge, among a myriad, where the Qur'an's
correlation with science has been startling, is in the area of
embryology. Although it was linguistically clear as to what was being
said in the Qur'an, about human development before birth, by Arabic
linguists, many of the verses on embryology were unconceptualizable to
them, owing to a lack of specialized education in the subject. One of
these intriguing verses which was queried, stated: "Read in the name
of your Sustainer and Lord, who created the human from a thing which
clings ('alaqa)" (96:1-2). The "clinging thing" 'alaqa is also the
root word for the derivative meaning of 'alaqa which is "a leech-like

structure". This is a pristinely accurate visual-cum-structural
description of the embryo from day 7 to 24 when the zygote clings to
the endometrium of the uterus much like a leech clinging to the skin.
The University of Toronto embryologist, Professor Keith Moore, who was
approached by linguists on these verses, explained, in the 1980's,
that just as the leech sucks blood from its host, so too does the
human embryo withdraw blood from the pregnant endometrium. By the 23rd
to 24th day, the embryo has a strong physical and functional
resemblance to a leech. The root meaning of the word for clinging is
"'alaqa", which, unfortunately, has been mistranslated into English
incorrectly, as "blood clot", in many translations of Qur'an.
Yet another verse states that: There is a stage before birth when the
human being is like a "chewed lump" (mudghah, verse: 23:14). The
"chewed lump" verse was explained dramatically by Moore as follows: He
made a plasticine shape resembling the 28-day-old embryo and then had
it bitten into. When juxtaposed, the resemblance between the special
plasticine model and the actual microscopically enhanced picture of
the 28 day old embryo, is strikingly similar, for one can observe that
the structures on the embryo are the somites, which are the early
stages of vertebrae; they do indeed resemble bead-like teeth marks
imprinted on the plasticine model and hence the appropriate
description of this stage as resembling that of a "chewed lump" --
the
mudghah. The staging of pre-natal human development was first
described in 1941 by Streeter, and a more accurate system was proposed
by O'Rahilly in 1972.
Another area that the Qur'an covers, most accurately, is geology. As
geologist Z.R. El-Naggar points out concisely, "...the Qur'an
consistently describes mountains as stabilizers for the Earth, that
hold its outer surface firmly lest it should shake with us, and as
pickets (or pegs) which hold that surface downwardly as a means of
fixation. So simply stated, the Qur'an describes the outward
protrusion of mountains from the earth's surface, and emphasizes their
downward extensions within the Earth's lithosphere, as well as their
exact role as stabilizers and as a means of fixation for such a
lithosphere" . Some of the verses pertaining to these geological
phenomena are: 78:6-7; 15:19; 16:15. The notion of mountains having
roots was first hypothesized in the latter half of the nineteenth
century, and their role in connection with providing stability to the
dynamics of the lithosphere, through plate tectonics, has only begun
to be comprehended since the late 1960s.


Nature of Belief in the Qur'an
Given these considerations, one might be led to question how these
verses ended up appearing in the Qur'an. Historically, it must be
pointed out that the undeveloped paganistic Arabic society in the 6th
Century had no 20th Century notions of the Big Bang, the expanding
universe, plate tectonics and embryology, for the Qur'an was revealed
to an illiterate Muhammad by God in the Dark Ages, and that the
inductive aspect of the scientific method sprung up after the Qur'anic
period. Several centuries prior to the advent of the Qur'an,
superstitions, mysticism and a non-scientific way of explaining nature
had gained a hold in most societies on earth. In this abysmal
atmosphere, the Qur'an led untutored desert nomads and the people they
came into contact with, to look into the nature of the universe in
order to fathom things, which led to a scientific revolution that
helped foster the Renaissance and the Enlightenment periods in Europe.
Indeed, the Muslims had learned and then further developed the thought
heritages of the Ancients, and in so doing, evolved the conduction of
science to new and novel heights. As medieval historian Thomas
Goldstein has remarked in his book, The Dawn of Modern Science: From
the Arabs to Leonardo Da Vinci: "Every single specialized science in
the West owes its origins to the Islamic impulse - or at least its
direction from that time onwards."
Methodologically and inspirationally, it was the Qur'an itself that
led to the "Islamic impulse" that Goldstein refers to. To understand
exactly why, we need to delve deeper into an analysis of the Qur'an
itself. The Arabic word Qur'an literally means a book "to be read". It
claims to be the complete and absolutely unaltered communication from
the single intelligence that has originated and developed the entire
universe. The Muslims' claim is that if this assertion is true, then
the Qur'an must be able to withstand, at least, the following tests:
Firstly, there should be no internal inconsistencies and
contradictions within its contents. Secondly, it should not contain
statements that are contrary to known facts, regarding for example,
the structure and function of the universe. Thirdly, it must be
linguistically clear, unambiguous, and precise. All these tests are
necessary so that its contents can be objectively confirmed or
refuted. Passing these tests, successfully, would indeed establish the
credibility of the Qur'anic claim of its 'divine' origin. On the
other
hand, if inconsistencies and ambiguities do indeed exist, then the
book in question is either entirely man-made, or might have originated
from the Originator, but was subsequently corrupted by human beings.
In a nutshell, this would mean that the book is not credible.
The analysis of any book, which claims to be a revelation, ought to
include the most important resource accessible to us - the human
intellect. It is only through the human intellect that we can confirm
or negate the presence of contradictions and thereby substantiate or
invalidate claims. Surprisingly, the Qur'an itself emphasizes that the
reader subject its contents to rigorous analytical scrutiny with an
objective and honest intent, in order to ascertain if there are indeed
any internal or external inconsistencies (4:82). In this way, the
Qur'an boldly and confidently challenges its readers not to take its
claim of divine origin at face value, but to examine the book and
always remain alert for any kind of inaccuracy, a challenge which is
unequivocally open to all skeptics and those with a keen interest in
scientific investigation, particularly in the area of the
compatibility or incompatibility between science and religion. The
claim of the challenge, even after 1400 years, has still not been
deposed, even by those who are no friends of the Muslims. More
interestingly, from a scientific perspective, the Qur'anic proposition
to find internal or external incongruity within its contents, as a way
to dismiss its claim, is tantamount to a truly scientific method of
falsifying invalid ideas and concepts.
In general, the aforementioned criteria may be used to test any
claimed revelation. Contemporary Islamic thinkers point out that if
the information contained in this book was unknown 1,400 years ago,
one would perhaps be led to question its presence in so ancient a
document. They ask: Does the Qur'an indeed withstand the tests of
precision, consistency and non-contradiction? And if so, is the
structurer of the Qur'an also the structurer of the universe?
One certainly needs to question, where such 'scientific' verses came
from? However, one thing is certain: If Muhammad did indeed write the
Qur'an, expositing his own ideas and mindset, he would have had to
have gained 20th Century knowledge regarding: embryology, cosmology,
geology, ecology, archaeology, biology, sociology, anthropology,
history, atmospheric sciences and cognitive sciences, whilst being
deprived of libraries, laptop computers, telescopes, microscopes,
universities, the internet and sophisticated databases. Even if they
were somehow miraculously available, of what use would they be to an
illiterate man. However, be that as it may, the central question
remains: Whether one believes that Muhammad procured his knowledge
from earthly or possible extraterrestrial sources, as opposed to from
a Creator who is independent of our space and time conceptions, what
exactly is the thrust and the message of this widely possessed, though
seldom analytically studied book?
To fully understand the Qur'anically inspired re-genesis of knowledge
in the Dark Ages, its multiplier-effects over the ages and the import
of the Qur'anic view of science, we must understand that the Qur'an
unequivocally rejects belief based upon blind faith. However, many
people tend to look upon the Qur'an from a Eurocentric perspective on
the nature of religion, and tend to thereby color Islam as just
another dogmatic belief system. For example, even the word for
'belief' in Arabic does not mean 'belief' construed as 'blind
faith',
as it has evolved to mean in Christianity and many other belief
systems. In fact, this blind-faith notion is echoed in the
authoritative proclamation of St. Augustine: "Credo quia abserdum est"
- "I believe, because it is incredible". In stark contradistinction,
the word for 'belief' or 'faith' that is used in the Qur'an, is
iman,
which has, at its root amana. This word means to confirm or verify
things. Therefore a real Muslim is one who confirms ideas and
statements, and is not given to accepting ideas without proof and
evidence. There is no room for a leap of faith at any stage. The fact
that many profess to adhere to Islam, but do not in fact follow its
pristinely laid out Qur'anic methodology, in no way diminishes Islam's
pre-eminent position towards evidence and proof (e.g. see 2:44;
3:190,191; 16:90; 8:22; 28:49; 23:17; 67:10). It was, after all, the
Qur'an, which wrought a revolution in science by its emphasis on
intellection. Through the influence of the Muslim philosopher Ibn
Rushd's (Averroes') writings and that of others, the European
Averroists in the Middle Ages set the trend for rationally criticizing
authority based on mystical doctrines. Since the Qur'an fostered such
a transformation of the West itself, it is in reality, a neglected
part of the Western legacy, and is a document that is vitally worthy
of scrutiny. This is because the Qur'an invites self-examination and
proof at the crux of its fundamental framework.
The Qur'anic approach is proof-seeking and teleological, that is, it
is purpose, intention and design based, being identical in many
respects with Unitarian beliefs, which had many well-known adherents
such as Voltaire, Newton, John Locke, Milton and Joseph Priestly. The
message of the Qur'an is that of Unitarianism, albeit an advanced and
completed version of it, as the sample verses on embryology, geology
and evolutionary cosmology illustrate. If one recollects, these
Unitarians within Christendom, like the true Muslims, denounced
mysticism, believed in rationality, and did not regard Jesus as divine
or semi-divine.


Socio-Environmental Implications
Given the consistent rational stance of Islam, the laws of nature are
seen to collectively form the primary revelation. The exposition of
splendid artistry and remarkable engineering contrivance in divine
creation overflows on almost every page of the Qur'an. Indeed, the
quintessence of the Qur'anic outlook, is that by reflecting on the
universe, and the diversity of life forms within it, we certainly
observe a panoramic display of remarkable order and consistency. Such
harmonious order is maintained throughout, by the structure of the
extremely delicate dynamic balances in the physical universe. The
Qur'anic outlook emphasizes that nature's equilibrium is itself
comprised of interlocking and interdependent structures and processes.
These processes by their very design have particular functions and
boundaries that are not arbitrary or ad hoc. Therefore, the usage of
the elements of nature, whether in the ecological or social spheres,
have their usufruct limited to ensuring that they are not used in a
manner in which their structure or function causes instability and
disequilibrium, internally or in the wider domain. This parameter of
universal utility is discernable by examining structure and function
and the context in which structure and function are embedded or
operate. In other words, human-made designs extracted from natural
designs must be part of the balance which gives rise to absolute
social and environmental principles based on: not upsetting absolute
cause and effect relationships that maintain the dynamic equilibrium.
In this discernment of nature, social and ecological rights are not
ethnocentrically conventionalized or man-made synthetic constructs;
therefore they cannot possibly be relative or biased. Such absolute
rights encapsulated by the full recognition of reality are to be
upheld under the auspices of a beneficent Creator, who is the ultimate
Owner and Inheritor of the universe, and to whom all creation will
eventually return (22:64 and 67:15). Indeed, all dominion belongs to
the Creator, and not Man, who oftentimes attempts to be the arrogant
opportunistic usurper. Man must maintain the balance dynamically
inherent in natural order (55:7-9), and be ultimately accountable to
the peerless God, for every action, large or small in the
socio-ecological realm.


Perfect 'Convergence'
In the globally united vision exposited by the Qur'an,
non-contradiction and teleology are intricately interconnected, as
much as dominant present day indeterminacy and relativism are
inextricably intertwined with the notion of a blind chance-based
universe. These two roads - one of intelligence, the other of chance
-
tend to lead individual thought and socio-environmental structuring
into diametrically opposite destinations.
Taking the route of intelligence, rather than that of chance, if
humanity realizes that the Qur'an is nature's precise reflector, to be
used as a prescriptive guide and motivator to prevent or cure our
mounting socio-environmental problems, there would be an eventual
dissolution of the artificial boundary between the sacred and the
profane, science and divinity, through a natural rapprochement based
on the correlation between causality in nature and pristine
revelation. Inevitably, such a rapprochement would further set the
stage for transforming human thought towards a unitary understanding
of the whole purpose of creation and man's role within the vastness of
cosmic order. In fact, anyone imbued with such an outlook would not be
searching for a pristine revelation to act as a bridge between science
and religion. That which is one, needs not to be bridged. Indeed, in
this vein of reality, it can certainly be proclaimed that science is
truly religion and religion truly science.
If these ideas of verifiable unity are eventually realized, then the
whole of humanity would indubitably reap the benefits of a perfectly
complementary relation between the usage of scientific reasoning and
the usage of revelation, where each one symbiotically reinforces the
value of the other, for the enhancement of both humanity and the rest
of nature, whilst simultaneously pointing to the very same ultimate
providence.

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