Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

When in distress or agony it is basic human psychology to pray to the All Powerful. It has been documented in study of human history and polls and the holy Quran mentions it on several occasions and it also promises that Allah often grants prayers of the distressed:

“Who answers the distressed person when he calls upon Him, and removes the evil, and makes you successors in the earth? Is there a God besides Allah? Little is it that you reflect.” (Al Quran 27:62)

“And when My servants ask you about Me, say: ‘I am near. I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me and believe in Me, that they may follow the right way.’” (Al Quran 2:186)

But can God influence the world in presence of laws of nature? If He cannot He will not be able to grant any prayers and those would change into nothing more than wishful thinking of the believers.

Let us examine the present day science in the following 26 minute video:

There are 5 interviewees in the above video. The first interviewee is Robert John Russell, he is a PhD in physics. He suggests general providence or special providence in miracles. He adds that twentieth century physics has changed. Quantum physics, chaos theory and how light chooses to reflect or pass through the surface of water in a pool are three possible doors for providence. Because the nature is indeterministic, God’s choices make it deterministic and in so doing gives us general and special providence and both may in fact be two sides of the same coin. Some of these providences then appear to us as miracles.

If Allah can create miracles to grant our prayers, similar miracles over billion of years become the basis of theistic or guided evolution and we need not identify or prove when was God was specifically active in the history of our planet since its creation some 4.5 years ago, because He was all along and in every moment.

The second interviewee John Polkinghorne, another physicist, who is now a priest stresses quantum indeterminacy. He also stresses that this indeterminacy is not arising from our scientific ignorance or God of the gaps, it is rather very nature of reality. He adds that given the chaos theory that came to be in the second half of the twentieth century even the mechanical word of Newton is in fact subtle and not completely mechanical. He then uses human freewill as a proof for Divine providence. I have previously written an article about it: If there is freewill, so is Providence: Refuting the best of atheism through the latest science. Polkinghorne concludes by describing the limitations of reductionism and claims that reality is far more fertile than an arid view created by reductionism.

The next interviewee Paul Davies is more of an agnostic. However, he yields that our freewill can be an adequate metaphor for providence of God. He will not worship a cosmic magician but a subtle creator who has provided for all aspects of reality, perhaps included its purpose in the very foundation of creation and that does command his respect.

Next in line is Alan Pantinga, he speaks from minute 17 onwards. He argues that our universe may not be a closed system, so miracles or any sudden creation does not violate laws of conservation of matter.

Last but not the least in the above video is Ernan McMullin, who was (October 13, 1924 – February 8, 2011) an Irish philosopher who last served as the O’Hara Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He was an internationally respected philosopher of science who has written and lectured extensively on subjects ranging from the relationship between cosmology and theology, to the role of values in understanding science, to the impact of Darwinism on Western religious thought. He is the only person to ever hold the presidency of four of the major US philosophical associations.^[1] 

Hearing him I assume that God is constantly interacting with His created universe and is not only maintaining it but also providing for all His providence at the same time.

God is active today and in theistic evolution and was active in the fine tuning of the universe: What do “fine-tuning” and the “multiverse” say about God?

If you are still not convinced of the God of Abrahamic faiths there is so much more to examine below and we have a very extensive collection of articles on the theme of Religion & Science.

Perhaps, we need to meditate on the attribute the Subtle or the Incomprehensible, the Arabic word اللَّطِيفُ as we think about His attribute of the Creator and the Designer of our universe. The Quran says:

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

Does He Who has created you not know it? He is the Knower of all subtleties, the All-Aware. (Al Quran 67:14)

‘O my dear son! even though it be the weight of a grain of mustard seed, and even though it be in a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, Allah will surely bring it out; Indeed, Allah is the Knower of all subtleties, All-Aware. (Al Quran 31:16)

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