Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

If God exists strict materialism or physicalism is not true.

What is a true dream? If the content of a dream cannot be explained by the conscious or subconscious mind of the recipient and it carries specific, new and useful information then it suggests a Transcendent source. A source that can communicate with the recipient during his or her sleep.

In philosophy, naturalism is the idea that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe.^[1] In its primary sense^[2] it is also known as ontological naturalism, metaphysical naturalism, pure naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism. “Ontological” refers to ontology, the philosophical study of what exists. Philosophers often treat naturalism as equivalent to materialism.

For example, philosopher Paul Kurtz argues that nature is best accounted for by reference to material principles. These principles include mass, energy, and other physical and chemical properties accepted by the scientific community. Further, this sense of naturalism holds that spirits, deities, and ghosts are not real and that there is no “purpose” in nature. This stronger formulation of naturalism is commonly referred to as metaphysical naturalism.^[3] 

On the other hand, the more moderate view that naturalism should be assumed in one’s working methods as the current paradigm, without any further consideration of whether naturalism is true in the robust metaphysical sense, is called methodological naturalism.^[4]

I believe in methodological naturalism as I aspire to be a scientist, but not in ontological or metaphysical naturalism, as I believe in God and Afterlife. A single true revelation will defeat ontological naturalism, because it suggests a Transcendent source, for the new information in the dream.

I don’t specifically believe in Four-Horsemen of the Apocalypse specifically. But, I found the picture as a suitable representation for revelation in general.

If a Jew or Christian feels sure of a single Biblical verse and is able to demonstrate that it does not have a human explanation then materialism or physicalism is defeated. Likewise, if a Muslim like me knows of a single Quranic verse that rises above human explanation it becomes a defeater for materialism or physicalism. Even a true dream of a scientists, a poet, a musician, which gives him or her any new information that cannot be derived from the subconscious mind of the recipient defeats materialism or physicalism. Three articles are linked at the end of this article.

Below is a recent survey of academic philosophers on 30 different questions including, atheism, naturalism and mind:

In the above survey 72% of the academic philosophers are atheist, 50% are naturalists and 57% regard mind to be also physical.

Now, I quote from the magazine Nature, about demographics of belief in God or Afterlife among the leading scientists:

The question of religious belief among US scientists has been debated since early in the century. Our latest survey finds that, among the top natural scientists, disbelief is greater than ever — almost total.

Research on this topic began with the eminent US psychologist James H. Leuba and his landmark survey of 1914. He found that 58% of 1,000 randomly selected US scientists expressed disbelief or doubt in the existence of God, and that this figure rose to near 70% among the 400 “greater” scientists within his sample¹. Leuba repeated his survey in somewhat different form 20 years later, and found that these percentages had increased to 67 and 85, respectively².

In 1996, we repeated Leuba’s 1914 survey and reported our results in Nature³. We found little change from 1914 for American scientists generally, with 60.7% expressing disbelief or doubt. This year, we closely imitated the second phase of Leuba’s 1914 survey to gauge belief among “greater” scientists, and find the rate of belief lower than ever — a mere 7% of respondents.

Leuba attributed the higher level of disbelief and doubt among “greater” scientists to their “superior knowledge, understanding, and experience”². Similarly, Oxford University scientist Peter Atkins commented on our 1996 survey, “You clearly can be a scientist and have religious beliefs. But I don’t think you can be a real scientist in the deepest sense of the word because they are such alien categories of knowledge.”⁴ Such comments led us to repeat the second phase of Leuba’s study for an up-to-date comparison of the religious beliefs of “greater” and “lesser” scientists.

Our chosen group of “greater” scientists were members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Our survey found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists. Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0%, respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality). Overall comparison figures for the 1914, 1933 and 1998 surveys appear in Table 1.

The whole of the article in Nature is available in PDF version:

In this debate very early on Michael Egnor asks David Papineau as to what is the physical cause of Big Bang and does not get a straight forward answer. Around minute 46 he asks Papineau for a cogent explanation of quantum physics in the materialistic framework? Does Quantum physics and / or extra dimensions of string theory provide for materialism to be false ontologically?

I do believe in methodological naturalism and that I believe is perfectly in keeping with the Quranic theology, given the following two very well known verses:

Eyes cannot reach Him but He reaches the eyes. And He is the Incomprehensible, the All-Aware. (Al Quran 6:103)

His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He gives life and He causes death; and He has power over all things. He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He knows all things full well. (Al Quran 57:2-3)

God being the Hidden implies that he operates through laws of nature and we cannot see Him or His providence directly.

Now, I will share articles to suggest that sometimes scientists, mathematicians and others have received very convincing revelations from the All Knowing:

Al Aleem: The Bestower of true dreams

Revealing Dreams of Scientists

Movie: Ramanujan: A Prophet of Mathematics Born in a Hindu Family

Periodic Table in Chemistry was Revealed in a Dream

Why is the Quran a Sign or a Miracle, According to Itself?

The Quran: Allah has bound the sun and the moon into service, each running its course for an appointed term

The Quran and the Breathtaking Universe: Is This God Speaking or Muhammad?

The Quran and the Expanding Universe: Is This God Speaking or Muhammad?

The Quran and Creation Ex Nihilo: Is This God Speaking or Muhammad?