The questions answered in this program are:
1. How does the scientific world perceive the universe came to be and does it make sense for something to come out of nothing?
2. Scientists will always argue that Good doesn’t exist as there is no ‘proof’ – what is your answer to this?
3. As much as science wants to distance itself from an Almighty Creator, hypothesis like the biophilic universe exist, tell us a bit more about this.
4. God Almighty has numerous attributes – as Muslims do we solely reflect on these or should we inculcate these into our daily lives?
5. How does reflecting and working towards the attribute of Al-Wassay make us better humans?
Suggested reading and viewing by Zia H Shah MD for the Creator God of the Abrahamic Faiths
Ten Raised to Five Hundred Reasons for Our Gracious God
The Muslim Times, Perhaps the Only Medium Presenting the Creator God of the Holy Quran
How Beauty Is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution
Charles Darwin: An Epiphany for the Muslims, A Catastrophe for the Christians
Allah the Creator, the Maker and the Fashioner: The Best Documentary on Birds
The anesthesia of familiarity: There should be a Creator of Our Universe
The Beauty and the GPS of the Birds and the Quran
A challenge for Dawkins: Where did carbon come from?
Plain Water will Tell you the Story
Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe by Martin Rees
The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? by Paul Davies
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
Twelve Famous Scientists On The Possibility Of God
Categories: Atheism, Highlight, Physics, Religion & Science, The Muslim Times
ماشاالله Very Excellent, scholarly and knowledge base interview by Dr. Zia Sha Sahib as always. May Allah Bless him ever more with his health wealth, knowledge and Power to express to serve the Cause of Science, Religion and humanity. May his efforts be a source of bridge between God and His Creatures. Aameen Zarif Ahmad
Jazakallah Zarif sahib for your kindness
Assalamu alaikum! Is there a transcript of this? For those who are hearing impaired? If so, could you please, also share this with us? It would be much appreciated.
Here is not a precise transcript but my notes for my talk:
Question 1
The universe may have come out of nothing, in terms of no matter or energy, but it came out with very complex mathematics and physics, which most of us barely pretend to understand.
Given the complex mathematical laws and laws of nature, the universe did not come out of chaos, but from a conscious being, with attributes of supreme creativity, subtlety and possessing such sublime qualities, excellence, grandeur, and beauty as to inspire great admiration and awe.
The holy Quran says: “And He it is who created the heavens and the earth in accordance with the requirements of wisdom and the Truth; and the day He says, ‘Be!’, it will be. His word is indeed the Truth.” (Al Quran 6:74)
The greater the science advances and discovers new mechanism, it does not diminish the need of a Creator, rather it enhances that by elevating the complexity and organization of our known universe.
As the followers of the holy Quran, a book that has almost a thousand verses talking about nature, using metaphors from nature to explain reality and inspiring the believers to study nature and telling them that in so doing they will find Signs of Allah, we should never be afraid of science or fight it in any sense.
Since Charles Darwin wrote his original book many a theists opposed his theory for a long period of time but with every passing decade he has been proved true to a greater degree in as much as he showed that all life forms on the planet earth, some 9 million by recent counts are coming from a common lineage.
We should never be against science or propose God of the gaps, where God is seen by believers in the gaps of knowledge.
We of course argue against any fake news in the name of science or demystify any agnostic or atheistic spin on the scientific facts.
In the second last verse of Surah Yasin we read: “When Allah intends a thing, He says concerning it Be and it is.”
Question 2
Francis S. Collins, head of Human Genome project, says, “Some evolutionary biologists cite growing evidence from the fossil record and DNA analysis to argue that evolution proves there is no God. In the process they commit the logical fallacy of using natural laws to exclude the supernatural.”
Before Darwin there was Paley, if you find a watch on a beach
Even though Charles Darwin himself was a theist, by discovering the mechanism of natural selection and others to explain life on our planet, Neo-Darwinist think that they have written God out of the equation. Not so fast.
What if God is the Creator of the mechanisms and the He has set laws into motion.
It is in the beauty, complexity, organization and improbability of our universe that we see the Creator God of the Quran, Al Khaliq, Al Mussawir and Al Baari.
In the past, the idea that nature was a complete, functional, self-sufficient system was seldom thought to be an argument against the existence of God. Quite the contrary, it was proof of the wisdom, skill and care of that Great Architect.
When we look at our universe it takes greater faith to be an atheist than to be a believer in the Quranic description of the Creator of the earth and the Heavens.
Monotheism not only adequately explains our material universe but also our religious history, true dreams, our psychology, our conscience and our morality and our pursuit of justice and our need to have a purpose of life and that our mortality here on this planet is not end all.
Question 3
Ten raised to the power 500.
Stephen Hawking in his book the Grand Design has repeatedly described a Multiverse that has 10 raised to the power 500.
In medicine what is described as P value
Canadian philosopher John Leslie. Suppose you are facing a firing squad. Fifty marksmen take aim, but they all miss. If they hadn’t all missed, you wouldn’t have survived to ponder the matter. But you wouldn’t just leave it at that – you’d still be baffled, and would seek some further reason for your good fortune.
And He (Allah) gave you all that you wanted of Him; and if you try to count the favors of Allah, you will not be able to number them. Indeed, man is very unjust, very ungrateful. (Al Quran 14:34/35)
I have put my review …
Question 4
Memorize the last verse of the Sura Hashr so you always carry with you the three attributes
هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
Then also memorize the Sura Hadid and Surah Al Annam
لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ ۖ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيفُ الْخَبِيرُ
The mistake that the theists make can be avoided by a verse of Sura Hadid and Surah Anaam Al Baatin and my article Indispensable.
Once we understand the attributes of Al Baatin and realize that Allah works through the laws of nature and we can never see His hand directly in the creative process, then the more we read and know science the greater we understand Allah is the Creator, the Maker and the Fashioner. David Attenborough and Richard Dawkins become my teachers for Biology, Paul Davies and Rees Martin for physics and Stephen Hawkins for Cosmology.
Question 5
A light year is the distance light travels in a year at the rate of 186,000 miles a second. The galaxy to which our earth and other planets of our solar system and our sun belong is about 100,000 light years in diameter.
Look at night sky look at the stars use a telescope if you may or go to the planetarium imagine the expanding universe.
Edwin Hubble discovered in 1926 that several stars are several hundred thousand light-years away and thus outside the Milky Way system and that the nebulae in which they are located are galaxies distinct from the Milky Way.
He also discovered that these galaxies are apparently receding from the Milky Way and that the further away they are, the faster they are receding. The implications of this discovery were immense. The universe, long considered static, was expanding.
The nearest galaxy to our own galaxy is about 150 million light years away. The most distant is perhaps ten billion light years away. Modern astronomy can locate a billion or more galaxies, each containing billions of flaming suns. It is said, “The number of stars in the Universe is practically like the number of grains of sand on all the seashores of the world.”
Centuries before these discoveries the Quran stated:
وَ السَّمَآءَ بَنَیۡنٰہَا بِاَیۡدٍ وَّ اِنَّا لَمُوۡسِعُوۡنَ
And the heaven We built with our own powers and indeed We go on expanding it. (Al Dhariyat 51:48)
The similitude of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like the similitude of a grain of corn which grows seven ears or pods, in each ear a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies it further for whomsoever He pleases, and Allah is Bountiful, All-Knowing. (Al Baqarah 2:262)
When we think of God’s Providence in terms of not only the grains of corn but also the expanding universe, our spirit grows in optimism, hope and generosity.
By focusing on Providence rather than worries and concerns and praying to Him we find solutions for our problems.
We become worshippers of All Knowing, All Powerful, Al Wassay God.
Inshallah!
Jazak’Allah for this