God and Science

God and Science

In the West, the news media often represent the interaction of religion and science as a

battle to death between religious scholars and scientific atheists. But for many scientists,

who belong to the mainstream faith, things look entirely different. Throughout the last

millennium, the Church was looked upon as a controlling mother with two defiant sons

called physics and biology. Yet, despite strained relations, there is always optimism that

religion and science can benefit from each other.

Medieval scientists, assured by their faith that the universe is rational, took their

first steps towards uncovering God’s Design. The first great conflict happened between

the Church on one side and Galileo on the other side. In 1595 Galileo supported the

Copernican theory that the earth revolves around the sun against the Aristotelian and

Ptolemaic assumption that planets circle a fixed earth. Galileo was condemned by the

Church for his scientific beliefs and was ordered in 1616 not to discuss Copernicanism

either orally or in writing. Only in 1984 a papal commission acknowledged that the

church was wrong, but it was not until 1992 that the church actually reversed its

condemnation of Galileo. It took the Church about 4 centuries to admit that it was wrong.

Therefore, the son physics moved out of the house, and for a while, science enjoyed

its freedom. The telescopes of the following centuries saw many stars in a huge void,

evoking the dream of infinite universe with no sign of a beginning or a prospect of an

end. Some scientists thought that the universe was never changing. To them, there was

no need for a God! This simple view did not last. Edwin Hubble discovered the red shift of the distant stars, and in 1920’s the whole world knew that the universe had a beginning called the

Big Bang. The fact that the universe had a beginning asserted the existence of an

Omnipotent Designer that started the Big Bang. Cosmology used physics to uncover a

magnificently organized universe; fine-tuned to foster life within it. In its adulthood,

physics realized that mother is much smarter than she had been credited. The son

physics started to have a tremendous appreciation for creating the universe and his

mother’s wisdom.

Biology moved out of the house later than physics and is later to return as well.

Darwin introduced a concept of evolution of species by natural selection. It was an

interesting guesswork, but where in this scheme was the Designer? In the 19th century

the foundation of life was in a total mystery. Scientists of the time hoped that the

complexity of humans and animals would resolve into simplicity when more was learned

about life. Darwinists had no way of knowing about proteins, amino acids, the genetic

code and other mysteries of the living cell.

In the last 50 years biology has uncovered some of the mysteries of the living

cell, and the results firmly indicate another Grand Design. The marvels of the living cell

include precisely tailored microscopic systems that include molecular trucks to haul

neatly tagged cargo from one end of the cell to the other along a molecular railroad

tracks. It also includes power plants to generate the cell’s energy; disciplined biological

armies standing ready to fight the invaders; and a centralized genetic government to

maintain order. Darwin’s natural selection lies in smoking ruins. Darwinism may explain

simple things like the shape of finch beaks, but for the more complex questions of how

life evolved and why, biology is still reluctant to admit God’s Grand Design.

At the present time biology seems to be in a state of complete denial that

controlled physics when the concept of the Big Bang was first introduced. Some modern

biologists look for anything to reject the prospect of intentional design of life. Their denial

won’t last long, though; evidences are too strong. Other biologists suggested an

interesting compromise. It is called creative evolution. They believe that God created

Adam, but they may exclude the controversial Biblical statement that God created Adam

in His own image. Now, they ask the question: Who was really Adam? Could he be the

first living cell on Earth? Creative evolution advocates evolution not by natural selection

but by the guidance of God. This conclusion is based upon incomplete evidences. And

all the conflicts and contradictions of evolution will have to be defended by the creative

evolutionists and that was never done successfully.

The news media often ask scientists how science can be reconciled with religion.

A better question would be how could anyone with some knowledge of science avoid

watching the overwhelming evidences of One God?

Humans managed to divide science into three main categories:

• Physical: such as physics, chemistry, and engineering.

• Biological: such as medicine, embryology, botany, and zoology.

• Sociological: such as psychology, economics, anthropology, and history.

However, the great scientific pioneers in the human’s history could not really be

classified as physicist, biologists, or sociologists. Most of them had knowledge in many

branches of science. An inspiring list of those pioneers includes Newton, Galileo, Albattani(Albatenius), and Ibn Sina. Without exception, true scientists were devout

religious people. They simply understood that science would never have answers to all

complex questions.

At present, in trying to deal with the enormous scientific and spiritual information

that is available to us, it may help to abandon the above categorization of science and put the above three categories under a new name called Evidences of God! Or attach the Name of God to all branches of science such as physics of God, biology of God, etc. If we do that, the simplest physical law, biological and sociological phenomenon can then make sense. Asking questions about: who, why, and how can then have one answer, and one answer only. Some scientists are limiting their creativity by rejecting the concept of God. If scientists make it their business to uncover some of God’s Grand Design,humanity will enjoy a much greater scientific achievements, paralleled only to the great scientific advances that Islam inspired in the Middle Ages.

This would certainly require a major overhaul in the entire educational system.

Teachers would be required to be more inspirational. Books would have to be rewritten to include the thoughts of the scientific pioneers, and not merely their works without any

human attachments. This would change the life of physicists, biologists, engineers,

botanists, and all other professionals. Every simple physical law, biological test or

analysis is approached within the framework of the Grand Design. If that happens, the

entire human family would be in a state of submission to the Will of God. And that is

what Islam is all about.

The attitude of Islam towards continuous knowledge and scientific development is

quite remarkable. As a matter of fact, the first word revealed in the Quran was “Read.” It

was an order from the Creator to the Muslims to seek true knowledge, because this is the

only way to achieve an appreciation for the Glory and Greatness of God. With this order,science took on an international character in the Islamic universities of the Middle Ages.During that time, Muslims had a great advantage because the Quran inspired the Muslims to study the sky and the earth to find proof for their faith. Muhammad encouraged the Muslims to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave, no matter if their search took them as far as China. Studying is considered an act of worshipping God. It is an established fact that scientific upsurge by Muslims came as a result of religious influence.

Anyone who knows something about Islamic history is aware of the period of the Middle

Ages, which saw cultural and scientific peaks in the Islamic world.

Muslims made great contributions in the fields of mathematics, astronomy,

physics, botany, medicine etc. There is no numeral of greater significance than the zero,

which came from the Arabic word “sifr” or empty. Solutions of algebraic equations were

introduced early in the Islamic world, where it was known as the “science of restoration

and balancing.” (The Arabic word for restoration, al-jabr, is the root of the word algebra,

and algebra as a science is an Islamic contribution.) Al-Khwarizmi (780-850) of Baghdad popularized the use of the decimal numbering system and wrote the first clear textbook on algebra. The title of this influential Arabic book was “al-jabr wa al-muqabala”, which means “ the art of bringing together unknowns to match known quantities.” The key word“al-jabr” or “bringing together” gave rise to the word algebra. Al-Battani (850-929) in Damascus is considered the greatest Muslim astronomer and mathematician. He improved trigonometry and calculated the first table of cotangents. The Latinos called al-Battani “Albatenius”. Other Muslims such as Abu Kamil, and Omar Khayyam are only few names that contributed in Algebra.

Ibn Al-haitham (965-1039), known as “Alhazen” in the West, was one of the

greatest investigators of optics of all times. He was also a physician. His fame came froma book on optics that became known to Kepler during the seventeenth century. This

masterpiece, “Ketab Al-Manazeer” (Book of Mirrors) had great influence on the training

of later scientists in Europe, in which he described the nature of light as consisting of

particles which carry heat and energy. Thabit Ibn Qurra (833-902) in Baghdad was the

commentator on higher mathematics, and wrote on the theory of numbers. He, also, wrote about gravity and its relationship with mass, stating that when there are two bodies, the larger body exerts a stronger influence on the lesser mass. Islamic astronomers of the Middle Ages, having learned how to build mathematical instruments, were setting up observatories and charting the movements of stars and planets, while contemporary Europeans were ignorant of nearly all sciences.

                                         During the 10th century, Cordoba, the largest city in Europe, was a center for Islamic learning. Its mosque, known as La Mezquita, was one of the largest in the Islamic world. Ibn Rushd (1126-98), born in

Cordoba, known in Latin as Averroës, was a Spanish-Arab Islamic philosopher, jurist,

and physician. He also studied theology, philosophy, and mathematics under the Arab

philosopher Ibn Tufayl (1105? -85) and medicine under the Arab physician Avenzoar

(1090-1162). It is interesting to note that prominent Muslim scientists were given Latin

names with the effect of obscuring their identity and origin, and their association with the

Islamic civilization. The Caliph’s library at Cordoba included 400,000 books. Scholars

from all over Europe went to study at Cordoba. As the signs of mathematical awakening

in Europe appeared in the thirteenth century, the Christian monks made contact with

Islamic universities in Spain, opening the way to the Renaissance, and the translation

from Arabic to Latin started.

The first university on earth, Al-Azhar (the resplendent) was established after the

founding of Cairo itself in 969 AD. This university has an important effect upon the

development of educational institutions in Europe. The wearing of black academic

gowns, traditions of public disputations, and division of undergraduate and graduate

faculties originated at Al-Azhar University. Non-Arab speaking students from Europe

had to take a crash course in Arabic for 6 months, because Arabic was the language of

science.