Epigraph
Allah is He Who raised up the heavens without any pillars that you can see. Then He settled Himself on the Throne. And He pressed the sun and the moon into service: each pursues its course until an appointed term. He regulates it all. He clearly explains the Signs, that you may have a firm belief in the meeting with your Lord. (Al Quran 13:3)
Written and Collected by Zia H Shah MD
Prologue
This popular article in Google-knol was first written in March of 2010.
First something about the big picture, Christian apologists want to make a case for Christianity based on laws of nature and science, by showing that there ought to be a Transcendent Creator of our universe. They make this case, in one breath, and in the very next, deny all of science, by insisting on Eucharist, man-God of Jesus, who is not Transcendent, resurrection and miracles that violate laws of nature.
Atheists are right in exposing the irrationality of the Christian dogma. However, the Christians are right in as far as their claim that there needs to be a Creator of this universe, Who employed natural means to do His work. However, both parties in their self-conceit are not listening to how Islam resolves their conflict; Islam as understood by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
When any honest scientist studies nature, he feels, like Albert Einstein, the presence of superior reasoning power, revealed in the incomprehensible universe. However, as the novelty of any new discovery in nature wears off, we begin to take the beauty, complexity, organization and co-ordination that we see every day around us for granted and many among us become vulnerable to think that it may have come into existence purely by chance. However, when we come across the newly discovered organization in nature our prior inferences are challenged. We are flabbergasted and astounded for a brief period of time and truly applause the beauty of the creation of God for a little while, until we are duped by the secular propaganda of neo-Darwinism again and begin to take things for granted. Anesthesia of familiarity takes over! This article examines the splendid interior decorations arranged by the bower birds and a lot more.
“He is Allah, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner. His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (Al Quran 59:25)
“The seven heavens and the earth and those that are therein extol His glory; and there is not a thing but glorifies Him with His praise; but you understand not their glorification. Indeed, He is Forbearing, Most Merciful.” (Al Quran 17:45)
“Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.” Albert Einstein
“Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” Immanuel Kant
Northern lights, details are mentioned below
Article
“I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet: I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia, food of the gods.”[1]
Birds can travel the world without any of the gizmos that humans depend on, and a new study suggests how: Our feathered friends might “see” Earth’s magnetic field.
While other mechanisms are thought to help birds navigate, including magnetically sensitive cells within their beaks, their brain regions responsible for vision are in full gear during magnetic navigation, researchers said.
“If you look into the brain of a bird during magnetic compass orientation, only the visual system is highly active,” said study co-author Henrik Mouritsen, a biologist at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, noting that most migratory birds do so at night. “Other regions of the brain are not, so birds could use vision to ‘see’ Earth’s magnetism and orient themselves.”
Mouritsen and his colleagues’ findings are detailed online in a recent issue of the journal PLoS ONE.
The researchers previously discovered molecules called cryptochromes, which change their chemistry in the presence of a magnetic field, in the retinas of migratory birds’ eyes.
“When light hits these molecules, their chemistry changes and magnetism can influence them,” Mouritsen said. The molecules might then affect light-sensing cells in the retina to create images, which would help the brain navigate during flight, he added.
A direct connection between the specialized cells and the region of the bird’s brain active during magnetic orientation, however, had never been shown before.
Mouritsen and his team recently found such connections between the cryptochrome-holding retinal cells and the “cluster N” region of migratory birds’ brains, located in part of the brain responsible for vision.[3]
Mouritsen noted that while the work is exciting, it isn’t direct proof that they can actually “see” Earth’s magnetism during migratory flights at night.
“If we could listen in on the neural connections between the retinal cells and cluster N, and show they actually send magnetically-influenced signals to the brain,” Mouritsen said, “then that would be really compelling evidence that they can see it.”
Even if migratory birds can see Earth’s magnetic field, he noted, plenty of mysteries remain to explain their uncanny navigation.
“Birds also use the sun and stars to navigate, but we’re not certain how,” Mouritsen said. “How do they compute all of this information and end up with a direction to fly in? There are so many steps in this process we simply don’t know about.”
Known for their lethargy, crocodiles weren’t suspected to be top long-distance travelers, but a new study shows that they can cover up to 24 miles a day and find their way home from enormous distances.
To test crocodile swimming skills, researchers relocated three crocs between 32 and 80 miles (52 and 130 kilometers) away from their homes just north of Queensland, a state in the northwest of Australia, and set them free to see how well they could find their way back.
The study technique was largely put into practice by the efforts of the late Steve Irwin. Specially-designed transmitters attached to the back of the reptiles’ heads allowed scientists to monitor progress, with some astounding results: the crocs swam between 6 and 24 (10 and 39 kilometers) a day, much farther than scientists previously thought they could.
One crocodile even swam around the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula (which juts northward out from Queensland toward Papua New Guinea) to reach home, covering more than about 250 miles (400 kilometers) in 20 days.
“We often thought crocodiles tired very quickly, but here we show very clearly that they are capable of moving long distances for days on end,” said study leader Craig Franklin of the University of Queensland.
Franklin says that the crocs, like birds, probably use many factors to navigate, including the position of the sun, magnetic fields, sight and smell.
“Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are any other reptile, so they are possibly using navigation systems similar to birds,” Franklin said.
The data from the satellite tracking study, detailed in the online journal PLoS ONE, show that estuarine crocodiles are capable of moving phenomenal distances over prolonged periods of time in the ocean.
The Bowerbirds
“Hast thou not seen that it is Allah Whose praises all who are in the heavens and the earth celebrate, and so do the birds with their wings outspread? Each one knows his own mode of prayer and praise. And Allah knows well what they do.” (Al Quran 24:42)
The most notable characteristic of bowerbirds is their extraordinarily complex courtship and mating behavior, where males build a bower to attract mates. There at two main types of bowers. One clade of bowerbirds build so-called maypole bowers that are constructed by placing sticks around a sapling, in some species these bowers have a hut-like roof. The other major bower building clade builds an avenue type bower made of two walls of vertically placed sticks. In and around the bower the male places a variety of brightly colored objects he has collected. These objects — usually different among each species — may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic items, coins, nails, rifle shells, or pieces of glass. The males spend hours arranging this collection. Bowers within a species share a general form but do show significant variation, and the collection of objects reflects the biases of males of each species and its ability to procure items from the habitat often stealing them from neighboring bowers. Several studies of different species have shown that colors of decorations males use on their bowers match the preferences of females.
Animal behavior of the Australian bowerbird is depicted in this documentary made by David Attenborough:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPbWJPsBPdA#
کس قدر ظاھر ھے نور اس مبداۢ الانوار کا
بن رھا ھے سارا عالم آئينه ابصار کا
چشم مستِ ھر حسيں ھر دم دکھاتی ھےتجھے
ھاتھ ھے تيری طرف ھرگيسوے خمدار کا
مسیح موعود
These Urdu verses are not translated as the beauty and charm is lost in the translation. These are only for the pleasure of those who know Urdu.
Work of Sir David Attenborough and many other naturalists can be viewed and appreciated in an all encompassing Islamic paradigm, I could cite majority of Attenborough’s work and video footage as support for my thesis of the anesthesia of familiarity: there should be a Creator of this Universe. If one is able to appreciate how he is dividing reality that we can only study natural mechanisms and by definition supernatural mechanisms if any are beyond the scope of science and human observations and the paradigm that he is creating for his scientific work, we can bring his science and metaphysics as proposed here to a happy co-existence. Now, without reframing or hijacking any further all his work to support my claims, here, I want to present a short clip of his interview on the topic of ‘Science & Religion,’ to remove a concern that he brings up in this vidoe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfa88SeNohY
He makes some good observations about nature and religion and then raises a question. The issue raised in this clip is the question of suffering in our world. This question is very well answered in a chapter of Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth. The chapter is titled, the question of suffering.
http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/index.html
Let me quote here the concluding pargagraph, in the later editions of the legendary book of Sir Charles Darwin, on the Origin of Species that can make one quickly conceptualize the role of suffering in the grand scheme of things:
From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed, by the Creator, into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
Once the question about suffering is understood as a tool for evolution, as Charles Darwin suggested, then one is ready to fully appreciate the beauty of God’s creation as suggested by many of the verses of the Holy Quran and the writings of the Messiah of this age, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The Urdu verses above are by him and some excerpts are quoted below under the heading Islamic metaphysics.
Sir Charles Darwin was also a believer in God and liked to call himself a theist. He writes:
Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason, and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.[4]
Limits of probability
I will build metaphors to demonstrate the limits of probability in my article, Stephen Hawking has a change of heart: God did not create Universe?
Islamic metaphysics
He is Allah, the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner. His are the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise. (Al Quran 59:25)
The Messiah of this age, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad teaches us that every thing in the universe is sustained by the Providence of Allah, All Mighty. He writes, “Again, Allah possesses many varieties of beneficence. Of these four are basic. According to their natural order, the first is the Sustainer of the Universe, as stated in Surah Fatiha. This means that the Providence of the Supreme God – that is, creating, sustaining and leading to the desired perfection – is operative and pervasive throughout the Universe, in the heavens, in the earth, in bodies, in souls, in the realm of substance and in the realm of essence and in animals, vegetables and minerals and all other realms. All are sustained by His Providence. Man receives sustenance from the spring of Divine Providence, from the early embryonic, even pre-embryonic state, to the time of death, and beyond in the stage of life in the hereafter. The Providence of God, because of its extending over all spirits and bodies and beasts and vegetables and minerals and the rest, has been called the most universal benevolence. For, every object that is extant is the beneficiary of this Divine attribute and every entity owes its very existence to it. Divine Providence is thus the creator of every existing thing and sustainer of every extant object, yet it is man that benefits most by it, for the entire creation of God is of service to man. Man has, therefore, been reminded that his God is the Lord and Providence of the Universe, so that the horizon of his hopes may be extended and he may believe that God, the Supreme, has immense beneficial powers and that He can bring into being an extensive variety of means for his benefit.”[5][6]
Again he writes:
“There is yet another direction in the word hamd, and that is that Allah, the Exalted and Lord of blessings, says: ‘Oh My servants, know Me through My attributes and recognize Me through My excellences. I certainly do not suffer from any defect or shortcoming. Nay, My Praise worthiness far exceeds the highest limits of praise rendered by those who praise Me. You will not find in the heavens or in the earth any praise worthy feature that is not to be found in My countenance. If you tried to count My excellences you would not be able to number them, even if you exerted yourselves hard and took pains like the dedicated. Search well then if you can light upon a praiseworthy merit that you do not find in Me or can discover an excellence that is beyond Me and My Presence. If you feel that way then you have no knowledge of Me and are bereft of vision. I am known through My glories and excellences and the heavy clouds saturated with My blessings indicate the plenitude of My bounties. Those who believe in Me as comprehending all perfect attributes and all excellences and attribute to Me whatever perfection they observe anywhere and whatever glory they can conceive of in the highest flights of their imagination and ascribe to Me every grandeur that their minds and vision may observe and every power that is reflected in the mirror of their thoughts, are indeed the people who are treading the paths that lead to true recognition of Me. They have grasped the Truth and they will be successful. Be up then (may Allah keep watch over you) and seek earnestly for the attributes of Allah, the Glorious, and reflect over them like deep thinkers. Seek diligently and ponder every aspect of perfection searching for it in every overt and covert manifestation of this universe as a greedy person occupies himself incessantly with the pursuit of the object of his desires. When you arrive at the comprehension of the fullness of His perfection and begin to perceive His fragrance, it is then that you have found Him. This is a mystery that is unveiled only to those who are earnest seekers of guidance.”[7]
To read a review of a series of MTA (Muslim Television Ahmadiyya) documentaries, discussing the attributes of Allah go to:
http://www.alislam.org/store/MTA_Attributes_of_Allah.pdf
http://store.alislam.org/dvddo.html
http://www.alislam.org/v/15.html
Aurora borealis, or northern lights
Aurora borealis are caused by the solar winds, according to Encyclopedia Britannica online:
“Auroras are caused by the interaction of energetic particles (electrons and protons) from outside the atmosphere with atoms of the upper atmosphere. Such interaction occurs in zones surrounding Earth’s magnetic poles. During periods of intense solar activity, auroras occasionally extend to the middle latitudes; for example, the aurora borealis has been seen as far south as 40° latitude in the United States. … In addition to Earth, other planets in the solar system that have atmospheres and substantial magnetic fields—i.e., Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—display auroral activity on a large scale.”[8]
In other words aurora are a proof and demonstration for the existence of solar winds, earth’s atmosphere and megnatopshere of earth.
Megnatosphere is of fundamental importance in making our planet biophylic, which means compatible with life. According to Britannica online:
The Earth, in contrast to Mars and Venus, has a significant surface magnetic field (approximately 0.5 gauss), which, like its gravitational field, becomes weaker as the distance from the center of the Earth increases.
Besides providing light and heat, the Sun affects the Earth through its ultraviolet radiation, the steady stream of the solar wind, and the particle storms of great flares. The near-ultraviolet radiation from the Sun produces the ozone layer, which in turn shields the planet from such radiation. The soft (long-wavelength) X rays from the solar corona produce those layers of the ionosphere that make short-wave radio communication possible. The harder (shorter-wavelength) X-ray pulses from flares ionize the lowest ionospheric layer, producing radio fadeouts. The Earth’s rotating magnetic field is strong enough to block the solar wind, forming the magnetosphere, around which the solar particles and fields flow.
The Sun emits not only visible light but also a continuous flow of particles known as the solar wind. Most of these particles are electrically charged and interact only weakly with the atmosphere, because the Earth’s magnetic field tends to steer them around the planet. Prior to the formation of the Earth’s iron core and consequent development of the geomagnetic field, however, the solar wind must have struck the top layers of the atmosphere with full force. It is postulated that the solar wind was much more intense at that time than it is today and, further, that the young Sun emitted a powerful flux of extreme ultraviolet radiation. In such circumstances, much gas may have been carried away by a kind of atomic sandblasting that may have had a marked effect on the earliest phases of atmospheric development.
The Earth’s main magnetic field permeates the planet and an enormous volume of space surrounding it. A great teardrop-shaped region of space called the magnetosphere is formed by the interaction of the Earth’s field with the solar wind composed of charged particles (plasma) that streams outward from the Sun. At a distance of about 60,000 kilometres outward toward the Sun, the pressure of the solar wind is balanced by the geomagnetic field. This serves as an obstacle to the solar wind, and the plasma is deflected around the Earth by the resulting bow shock. The magnetosphere so produced streams out into an elongated magnetotail that stretches several million kilometers downstream from the Earth away from the Sun.[9]
Aurora are generally seen only close to the poles of the earth because of the configuration of the megnatosphere. However, with increase in solar wind activity the regions where aurora can be witnessed does increase. For example, in August 2010, NASA reported that there is a 45 percent chance the Aurora Borealis will be seen close to Portland, USA.
Incidentally, such protection is mentioned in the Holy Quran at least twice in very unambiguous language. The Holy Quran says:
وَجَعَلْنَا السَّمَآءَ سَقْفًا مَّحْفُوْظًا وَّهُمْ عَنْ اٰيٰتِهَا مُعْرِضُوْنَ
“And We have made the heaven a roof, well protected; yet they turn away from its Signs.” (Al Quran 21:33) It is of great interest and joy to the Muslims to read this verse in the above context.
Additionally the Holy Quran says:
Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up mass, then We opened them out? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? And We have made in the earth firm mountains lest it should quake with them; and We have made therein wide pathways, that they may be rightly guided. And We have made the heaven a roof, well protected; yet they turn away from its Signs. (Al Quran 21:31-33)
Again the Holy Quran states, regarding different protecting mechanisms for our planet that include but are not limited to megnatosphere and the earth’s atmosphere:
Who made the earth a bed for you, and the heaven a roof, and caused water to come down from the clouds and therewith brought forth fruits for your sustenance; so do not set up equals to Allah, while you know. (Al Quran 2:23)
And again:
Surely, Allah holds the heavens and the earth lest they deviate from their positions. And if they did deviate, none can hold them back but He. Indeed, He is Forbearing, Most Forgiving. (Al Quran 35:42)
[i] Richard Dawkins. The ancestor’s tale. Houghton Mifflin Company 2004. P 545.
References
- Quoted in C B Boyer, A History of Mathematics (New York 1968)
- Richard Dawkins. The blind watchmaker: why the evidence of evolution reveals a universe. WW Norton and company, 1996. Page 35.
- http://www.livescience.com/animals/070926_birds_see_magnetism.html
- F Darwin Ed. Life and letters of Charles Darwin, vol. 1: (New York, D Appleton, 1987) p. 282. Also available on web: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2087
- Commentary on the Holy Quran, Volume I, Surah Fatiha, Published by the London Mosque, page 78.
- http://www.alislam.org/quran/
- Commentary on the Holy Quran, Volume I, Surah Fatiha, Published by the London Mosque, page 73-74.
- “aurora.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 03 Aug. 2010 ca.com/EBchecked/topic/43410/aurora>.
- “magnetosphere.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 05 Aug. 2010 ca.com/EBchecked/topic/357462/magnetosphere>.
- http://www.alislam.org/egazette/eGazette-Nov2007.pdf
Categories: Highlight, Religion & Science
Here is the link to my more than 40 articles on the theme of Religion & Science:
http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/religion-and-science/1qhnnhcumbuyp/218#
Fire flies an epiphany for Prof. Richard Dawkins
Einstein once remarked, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Human wisdom cannot flourish without proper understanding of both and their interaction.
When humans produce electricity from natural gas it is only 45% efficient and 55% of energy is wasted in heat. An electric bulb converts only 10% of energy into light and 90% goes to waste. But the so called accidental creations of nature do far better than the cumulative human efforts of several centuries. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Firefly light is produced under nervous control within special cells. … Firefly light is a cold light with approximately 100 percent of the energy given off as light and only a minute amount of heat. Only light in the visible spectrum is emitted.” The contrast between what nature has to demonstrate and what mankind has achieved after centuries of research is amazing! Is it fair to attribute the glory of the nature to blind chance alone?
“firefly.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .
Read more facts about fireflies:
http://iris.biosci.ohio-state.edu/projects/FFiles/frfact.html
Not slippery when wet
Ever wondered how a fly effortlessly lands and runs on your window without falling off? Judging by the natural curiosity of most Physics World readers, it is probably the sort of thing you thought about when you first started exploring the world around you as a child. However, as you might have noticed back then if you tried to get a better look, it is really hard to see those little insect feet in action without any form of magnification.
As the childlike curiosity of scientists never ends, it is somehow no big surprise that this apparently simple question – of how a fly sticks to a surface instead of just sliding off – was addressed in the 17th century by some of the pioneers of optical microscopy, including Robert Hooke. Better optical lenses suddenly allowed researchers to explore the world beyond the resolution of their eyes for the very first time.
Even back then, scientists knew that there is more to insects than meets the eye. While the most basic system of mechanical interlocking found in arthropods is the claw, insects do not merely have a miniature version of this. Many surfaces in the natural world are simply not soft enough to allow claws to be inserted, or are too smooth to provide a safe grip. The question of how insects stick, crawl and run on vertical surfaces and even upside down remains as hotly debated between scientists now as it was in the 17th century.
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/44454
Why does another Nobel Laureate in physics believe in God?
William D. Phillips, a Nobel Laureate in physics, is a fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute of the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology writes:
Why do I believe in God? As a physicist, I look at nature from a particular perspective. I see an orderly, beautiful universe in which nearly all physical phenomena can be understood from a few simple mathematical equations. I see a universe that, had it been constructed slightly differently, would never have given birth to stars and planets, let alone bacteria and people. And there is no good scientific reason for why the universe should not have been different. Many good scientists have concluded from these observations that an intelligent God must have chosen to create the universe with such beautiful, simple, and life-giving properties. Many other equally good scientists are nevertheless atheists. Both conclusions are positions of faith. Recently, the philosopher and long-time atheist Anthony Flew changed his mind and decided that, based on such evidence, he should believe in God. I find these arguments suggestive and supportive of belief in God, but not conclusive. I believe in God because I can feel God’s presence in my life, because I can see the evidence of God’s goodness in the world, because I believe in Love and because I believe that God is Love.
http://www.templeton.org/belief
Is God the Father the Creator, the Trinity as a whole or are there three Creators?
The issue is conveniently left elusive in the Christian literature, as they bank on the Jewish or the Muslim understanding of God in their daily lives and academic pursuits. However, the underlying conflict reveals itself now and then.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica:
“The Holy Spirit is one of the most elusive and difficult themes in Christian theology, because it refers to one of the three persons in the Godhead but does not evoke concrete images the way ‘Father’ or ‘Creator’ and ‘Son’ or ‘Redeemer’ do. A characteristic view of the Holy Spirit is sketched in The Gospel According to John: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit takes place only after the Ascension of Christ; it is the beginning of a new time of salvation, in which the Holy Spirit is sent as the Paraclete (Counsellor) to the church remaining behind in this world. The phenomena described in John, which are celebrated in the church at Pentecost, are understood as the fulfillment of this promise. With this event (Pentecost), the church entered into the period of the Holy Spirit.”
“Christianity.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Aug. 2010 .
God the Father is ‘the Creator,’ in the Christian tradition, Jesus is ‘the Redeemer’ and the Holy Ghost, serves its multiple roles. As one examines this issue, one should remember, within mainstream Christianity the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Trinity, as such he is personal and also fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and Son of God, and the Son is of the same substance as God the Father.
Nicene Creed is followed by all the Trinitarian Churches, giving rise to very interesting inferences on so many different levels. Here, what is relevant to us is that Jesus Christ is, allegedly, the physical manifestation of Logos (or the divine word) and consequently possesses all of the inherent, ineffable perfections which religion and philosophy attribute to the Supreme Being. So, did he create anything in the Universe?
Wikipedia states under the heading Homoousian, and this information is common place in Christian literature if one makes a little effort:
“Origen seems to have been the first ecclesiastical writer to use the word ‘homoousios’ in a Trinitarian context, but it is evident in his writings that he considered the Son’s divinity lesser than the Father’s, since he even calls the Son a creature. It was by Athanasius and the Nicene Synod that the Son was taken to have exactly the same nature or essence with the Father, and at the Nicene Creed the Son was declared to be as immutable as his Father is. Some theologians preferred the use of the term ὁμοιούσιος (homoioúsios, from ὅμοιος, hómoios, ‘similar’ rather than ὁμός, homós, ‘same’) in order to emphasize distinctions among the three persons in the Godhead, but the term homoousios became a consistent mark of Nicene orthodoxy in both East and West. According to this doctrine, Jesus Christ is the physical manifestation of Logos (or the divine word) and consequently possesses all of the inherent, ineffable perfections which religion and philosophy attribute to the Supreme Being. Three distinct and infinite minds or substances, three co-equal and eternal realities, participate in (or share) the same, single Divine Essence (ousia).”
So, did Jesus and the Holy Ghost create anything? In evading this question, the Christian theologians, philosophers and scientists are yielding to the Jewish and the Islamic understanding of the Transcendent God, and borrowing their concepts without any acknowledgement. Imitation is the best form of flattery! If God the Father is the only Creator then how is Jesus co-equal and possessing of all of the inherent, ineffable perfections and of the same substance? One cannot have one’s cake and eat it too!
Is God the Father the Creator, the Trinity as a whole or are there three Creators? Part II
Lest, the nay sayers may think that they can easily resolve the issues that I present in this comment, let me add some other issues here. At one time the Holy Spirit was also the official ‘giver of life.’
Filioque, Latin for ‘and (from) the Son,’ was added in Western Christianity to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, commonly referred to as the Nicene Creed. This insertion emphasizes that Jesus, the Son, is of equal divinity with God, the Father, while the absence of it in Eastern Christianity concentrates on the Father.
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.
(And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.)
The word ‘Filioque’ was first added at the Third Council of Toledo (589) and spread throughout Western Christianity. It has been an ongoing source of conflict between the East and West, contributing to the East-West Schism of 1054 and proving an obstacle to attempts to reunify the two sides.
Even the Holy Spirit is ‘giver of life,’ it proceeds from both God the Father and Jesus Christ, yet we do not find any evidence of Jesus having created anything in the Nature, Jesus or the Holy Spirit did not create anything in the universe! I rest my case, against the irrationality of Trinity.
For further details go to:
http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/is-god-the-father-the-creator-the/1qhnnhcumbuyp/301#
Intelligent Design a branch of metaphysics or philosophy
First watch a Documentary: Intelligent Design on Trial.
In this two-hour special, NOVA captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools. Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants, including expert scientists and Dover parents, teachers, and town officials, “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” follows the celebrated federal case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District. This program was coproduced with Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions, Inc.
In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students suggesting that there is an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution called intelligent design–the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent agent. The teachers refused to comply. Later, parents opposed to intelligent design filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state.
“There was a blow-up like you couldn’t believe,” Bill Buckingham, head of the school board’s curriculum committee, tells NOVA. Buckingham helped formulate the intelligent-design policy when he noticed that the biology textbook chosen by teachers for classroom use was, in his words, “laced with Darwinism.”
NOVA presents the arguments by lawyers and expert witnesses in riveting detail and provides an eye-opening crash course on questions such as “What is evolution?” and “Is intelligent design a scientifically valid alternative?” Kitzmiller v. Dover was the first legal test of intelligent design as a scientific theory, with the plaintiffs arguing that it is a thinly veiled form of creationism, the view that a literal interpretation of the Bible accounts for all observed facts about nature.
During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs showed that evolution is one of the best-tested and most thoroughly confirmed theories in the history of science, and that its unresolved questions are normal research problems–the type that arise in any flourishing scientific field.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html
In my opinion, Intelligent Design should be considered as a branch of metaphysics or philosophy and not science. By asking for a place where it genuinely belongs, controversies as outlined in this documentary do not arise:
http://www.muslimsunrise.com/dmddocuments/2009_fall.pdf#page=17
If we do this we will be in keeping with Sir Charles Darwin’s advice:
Let no man out of weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well-studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavor an endless progress or proficiency in both.
Religion and Science: The Indispensable God-hypothesis
This is an article describing the Transcendent, yet Personal God of the Abrahamic Faiths in the present day scientific paradigm, the One God of Islam, Unitarian Christians and Judaism.
In the three great monotheistic religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism, God is viewed as a supreme, transcendent being, beyond matter space and time, and yet the foundation of all that meets our senses that is described in terms of matter, space, and time. That is the Al Batin or the Hidden God of monotheism. Furthermore, this God is not the god of deism, who created the world and then left it alone, or the god of pantheism, who is equated with all of existence. The Islamic and the Judeo-Christian God is a nanosecond-by-nanosecond participant in each event that takes place in every cubic nanometer of the universe. He has full knowledge of all things. God listens to every thought and participates in each action of his very special creation, a minute bit of organized matter called humanity that moves around on the surface of a tiny pebble in a vast universe. The Holy Quran declares:
Allah’s is the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and to Allah are all affairs returned for final judgment. (Al Quran 57:6)
If there is a ‘Personal God’ that hears human prayers then there has to be a way for the deity to influence the physical world without breaking the laws of nature and making the study of science futile. Whereas, the 19th century physics, in its arrogance, had shut the door to ‘Personal God’ the 20th century physics has widely opened it again. The twentieth century physics has turned the tables in favor of Monotheism.
http://www.muslimsunrise.com/dmddocuments/2008_iss_3.pdf#page=22
Aurora borealis, or northern lights
This beautiful light show is a reminder of the magnetic field and atmosphere of the earth.
Incidently, the beautiful Aurora borealis, or northern lights also draw our attention to the Providence of Allah. They remind us of the magnetic field and atmosphere of our planet earth. Without either of which life would not be possible on the planet earth. The magnetic field and atmosphere act like a protective shield or a roof for our planet. The Holy Quran states:
Who made the earth a bed for you, and the heaven a roof? (Al Quran 2:23)
Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed-up mass, then We opened them out? And We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? And We have made in the earth firm mountains lest it should quake with them; and We have made therein wide pathways, that they may be rightly guided. And We have made the heaven a roof, well protected; yet they turn away from its Signs. (Al Quran 21:31-33)
Aurora borealis are caused by the solar winds, according to Britanicca:
“Auroras are caused by the interaction of energetic particles (electrons and protons) from outside the atmosphere with atoms of the upper atmosphere. Such interaction occurs in zones surrounding Earth’s magnetic poles. During periods of intense solar activity, auroras occasionally extend to the middle latitudes; for example, the aurora borealis has been seen as far south as 40° latitude in the United States. … In addition to Earth, other planets in the solar system that have atmospheres and substantial magnetic fields—i.e., Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—display auroral activity on a large scale.”
“aurora.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 03 Aug. 2010 .
The Sun emits not only visible light but also a continuous flow of particles known as the solar wind. Most of these particles are electrically charged and interact only weakly with the atmosphere, because the Earth’s magnetic field tends to steer them around the planet. Prior to the formation of the Earth’s iron core and consequent development of the geomagnetic field, however, the solar wind must have struck the top layers of the atmosphere with full force. In the absence of earth’s magnetic field the solar winds would have destroyed the atmosphere and all life forms on the earth. This is what may have happened to mars.
Secret Revealed: How Crocodiles Cross Oceans
How did the world’s largest living reptile, the saltwater crocodile, reach so many South Pacific islands separated by huge stretches of water despite being a poor swimmer?
Apparently, like a surfer catching a wave, these goliaths can ride currents on the ocean surface to cross large areas of open sea, researchers now reveal.
The saltwater or estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is a ferocious giant that can grow at least 23 feet long (7 meters) and weigh more than 2,200 pounds (1000 kilograms). These scaly monsters have been known to devour sharks, and even attack things they can’t eat, often assaulting boats in the mistaken belief they are rivals or prey, biting down with nearly 2 tons of pressure – powerful enough to crush bone or punch through aluminum hulls.
These deadly predators hunt in tropical areas throughout eastern India, southeast Asia, northern Australia, and on an untold number of the islands in-between. Although these crocodiles spend most of their lives in saltwater, they cannot be considered marine reptiles the same way sea turtles are, because the crocs rely on land for food and water.
There were already many anecdotal accounts of large crocodiles sighted far out at sea, but nothing confirmed. Now, for the first time, using sonar transmitters and satellite tracking, scientists now find that saltwater crocodiles actually do ride surface ocean currents for long-distance travel, enabling them to voyage from one oceanic island to another.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/secretrevealedhowcrocodilescrossoceans
World’s biggest beaver dam discovered in northern Canada
OTTAWA (AFP) – A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world’s largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space.
Researcher Jean Thie said Wednesday he used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 850 metres (2,800 feet) long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park.
Average beaver dams in Canada are 10 to 100 metres long, and only rarely do they reach 500 metres.
First discovered in October 2007, the gigantic dam is located in a virtually inaccessible part of the park south of Lac Claire, about 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray.
Construction of the dam likely started in the mid-1970s, said Thie, who made his discovery quite by accident while tracking melting permafrost in Canada’s far north.
“Several generations of beavers worked on it and it’s still growing,”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100505/sc_afp/canadascienceenvironmentanimalbeaver
Argument from Design by a Muslim jurisprudence expert Abu Hanifah
Once during the Abaside Caliphate of Harun Rasheed an atheist challenged Abu Hanifah to a debate about the existence of God. Abu Hanifah came late to the debate and the atheist enquired about the reason for delay. He told him that he lives on the other side of Euphrates. Abu Hanifah added that when he came out of his house and reached the bank of Euphrates, I saw an old boat whose planks had all separated out but as soon as I looked at the heap of wood the planks started moving for no apparent reason, without an agency of any carpenter and started assembling themselves into a boat. What I saw that in a short while a beautiful boat was ready for my crossing of the river. I sat in the boat and it started moving by itself and I crossed the river and came here. The atheist questioned that how could the broken up boat reassemble itself, and how could it sail without a sailor? Abu Hanifah said precisely my point! If it is not possible to have a boat without a carpenter how could such an elaborate and organized universe exist without a Creator?
(Mukhzin e Ikhlaq)
Albert Einstein’s search for God
That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.
That humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, which in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man.
A belief bound up with deep feeling in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God.
Scientist’s religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work.
When I see nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of ‘humility’. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.
Albert Einstein
http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/albert-einstein-s-search-for-god/1qhnnhcumbuyp/22#
Theology of the First Scientist Alhazen
Ibn al-Haytham attributed his experimental scientific method and scientific skepticism to his Islamic faith. He believed that human beings are inherently flawed and that only God is perfect. He reasoned that to discover the truth about nature, it is necessary to eliminate human opinion and error, and allow the universe to speak for itself.
Ibn al-Haytham described his search for truth and knowledge as a way of leading him closer to God:
“I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge.”
Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Optics
Bradley Steffens (2006), Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, ISBN 1599350246. (cf. Bradley Steffens, “Who Was the First Scientist?”, Ezine Articles.)
C. Plott (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Period of Scholasticism, Pt. II, p. 465. ISBN 8120805518, Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Transcendent God and the Old Testament
According to Rudolf Bultmann:
The problem of the relation between form and matter, which so much exercised the Greek mind, is conspicuously absent from the Old Testament. There is no conception of the ‘cosmos’ (κσμος =harmonious structure), of ‘nature’ (φύσις), of the law of nature (νόμος φύσεohgr;ς). The world is never objectified as a natural order whose eternal laws are open to intellectual apprehension. There is no natural science or physics. The Greek saw the divine power in the cosmic law whose existence he had apprehended by reason. In this way he brought the deity into relation with the universe. The Bible on the other hand regards God as transcending the world. 3 He ‘hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all’ ( Ps. 103.19). The transcendence of God receives its classical expression in the doctrine of the creatio ex nihilo, a notion utterly inconceivable to the Greek mind, though a logical development from the premisses of Biblical thought ( Jubil. 12.4; 2 Macc. 7.28, etc.).
God’s wisdom and skill in creation certainly evoked awe and wonder. He established the world like a disc upon the waters, so that it could never be moved ( Ps. 24.2). But it was a matter for awe and wonder, not rational comprehension. It is true, God created the world for a purpose, as Psalm 104, for instance, teaches. But this was conceived in a naïve fashion: God put the plants and springs there so that the wild beasts might satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst, corn and wine to make men prosperous, and the sun and moon to mark the seasons and order the movements of the wild beasts and the labours of men. But the Old Testament never speculates about the purpose (τέλος) of creation, or inquires into the rational intelligibility of the universe. It never thinks of each separate entity as articulated into a whole, each part having its own purpose, and the whole its purpose in an organic unity. And with the absence of the idea of the law of nature there is also no conception of providence (πρόνοια). Nor is the problem of theodicy raised in connexion with the universe at large. God’s revelation in nature is not seen in the ordered course of natural history, but in unusual and terrifying occurrences like storm and earthquake. The very fact that the world is not susceptible to rational understanding makes it an object of awe as the handiwork of God.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller hath taught him? ( Isa. 40.12).
The contemplation of nature may evoke the wonder of the psalmist ( Ps. 147), though it can just as easily silence any attempt to reason with God ( Job 42.2-6).
In the last analysis, the Old Testament doctrine of creation expresses a sense of the present situation of man. He is hedged in by the incomprehensible power of Almighty God. The real purpose of the creation story is to inculcate what God is doing all the time. As he once created man, so he is continually forming him wonderfully in his mother’s womb ( Ps. 139.13). As he once gave him the breath of life, so he imparts it again and again ( Job 33.4). If he withdraws that breath, man returns to the dust from which he sprung. And when God restores that breath, he rises again and God renews the face of the earth ( Ps. 104.29f.).
O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we are all the work of thy hand ( Isa. 64.8).
Thus the doctrine of creation expresses man’s sense of utter dependence on God:
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Will ye ask me concerning things to come, and will ye command me concerning the work of my hands? I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded ( Isa. 45.9-12).
And the devout man can say:
Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments ( Ps. 119.73).
Publication Information: Book Title: Primitive Christianity in Its Contemporary Setting. Contributors: Rudolf Bultmann – author, R. H. Fuller – transltr. Publisher: Thames and Hudson. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1956. Page Number: 17-19.
Study suggests toads can detect coming earthquakes
LONDON – When it comes to predicting earthquakes, toads — warts and all — may be an asset.
British researchers said Wednesday that they observed a mass exodus of toads from a breeding site in Italy five days before a major tremor struck, suggesting the amphibians may be able to sense environmental changes, imperceptible to humans, that foretell a coming quake.
Since ancient times, anecdotes and folklore have linked unusual animal behavior to cataclysmic events like earthquakes, but hard evidence has been scarce. A new study by researchers from the Open University is one of the first to document animal behavior before, during and after an earthquake.
The scientists were studying the common toad — bufo bufo — at a breeding colony in central Italy when they noticed a sharp decline in the number of animals at the site. Days later, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit, killing hundreds of people and badly damaging the town of L’Aquila.
Researcher Rachel Grant said the findings suggested “that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system.”
Initially puzzled by the toads’ disappearance in the middle of the breeding season, the scientists tracked the population in the days that followed. They found that 96 percent of males — who vastly outnumber females at breeding spots — abandoned the site, 46 miles (74 kilometers) from the quake’s epicenter, five days before it struck on April 6, 2009.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100331/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_trembling_toads
Giant waterlillies in the Amazon – The Private Life of Plants – David Attenborough – BBC wildlife
How do they achieve cross fertilization and avoid self-fertilization:
The biggest flower in the world – Titan Arum
No wonder many scientists believe in God; not through their religion but by being awake from their anesthesia of familiarity.