Why am I embarking upon this discussion again at this point in time? I guess the reason is Livia just showed me a program on channel 4 made by Richard Dawkins on darwinism. I am not sure if those outside the UK would be able to see this, but if you do get the chance, its worth a watch in your free time. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-genius-of-charles-darwin/4od#2919523. It may seem, from his arguments that religious beliefs is one which is not worthwhile considering when science blatantly have the truth manifesting itself so beautifully.
I guess then its really the classical argument of religion vs atheism. Lately my grandmother had been suffering from a brain tumor, one which you may have gathered from my previous posts in the blog. In recent weeks she had developed a rather strange behaviour, similar to those who suffer from dementia. It was at that point I started to beg the question of mind and soul. That if we were indeed created by God and had our souls blown into us (souls not being a part of God but a creation of God unlike beliefs of Pantheists), what would such mental illness represent in the greater scheme of God’s plan. It was an interesting point that Dawkings represented in the program - that evolution was not part of a greater scheme of things, that it was nature’s way of selecting the fittest for survival. That it was all random. He went into more depths than I originally anticipated. For me, a non-biologist, evolution made more sense to me after watching this film. I could understand why some of my friends who study Biology and evolution become skeptical of religious ideals or have troubles with what it teaches. After watching the program even though lately I had a stronger faith, I had to question. I guess its the combat of doubt that we find certainties in what we believe.
As you can tell from reading my blog or knowing me in person, I have always been a thinker. I find comfort in finding a space where I can suspend comfortably in. I do not intend to come up with a satisfactory answer for everyone nor do I want to impose my philosophy onto my readers. I have graduated from a scientific establishment - probably one of the best in the world. I have many friends who are biologists and ecologists. What is interesting to see though is that the life within such establishment does not separate from the belief in God. Religious societies are amongst the strongest societies in the university. It is strange to think that top-notch scientists who devote their time in the advancement of science are also such strong believers. Einstein, although not an evolutionist, was the famous person who coined the phrase, “God does not play dice.”
There are two possible ways to view religion (out of many) I suppose, one views it as the ultimate truth - words from the one Creator who creates the world the other views it as a product of human imagination that God is a product of human evolution. I guess it requires a balance between the both and really finding out the truth. A friend of mine used a buddhist teaching of the arrow and the doctor to make an analogy between finding the truth is secondary to the practice of a religion. That you should let the doctor remove the arrow before it kills you. But I do think it is important to know that the doctor is the right doctor for the task because the wrong doctor can ultimately cause more harm than good. I came across an interesting article on the web: http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/evolve.htm. It tries to answer in a more scientific way how Islam and evolution are compatible. I am a Muslim and ultimately I will be biased. Just as you talk to Richard Dawkins, he’ll persuade you that you are delusional to believe in God, I will present a more Islamic version to why I believe science and religion are compatible and science is an evidence for the truth.
With all the DNA profiling and mapping, it is very easy to see that closeness we are to our relative apes and so forth, and it seems quite stupid to say hey, because the Qur’an, Bible and the Torah tells us that God created us from clay and blew into us our soul for Islam, and in His image for Christianity and Judaism that all these scientific truths are irrelevant. Its more hypocritical to believe that I am loosing hair because of hereditory reasons but when it comes to DNA profiling that evolution mustn’t exist. My belief in Qadar (or predestination in some translation) suggest that God had created everything before it was created. That is why from a scientific point of view, everything can be evolutionary and random if we look at it from this point in time. Because human beings are ultimately limited by our sense in time, we are unable to grasp actions and intentions which are done in a timeless environment. A bit like Dr Manhattan I suppose. So when we are talking about this evolutionary process lasting for millions and billions of year, in an alternative spectrum, this would be an instantaneous sample. Forgive me because I am a signal processing person and we sometimes like to think in time and frequency domains. To some of my readers they may find it difficult to imagine - but for me, evolution can be merely a result of a perspective prolonging in timescale from God’s creation. That if God had created Adam and Eve and a dinosaur then I guess the dinosaur must have been created in another era as we know it, but for God, perhaps He saw no need of informing us of dinosaurs because it is of no real relevance to us for our time-limited minds.
I am talking of time before Einstein proved that light could be a particle most people used prisms to differentiate the different frequencies of light wave. Just because we couldn’t prove God’s existence does not necessarily mean that God doesn’t exist. The very existence of scientific anomaly, aka miracles, do not necessarily mean they are product of imagination and tools of political and economical power. I have great fear of a purely material world where death means the ultimatum for our mind and soul. I guess one has the right in taking a sample of scientific evidence and extrapolate it on a theory which seems to make sense, as Newton did with the apple and gavity. But perhaps there is a greater scheme of things which is beyond our current understanding (e.g. as we learn with General Relativity). The beauty of the human mind is we are able to think for ourselves. For me, religion explains a very great deal - perhaps from a scientific point of view its of little value, but if we are indeed as God told us, was given a conscience at birth. Our consolation of this conscience lies with the morality and action we perform. God has chosen those He chose to guide and those He choses to misguide, and for those whom He choses to guide, none and misguide and for those whom He chose to misguide, none can guide - what is the scientific prove for His choice?