Re: Why are Muslims against Evolution?!?
Peace bro yazdi
Ok so here we are … you admit to being confused, but is this meant in jest? Are you being patronising? Allahu’aalim. Perhaps I should not have said it like that … rather I have a good opinion of your ability to reason that I said what I said and I didn’t mean to offend you.
Like you I too do not have everything figured out and I am not ashamed to admit it. And my reality is worse than yours i.e. these two legs are not even mine that I lay claim to them, and I am indeed aware of my short comings that is the reason why I resign to the Qur’an because I believe it to be from Allah (SWT) science is our interpretation of the universe. It makes more sense to resign to scripture than to science because of the very reason that you say – i.e. that humans have short comings.
You say that you are more comfortable with** “questions you can not answer than having answers you can not question; worse indeed is to accept answers which are not answers at all…” ****seeing that we are in the philosophy forum let’s analyse this statement. **
For me comfort is to be content – and to be in a state of contentment is where the internal condition is satisfied that it no longer “questions” the outward condition for “why” – that “why” is a movement inside the person that shifts us away from comfort and hence I question the logic in your statement above. It sounds good to the uninitiated and I say this without any arrogance and Allah (SWT) is my witness. The reason why we seek answers is to satisfy that need of “why”. The reason why science came about was so we could answer these questions. To be given an explanation that we do notquestion is not the same as being given an explanation that we can notquestion. We can carry on questioning but a time comes when we resign and accept. You have done this with evolution I have not done this … yet. I accept that Allah (SWT) sent man to the Earth, how that is to be interpreted well I’m still waiting for an explanation that I am in agreement with … until then I do not ask the question … not that I can not ask it … the condition of the believer is not that he does not ask questions out of fear, but that he has no need to ask those questions – he is satisfied.
You say that you don’t belong to the club who believe the universe was created ten thousand years ago after the agriculture revolution.. and it is better to be confused than being an “over confident arrogant”.. First of all I do not belong to that club either and the emboldened statement here is presented as a false dichotomy. There is a third choice - one does not have to be over confident arrogant or confused and nothing else … I would rather not be confused and that state is beautiful indeed, perhaps that feeling comes off as arrogance, but it is not – it is assurance and confidence – but it is not confidence in myself – it is indeed confidence in Allah (SWT) …For sure All Praises are for Him.
You say that you don’t know exactly where you came from, that you are skeptical if you arrived from somewhere or evolved from some other species… but you are perfectly comfortable with this. I say I came from my mother’s womb, that Allah (SWT) breathed life in to me when I was starting off … In fact I would say that a part of me was in existence before my mother herself was born, because as you may know when a female child is developing in the womb of her mother before she is born albeit fully developed all of her ova have been created, there is no more to come after a point pre-natal growth of the female. I think my statement without any arrogance is an exact thing it does not need further explanation.
Next you mention that the topic of scriptures and science it is largely a political/social discussion because there is hardly any science in scriptures. For me science is an extension of scripture. It is the documented work relating to our findings from scripture and that is what the organisation that I am a part of wants to reignite. For example when people read in the Qur’an that the “sun” and the “moon” are signs of Allah (SWT), Muslims without the science were already using the sun and moon to tell the time of day and time of month respectively. But then further study led to the timetabling system, calendars and navigation etc all stemmed from this …
You said that my imagination was going wild with the idea of nations being replaced and animals being no exception to this – so let me illustrate my point when it comes to dinosaurs …
http://www.lifestudiesonline.com/dinosaurs/extinct.htm
The removal of these creatures – note not all of the living creatures died, but the dinosaurs were selectively killed off by forces of natural cataclysmic events, only the last theory given is a gradual process and even that is not gradual enough for the dinosaurs to have “evolved” to survive. My point being even science confirms through archaeological evidence that creatures are eliminated usually by chance events with high impact – to me this is the signature of Allah (SWT). To a non-believer it may be just a black swan event basing it on statistical theory, which is the parent basis for evolution as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory,
Foremost I also agree with you that scriptures have not contributed to any scientific advancement, however they have been integral for pointing us in the right direction to make scientific discovery. You say that this is shared with Islamic scholars of high repute like Moududi, Dr. Israr, and Ghamdi. I do still fundamentally agree with this view point, (but apologies I do not consider Ghamdi a scholar of high repute).
However you then say that I contradicted myself by trying to take out science from Quran.
I however did not do this, when scripture says something I accept it, I then embark on finding out what it means. For example the pattern in the Qur’an is when there is a parable and metaphoric term it is usually given to us for spiritual guidance and character building purposes, however literal statements are also given to demonstrate, prophetic knowledge of the Qur’an and actual knowledge that only Allah (SWT) could know, but with the added dimension that it will not unveil itself until we stumble across or research it. For that reason literal statements in the Qur’an cannot teach us science because their scientific insight is hidden until we make discovery. So when I analyse the basis of God sending humans to the Earth in a metaphoric way I look for the spiritual guidance in such a notion, since it evades me then I conclude that it must be a literal statement designed as evidence of its authenticity, but we will only come by this knowledge through research or perhaps never come by it at all. At least in our personal lifetimes we might not – so I simply accept it.
You challenge to me that “I should give you one example from Quran about science which is not yet discovered by humans” is a false challenge, because the basis of knowledge in the Qur’an is always found after the fact. Scientific knowledge engenders people to reflect on the verses – it does not work the other way round. If it did this then technological progress and scientific research would not be required. I have never claimed that the Qur’an reveals scientific truths before we discovered them through our own research. We look to the verses of the Qur’an about embryology and we take it as science, but it took an embryologist to see that and consequently he became Muslim, but prior to that Muslims just read those verses accepting them for whatever they meant. Now, I spotted something in the Qur’an some years back that made me say “SubhanAllah” – I’m not saying that my interpretation is concrete, but I am saying that it made me confirmed in that the Qur’an is from Allah (SWT) it was a personal thing. However I looked at those verses with a scientific hat on and what I saw were verses that seemed to have knowledge of the fact. The verses I am talking about are in Surah Naziat – the first few, where I believe although they speak about different types of angels doing the bidding of Allah (SWT) they have great parallels with the forces, strong, weak, electric, magnetic, and gravitation. You see the purpose of the “science in scripture” is not for discovery, but to confirm to those who have knowledge in any field that there is a Being above them and superior to them, it encourages those people to accept the guidance of the Qur’an.
Just like you I believe in God because when I study science, I find precision, accuracy, and harmony in nature. This does indicate an intelligent designer. I too believe in morals/social laws I have learnt from my parents.
You wrote: On the other hand I don’t believe the same intelligent designer who has given me some intelligence discourages me to question/think critically.
Without going in to detail the aqeedah of Ahl-us-Sunnah-wal-Jammah does require us to avoid being critical in areas where we obviously have no real knowledge nor can ever obtain it.
With regards to following the opinions of scholars I do follow them somewhat out of “trust” I do not call it blind, because although I cannot possibly know more than a scholar and hence could not decide for myself which scholar is true and which is not without having to do the research myself, I do however see whose character is trustworthy and accept him. Since this is the Sunnah of our sahabah (RA) with RasoolAllah (SAW). They saw in him “good character” to accept his words. They did not ask him for proof or try to intellectually confront him, rather this was the practice of the deniers.
Apart from that I accept that I have not been as eloquent as I should be and you have obviously picked up on my weakness of discourse and for that I apologise. I do admit that I can be wrong and often I am … in fact I changed my whole Islamic outlook in the process of some 7 years as a result of questioning myself. You can see for yourself an audit trail in my responses on Gupshup … With that said, I believe this subject to me is more than just another subject – it is a bone of contention and it is something that I have wished would be addressed through a research programme by PhD students.
To end … I cannot appease the atheistic scientific community if they concede that evolution is not as factual as they have led us to believe, because they will ask me for an alternative theory and that I am unable to provide … all I want is for the hype of evolution to be reduced and the systematic teaching of it as fact to be stopped. They are serving their needs to discourage religion and want it to seem outdated and that for me presents a big philosophical problem.
Please forgive me for my faults …
