Epigraph: 

“The God of Islam is the same God Who is visible in the reflection of the laws of nature and is discernible in the book of nature. Islam has not presented a new God but has presented the same God Who is presented by the light of man’s heart, by the conscience of man, and by heaven and earth.” [The Messiah, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani in Majmu’a Ishtiharat, Vol. II, pp. 310-311]

In the beginning of this dialogue, in his opening statement, Prof. Richard Dawkins seems to stand in awe of beauty and organization of nature, like Albert Einstein and many famous scientists from the past centuries. He elaborates it at some length in his recent book, whose title also reflects admiration of nature, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.

But, for whatever reason, he cannot seem to take the next step of seeing beneath the surface, which all believers and theists do.  A small leap of faith to Deism and then eventually to a Personal God.  I elaborate this small missing leap of faith, in Dawkins and other atheists’  thinking, in the words of the Messiah, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani:

As man cannot perceive with his physical eyes the Imperceptible Being Who is latent in everyone like fire and yet is hidden from everyone, nor can he find Him through the exercise of his imperfect reason, he has been subject to many errors in his understanding of Him and through his errors he renders to others that which is His due. God Almighty has mentioned an excellent illustration in the Holy Qur’an that the world is like a great hall paved smooth with slabs of glass and a current of water flows underneath them which runs very fast. A person looking at the slabs of glass wrongly imagines them to be water also and is afraid of walking upon them as he would be afraid of walking upon water, though in reality they are only glass but very clear and transparent. Thus, these great objects in heaven like the sun and the moon etc. are transparent like glass and are worshipped by mistake. Behind them, there is a Higher Power at work which is flowing swiftly like water. It is the mistake of those who worship created things that they attribute to the glass all this activity which is being manifested by the Power behind it. This is the explanation of the verse:

Solomon said, ‘It is a palace paved smooth with slabs of glass.’ (Al Surah An-Naml 27:45)

As the Being of God Almighty, despite its brightness, is hidden beyond sight, the physical universe is not adequate for its true recognition. This is the reason why those who depended upon the physical system despite their careful consideration of its perfect orderliness which comprehends hundreds of wonders within itself, and despite their pursuit of astronomy and physics and philosophy to a degree which shows that they had penetrated through heaven and earth, could not get rid of their doubts and suspicions and became involved in all types of errors and wandered far afield in their absurd fantasies. If they thought of the Being of the Creator, they proceeded only thus far that observing the great orderliness of the wise system they imagined that it should have a Creator. [The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam, Ruhani Khaza’in, Vol. 10, pp. 363-367]

Around 18 minutes into this dialogue Prof. Richard Dawkins, a renowned atheist, confesses that science does not have an explanation of human consciousness.  Reminds me of one of the verses of the Holy Quran about human soul or consciousness, “And they ask thee concerning the soul. Say, ‘The soul is by the command of my Lord; and of the knowledge thereof you have been given but a little.’” (Al Surah Al-Isra’ 17:86)

I have also linked one of our recent publications about human soul below:

Additional Study

Darwinian Evolution: Islam or Christianity?

Photosynthesis: deserving of our awe or ridicule?

The anesthesia of familiarity: There should be a Creator for this universe

Human Soul: The Final Frontier?

We have saved the above video in the Muslim Times also: