Part I
Proofs Of Allah’s Existence
The Creation Of The Universe
And The Equilibrium In The Explosion
A century ago, the creation of the universe was a concept that astronomers as a rule ignored. The reason was the general acceptance of the idea that the universe existed in infinite time. Examining the universe, scientists supposed that it was just a conglomeration of matter and imagined that it had no beginning. There was no moment of "creation"–a moment when the universe and everything in it came into being.
This notion of an infinite universe fit in very well with atheism. It is not hard to see why. To hold that the universe had a beginning could imply that it was created and that, of course requires a Creator–that is, Allah. It was much more convenient and safer to circumvent the issue by putting forward the idea that "the universe exists for eternity", even though there was not the slightest scientific basis for making such a claim.
Unsurprisingly, the discoveries in the 20th century proved with compelling evidence that at some time, all the matter in the universe was compacted in a single point-mass that had "zero volume" because of its immense gravitational force. Our universe came into being as the result of the explosion of this point-mass that had zero volume. This explosion has come to be called the "the Big Bang" and its existence has repeatedly been confirmed by observational evidence.
There was another truth that the Big Bang pointed to. To say that something has zero volume is tantamount to saying that it is "nothing". The whole universe was created from this "nothing". And furthermore this universe had a beginning, contrary to the view of materialism, which holds that "the universe has existed for eternity".
With the Big Bang's victory, the myth of 'eternal matter' that constituted the basis of the materialist philosophy is thrown into the trash-heap of history. What, then, was before the Big Bang and what was the power that brought the universe into 'being' with this big explosion when it was previously 'non-existent'? This question certainly implies, though terribly disturbing for the materialists, the existence of a Creator. The renowned atheist philosopher Antony Flew comments on the issue. He says:
Notoriously, confession is good for the soul. I will therefore begin by confessing that the Stratonician atheist has to be embarrassed by the contemporary cosmological consensus. For it seems that the cosmologists are providing a scientific proof, that the universe had a beginning. So long as the universe can be comfortably thought of as being not only without end but also without beginning, it remains easy to urge that its brute existence, and whatever are found to be its most fundamental features, should be accepted as the explanatory ultimates. Although I believe that it remains still correct, it certainly is neither easy nor comfortable to maintain this position in the face of the Big Bang story.1
Allah created the heavens and the earth with truth. There is certainly a Sign in taht for the believers. (Qur'an, 29:44)
Many scientists who do not blindly condition themselves to be atheists have admitted the role of an almighty Creator in the creation of the universe. This Creator must be a Being Who has created both matter and time, yet Who is independent of both. Well-known astrophysicist Hugh Ross has this to say:
If time's beginning is concurrent with the beginning of the universe, as the space-theorem says, then the cause of the universe must be some entity operating in a time dimension completely independent of and preexistent to the time dimension of the cosmos. This conclusion tells us that God is not the universe itself, nor is God contained within the universe.2
Yes, matter and time are created by the almighty Creator Who is independent of all these notions. This Creator is Allah, Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
In truth, the Big Bang caused much greater trouble for the materialists than the above confessions of the atheist philosopher, Antony Flew. For the Big Bang not only proves that the universe was created out of nothing, but also that it was brought into being in a very planned, systematic and controlled manner.
The Big Bang took place with the explosion of the point which contained all the matter and energy of the universe and its dispersion into space in all directions with a terrifying speed. Out of this matter and energy, there came about a great balance containing galaxies, stars, the sun, the earth and all other heavenly bodies. Moreover, laws were formed called the 'laws of physics', which are uniform throughout the whole universe and do not change. All these indicate that a perfect order arose after the Big Bang.
Explosions that we are normally familiar with, however, do not bring about order. All of the observable explosions tend to harm, disintegrate, and destroy what is present. For example, the atom and hydrogen bomb explosions, fire-damp explosions, volcanic explosions, natural gas explosions, solar explosions: they all have destructive effects.
Sir Fred Hoyle, the world-renowned astronomer, who finally had to accept the Big Bang theory after many years of opposition, expresses this situation very well. He says:
The big bang theory holds that the universe began with a single explosion. Yet as can be seen, an explosion merely throws matter apart, while the big bang has mysteriously produced the opposite effect - with matter clumping together in the form of galaxies.3
Another aspect of this extraordinary order formed in the universe following the Big Bang is the creation of a 'habitable universe'. The conditions for the formation of a habitable planet are so many and so complex that it is impossible to think that this formation is coincidental.
Paul Davies, a renowned professor of theoretical physics, calculated how 'fine tuned' the pace of expansion after the Big Bang was, and he reached an incredible conclusion. According to Davies, if the rate of expansion after the Big Bang had been different even by the ratio of one over a billion times a billion, no habitable star type, and therefore any form of life, would have been formed. Paul Davies says:
Careful measurement puts the rate of expansion very close to a critical value at which the universe will just escape its own gravity and expand forever. A little slower and the cosmos would collapse, a little faster and the cosmic material would have long ago completely dispersed. It is interesting to ask precisely how delicately the rate of expansion has been 'fine-tuned' to fall on this narrow dividing line between two catastrophes. If at the time the pattern of expansion was already firmly established, the expansion rate had differed from its actual value by more than one in a billion billion, it would have been sufficient to throw the delicate balance out. The big bang was not, evidently, any old bang, but an explosion of exquisitely arranged magnitude.4
The laws of physics that emerged together with the Big Bang have not changed at all over a period of 15 billion years. Furthermore, these laws stand on calculations so scrupulous that even a millimetre's variation from their current values can result in the destruction of the whole structure and configuration of the universe.
The famous physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking states in his book A Brief History of Time, that the universe is set on calculations and balances more finely tuned than we can conceive. Hawking states with reference to the rate of expansion of the universe:
If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size.5
Paul Davies also explains the unavoidable consequence to be derived from these incredibly precise balances and calculations:
It is hard to resist the impression that the present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in the numbers, has been rather carefully thought out… The seemingly miraculous concurrence of numerical values that nature has assigned to her fundamental constants must remain the most compelling evidence for an element of cosmic design.6
In relation to the same fact, an American professor of Astronomy, George Greenstein, writes in his book The Symbiotic Universe:
How could this possibly have come to pass [that the laws of physics conform themselves to life]?.. As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency must be involved.7
In fact in order to recognize that the universe is not a "product of coincidences" one does not really need any of these calculations at all. Simply by looking around himself, a person can easily perceive the fact of creation in even the tiniest details of what he sees. How could a universe like this, perfect in its systems, the sun, the earth, people, houses, cars, trees, flowers, insects, and all the other things in it ever have come into existence as the result of atoms falling together by chance after an explosion? Every detail we peer at shows the evidence of Allah's existence and supreme power. Only people who reflect can grasp these signs.
Doubtlessly, the design of the universe is evidence of Allah's power to establish. The precise balances and all the human beings and other creatures are the evidence of Allah's supreme power and act of creation. This result discovered by modern science is just a reworking of a truth revealed fourteen centuries ago in the Qur'an:
We created the heavens and the earth, and everything between them in six days and. We were not affected by fartigue. (Qur:an; 50:38)
"He Who created the seven heavens in layers. You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again-do you see any gaps? Then look again and again. Your sight will return to you dazzled and exhausted!"
(Qur'an, 67:3-4)
(Qur'an, 67:3-4)
Greatest Design: Universe
There are unchangeable fundamental laws in the universe, which affect all animate and inanimate beings alike. These laws are proofs that illustrate the perfection in the creation of the universe just as are the flawless creatures that live therein. Today, these hints are presented to us as laws of physics as discovered largely by physicists. The laws ordinarily accepted as 'laws of physics' are nothing but the evidence of the perfection in creation of Allah. (For detailed information refer to: Harun Yahya, The Creation of the Universe).
Let us give just a few examples of the perfection of design in the universe.
For instance, let us examine one of a dozen crucial properties of rainwater: the 'viscosity of water'.
Different liquids have different degrees of velocity. However, the viscosity of water is perfect for the use of all creatures. If it was a little higher than it is, plants could not have used it for transporting the nutrients vitally important for survival within their capillary tubes.
If the viscosity of water were lower than it is, the flow of rivers would have been a great deal different, hence the mountain formations would have changed, valleys and plateaus would not have formed, and rocks could not have disintegrated to form soil.
Water also facilitates the circulation of the red blood cells that defend our bodies against microbes and dangerous substances. If water's viscosity were greater, the movement of these cells within the vessels would have been totally impossible, the heart would have been overwhelmed in pumping the blood and would possibly have failed to obtain the energy necessary for this job.
Even these few examples sufficiently illustrate that water is a fluid that has been especially created for living beings. Allah, in reference to water, states in a verse:
Balance of Forces
What would happen if the gravitational force were greater than it is today? Running or walking would be impossible. Humans and animals would spend much more energy moving about, which would diminish the energy resources of the earth. What if gravity were less powerful? Light objects could not maintain their state of balance. For instance, dust particles picked up by breezes would float in the air for long periods. The speed of raindrops would decrease, and they possibly would evaporate before reaching the ground. Rivers would flow more slowly and hence electricity would not be generated at the same rate.
All this is rooted in the property of the gravitational pull of masses. Newton's law of gravitation states that the force of the gravitational attraction between objects depends on their masses and the distance between them. Hence, if the distance between two stars is increased three times, the gravitational force is decreased by a factor of nine, or if the distance is decreased to half, the force of gravity is increased four times.
This law helps explain the current positions of the earth, moon and planets. If the law of gravitation were different, for example, if the gravitational force were increased as the distance increased, the orbits of the planets would not be elliptical and they would collapse into the sun. If it were weaker, the earth would be set on a course steadily away from the sun. So, if the force of gravity did not have precisely the value it does, the earth would either collide with the sun or be lost in the depths of space.
What If Planck's Constant Were Different?
We encounter different forms of energy all the time. For instance, even the heat that we sense in front of the fire has been created with intricate balances.
In physics, energy is assumed to radiate not as a wave but in small particular amounts called 'quanta'. In calculating the radiant energy, a certain unchanging value called Planck's Constant is used. This number is generally small enough to be considered negligible. This number is one of the fundamental and unchanging indices in nature, which is approximately expressed as 6.626x10-34. In any situation involving radiation, if the energy of a photon is divided by its frequency the result will always equal this constant. All forms of electromagnetic energy, i.e. heat, light, etc. are governed by Planck's Constant.
If this minute number were a different size, then the heat we sense in front of a fire would have been much stronger. Either, at one extreme, the smallest fire could have contained enough energy to burn us up or at the other extreme, even a giant fireball the size of the sun would not have been sufficient to warm the earth.
Frictional Force
Frictional forces are generally considered inconveniences, as they are encountered especially while moving things in our daily lives. However, what would the world be like if frictional forces were completely eliminated? Pens and papers would slip out of our hands and fall down from the table to the floor, tables would slide to the corners of rooms, and in short all objects would fall and roll until everything finally came to a stop at the lowest point. In a frictionless world, all knots would untie, screws and nails would come off, no cars could ever brake, while sounds would never die but echo endlessly.
All of these laws of physics are clear proofs that the universe, just like all the creatures within it, is a product of divine design. In fact, the laws of physics are nothing but human explanations and descriptions of the divine order that Allah has created. Allah has created the unchanging laws of order in the universe and put them in the service of humans so that man will reflect upon and understand the Sovereignty of Allah and give thanks for His blessings.
One can continue giving countless examples in illustration of the order in the creation of Allah. Every created thing since the formation of the universe millions of years ago has been brought into existence by nothing other than the Omniscience and Sovereignty of Allah.
A Living Planet: The Earth
The earth is a living planet where many complex systems run perfectly without stopping at all. When compared to other planets, it is evident that in all its aspects the earth is specially designed for human life. Built on delicate balances, life prevails in every spot of this planet, from the atmosphere to the depths of the earth.
Exploring only a few of the millions of these delicate balances would be sufficient to show that the world we live in is specially designed for us.
One of the most important balances in our planet is revealed in the atmosphere that surrounds us. The atmosphere of the earth holds the most appropriate gasses in the most appropriate ratio needed for the survival not only of human beings, but also of all the living beings on the earth.
The 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% carbon dioxide as well as other gasses readily available in the atmosphere represent the ideal figures necessary for the survival of living beings. Oxygen, a gas that is vital for living beings, helps food to be burned and converted into energy in our bodies.
If the oxygen quantity in the atmosphere were greater than 21%, the cells in our body would soon start to suffer great damages. The vegetation and hydrocarbon molecules needed for life would also be destroyed. If this quantity were less, then this would cause difficulties in our respiration, and the food we eat would not be converted into energy. Therefore, the 21% oxygen in the atmosphere is the most ideal quantity determined for life.
Allah created the heavens and the earth with truth. There is certainly a Sign in that for the believers.
(Qur:an; 29:44)
(Qur:an; 29:44)
No less than oxygen, other gasses like nitrogen and carbon dioxide are also arranged in the ideal quantity for the needs of living beings and the continuity of life. The amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere has the ideal ratio to balance the harmful and burning effects of oxygen. This ratio represents the most appropriate value required for photosynthesis, which is essential for life's energy supply on the earth. Moreover, the amount of carbon dioxide has the most appropriate value that is needed to maintain the stability of the surface temperature of the earth and to prevent heat loss especially at night time. This gas, comprising 1% of the atmosphere, covers the earth like a quilt and prevents the loss of heat to space. If this amount were greater, the temperature of the earth would increase excessively, causing climatic instability and posing a serious threat against living beings.
These proportions remain constant thanks to a perfect system. The vegetation covering the earth converts carbon dioxide to oxygen, producing 190 billion tons of oxygen every day. The proportion of other gasses is always kept constant on the earth by the help of interconnected complex systems. Life is thus sustained.
In addition to the establishment of the ideal gas mixture required for life on the earth, the mechanisms needed to preserve and maintain this order are created alongside with it. Any break in the balance, though instantaneous, or any change in the ratios even for a very short time period, would mean the total destruction of life. Yet, this does not happen. The formation of these gasses in the atmosphere just in the amount people need, and the constant preservation of these ratios indicate a planned creation.
The creation of the heavens and earth is far greater than the creation of mankind. But most of mankind do not know it.
(Qur:an; 40:57)
(Qur:an; 40:57)
At the same time, the earth has the ideal size in terms of magnitude to possess an atmosphere. If the mass of the earth were a little less, then its gravitational force would be insufficient and the atmosphere would be dispersed in space. If its mass were a little greater, then the gravitational force would be too much and the earth would absorb all gasses in the atmosphere. There is an incredibly high number of conditions required for the formation of an atmosphere such as the one our world currently has and all of these conditions should exist altogether to be able to talk of life.
The creation of these delicate proportions and balances in the sky is mentioned in the 7th verse of Surat ar-Rahman:
He erected heaven and established the balance. (Qur'an, 55:7)
The majority of people spend their lives without being aware of the delicate balances and subtle adjustments in the gas composition of the atmosphere, the distance of the world to the sun or the movements of planets. They are ignorant of the great significance of these balances and adjustments to their own lives. However, even a minor deviation in any one of these arrangements would create very severe problems regarding the existence and survival of humankind.
There are many other balances established on earth for the continuity of life:
For instance, if the surface gravity were stronger than its current value, the atmosphere would retain too much ammonia and methane gasses, which would mean the end of life. If it were weaker, the planet's atmosphere would lose too much water, and life on earth would be impossible.
And the earth: how We stretched it out and cast firmly embedded mountains onto it and caused luxuriant plants of every kind to grow in it.
(Qur:an; 50:7)
(Qur:an; 50:7)
The thickness of the earth's crust constitutes another one of the delicate balances in the earth. If the earth's crust were thicker, too much oxygen would be transferred from the atmosphere to the crust and this would have severe effects on human life.
If the opposite were true, that is, if the earth's crust were thinner, volcanic and tectonic activity would be too great to permit life on earth.
Another crucial balance for human life is the ozone level in the atmosphere. If it were greater than its current value, the surface temperatures would be too low. If it were less, surface temperatures would be too high, and there would be too much ultraviolet radiation at the surface.
In fact, the absence of even a single of these balances would set the end to life on earth. However, Allah has created the universe with infinite wisdom and power and designed the earth specially for human life. Despite this fact, the majority of people lead their lives in total ignorance of these events. In the Qur'an, Allah reminds people of His blessings in the 13th verse of Surat al-Fatir:
(Allah) makes night merge into day and day merge into night, and He has made the sun and moon subservient, each one running until a specified time. That is Allah, your Lord. The Kingdom is His. Those you call on besides Him have no power over even the smallest speck. (Qur'an, 35:13)
It is sufficient look at millions of dead planets in space in order to understand that the delicate balances required for life on earth is not a result of random coincidences. The conditions essential for life are too complicated to have been formed 'on their own' and at random, and these conditions are specially created for life alone.
These balances we have briefly described so far are only a few of the millions of intricate, interrelated balances and orders established so that people can live in peace and safety on the earth.
Examining only a part of the balances and harmony on the earth is enough to comprehend the superior being of Allah and grasp the existence of a planned creation in every detail of the universe. It is no doubt impossible for a person or any other living being to build such an enormous balance and order. Nor are the components of this order such as atoms, elements, molecules, and gasses capable of establishing an order based on such intricate and extremely delicate calculations and measurements, and such fine tunings. This is because activities like planning, ordering, arranging, calculating, and proportioning can only be realized by beings that possess wisdom, knowledge and power. The Exalted Being Who orders, plans and balances the entire universe to be fit for life of human beings on a planet like earth and Who sustains it with dramatically delicate measures and balances is Allah, Who has Infinite Wisdom, Knowledge and Power.
In the Qur'an, it is stated that those people who are able to realize these facts are only 'people with intelligence':
In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are Signs for people with intelligence: those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire." (Qur'an, 3:190-191)
Everything in the heavens and every creature on the earth prostrates to Allah, as do the angels. They are not puffed up with pride.
(Qur:an; 16:49)
(Qur:an; 16:49)
The Hidden Power In Lightning
One Bolt Of Lightning Produces
More Electricity Than The USA
At night, in heavy rain, the sky is suddenly lit up, followed shortly after by a violent noise. Do you know how the magnificent lightning that so illuminates the sky comes about? Do you know how much light it emits? Or how much heat it gives off?
A flash of lightning is the bright light which forms during the release of the electricity in the atmosphere during rainstorms. But when does this bright light form? Lightning can happen when electrical tension in two separate points in the atmosphere—within a single cloud, or between a cloud and the ground, or between two grounds—reaches a high level.
Light bolts happen in the form of at least two strikes. In the first release a negative (-) charge flows from the cloud to the ground. This is not a particularly bright flash. A number of branches can generally be seen spreading out from the main channel. As this first strike reaches the ground, an opposite charge forms at the point it will hit and a second positive charge-bearing current forms from within that same channel directly to the cloud. The two flashes generally meet about 50 metres above the ground. A short circuit forms at the conjunction between the cloud and the ground, as a result of which a very bright strong electric current heads from inside the channel to the cloud. The potential difference in this current between the cloud and the ground is greater than several million volts.
More Electricity Production
Than Thousands of Generating Stations
The energy given off by a single bolt of lightning is greater than that produced in all the electricity generating stations in America. The temperature in the channel where the lightning forms can be as high as 10,000 degrees Celsius. The temperature in kilns for melting iron is between 1,050 and 1,100 degrees. The heat given off by the smallest bolt of lightning is ten times this. This terrible heat means that lightning can easily burn and destroy all the elements on Earth. To make another comparison, the surface temperature of the Sun is as much as 700,000 degrees. In other words, the temperature of lightning is 1/70th of that of the surface of the Sun. The light emitted by lightning is greater than that given off by 10 million 100-watt bulbs. For purposes of comparison, a single lightning bolt illuminates its surroundings more than if one bulb is lit in every house in Istanbul. Allah draws attention to this wondrous brightness of lightning in the Qur'an,
. . . The brightness of His lightning almost blinds the sight. (Surat an-Nur: 43)
Splendour Which Arises
In Half A Second
In Half A Second
•An average streak of lightning can power a 100-watt bulb for more than 3 months.
•The air temperature where lightning strikes rises by as much as 25,000 degrees.
•It travels at 150,000 km/second. Lightning's average thickness is 2.5-5 cm.
•Lightning produces nitrogen molecules, which are important for the survival of the Earth's vegetation cover.
•An average lightning strike contains an electrical force of 20,000 amps. A welder uses 250-400 amps to weld steel.
•Lightning moves at 150,000 km/second, or half the speed of light, and 100,000 times faster than sound.
•The air temperature where lightning strikes rises by as much as 25,000 degrees.
•It travels at 150,000 km/second. Lightning's average thickness is 2.5-5 cm.
•Lightning produces nitrogen molecules, which are important for the survival of the Earth's vegetation cover.
•An average lightning strike contains an electrical force of 20,000 amps. A welder uses 250-400 amps to weld steel.
•Lightning moves at 150,000 km/second, or half the speed of light, and 100,000 times faster than sound.
The bolt which forms descends to earth very rapidly, at 96,000 kmph. The first strike reaches the conjunction or surface in 20 milliseconds, and the return strike returns to the cloud in 70 microseconds. Lightning lasts a total of up to half a second. The reason for the thunder which accompanies it stems from the sudden heating of the air around the channel. As a result of this, the air expands at a speed greater than that of sound, although the shock wave returns to being a normal sound wave within a few metres. The sound waves are formed according to the later atmospheric air and surface shapes. That is the reason for consecutive thunder and lightning.
When we bear all of these properties of lightning in mind we can see that this phenomenon is a miraculous one. The way that such a tremendous force emerges from positively and negatively charged particles, invisible to the naked eye, shows that lightning is consciously created. Furthermore, the fact that nitrogen molecules, so beneficial to plants, emerge from this force again proves that lightning was created with a particular wisdom. (For details see Harun Yahya, Design in Nature, Taha Publishers, UK, 2001.)
Allah specifically draws our attention to lightning in the Qur'an. The meaning of Surat ar-Rad, one of the Suras of the Qur'an, is actually 'Thunder.' In those verses regarding lightning Allah reveals that He presents lightning to people as a source of fear and hope. Indeed, a lightning strike is a sign that it is about to rain, and rain either brings hope, in the form of plentiful crops, or else frightens people by causing such disasters as flooding or landslides. In Surat ar-Rum Allah reveals that,
Among His Signs is that He shows you lightning, a source of fear and eager hope, and sends down water from the sky, bringing the dead earth back to life by it. There are certainly Signs in that for people who use their intellect. (Surat ar-Rum: 24)
Allah has also revealed that the thunder which arises when lightning strikes glorifies His praise. In that same verse He warns people by stating that when He so wishes He sends lightning to punish unbelievers:
The thunder glorifies His praise, as do the angels, out of fear of Him. He discharges the thunderbolts, striking with them anyone He wills. Yet still they argue about Allah when He is inexorable in His power! (Surat ar-Ra'd:13)
Allah has created a number of signs for us in lightning. We must think and give thanks that thunder, which many people have perhaps never considered in this much detail and which inspires such feelings of fear and hope in man, is a means by which fear of Allah increases and is sent down by Him for specific purposes when He so chooses.
It Is A Scientific Fact That The World
Comes Into Existence In Our Brains
- 1 -
All events and objects that we encounter in real life—buildings, people, cities, cars, places—in fact, everything we see, hold, touch, smell, taste and hear—come into existence as visions and feelings in our brains.
We are taught to think that these images and feelings are caused by a solid world outside of our brains, where material things exist. However, in reality we never see real existing materials and we never touch real materials. In other words, every material entity which we believe exists in our lives, is, in fact, only a vision which is created in our brains.
This is not a philosophical speculation. It is an empirical fact that has been proven by modern science. Today, any scientist who is a specialist in medicine, biology, neurology or any other field related to brain research would say, when asked how and where we see the world, that we see the whole world in the vision center located in our brains.
We acknowledge that all the individual features of the world are experienced through our sense organs. The information that reaches us through those organs is converted into electrical signals, and the individual parts of our brain analyze and process these signals. After this interpreting process takes place inside our brain, we will, for example, see a book, taste a strawberry, smell a flower, feel the texture of a silk fabric or hear leaves shaking in the wind.
We have been taught that we are touching the cloth outside of our body, reading a book that is 30 cm (1 ft) away from us, smelling the trees that are far away from us, or hearing the shaking of the leaves that are far above us. However, this is all in our imagination. All of these things are happening within our brains.
When you take a look at he room in which you are sitting, what you see is not the room outside of you, but a copy of the room that exists in your brain. You will never be able to see the original room with your sense organs.
At this point we encounter another surprising fact; that there are, in fact, no colors, voices or visions within our brain. All that can be found in our brains are electrical signals. This is not a philosophical speculation. This is simply a scientific description of the functions of our perceptions. In her book Mapping The Mind, Rita Carter explains the way we perceive the world as follows:
Each one [of the sense organs] is intricately adapted to deal with its own type of stimulus: molecules, waves or vibrations. But the answer does not lie here, because despite their wonderful variety, each organ does essentially the same job: it translates its particular type of stimulus into electrical pulses. A pulse is a pulse is a pulse. It is not the colour red, or the first notes of Beethoven's Fifth—it is a bit of electrical energy. Indeed, rather than discriminating one type of sensory input from another, the sense organs actually make them more alike.
All sensory stimuli, then enter the brain in more or less undifferentiated form as a stream of electrical pulses created by neurons firing,domino-fashion, along a certain route. This is all that happens. There is no reverse transformer that at some stage turns this electrical activity back into light waves or molecules. What makes one stream into vision and another into smell depends, rather, on which neurons are stimulated.1
In other words, all of our feelings and perceptions about the world (smells, visions, tastes etc.) are comprised of the same material, that is, electrical signals. Moreover, our brain is what makes these signals meaningful for us, and interprets these signals as senses of smell, taste, vision, sound or touch. It is a stunning fact that the brain, which is made of wet meat, can know which electrical signal should be interpreted as smell and which one as vision, and can convert the same material into different senses and feelings.
Everything we percelve is specially recreated for us in our brains. Therefore, when we say, "We are aware the world around us," we are talking about copied images of colors and shapes, of sounds and smells.
It's Not Our Eyes That See,
It Is Our Brain
Because of the indoctrination that we receive throughout our lives, we imagine that we see the whole world with our eyes. Eventually, we usually conclude that our eyes are the windows that open up to the world. However, science shows us that we do not see through our eyes. The millions of nerve cells inside the eyes are responsible for sending a message to the brain, as if down a cable, in order to make "seeing" happen. If we analyze the information we learned in high school, it becomes easier for us to understand the reality of vision.
The CEO of a company might consider the company building, his car in the parking lot, his house by the beach, his yacht, and all the people who work for him, his lawyers, his family, and his friends to be outside of his body. However, all of these things are merely visions formed in his skull, in a tiny part of his brain.
The light reflecting off an object passes through the lens of the eye and causes an upside-down image on the retina at the back of the eyeball. After some chemical operations carried out by retinal rods and cones, this vision becomes an electrical impulse. This impulse is then sent through connections in the nervous system to the back of the brain. The brain converts this flow into a meaningful, three-dimensional vision.
For example, when you watch children playing in a park, you are not seeing the children and the park with your eyes, because the image of this view forms not before your eyes, but at the back of your brain.
Even though we have given a simple explanation, in reality the physiology of vision is an extraordinary operation. Without fail, light is converted into electrical signals, and, subsequently, these electrical signals reveal a colorful, shining, three-dimensional world. R. L. Gregory, in his book Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing, acknowledges this significant fact, and explains this incredible structure:
We are given tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see separate solid objects in surrounding space. From the patterns of simulation on the retinas we perceive the world of objects, and this is nothing short of a miracle.2
When you watch children playing in a park, you are not seeing the children and the park with your eyes, because the image of this view forms not before your eyes, but at the back of your brain.
All of these facts lead to the same conclusion. Throughout our lives, we always assume that the world exists outside of us. However, the world is within us. Although we believe that the world lies outside us, it is in the smallest part of our brain. For example, the CEO of a company might consider the company building, his car in the parking lot, his house by the beach, his yacht, and all the people who work for him, his lawyers, his family, and his friends to be outside of his body. However, all of these things are merely visions formed in his skull, in a tiny part of his brain.
He is unaware of this fact and, even if he knew, would not bother to think about it. If he stood proudly next to his latest-model luxury car, and the wind blew a piece of dust or a small object into his eye, he might gently scratch his itching, open eye and notice that the "material things" he saw moved upside down or to the sides. He might then realize that material things seen in the environment are not stable.
What this demonstrates is that every person throughout his or her life witnesses everything inside their brain and cannot reach the specific material objects that supposedly cause their experiences. The images we see are copies in our brains of the objects that we assume to exist outside of us. We can never know to what extent these copies resemble the originals, or whether or not the originals even exist.
Every person throughout his or her life witnesses everything inside their brain and cannot reach the specific material objects that supposedly cause their experiences.
Although German psychiatry professor Hoimar Von Ditfurth is a materialist, he acknowledges this fact about scientific reality:
No matter how we put the argument, the result doesn't change. What stands before us in full shape and what our eyes view is not the "world". It is only its image, a resemblance, a projection whose association with the original is open to discussion.3
For example, when you take a look at the room in which you are sitting, what you see is not the room outside of you, but a copy of the room that exists in your brain. You will never be able to see the original room with your sense organs.
How Can A Bright And Colorful
Image Appear In Your Dark Brain?
There is another point that should not be neglected; light cannot pass through the skull. The physical area in which the brain is located is completely dark, and light cannot possibly penetrate it. However, incredible as it may seem, it is possible to observe a bright and colorful world in this total darkness.Colorful natural beauty, bright sights, all the tones of the color green, the colors of fruits, the designs of flowers, the brightness of the sun, people walking on a busy road, fast cars in traffic, clothes in a shopping mall—are all created in the dark brain.
Imagine a barbecue burning in front of you. You can sit and watch the fire for a long time, but throughout this entire time, your brain never deals with the original of light, brightness or heat from the fire. Even when you feel its heat and see its light, the inside of your brain remains dark and maintains a constant temperature. It is a profound mystery that, in the darkness, the electrical signals turn into colorful, bright visions. Anyone who thinks deeply will be amazed by this wondrous occurrence.
Light Is Also Composed In Our Brain
While discussing what science has discovered about vision, we mentioned that the light we receive from the outside gives rise to some movements of the eye cells, and these movements form a pattern from which our visual experience emerges. However, there is another point that we need to make: Light, as we perceive it, does not reside outside of our brain. The light we know and understand is also formed within our brain. What we call light in the outside world, which is supposedly outside our brains, consists of electromagnetic waves and particles of energy called photons. When these electromagnetic waves or photons reach the retina, light, as we experience it, begins to come into existence. This is the way light is described in physical terms:
The term "light" is used for electromagnetic waves and photons. The same term is used in physiology, as the feeling experienced by a person when electromagnetic waves and photons strike the retina of the eye. In both objective and subjective terms, "light" is a form of energy coming into existence in the eye of a person, which a person becomes aware of through the retina by the effects of vision.4
Consequently, light comes into existence as a result of the effects that some electromagnetic waves and particles cause in us. In other words, there is no light outside our bodies which creates the light we see in our brains. There is only energy. And when this energy reaches us we see a colorful, bright, and light-filled world. We can therefore conclude that everything we see merely exists in our brains. This is a scientific truth, proven with scientific evidence.
It Is A Scientific Fact
That The World Comes Into
Existence In Our Brains
- 2 -
What a human being would refer to as "my life" is a collection of all perceptions being put together in a meaningful way and watched from a screen in the brain, and one can never come out of one's brain. When you look out of the window, you think that you see an image with your eyes, as this is the way that you have been taught to think. However, in reality this is not how it works, because you do not see the world with your eyes. You see the image created in your brains. This is not a prediction, nor a philosophical speculation, but the scientific truth. Everything we perceive takes place in our brains, and that we have no need for the outside world or material beings to experience these perceptions.
We Hear All Types Of Sound In Our Brains
The hearing process also operates in a similar manner to the visual process. In other words, we hear sounds in our brains in the same way that we see the view of the outside world in our brains. The ear captures the sounds around us and delivers them to the middle ear. The middle ear amplifies the sound vibrations and delivers them to the inner ear. The inner ear transforms these sound vibrations into electric signals, on the basis of their frequency and intensity, and then transmits them to the brain. These messages in the brain are then sent to the hearing center where the sounds are interpreted. Therefore, the hearing process takes place in the hearing center in essentially the same way that the seeing process takes place in the seeing center.
Despite the volume of the sounds you hear, the interior of your brain is actually very quiet. However, you hear noise, such as voices, very clearly in your brain.
Therefore, actual sounds do not exist outside our brains, even though there are physical vibrations we call sound waves. These sound waves are not transformed into sounds outside or inside our ears, but rather inside our brains. As the visual process is not performed by our eyes, neither do our ears perform the hearing process. For example, when you are having a chat with a friend, you observe the sight of your friend in your brain, and hear his or her voice in your brain. As the view in your brain is formed, you will have a deep feeling of three dimensions, and your friend's voice is also heard with a similar feeling of depth. For example, you could see your friend as being a long way from you, or sitting behind you; accordingly you feel his voice as if it is coming from him, from near you or from your back. However, your friend's voice is not far away or behind you. It is in your brain.
The extraordinariness about the real nature of the sound you hear is not limited to this. The brain is actually both lightproof and soundproof. Sound never in fact reaches the brain. Therefore, despite the volume of the sounds you hear, the interior of your brain is actually very quiet. However, you hear noise, such as voices, very clearly in your brain. This is an extraordinary fact. The electrical signals that reach the brain are heard in your brain as sound, for example the sound of a concert in a stadium filled with people.
All Smells Occur In The Brain
If someone is asked how he senses the smells around him, he would probably say "with my nose". However, this answer is not the right one, even though most people would instantly conclude that it was the truth. Gordon Shepherd, a professor of neurology from Yale University, explains why this is incorrect:
We think that we smell with our noses, [but] this is a little like saying that we hear with our ear lobes.1
Our sense of smell works in a similar mechanism to our other sense organs. In fact, the only function of the nose is its ability to act as an intake channel for smell molecules. Volatile molecules such as vanilla, or the scent of a rose, come to receptors located on hairs in a part of the nose called the epithelium and interact with them. The result of the interaction of the smell molecules with the epithelium reaches the brain as an electric signal. These electric signals are then perceived as a scent by the brain. Thus, all smells which we interpret as good or bad are merely perceptions generated in the brain after the interaction with volatile molecules has been transduced into electric signals. The fragrance of perfume, of a flower, of a food which you like, of the sea—in short all smells you may or may not like—are perceived in the brain. However, the smell molecules never actually reach the brain. In our sense of smell, it is only electrical signals which reach the brain, as happens with sound and sight.
George Berkeley, a philosopher who has realized the importance of this truth, says "At the beginning, it was believed that colors, odors, etc., 'really exist,' but subsequently such views were renounced, and it was seen that they only exist in dependence on our sensations."2
The smell molecules never actually reach the brain. In our sense of smell, it is only electrical signals which reach the brain, as happens with sound and sight.
Michael Posner, a psychologist and Marcus Raichle, a neurologist from Washington University comment on the issue of how sight and other senses occur, even in the absence of an external stimulus:
Open your eyes, and a scene fills your view effortlessly; close your eyes and think of that scene, and you can summon an image of it, certainly not as vivid, solid, or complete as a scene you see with your eyes, but still one that captures the scene's essential characteristics. In both cases, an image of the scene is formed in the mind. The image formed from actual visual experiences is called a "percept" to distinguish it from an imagined image. The percept is formed as the result of light hitting the retina and sending signals that are further processed in the brain. But how are we able to create an image when no light is hitting the retina to send such signals?3
If the taste nerves in your brain were cut off, it would be impossible for the taste of anything you eat to reach your brain, and you would entirely lose your sense of taste.
There is no need for an external source to form an image in your mind. This same situation holds true for the sense of smell. In the same way as you are aware of a smell which does not really exist in your dreams or imagination, you cannot be sure whether or not those objects, which you smell in real life, exist outside you. Even if you assume that these objects exist outside of you, you can never deal with the original objects.
All Tastes Occur In The Brain
The sense of taste can be explained in a manner similar to those of the other sense organs. Tasting is caused by little buds in the tongue and throat. The tongue can detect four different tastes, bitter, sour, sweet and salty. Taste buds, after a chain of processes, transform sensory information into electrical signals and then transfer them to the brain. Subsequently, those signals are perceived by the brain as tastes. The taste that you experience when you eat a cake, yogurt, a lemon or a fruit is, in reality, a process that interprets electrical signals in the brain.
An image of a cake will be linked with the taste of the sugar, all of which occurs in the brain and everything sensed is related to the cake which you like so much. The taste that you are conscious of after you have eaten your cake, with a full appetite, is nothing other than an effect generated in your brain caused by electrical signals. You are only aware of what your brain interprets from the external stimuli. You can never reach the original object; for example you cannot see, smell or taste the actual chocolate itself. If the taste nerves in your brain were cut off, it would be impossible for the taste of anything you eat to reach your brain, and you would entirely lose your sense of taste. The fact that the tastes of which you are aware seem extraordinarily real should certainly not deceive you. This is the scientific explanation of the matter.
The Sense Of Touch Also Occurs
In The Brain
If our fingertips are given a stimulus in a different manner, we can sense entirely different feelings. Today this can be done by mechanical simulators. With the help of a special glove, a person can feel the sensation of stroking a cat, shaking hands with someone, washing his hands, or touching a hard material, even though none of these things may be present.
The sense of touch is one of the factors which prevents people from being convinced of the aforementioned truth that the senses of sight, hearing and taste occur within the brain. For example, if you told someone that he sees a book within his brain, he would, if he didn't think carefully, reply "I can't be seeing the book in my brain—look, I'm touching it with my hand". Or, if we said "we cannot know whether the original of this book exists as a material object outside or not", again the same superficially minded person might answer "no, look, I'm holding it with my hand and I feel the hardness of it—that isn't a perception but an existence which has material reality".
However, there is a fact that such people cannot understand, or perhaps just ignore. The sense of touch also occurs in the brain as much as do all the other senses. That is to say, when you touch a material object, you sense whether it is hard, soft, wet, sticky or silky in the brain. The effects that come from your fingertips are transmitted to the brain as an electrical signal and these signals are perceived in the brain as the sense of touch. For instance, if you touch a rough surface, you can never know whether the surface is, in reality, indeed a rough surface, or how a rough surface actually feels. That is because you can never touch the original of a rough surface. The knowledge that you have about touching a surface is your brain's interpretation of certain stimuli. This important truth, which needs careful consideration, is expressed by twentieth century philosopher Bertrand Russell:
As to the sense of touch when we press the table with our fingers, that is an electric disturbance on the electrons and protons of our fingertips, produced, according to modern physics, by the proximity of the electrons and protons in the table. If the same disturbance in our finger-tips arose in any other way, we should have the sensations, in spite of there being no table.4
The point that Russell makes here is extremely important. In fact, if our fingertips are given a stimulus in a different manner, we can sense entirely different feelings. Today this can be done by mechanical simulators. With the help of a special glove, a person can feel the sensation of stroking a cat, shaking hands with someone, washing his hands, or touching a hard material, even though none of these things may be present. In reality, of course, none of these sensations represent occurrences in the real world. This is further evidence that all the sensations felt by a human being are formed within the mind.
When you touch a material object, you sense whether it is hard, soft, wet, sticky or silky in the brain. The effects that come from your fingertips are transmitted to the brain as an electrical signal and these signals are perceived in the brain as the sense of touch.
Time and Relativity
Time is a concept that depends totally on our perceptions and the comparison we make between our perceptions. For example, at this moment you are reading this article. Suppose that, before reading this article, you were eating something in the kitchen. You think that there is a period between the time when you were eating in the kitchen and this moment, and you call it "time". In fact, the moment you were eating in the kitchen is a piece of information in your memory, and you compare this moment with the information in your memory and call it time. If you do not make this comparison, the concept of time disappears and the only moment that exists for you will be the present moment.
Renowned physicist Julian Barbour defines time in this way:
"Time is nothing but a measure of the changing positions of objects. A pendulum swings, the hands on a clock advance."1
In short, time is composed of a few pieces of information hidden as a memory in the brain; rather, it arises from the comparison of images. If a person did not have a memory, that person would live only in the present moment; his brain would not be able to make these interpretations and, therefore, he would not have any perception of time.
The Views Of Scientists On The Idea
That Time Is A Perception
Today it has been scientifically accepted that time is a concept that arises from our making a definite sequential arrangement among movements and changes. We will try to make this clearer by giving examples from those thinkers and scientists who have established this view. The physicist Julian Barbour caused a great stir in the scientific world with his book entitled The End of Time in which he e x a m i n e d the ideas of timelessness and eternity. In an interview with Barbour, he said that any idea we have of time being absolute is false, and that research done in modern physics has confirmed this.
Time is not absolute; it is a variously perceived, subjective concept depending on events. François Jacob, thinker, Nobel laureate and famous professor of genetics, in his book entitled Le Jeu des Possibles (The Possible and the Actual) says this about the possibility that time can move backwards: Films played backwards make it possible for us to imagine a world in which time flows backwards.
A world in which milk separates itself from the coffee and jumps out of the cup to reach the milk-pan; a world in which light rays are emitted from the walls to be collected in a trap (gravity center) instead of gushing out from a light source; a world in which a stone slopes to the palm of a man by the astonishing cooperation of innumerable drops of water which enable the stone to jump out of water. Yet, in such a world in which time has such opposite features, the processes of our brain and the way our memory compiles information, would similarly be functioning backwards. The same is true for the past and future and the world will appear to us exactly as it currently appears.2
Because our brain works by arranging things in a sequence, we do not believe that the world works as described above; we think that time always moves forward. However, this is a decision our brain makes and is therefore totally relative. If the information in our brains were arranged like a film being projected backwards, time would be for us like a film being projected backwards. In this situation, we would start to perceive that the past was the future and the future was the past and we would experience life in a way totally opposite than we do now.
The fact that time is a perception was proved by the greatest physicist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, in his "General Theory of Relativity". In his book, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Lincoln Barnett says this:
Along with absolute space, Einstein discarded the concept of absolute time – of a steady, unvarying inexorable universal time flow, streaming from the infinite past to the infinite future. Much of the obscurity that has surrounded the Theory of Relativity stems from man's reluctance to recognize that sense of time, like sense of colour, is a form of perception. Just as space is simply a possible order of material objects, so time is simply a possible order of events. The subjectivity of time is best explained in Einstein's own words. "The experiences of an individual" he says, "appear to us arranged in a series of events; in this series the single events which we remember appear to be ordered according to the criterion of 'earlier' and 'later'. There exists, therefore, for the individual, an I-time, or subjective time. This in itself is not measurable. I can, indeed, associate numbers with the events, in such a way that a greater number is associated with the later event than with an earlier one."3
From these words of Einstein, we can understand that the idea that time moves forward is totally a conditioned response. Einstein scientifically established the following fact in his "General Theory of Relativity": The rate at which time passes changes according to the speed of a body and its distance from the center of gravity. If the speed increases, time decreases, contracts, moves slower and seems that the point of inertia approaches.
The Relativity Of Time Explains
The Reality Of Fate
As we see from the account of the relativity of time, time is not a concrete concept, but one that varies depending on perceptions. For example, a space of time conceived by us as millions of years long is one moment in God's sight. A period of 50 thousand years for us is only a day for Gabriel and the angels. This reality is very important for an understanding of the idea of fate. Fate is the idea that God creates every single event, past, present, and future in "a single moment". This means that every event, from the creation of the universe until doomsday, has already occurred and ended in God's sight. A significant number of people cannot grasp the reality of fate. They cannot understand how God can know events that have not yet happened, or how past and future events have already happened in God's sight. From our point of view, things that have not happened are events which have not occurred. This is because we live our lives in relation to the time that God has created, and we could not know anything without the information in our memories. Because we dwell in the testing place of this world, God has not given us memories of the things we call "future" events.
Consequently, we cannot know what the future holds. But God is not bound to time or space; it is He Who has already created all these things from nothing. For this reason, past, present and future are all the same to God. From His point of view, everything has already occurred; He does not need to wait to see the result of an action. The beginning and the end of an event are both experienced in His sight in a single moment. Besides, for God there is no such thing as remembering the past; past and future are always present to God; everything exists in the same moment.
If we think of our life as a filmstrip, we watch it as if we were viewing a video cassette with no possibility to speed up the film. But God sees the whole film all at once at the same moment; it is He Who created it and determined all its details. As we are able to see the beginning, middle and end of a ruler all at once, so God encompasses in one moment, from beginning to end, the time to which we are subject. However, human beings experience these events only when the time comes to witness the fate that God has created for them. This is the way it is for the fates of everyone in the world.
The lives of everyone who has ever been created and whoever will be created, in this world and the next, are present in the sight of God in all their details. The fates of all living things are written together with the fates of millions of human beings in God's eternal memory. They will remain written without being lost or diminished. The reality of fate is one of the manifestations of God's eternal greatness, power and might. This is why He is called the Preserver (al-Hafiz).
Religion Helps Science
To Be Rightly Guided
Science is the investigation of the material world we live in through observation and experiment. Accordingly, in conducting such investigation, science will lead to various conclusions based on the information collected through observation and experimentation. In addition, however, every discipline of science also has certain norms that are simply taken for granted, or accepted without further verification. In scientific literature, this set of norms is called a "paradigm".
This initial outlook charts the "course" of all related scientific investigation. As is known, the first step in scientific investigation is the formulation of a "hypothesis". To begin with, for their research topic, scientists must form a hypothesis. Then, this hypothesis is tested through scientific experimentation. If observations and experiments verify the hypothesis, the "hypothesis" is called an "established principle or law". If the hypothesis is disproved, then new hypotheses are tested, and the process continues.
The formulation of the hypothesis, which is the first step of the process, is often dependent on the scientists' basic viewpoint. For instance, scientists, if committed to a certain outlook, could base their work on a hypothesis that "matter has a tendency to self-organize without the involvement of a conscious agent". Then, they would conduct years of research to verify that hypothesis. Yet, since matter has no such capability, all these efforts are bound to fail. Furthermore, if scientists are overly obstinate about their hypothesis, the research may well last for years, and even for generations. The end result, though, would be but a huge waste of time and resources.
However, had the point of assumption been the idea that "it is impossible for matter to self-organize without conscious planning", that scientific research would have followed a more expeditious and productive course.
This issue, that is, the issue of establishing a proper hypothesis, requires an entirely different source than mere scientific data. Correct identification of this source is critical, because, as we explained in the above example, an error in the identification of a source may cost the science-world years, decades, or even centuries.
The source sought is God's revelation to mankind. God is the Creator of the universe, the world and of living things, and therefore, the most accurate and indisputable knowledge about these subjects derives from Him. In accordance, God has revealed to us important information about these matters in the Qur'an. The most fundamental of these are as follows:
Albert Einstein
1) God created the universe from nothing. Nothing came into being as a result of random occurrences, or of its own accord. It follows that there is not a chaos of chance-happenings in nature or the universe, but a perfect order created with an intelligent design.
2) The material universe, and predominantly, the Earth we live in, is specially designed to allow for human life. There is a certain purpose in the movements of stars and planets, in geographical landmarks, and in the properties of water or the atmosphere, that makes human life possible.
3) All forms of life have come into being by God's creation. God created all living things. Moreover, these creatures act through the inspiration of God, as quoted in the Qur'an in the example of the honeybees, with the verse that begins with, "Your Lord inspired the bees…" (Qur'an, 16:68)
These are absolute truths communicated to us by God in the Qur'an. An approach to science based on these facts will inevitably lead to remarkable progress and serve humanity in the most beneficial manner. We find numerous examples of this in history. It was only possible with the placement of science on a proper foothold that Muslim scientists, who were then helping to forge the greatest civilization in the world, contributed to major achievements in the 9th and 10th centuries. In the West, the pioneers in all fields of science, from physics to chemistry, astronomy to biology and palaeontology, were great men of science who believed in God, and who conducted research for the sake of exploring what He created.
Einstein also maintained that scientists must rely on religious sources when developing their objectives:
Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion… I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith.1
Since the middle of the 19th century, however, the scientific community has divorced itself from this divine source, and come under the influence of a materialist philosophy.
Materialism, an idea that dates back to ancient Greece, maintains the absolute existence of matter and denies God. This materialistic outlook gradually made its way into the scientific community, and, beginning in the middle of the 19th century, a considerable portion of scientific investigation was initiated to support it. To this purpose, many theories were formulated, such as the "infinite universe model" suggesting that the universe exists since infinite time, leaving no room for a Creator, Darwin's evolutionary theory claiming that life is the work of chance, or Freud's views holding that the human mind consists of the brain alone.
Today, in retrospect, we see that the claims put forth by materialism were but a waste of time for science. For decades, a great number of scientists have expended their best efforts to prove each of these claims, but the results always proved them wrong. Discoveries confirmed the proclamations of the Qur'an – that the universe was created from nothing, that it is tailored to suit human life, and that it is impossible for life to have come into being and evolved by chance.
Believing in a myth such as evolution, and adhering to it despite the findings of science, results in an emotional state of despair. The harmony in the universe and the design in living things becomes rather a great source of trouble to them. The following words of Darwin offer us a glimpse into the sentiments of most evolutionists:
I remember well the time when the thought of the eye made me cold all over, but I have got over this stage of complaint... and now trifling particulars of structure often make me very uncomfortable. The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!2
The feathers of a peacock, as well as countless other signs of creation in nature, continue to discomfit evolutionists. Turning a blind eye to such apparent miracles, they develop an ambivalence to such truths, accompanied by a mental state of denial. A good case to this point is the prominent evolutionist Richard Dawkins, who calls upon Christians not to assume that they have witnessed a miracle, even if they see the statue of the Virgin Mary waving to them. According to Dawkins;
Perhaps all the atoms of the statue's arm just happened to move in the same direction at once—a low probability event to be sure, but possible.3
On the other hand, our immediate surroundings, and the universe we live in, teem with numerous signs of Creation. Implicit in the fascinating system of a mosquito, the glorious artistry in the wings of a peacock, a complex and perfectly functioning organ like the eye, and millions of other forms of life, are signs of the existence of God, and His supreme knowledge and wisdom, for people who believe. A scientist who maintains that creation is a fact views nature from this perspective, and derives great pleasure in every observation he makes, and every experiment he conducts, gaining inspiration for further studies.
What is in the heavens and in the earth belongs to Allah. Allah encompasses all things.
(Qur'an, 4:126)
(Qur'an, 4:126)
What Nature Makes One Think
Man is a being whom Allah furnishes with the faculty of thought. Yet, most people do not use this very important faculty as they should. In fact, some people almost never think.
In truth, each person possesses a capacity for thought of which even he himself is unaware. Once man begins to use this capacity, facts he has not been able to realise until that very moment begin to be uncovered for him. The deeper he goes in reflection, the more his capacity to think improves, and this is possible for everyone. One just has to realise that one needs to reflect and then to strive hard.
In the Qur'an, Allah informs us that in all circumstances the believers reflect and derive beneficial conclusions from their thinking.
In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people with intelligence: those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire." (Surat Al 'Imran: 190-191)
Allah's Messenger (saas) also often reminded believers the importance of pondering and remembering Allah: Abu Musa reported Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: "The house in which remembrance of Allah is made and the house in which Allah is not remembered are like the living and the dead." (Muslim)It is reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: "Shall I not tell you the best of your deeds, and those that give you the highest rank, and those that are the purest with your King, and are better for you than giving gold and silver,?" They said, "Of course." He said, "Remembrance (dhikr) of Allah ta ala.' (Abu Dawud)
However, someone who does not think will remain totally distant from truths and lead his life in self-deception and error. As a result, he will not grasp the purpose of the creation of the world, and the reason for his existence on the earth. Yet, Allah has created everything with a purpose. This fact is stated in the Qur'an as follows:
We did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them as a game. We did not create them except with truth but most of them do not know it. (Surat ad-Dukhan: 38-39)
Did you suppose that We created you for amusement and that you would not return to Us? (Surat al-Muminun: 115)
And He has made everything in the heavens and everything on the earth subservient to you. It is all from Him. There are certainly Signs in that for people who reflect.
(Qur'an, 45:13)
(Qur'an, 45:13)
Those who are able to see Allah's signs, the miraculous aspects of the beings and events He creates, and who, therefore, can understand, are people who reflect. Such people can derive conclusions from everything, big or small, they see around them. The Prophet Muhammad's words make this very clear:
"Fear Allah, for He is the one Who sets right all that concerns you. Recite the Qur'an and keep remembering Allah, for you will be remembered in the heavens, and it will be light for you on the earth." (Narrated by Ahmad bin hanbal.)
An example to this is nature that surrounds us. He who believes in Allah praises our Lord for the beauties he sees in nature. He is aware that Allah has created all existing beauty. He knows that all these beauties belong to Allah and they are manifestations of His attribute of jamal—beauty. He takes great pleasure from all these beauties and remembers Allah knowing that "If people sit in an assembly in which they do not remember Allah or invoke blessings on the Prophet (saas), it will be a cause of grief to them on the Day of Resurrection," as Allah's Messenger (saas)says. (Tirmidhi)
And mankind and beasts and livestock are likewise of varying colours. Only those of His servants with knowledge have fear of Allah. Allah is Almighty, Ever-Forgiving. (Qur'an, 35:28)
While walking in nature, one encounters more beauty. From a single straw to the yellow daisy, from birds to ants, everything is full of details, which need reflection. As people reflect upon these, they come to understand the power and might of Allah.
Butterflies, for example, are very aesthetically pleasing creatures. With the symmetry and design of their lace-like wings—which are extremely precise as if drawn by hand—their harmonious, phosphorescent colours, butterflies are evidence of Allah's unequalled art and superior power of creation.
Similarly, innumerable plant and tree varieties on earth are among the beauties Allah creates. Flowers, all in different colours and trees of different forms, have been created and among their purposes is that they give great pleasure to people.
One who has faith thinks about how flowers such as the rose, violet, daisy, hyacinth, carnation, orchid and others have such smooth surfaces, and how they come out of their seed completely flat without any puckers as if ironed.
He Who created and moulded;
He Who determined and guided;
He Who brings forth green pasture...
(Qur'an, 87: 2-4)
He Who determined and guided;
He Who brings forth green pasture...
(Qur'an, 87: 2-4)
Other wonders Allah creates are the fragrances of these flowers. A rose, for instance, has a strong and constant ever-changing smell. Even with the latest technology, scientists cannot develop an exact match of the smell of the rose. Laboratory research to imitate this smell has not yielded satisfactory results. Smells produced based on the scent of the rose are generally heavy and disturbing. However, the original scent of the rose does not disturb.
Someone who has faith knows that each one of these is created for him to praise Allah, to present him the art and knowledge of Allah in the beauty He creates. For this reason, when someone sees this beauty while strolling in the garden, he glorifies Allah, saying, "It is as Allah wills, there is no strength but in Allah" (Surat al-Kahf: 39). He remembers that Allah has put all this beauty at the service of mankind and that He will give the believers incomparably excellent blessings in the hereafter. He takes more pleasure in the beauties he sees than everyone else, because as Allah's Messenger (saas) said, "People will not sit in an assembly in which they remember Allah without the angels surrounding them, mercy covering them, and Allah mentioning them among those who are with Him."' (Muslim) And because of all this, his love for Allah increases ever more.
Architects In Nature
Animals in nature attract our attention with the structure of their bodies in particular. The cheetah possesses a perfect skeleton and muscles systems for it to run. The eagle possesses the world's best aerodynamic design. The dolphin has a specially created skin and body so it can swim in the water.
These flawless designs in animals' bodies are each proof to remind us that every species of living thing was created by God.
But possessing a perfect body is not enough. The animal also has to know how to use that body. A bird's wings are only of any use when it succeeds in taking flight, soaring and landing with them.
When we look at the living world through these eyes, we see a most interesting truth. Each animal behaves in the most appropriate manner for the conditions that surround it. Furthermore, this behaviour occurs right from the moment of birth.
It takes only half an hour for a new-born antelope to stand up and run. Baby turtles, buried under the sand by the mother turtle, know they have to break out of their shells and head for the surface. Furthermore, they have been taught that as soon as they emerge they have to reach the sea. It is almost as if animals come into this world fully trained.
Beavers are the first among the excellent architects in nature that come to mind. These animals build their lodges in stationary ponds, but these ponds are special in being artificially formed by dams beavers build over the stream.
Being no taller than a few centimeters, termites can erect towers many meters high without using any tools. This admirable nest perfectly protects the inhabitant termite colony with a population of over a million from their enemies and unfavourable external
life conditions.
life conditions.
And the most amazing example of this amazing education animals have is the homes they so expertly build for themselves.
Spiders, for instance, make their webs with threads from their own bodies. Spider thread is five times stronger than steel of the same thickness. Even large flies which move fast through the air cannot escape the strong and flexible trap of the spider web.
There are sticky droplets on Black Widow spider webs. It is impossible for preys caught in these webs to free themselves. The spider's web is sticky, flexible, and amazingly strong. Beyond being a trap, this web is actually an extension of the spider's own body. The spider feels the vibration of every prey that gets caught in the web, and catches it without delay.
The web is produced in the spider's hindquarters. It pulls the thread produced by a special organ with its legs. The sticky droplets on the surface of the thread are actually small bunches of thread. These open out when necessary and the web easily stretches.
There is no doubt that it is the inspiration God gives this creature that causes the spider to build this architectural marvel.
There are many other animals in nature that make amazing homes for themselves just like the spider. Honeybees which make perfect hexagonal hives; beavers, which construct dams suited to fine engineering calculations; termites, which, although blind, build complex skyscrapers; weaver birds; paper wasps, which make multi-storied apartment blocks from paper to name a few… By exhibiting these surprising works of architecture, these creatures reveal to us the skills which are actually given to them by God. Each one of them acts by God's inspiration, as is announced in a verse of the Qur'an:
There is no creature He [God] does not hold by the forelock. (Surah Hud: 56)
Birds:
Flawless Flying Machines
Design, in brief, means a harmonious assembling of various parts in an orderly form designed for a common goal. All creatures in nature, including us, are of a design. This, in turn, shows the existence of a Creator, Who designs all creatures at will, sustains the entire creation and holds absolute power and wisdom. This Creator is Allah (swt), Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth:
He is Allah—the Creator, the Maker, the Giver of Form. To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names. Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him. He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Surat al-Hashr: 24)
In a hadith, The Prophet Muhammed (saas) also draws attention to the unique creative power of Allah (swt) and how He mentions this in His book, the Qur'an:
When Allah created the Creation, He wrote in His Book—and He wrote (that) about Himself, and it is placed with Him on the Throne. (Al-Bukhari)
Let us consider birds as an example: A close examination of birds reveals that they are designed specifically for flying. The body has been created with air-sacs and hollow bones in order to reduce body mass and overall weight. Wings are formed aerodynamically, and the metabolism is in tune with the bird's need for high levels of energy. It is obvious that the bird is a product of a certain design.
Allah (swt) has created birds without flaw just as He has the rest of the creation. This fact is manifest in every detail, as we will examine below:
The Skeleton: The strength of a bird's skeleton is more than adequate even though the bones are hollow. Better "organised" than mammals, the shoulder, hip and chest bones of birds are fused together. This design improves the strength of the bird's structure. Another feature of the skeleton of birds is that it is lighter than in all other mammals. For instance, the skeleton of the dove weighs only about 4.4% of its total body weight.
Respiratory System: The respiratory system of mammals and birds operate on completely different principles, primarily because birds need oxygen in much greater quantities than do land-dwelling animals. In land-dwelling animals, airflow is bidirectional: air travels through a network of channels, and stops at the small air sacs. Oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange takes place here. Used air follows a reverse course in leaving the lung and is discharged through the windpipe. On contrary, in birds, air flow is unidirectional. New air comes in one end, and the used air goes out the other end. This provides an uninterrupted supply of oxygen for birds, which satisfies their need for high levels of energy.
The System of Balance: The bodies of birds have been created to a special design that removes any possible imbalance in flight. The bird's head has been deliberately created light in weight so that the animal does not lean forward during flight: on average, a bird's head weight is about 1% of its body weight. The aerodynamic structure of the feathers is another property of the system of balance in birds. The feathers, especially in the wing and tail, provide a very effective system of balance for the bird.
The kingdom of the heavens and
the earth and everything between
them belongs to Allah. He creates whatever He wills. Allah has power
over all things... (Qur'an, 5:17)
the earth and everything between
them belongs to Allah. He creates whatever He wills. Allah has power
over all things... (Qur'an, 5:17)
The Power and Energy Problem: Migrating birds have to store enough energy to take them through their trip. On the other hand, another necessity in flight is being as light as possible. In the meantime, the fuel has also to be as efficient as possible. In other words, while the weight of fuel has to be at a minimum, the energy output from it has to be at a maximum. But all of these problems have been solved for birds: The birds do not fly haphazardly but in a flock. They follow a certain order and form a "V" shape in the air. Every bird takes advantage of the slipstream set up by the one in front of it. This V formation also reduces the air resistance that they encounter and help them to save a considerable amount of energy.
Digestion System: Due to their need for a lot of energy, birds also have a body that digests the food they eat in an optimum fashion. Birds' digestive systems enable them to make the best use of the food they eat. The circulatory system of birds has also been created in harmony with their high energy requirements. While a human's heart beats 78 times a minute, this rate is 460 for a sparrow and 615 for a humming bird. Similarly, blood circulation in birds is very fast. The oxygen that supplies all of these fast working systems is provided by special avian lungs.
All of these facts take us to one result: it is simply impossible to explain the origin of birds through a theory of evolution. Thousands of different species of birds have been created with all their current physical features in "a moment". In other words, Allah (swt) has created them individually. In the Qur'an, Allah (swt) invites humans to ponder this:
Have they not looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all things. (Surat al-Mulk: 19)
Everyone who ponders the signs of creation of the universe, as in the example of the bird described above, and considers and investigates what he sees around him, will come to know Allah's superior wisdom, knowledge, and eternal power. Therefore, each person needs to ponder the purpose of creation, first as it concerns him himself, and then as it pertains to everything he sees in the universe. Each subject on which we reflect helps us to further understand and appreciate the omnipotence, wisdom, knowledge, art and other attributes of Allah (swt). In the Qur'an, Allah (swt) says:
And in your creation and all the creatures He has scattered about there are signs for people with certainty. (Surat al-Jathiyah: 4)
Only those who reflect on the purpose of the creation around them, who have a clear faculty of discernment, who apply their minds and use their conscience, can recognize the truth that which these signs imply. They are those who believe. Believers, who are capable of exercising their minds, unencumbered by false motives, come to recognize Allah's artistry and power through His creation, and thus have a full appreciation of His greatness and glory. A person so disposed recognizes the signs of Allah's existence everywhere he looks, perceiving Him for His true might. Believers keep their minds continually occupied with remembrance of Allah, while the majority of humanity spend their lives without a thought to these facts. The following distinction Allah's Messenger, The Prophet Muhammad (saas) drew between those who remember Allah (swt) and those who do not also show the importance of this subject in the life of a believer:
The example of the one who celebrates the Praises of his Lord (Allah) in comparison to the one who does not celebrate the Praises of his Lord, is that of a living creature compared to a dead one. (Al-Bukhari)
Do you not see that everyone in the heavens and earth glorifies Allah, as do the birds with their outspread wings? Each one knows its prayer and glorification. Allah knows what they do. (Qur'an, 24:41)
The Miracle Of Design
In The Cell
In every part of our body there reigns a tiny yet complex life. An examination under the microscope into the depths of any human organ brings us face to face with an astounding miracle of creation: millions of tiny living things that have come together to make up that organ are engaged in arduous activity. These tiny beings are cells, the basic units of life. Not only man but also all other living things are composed of these microscopic living beings.
There are about 100 trillion cells in the human body. Some of these cells are so tiny that even 1 million of them together hardly cover a space as large as the pointed end of a pin. Despite this, however, the cell is by far the most complex structure mankind has ever encountered, as is also agreed by the scientific community. Containing many secrets hitherto undiscovered, the cell of a living thing also constitutes the greatest impasse for the theory of evolution. That is because the cell is one of the most striking pieces of evidence that human beings and all other living beings are not the products of coincidences, but are created by a Creator.
Cells multiply by dividing. While the human body is initially composed of a single cell, this cell divides and reproduces by folds with a ratio of 2-4-8-16-32...
In order for the cell to survive, all the basic components of the cell, each performing many vital functions, have to be intact. If the cell came into existence by evolution, then millions of its components had to simultaneously exist in the same place and they had to come together in a particular order and plan. Since this is utterly implausible, such a structure has no explanation other than 'creation.' One of the leading evolutionists, Alexander Oparin, expressed the deadlock the theory of evolution encountered in this way:
Unfortunately, the origin of the cell remains a question which is actually the darkest point of the complete evolution theory.1
The English mathematician and astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle made a similar comparison in one of his interviews published in Nature magazine dated November 12, 1981. Although an evolutionist himself, Hoyle said that the odds that higher life forms might have emerged in this way was comparable to the odds of a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard assembling a Boeing 747 from the materials in it. This means that it is not possible for the cell to come into being by coincidence and therefore, it must definitely have been "created".
Despite this however, evolutionists still claim that life came into existence by chance under the conditions of the primordial earth, which was the most uncontrolled environment possible. This is a claim entirely incompatible with scientific data. In addition, even the simplest probability calculations verify in mathematical terms that not even one single protein out of millions existing in the cell could have come into being by coincidence, let alone a single cell of an organism.
To gain some understanding of the awe-inspiring structure of the cell, it will be enough to examine just the structure and functions of the membrane enveloping these cellular organelles.
The cell membrane is an ambient cover for the cell, yet its duty is not limited to it. This membrane both regulates communications and relations with neighbouring cells and deftly coordinates and supervises the entries and exits to the cell. The cell membrane is so thin, at just one hundred thousandth of a millimetre, that one can detect it only under an electron microscope. The membrane resembles a double-sided endless wall. On this wall, there are doors making entry to and exit from the cell possible and receptors allowing the membrane to recognise the extracellular environment. These doors and receptors are made of protein molecules. They are located on the cell wall and meticulously check all the entries and exits to the cell.
What are the accomplishments of this thin structure made up of unconscious molecules such as fat and protein? That is, which features of the membrane lead us to call it 'conscious' and 'wise'?
The primary duty of the cell membrane is to enclose the cellular organelles so as to keep them intact. However, it has a far more complex function than this. It supplies the substances vital for the continuity of the cell and its functions from the extracellular environment. Outside the cell, there are countless chemical substances. The cell membrane recognises the substances essential for the cell and only lets them in. It acts very economically and never allows in more than what the cell needs. Meanwhile, it detects harmful wastes in the cell right away and, without losing any time, discharges them from the cell.
Another function of the cell membrane is to instantly transmit the messages, which are received from the brain or any other part of the body via hormones, to the center of the cell. To perform these functions, it has to know all the activities and developments taking place in the cell, keep a list of required or excess substances, keep stocks under control and act under the guidance of a superior memory and decision-making skills.
The cell membrane is so selective that without its authorization, not even a single substance in the extracellullar environment can pass through the cell doors, even by chance. There is not even a single unnecessary, purposeless molecule in the cell. Exits from the cell are also strictly checked. The duty of the cell membrane is vital and it does not permit even minor errors. The entry of a wrong or harmful chemical substance into the cell, the supply or discharge of a substance in excess amounts or failure to discharge waste products on time, or as required, mean the death of the cell.
If the first living cell had come into existence by coincidence as evolutionists claim, and if just one of these properties of the membrane had not been fully formed, then the cell would certainly have disappeared in a very short time.
Which 'coincidence', then, formed such a 'wise' mass of fat?...
Let's ask another question, which by itself refutes the theory of evolution straight away; does the 'wisdom' displayed in the aforementioned functions belong to the cell membrane?
Keep in mind that these functions are not carried out by a human being or a machine such as a computer or robot under man's control, but are merely in a cover enclosing the cell, which is made up of fat mixed here and there with various proteins. We also need to consider that the cell membrane, which can handle so many complex tasks flawlessly, has no brain or center of thinking.
It is obvious that such wise patterns of behaviour and a conscious decision-making mechanism could not have been caused by the cell membrane itself, which is a layer made up of fat and protein molecules. This also holds true for all other cellular organelles. These organelles do not even have a nervous system, let alone a brain to think and make decisions with. Despite this, however, they accomplish incredibly complex tasks, make precise calculations and take vital decisions. That is because each one of them obeys the orders of Allah, Who created them flawlessly and sustains them. In the 12th verse of Surat at-Talaq, the fact that everything acts in compliance with the command of Allah is stated:
It is Allah Who has created seven heavens, and earth as many. His commandment descends through them, so that you may learn that Allah has power over all things and that Allah encompasses all things with His knowledge. (Surat at-Talaq: 12)
Extra Ordinary Design
In The Eye
When you look around you out in open air and in a broad field, you can readily see all objects farthest and closest to you in all their colors, shape, and size. This view, which you have obtained without making any effort, is produced as a result of numerous complex reactions and interactions in your body. Now let us look at these complicated operations closer.
The human eye has a fully automatic mechanism that works perfectly. It is made up of the combination of 40 different basic parts and all these parts have critical functions in the process of seeing. Any defect or disability in even one of these parts would make seeing impossible.
The transparent layer in the front part of the eye is cornea. Right behind lies the iris. Giving the eye its color, the iris adjusts its size automatically according to the sharpness of light thanks to the muscles attached to it. For example, if we are in a dark place, the iris widens to take in as much light as possible. When light increases, it shrinks to decrease the amount of light coming into the eye.
The automatic adjustment system in the iris works like this: The moment light comes to the eye, a nerve impulse travels to the brain and gives message about the existence and brightness of the light. The brain immediately sends back a signal and orders how much the muscles around the iris will contract.
The human eye has a fully automatic mechanism that works perfectly. It is made up of the combination of 40 different basic parts and all these parts have critical functions in the process of seeing. Any defect or disability in even one of these parts would make seeing impossible.
Another eye mechanism working parallel to this structure is the lens. The duty of the lens is to focus the light coming to the eye onto the retina layer at the back of the eye. Thanks to the movement of the muscles around the lens, light rays coming to the eye from different angles and distances can always be focused on the retina.
All the systems we have mentioned are far smaller yet far more superior to the mechanical devices designed by the use of the latest technology in order to imitate the eye. Even the most advance artificial imaging system in the world remains extremely simple and primitive compared to the eye.
When we think of the effort and knowledge that has been put into developing these artificial imaging systems, we can understand with what a superior creation the eye is made.
If we examine a single cell in the eye at the microscopic level, the superiority of this creation will be further revealed.
Let us suppose that we look at a crystal bowl full of fruit. The light rays coming from this bowl to our eye pass through the cornea and iris and are focused on the retina by the lens.
So, what happens in the retina so that the retinal cells can perceive light?
When light particles, also called, photons, strike the cells in the retina, they produce a cascading effect like a row of dominoes carefully arranged one after the other. The first of these dominoes in the retinal cells is a molecule called 11-cis-retinal. When a photon of light interacts with it, this molecule changes shape. This forces a change in the shape of another protein, rhodopsin, to which it is tightly bound. Now, rhodopsin takes such a form that it can stick to another protein, called transducin, which was already present in the cell, but with which it could not interact before due to its shape's incompatibility. After this union, another molecule called GDP also joins in this group.
Now, two proteins–rhodopsin and transducin–and a chemical molecule called GDP have bound together.
However the process has just begun. The compound called GDP now has the proper form to bind to another protein called phosphodiesterase, which always exists in the cell. After this bonding, the shape of the molecule that is produced will trigger a mechanism that will start a series of chemical reactions in the cell.
This mechanism changes the ion concentration in the cell and produces electrical energy. This energy stimulates the nerves lying right at the back of the retinal cell. Consequently, the image that came to the eye as a photon of light sets on its journey in the form of an electrical signal. This signal contains visual information about the object outside.
In order for seeing to take place, the electrical signals produced in the retinal cell have to be transmitted to the center of vision in the brain. Nerve cells however are not directly connected to one another: there is a tiny gap between their junction points. How then does the electrical stimulus continue on its way?
At this point, another set of complex operations takes place. The electrical energy is transformed into chemical energy without any loss of the information being carried and in this way the information is transmitted from one nerve to the next. The chemical carriers located at the junction points of nerve cells successfully convey the information contained in the stimulus coming from the eye from one nerve to another. When transferred to the next nerve, the stimulus is again converted into electrical signal and continues its way until it reaches another junction point.
Making its way to the center of vision in the brain in this way, the signal is compared to the information in the center of memory and the image is interpreted.
Finally, we see the bowl full of fruit, which we viewed before, by virtue of this perfect system made up of hundreds of small details.
And all these amazing operations take place in a fraction of a second.
Moreover, since the act of seeing takes place continuously, the system repeats these steps over and over. For example, the molecules playing a part in the chain reaction in the eye are restored to their original state every time and the reaction starts all over again.
Of course at the same time many other equally complex operations are taking place in other parts of the body. We may simultaneously hear the sound of the image we are viewing, and depending on circumstances we may sense its odor and taste and feel its touch. Meanwhile, millions of other operations and reactions have to continue without interruption in our body if we are to go on living.
The primitive science of Darwin's day knew about none of this. Despite that however, even Darwin realized the extraordinary design in the eye and confessed his despair in a letter he wrote to Asa Grey on April 3rd 1860 in which he said:
Iremember well the time when the thought of the eye made me cold all over.1
The biochemical properties of the eye that have been discovered by modern science dealt a greater blow to Darwinism than Darwin could ever have imagined.
The complete process of seeing that we have summarized in barest outline here is even more complex in its details. However even this summary is enough to show what a glorious system has been created in our body.
Say: "It is He Who broughht you into being and gave you hearin, sight and hearts. That little thanks you show!" (Qur'an, 67: 23)
The reactions taking place in the eye are so complex and so finely tuned that it is quite unreasonable to think that these are a product of chance occurrences as the theory of evolution claims.
Michael Behe, a recognized professor of biochemistry, makes this comment on the chemistry of the eye and the theory of evolution in his book Darwin's Black Box:
Now that the black box of vision has been opened, it is longer enough for an evolutionary explanation of that power to consider only the anatomical structures of whole eyes, as Darwin did in the nineteenth century. Each of the anatomical steps and structures that Darwin thought were so simple actually involves staggeringly complicated biochemical processes that cannot be papered over with rhetoric.2
But as we have seen, the theory of evolution is unable to account for a single system in a single living cell, much less explain life as a whole.
Having utterly demolished the hypothesis that life is 'simple', science demonstrated to humanity a very important fact.
Life is not the product of unplanned happenings. It is the result of a perfect creation.
The perfect creation of a superior Creator, Who brought life into being, Who is God, the Lord of all the Worlds.
It is He Who created both humans and all other living beings. And man is responsible to our Lord Who created him.
God reminds man of this truth in the Qur'an:
It is He Who has created hearing, sight and hearts for you. What little thanks you show! (Surat al-Muminun: 78)
A Miracle Of The Qur’an:
Mother’s Milk
Fourteen centuries ago, God sent down the Qur'an to mankind as a book of guidance. He called upon people to be guided to the truth by adhering to this book. God refers to the Qur'an in one of His verses in this way: "Mankind! Admonition has come to you from your Lord and also healing for what is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers." (Qur'an, 10: 57). From the day of its revelation to the day of judgement, this last divine book will remain the sole guide for humanity.
The Qur'an has a clear language easily understandable by people of all ages who lived from the day of its revelation. God refers to this attribute of the Qur'an in the verse, 'We have made the Qur'an easy to remember.' (Qur'an, 54: 52) The matchless style of the Qur'an and the superior wisdom in it are definite evidence that it is the word of God.
In addition, the Qur'an has many miraculous attributes proving that it is a revelation from God. One of these attributes is the fact that a number of scientific truths that we have only been able to uncover by the technology of the 20th century were stated in the Qur'an 1,400 years ago.
Of course the Qur'an is not a book of science. However, many scientific facts that are expressed in an extremely concise and profound manner in its verses have only been discovered with the technology of the 20th century. These facts could not have been known at the time of the Qur'an's revelation, and this is still more proof that the Qur'an is the word of God. One of the scientific miracles hinted at in the Qur'an is the special creation in the mother's milk.
Mother's milk is an incomparable mixture created by God, not only to meet all the baby's nutritional needs, but also to protect it from possible infection. The balance of food substances in mother's milk is at the ideal level and in the best possible form for the still-growing baby's physical systems. At the same time, mother's milk is very rich in nutrients that promote brain growth and nervous system development. Baby foods produced with today's technology simply cannot compete with this miraculous foodstuff.
Every day reveals a new benefit that mother's milk bestows on babies. Research has revealed that babies breastfed on mother's milk are better protected from respiratory and digestive infections. That is because the antibodies in mother's milk provide a direct defence against infection. Other anti-infective properties of mother's milk are that it constitutes an obstacle to bacteria, viruses and parasites, while establishing a friendly environment for 'good' bacteria, known as 'normal flora.' It has furthermore been established that elements of mother's milk regulate the immune system and allow it to work more effectively against contagious diseases.
Since mother's milk has been specially designed for babies, it is the most easily digestible food they can eat. As well as being rich in nutrients, it is easily digested by the baby's sensitive systems. Since the baby thus expends less energy on digestion, the energy saved can go to other bodily activities, growth and organ development.
There is more fat, protein, and the minerals sodium, chloride, and iron in the milk of mothers who have had premature babies. In fact, it has been established that premature babies fed on mother's milk score better in intelligence tests and that their visual functions develop better.
One of the facts that science has discovered about mother's milk is that suckling up to two years after birth is very beneficial. God gives us this important information, which was discovered by science only very recently, with the verse "… his weaning was in two years," 14 centuries ago.
And We have enjoined upon man goodness towards his parents: his mother bore him by bearing strain upon strain, and his weaning was in two years: (hence, O man,) be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the eventual coming. (Qur'an, 31:14)
All that we have seen so far shows us that this provides clear evidence that the Qur'an is the word of God, who is the Originator of everything and compasses all things in His knowledge.
In one verse, God says in the Qur'an "If it had been from other than God, they would have found many inconsistencies in it." (Qur'an, 4:82) Not only are there no inconsistencies in the Qur'an, but every piece of information it contains reveals the miracle of this divine book more and more each day.
What falls to man is to hold fast to this divine book revealed by God, and receive it as his one and only guide. In one of the verses, God calls out to us:
This Qur'an could never have been devised by any besides God. Rather it is confirmation of what came before it and an elucidation of the Book which contains no doubt from the Lord of all the worlds. Do they say, "He has invented it'"? Say: "Then produce a chapter like it and call on anyone you can besides God if you are telling the truth." (Qur'an, 10:37-38)
God brought you out of your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and hearts so that perhaps you would give thanks. (Qur’an, 16:78)
Part II
Politics Ideologies And Society
The Fall Of Atheism And
The Rise Of Faith
Almost everyone who has studied human history, particularly its philosophical and social aspects, will agree that the nineteenth century was an important period, for it was during those years that the first steps were taken toward the future spiritual collapse. Its most important characteristic was the growth of atheism (i.e., rejecting God's Existence) as opposed to theistic beliefs and religion, which had been generally dominant in the world until then.
Although atheism has existed from ancient times, the rise of this idea actually began in eighteenth-century Europe, with the spread and political effect of the philosophy of some anti-religious thinkers. Materialists such as Denis Diderot (1713-84) and Baron d'Holbach (1723-89) proposed that the universe was a conglomeration of matter that had existed forever and that only matter existed. In the nineteenth century, atheism spread even further afield. Such thinkers as Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72), Karl Marx (1818-83), Friedrich Engels (1820-95), Friedrich Nietzsche (1884-1900), Emile Durkheim (1859-1917), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) applied atheist thinking to different fields of science and philosophy.
The greatest support for atheism came from Charles Darwin (1809-82), who rejected the idea of creation and proposed the theory of evolution, which gave a supposedly scientific answer to the question that had baffled atheists for centuries: How did human beings and living things come to be?
This theory convinced a great many people that there was a mechanism in nature that animated lifeless matter and produced millions of different living species from it.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, atheists formulated a worldview that "explained" everything: The universe had not been created, for it had no beginning and had existed forever. They claimed that it had no purpose, that its order and balance were the result of chance, and that Darwin's theory of evolution explained how human beings and other living things came into being. They believed that Marx and Durkheim had explained history and sociology, and that Freud had explained psychology on the basis of atheist assumptions. However, twentieth-century scientific, political, and social developments disproved these views, for ongoing discoveries in astronomy, biology, psychology, and social sciences nullified the bases of atheist suppositions.
In his book God: The Evidence, The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World, American scholar Patrick Glynn of the George Washington University writes:
The past two decades of research have overturned nearly all the important assumptions and predictions of an earlier generation of modern secular and atheist thinkers relating to the issue of God. Modern thinkers assumed that science would reveal the universe to be ever more random and mechanical; instead it has discovered unexpected new layers of intricate order that bespeak an almost unimaginably vast master design.1
In short, atheism suffered a sudden collapse in the last quarter of the twentieth century at the hands of the very scientific and sociological concepts from which its adherents had hoped to receive the most support. In this article, we will look at its collapse in the areas of cosmology, biology, psychology, medicine, and sociology.
Cosmology: The Collapse of The Concept
of An Eternal Universe and The Discovery
of Creation
The first blow to atheism from twentieth-century science was in the field of cosmology. The idea that the universe had existed forever was discounted, for scientists discovered that it had a beginning. In other words, they proved scientifically that the universe had been created from nothing.
This idea of an eternal universe came to the Western world, along with materialist philosophy, from classical Greek civilization. It stated that only matter exists, and that the universe comes from eternity and goes to eternity. In the Middle Ages, when the Catholic church dominated Western thought, materialism was forgotten. However, in the modern period Western scientists and philosophers became consumed with curiosity about these classical Greek origins and revived an interest in materialism.
With the coming of the nineteenth century, it became widely accepted that the universe had no beginning and that there had been no moment of creation. Adopted passionately by such dialectical materialists as Marx and Engels, this idea found its way into the twentieth century.
This idea has always been compatible with atheism, for accepting that the universe had a beginning would mean that God had created it. Thus the only way to counter this idea was to claim that the universe was eternal, even though science did not support such a claim. Georges Politzer (1903-42), a dogged proponent of this claim, became widely known as a supporter of materialism and Marxism in the first half of the twentieth century through his book Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie (The Fundamental Principles of Philosophy).
By supporting the idea of an eternal universe, Politzer thought that science was on his side. However, very soon thereafter, the fact that he had alluded to by saying "if it is so, we must accept the existence of a Creator," that is, that the universe had a beginning, was proven. This proof came as a result of the "Big Bang" theory, perhaps the most important concept of twentieth-century astronomy.
The Big Bang theory was formulated after a series of discoveries. In 1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) noticed that the galaxies were continually moving away from each other and that the universe was expanding. If the flow of time in an expanding universe were reversed, the whole universe must have come from a single point. While assessing the validity of Hubble's discovery, astronomers were faced with the fact that this single point was a "metaphysical" state of reality in which there was an infinite gravitational attraction with no mass. Matter and time came into being through the explosion of this mass-less point. In other words, the universe was created from nothing.
In their observations made in the 1960s, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected radioactive remains of the explosion (cosmic background radiation). These observations were verified in the 1990s by the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite.
Confronted with all of these facts, atheists have been squeezed into a corner.
An example of the atheists' reaction to the Big Bang theory is seen in a 1989 article by John Maddox, editor of Nature, one of the best-known materialist-scientific journals. In his article, entitled "Down with the Big Bang," Maddox wrote that the Big Bang is "philosophically unacceptable," because "creationists and those of similar persuasions … have ample justification in the doctrine of the Big Bang." He also predicted that it "is unlikely to survive the decade ahead."2
However, despite Maddox' hopes, the Big Bang theory continues to gain credence, and new discoveries continue to prove that the universe was created.
Thus, modern astronomy proves and states that time and matter were brought into being by an eternally powerful Creator, Who is independent of both of them. The eternal power that created the universe in which we live is God, the possessor of infinite might, knowledge, and wisdom.
Physics And Astronomy: The Collapse of
The Idea of A Random Universe and
The Discovery of The Anthropic Principle
A second atheist dogma rendered invalid by twentieth-century discoveries in astronomy is the idea of a random universe. The view that all matter in the universe, the heavenly bodies, and the laws that determine the relationships among them is no more than the purposeless result of chance has been undermined dramatically.
For the first time since the 1970s, scientists have begun to recognize that the universe's physical balance is adjusted delicately in favor of human life. Advances in research have enabled scientists to discover that the universe's physical, chemical, and biological laws, as well as such basic forces as gravity and electro-magnetism and even the very structures of atoms and elements, are all ordered exactly as they have to be for human life. Western scientists have called this extraordinary design the "anthropic principle": Every aspect of the universe is designed with a view to human life.
We may summarize its basic characteristics as follows:
• The speed of the universe's first expansion (the force of the Big Bang explosion) was exactly the velocity that it had to be. According to scientists' calculations, if the expansion rate had differed from its actual value by more than one part in a billion billion, the universe either would have recollapsed before reaching its present size or splattered in every direction in a manner that it could never be reunited. In other words, even at the first moment of its existence there was a fine calculation of the accuracy of a billion billionth.
• The universe's four physical forces (i.e., gravitational force, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, and electromagnetic force) are all at the necessary levels for an ordered universe to emerge and for life to exist. Even the tiniest variations in these forces (e.g., one in 1039 or one in 1028; that is—crudely calculated—one in a billion billion billion billion), the universe either would be composed only of radiation or of hydrogen.
• Many other delicate adjustments make Earth ideal for human life: the size of the Sun, its distance from Earth, water's unique physical and chemical properties, the wavelength of the sun's rays, the way that Earth's atmosphere contains the gases necessary for respiration, and Earth's magnetic field being ideally suited to human life. (For more information on this topic, see Harun Yahya's The Creation of the Universe, Al-Attique Publishers, 2001)
This delicate balance is among the most striking discoveries of modern astrophysics. Paul Davies, the well-known astronomer, writes in the last paragraph of his The Cosmic Blueprint:
The impression of Design is overwhelming.3
In short, the idea of a random universe, perhaps atheism's most basic pillar, has been proved invalid. Scientists now openly speak of materialism's collapse.4 God reveals the falsity of this idea in the Qur'an: "We did not create heaven and Earth and everything between them to no purpose. That is the opinion of those who disbelieve…" (Qur'an, 38: 27), and science confirmed that truth in the 1970s.
Quantum Physics and The Discovery
of Divine Wisdom
One area of science that shatters the materialist myth and gives positive evidence for theism is quantum physics.
Quantum physics deals with matter's tiniest particles, also called the "sub-atomic realm." In school, everyone learns that matter is composed of atoms. Atoms are made up of a nucleus and several electrons spinning around it. One strange fact is that all of these particles take up only some 0.0001 percent of the atoms. In other words, an atom is something that is 99.9999 percent "empty."
Even more interestingly, further examination shows that the nuclei and electrons are made up of much smaller particles called "quarks," which are not even particles in the physical sense; rather, they are simply energy. This discovery broke the classical distinction between matter and energy. It now appears that only energy exists in the material universe, and that matter is just "frozen energy."
There is a still more intriguing fact: Quarks, those packets of energy, act in such a way that they may be described as "conscious." Physicist Freeman Dyson, when accepting the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion (2000), stated that:
Atoms are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom.5
In other words, there is information behind matter, information that precedes the material realm.
John Archibald Wheeler, professor of physics at Princeton University and recipient of the Einstein Award (2003), explained the same fact when he said that the "bit" (the binary digit) of information gives rise to the "it," the substance of matter.6 According to Schroeder, this has a "profound meaning":
The matter/energy relationships, the quantum wave functions, have profound meaning. Science may be approaching the realization that the entire universe is an expression of information, wisdom, an idea, just as atoms are tangible expressions of something as ethereal as energy.7
A single consciousness, a universal wisdom, pervades the universe. The discoveries of science, those that search the quantum nature of subatomic matter, have moved us to the brink of a startling realization: all existence is the expression of this wisdom. In the laboratories we experience it as information that first physically articulated as energy and then condensed into the form of matter. Every particle, every being, from atom to human, appears to represent a level of information, of wisdom.8
This means that the material universe is not a purposeless and chaotic heap of atoms, as the atheist/materialist dogma assumes, but instead is a manifestation of a wisdom that existed before the universe and that has absolute sovereignty over everything that exists. In Schroeder's words, it is "as if a metaphysical substrate was impressed upon the physical."9
This discovery shatters the whole materialist myth and reveals that the visible material universe is just a shadow of a transcendent Absolute Being.
Your god is God alone, there is no god but Him. He encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Qur'an, 20:98)
The Natural Sciences:
The Collapse of Darwinism And
The Victory of "Intelligent Design"
As stated earlier, one of the main supports for atheism's rise to its zenith in the nineteenth century was Darwin's theory of evolution. By asserting that the origin of human beings and all other living things lay in unconscious natural mechanisms, Darwinism gave atheists the scientific guise they had been seeking for centuries. That time's most passionate atheists adopted his theory, and such atheist thinkers as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels made its elucidation the basis of their philosophy. The relationship between Darwinism and atheism born at that point in time has continued until our own time.
But, at the same time, this core belief of atheism is the very one that has received the greatest blow from twentieth-century science. Discoveries in paleontology, biochemistry, anatomy, genetics, and other scientific fields have shattered the theory of evolution (See Harun Yahya's Darwinism Refuted). We have dealt with this fact in far more detail elsewhere. However, in short, we can say the following:
• Paleontology: Darwin's theory rests on the assumptions that all species come from a single common ancestor and that they diverged from one another over a long period of time by means of small gradual changes. Supposedly, the required proofs would be discovered in the fossil record or the petrified remains of living things. But fossil research conducted during the twentieth century presents a totally different picture, for no fossil of a single undoubted intermediate species, one that would substantiate this theory of gradual evolution among species, has been found. Moreover, every taxon (an animal or plant group having natural relations) appears suddenly in the fossil record, and no trace has ever been found of any previous ancestors. The phenomenon known as the Cambrian Explosion, which scientists classify as a period of time that occurred 540 to 490 million years ago, is especially interesting. In that early geological period, nearly all of the animal kingdom's phyla (major groups with significantly different body structures) appeared suddenly. The sudden emergence of many different categories of living things with totally different body structures and extremely complex organs and systems (e.g., mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms, and, as recently discovered, even vertebrates) rendered the theory of evolution invalid and proved creation, for as evolutionists also agree, a taxon's sudden emergence implies purposeful design, and this means creation.
The most important branch of science for shedding light on the origin of life on earth is paleontology, the study of fossils. Fossil beds, studied with great intensity for the last two hundred years, reveal a picture totally at odds with Darwin's theory. Species did not emerge through small cumulative changes, they appeared quite suddenly, and fully-formed.
• Biological Observations: Darwin elaborated on his theory by relying upon examples of how animal breeders produced different dog or horse varieties. He extrapolated the limited changes he observed to the whole natural world, and proposed that every living thing could have come from a common ancestor. But Darwin made this claim in the nineteenth century, when the level of scientific sophistication was low. In the twentieth century, things changed greatly. Decades of observation and experimentation on various animal species have shown that variation in living things has never gone beyond a certain genetic boundary. Darwin's assertions, like: "I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale"10 actually demonstrates his great ignorance. On the other hand, observations and experiments show that mutations defined by Neo-Darwinism as an evolutionary mechanism add no new genetic information to living creatures.
• The Origin of Life: Darwin spoke about a common ancestor, but never mentioned how this person came to be. His only conjecture was that the first cell could have formed as a result of random chemical reactions "in some small warm little pond."11 But those evolutionary biochemists who sought to close this hole in Darwinism were frustrated by the fact that all of their observations and experiments showed that no living cell could arise within inanimate matter by means of random chemical reactions. Even the English atheist astronomer Fred Hoyle expressed that such a scenario "is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein."12
• Intelligent Design: Scientists who study cells and their molecules, along with the cells' remarkable organization within the body, and the bodily organs' delicate order and plan are faced with proof that evolutionists strongly wish to reject: The world of living things is permeated by designs too complex to be found in any technological equipment. Intricate examples of design, including our eyes that are far superior to any camera, the wings of birds that have inspired flight technology, the complexly integrated system of the cells of living things, and the remarkable information stored in DNA have vitiated the theory of evolution, which regards living things as the product of blind chance.
By the end of the twentieth century, all of these facts had squeezed Darwinism into a corner. Today, in the United States and other Western countries, the theory of intelligent design is gaining ever-increasing acceptance among scientists. Those who defend it say that Darwinism has been a great error in the history of science, and that it came to be so by imposing materialist philosophy on the scientific paradigm. Scientific discoveries show that there is a design in living things, which proves creation. In short, science proves once more that God created all living things.
Psychology: The Collapse of Freudianism
and The Acceptance of Faith
Sigmund Freud
The representative of nineteenth-century atheism in psychology was the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud's greatest assault was against religion. In his The Future of an Illusion, originally published in 1927, Freud proposed that religious faith was a kind of mental illness (neurosis) that would disappear completely as humanity progressed. Due to the primitive scientific conditions of the time, his theory was proposed without either the requisite research and investigation or any scholarly literature or possibility of comparison. Therefore, its claims were extremely deficient.
After Freud, psychology developed on an atheist foundation. Moreover, the founders of other schools of psychology were passionate atheists. A 1972 poll among the members of the American Psychological Association revealed that only 1.1 percent of psychologists in the country had any religious beliefs.13
But most psychologists who fell into this great deception were undone by their own psychological investigations. The basic suppositions of Freudianism were shown to have almost no scientific support. Moreover, religion was shown not to be a mental illness, as Freud and some other psychological theorists declared, but rather a basic element of mental health.
As Glynn says, "modern psychology at the close of the twentieth century seems to be reacquainting itself with religion,"14 and "a purely secular view of human mental life has been shown to fail not just at the theoretical, but also at the practical, level."15
In other words, psychology also has routed atheism.
Medicine:
The Discovery of How "Hearts Find Peace"
Another branch of science affected by the collapse of atheist suppositions was medicine.
In comprehensive research on the relationship between religious belief and physical health, Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Medical School came up with some interesting results. Although he has no religious faith, Benson concluded that faith in God and worship had a far more positive effect on human health than could be observed in anything else. Benson concludes that he has "found that faith quiets the mind like no other form of belief."16
Why is there such a special relation among faith, the human spirit, and the body? Benson, a secular researcher, stated that the human mind and body are "wired for God."17
This fact, which the medical world is slowly beginning to notice, is a secret revealed in the Qur'an:
Only in the remembrance of God can the heart find peace. (Qur'an, 13:28)
The reason why those who believe in God, pray to Him and trust in Him are physically and mentally healthier than others is that they behave in harmony with their nature. Philosophical systems opposed to human nature always bring pain, sorrow, anxiety, and depression in their wake.
The basic source of religious people's peace is that they act in order to gain God's approval. In other words, this peace is the natural result of listening to the voice of one's conscience. People who live the morality of religion simply "to be more at peace" or "to be healthier" cannot live according to the morality of religion; those who act with this intention cannot find peace in its true sense. God well knows what people store in their hearts and what they reveal. Peace of mind comes only by being sincere and attempting to gain God's approval. God commands:
So set your face firmly toward the [true] religion, as a pure natural believer, God's natural pattern on which He made mankind. There is no changing God's creation. That is the true religion—but most people do not know it. (Qur'an, 30:30)
In light of these discoveries, modern medicine is starting to become aware of this truth. As Patrick Glynn says, "contemporary medicine is clearly moving in the direction of acknowledging dimensions of healing beyond the purely material."18
Society: The Fall of Communism,
Fascism, and The Hippie Dream
The collapse of atheism did not occur only in astrophysics, biology, psychology, and medicine; it also happened in politics and social morality.
The collapse of communism may be considered one of the most important examples of this. Communism may be considered the most important political result of nineteenth-century atheism. The founders of this ideology, Marx, Engels, Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), or Mao Zedong (1893-1976), all adopted atheism as a basic principle. A primary goal of all communist regimes was to produce atheistic societies and destroy religious belief. Stalin's Soviet Union, Mao's Communist China, Kampuchea (Cambodia), Albania, and some Eastern bloc countries applied immense pressure on Muslims and other religious people, sometimes to the point of committing mass murder.
Yet, amazingly, at the end of the 1980s, this bloody atheist system collapsed. When we examine the reasons for this dramatic fall, we see that what collapsed was actually atheism. Patrick Glynn writes:
To be sure, secular historians would say that the greatest mistake of Communism was to attempt to defy the laws of economics. But other laws, too, came into play … Moreover, as historians penetrate the circumstances of the Communist collapse, it is becoming clearer that the Soviet elite was itself in the throes of an atheistic "crisis of faith." Having lived under an atheistic ideology—one that consisted of lies and that was based on a "Big Lie"— the Soviet system suffered a radical demoralization, in every sense of that term. People, including the ruling elite, lost all sense of morality and all sense of hope.19
The twentieth century documented not only the fall of communism, but also that of fascism, another fruit of nineteenth-century anti-religious philosophy. Fascism is the outcome of a philosophy that may be called a mixture of atheism and paganism, and is intensely hostile to theist religions. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), who may be called the father of fascism, extolled the morality of barbarous idolatrous societies, attacked Christianity and other monotheistic religions, and even called himself the "Anti-Christ." His disciple, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), was an avid Nazi supporter, and the ideas of these two atheist thinkers gave impetus to the terrifying savagery of Nazi Germany. The Second World War, which caused the death of 55 million people, is another example of the calamity that such atheist ideologies as fascism and communism have brought upon humanity.
At this point, we must recall Social Darwinism, another atheist ideology that helped cause both world wars. In his Europe Since 1870, Harvard history professor James Joll states that behind each of the two world wars lay the philosophical views of Social Darwinist European leaders who believed in the myth that war was a biological necessity and that nations developed through conflict.20
Another social consequence of atheism appeared in Western democracies. In the present day, there is a tendency to regard the West as the "Christian world." However, since the nineteenth century, a quickly growing atheist culture has held sway with Christian culture, and today there is a conflict between them in what we call Western civilization. And this atheist element was the true cause of Western imperialism, moral degeneration, despotism, and other negative manifestations.
Glynn notes that attempts to turn America into an atheist country also have harmed society. The fact that the sexual revolution, for example, that spread during the 1960s and 1970s caused immense social damage in terms of traditional moral values is accepted even by secular historians.21
The hippie movement was a demonstration of this social damage. A world without religion actually brought them to an unhappy end. The hippy leaders of the 1960s either killed themselves or died from drug-induced comas in the early 1970s. Many other young hippies shared a similar fate.
Members of the same generation who turned to violence found themselves on the receiving end of violence. The 1968 generation, which turned its back on God and religion and imagined they could find salvation in such concepts as revolution or selfish Epicureanism, ruined both themselves and their own societies.
The Movement Toward Religious Morality
The facts given above clearly show that atheism is undergoing an inevitable collapse. In other words, humanity is—and will be—turning toward God, and not only in the scientific and political communities. From prominent statesmen to movie stars and pop artists, those who influence opinion in the West are far more religious than they used to be. Many people have seen the truth and come to believe in God after having lived for years as atheists.
Interestingly, the developments contributing to this result also began in the second half of the 1970s. The anthropic principle first appeared in the 1970s, and scientific criticism of Darwinism started to be loudly voiced at the same time. The turning point against Freud's atheist dogma was M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled. For this reason, Glynn, in the 1997 edition of his book, writes that "over the past twenty years, a significant body of evidence has emerged, shattering the foundations of the long-dominant modern secular worldview."22
Surely, the fact that the atheist worldview has been shaken means that another worldview is rising, which is belief in God. Since the end of the 1970s (or, from the beginning of the fourteenth century according to the Muslim calendar), the world has seen a rise in religious values. Like other social processes, because this develops over a long period of time instead of all at once, a majority of people may not notice it. However, those who evaluate the development a little more carefully see that the world is at a major turning point in the realm of ideas.
Conclusion
We are living at an important time. Atheism, which people have tried for hundreds of years to portray as the "way of reason and science," is proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance. Materialist philosophy, which sought to use science for its own ends, has been defeated by science. A world rescuing itself from atheism will turn to God and religion. But, to what religion will it turn? With God's permission, that religion will be Islam.
The time is fast approaching when many people who are living in ignorance with no knowledge of religious morality will be graced by faith in the impending post-atheist world.
The True History Of
The 21 st Century
The 20th century was one of the most important in the history of mankind. As it drew to an end, advances in the scientific and technological fields inevitably gave rise to questions as to the shape of the century to follow.
At the end of the 1980s, the disappearance of a bi-polar world led to attitudes to the likely course of history. That position was known as "the new world order." In a short time, it was placed on a number of theoretical foundations.
One of the new period's most important theoreticians, Francis Fukuyama, claimed that liberal capitalist values were the highest which mankind could attain. In his article "The End of History" that sparked off a whole debate, he suggested that political systems and concepts of living were coming to resemble one another in all parts of the world. In his view, the defining characteristic of ideologies had disappeared, and the world was falling into a competition based on economics. That was not the first time such a claim had been made, of course. Even before Fukuyama, the thesis that history developed by means of competition and conflict had been suggested in the framework of a deterministic and Darwinist concept of history.
Fukuyama's Claim
of the end of History
According to the new thesis, mankind was about to reach the happiest point in its history. In an article in the Wall Street Journal after the Sept. 11 attacks, Francis Fukuyama adopted a Darwinist model of the social sciences, and described the future of humanity in these words:
But the way in which I used the word history was different: it referred to the progress over the centuries toward modernity, characterised by institutions like democracy and capitalism. My observation, made in 1989 on the eve of the collapse of communism, was that this evolutionary process did seem to be bringing ever larger parts of the world toward modernity. And if we looked beyond liberal democracy and markets, there was nothing else towards which we could expect to evolve; hence the end of history.1
Samuel Huntington
Those who adopted a deterministic belief and claimed that mankind had finally come to the end of its road were taken by surprise by the instability and wars in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. The Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and parts of Africa, regions that had lived by Qur'anic morality up to the 20th century and hosted very different cultures and ethnic structures, were submerged in chaos.
Following these developments, a number of theoreticians, led by Professor Samuel P. Huntington from Princeton University, generally put forward an opposing view and claimed that the next years would see a clash of civilisations. According to these theoreticians, cultural differences between civilizations would give rise to ideological conflict, and that these would polarize and accelerate, becoming actual conflicts.
Samuel Huntington had put forward his thesis in a 23-page article in 1993, called "The Clash of Civilizations." It received a mixed reception when first proposed. Recent developments and statements by some Western statesmen have again livened up the debate on the thesis.
As the world entered a new age, ideologues such as Huntington, like Fukuyama, suggested that ideologies had lost their defining characteristics and that there had been a return to the times when civilizations sought their inspiration from religion. According to Huntington's ideas, the conflict between civilizations would grow. In the next century, the world would turn into a place of conflict. Huntington expected the greatest conflict to be between the Western and Islamic civilizations.
The Solution Revealed in the Qur'an
to the Conflict Between Civilizations View
In the Qur'an, mankind is promised peace and well-being, not conflict. Allah says that even people of different religions need to come together and display tolerance:
Say, "O People of the Book! Let us rally to a common formula to be binding on both us and you: That we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah." (Qur'an, 3:64)
That truth alone is enough to invalidate Huntington's expectation of a clash between civilizations. In order for there to be conflicts, both parties need to have an aggressive and hostile mindset, whereas Islam is tolerant of and reconciliatory to other civilizations.
The reasons for the tragedies experienced in the 20th century are mainly the ideas put forward in the 19th. Ever since the earliest times, ideologies which denied creation and claimed that matter was all there was then drew strength from Darwin's theory of evolution and began to spread ever wider. These twisted ideologies suddenly became a philosophy of life for whole societies.
The implementation of materialist ideologies in society led to the prevailing of a view in which only material things were seen as of any importance, by raising generations that oppressed the weak, despised family values, knew nothing of brotherhood or peace, were far removed from such spiritual values as love, sacrifice and respect, had no ethical values and took no pleasure in art or science. As a result of the ideas imposed on society in the light of the materialist mentality, it was intended to create communities that denied the existence of Allah and believed they had no responsibilities to anyone. The way the 20th century has gone down in history as a time of wars, disasters and strife is the result of that materialist mentality.
We have left the 20th century behind us. We are now in the 21st century, a new age. People have now seen that in the 20th century materialist philosophy, by whatever name it may have been known, brought nothing but destruction with it, and they are now turning to Allah. This turning to religion and spiritual values, particularly in the later part of the century, has rapidly embraced the whole world.
These developments are all signs that the time of the promise that the morality of Islam, that Allah has chosen for His servants, will soon come to prevail on the Earth. As can be seen from many verses in the Qur'an, Allah has given the glad tidings that the morality of the Qur'an will come to prevail, by means of the people He has chosen. Allah makes the following promise in the Qur'an:
Allah has promised those of you who believe and do right actions that He will make them successors in the land as He made those before them successors, and will firmly establish for them their religion with which He is pleased and give them, in place of their fear, security. They worship Me, not associating anything with Me. Any who disbelieve after that, such people are deviators. (Qur'an, 24:55)
No matter how much those who come up with theories about the future of the world might appear to differ from one another, they all have one point in common: that is pessimism. The events they evaluate from a materialist perspective prevent them from being optimistic. Even more important, they neglect to take into account that Allah always wants good and pleasant things for those who believe in Him.
Allah is the Protector of those who believe. He brings them out of the darkness into the light...
(Qur’an, 2:257)
(Qur’an, 2:257)
Communism in Ambush
Among the leading scientists advocating the theory of evolution during the 20th century were a considerable number of Marxists. Stephen Jay Gould, the foremost of them, is, after Darwin, perhaps the most quoted name in the USA associated with "the theory of evolution." However, there exists another ideology he is committed to along with Darwinism: Marxism.
In his view, Darwinism and Marxism are two sides of the same coin. In 1992, when the whole world believed "communism has been abolished once and for all," Gould said, following his return from a visit to Russia, "Yes, the Russian reality does discredit a specific Marxist economics, but Marx has been proven right about the validity of the larger model of punctuational change."1 That is, according to Gould, Marxism is still alive.
Scientists such as Alexander Oparin and J. B. S. Haldane, who produced the most important works on the theory of evolution in the first half of the 20th century, are all strong advocates of Marxism. In our day, evolutionists in the West, such as John Maynard Smith and Richard Lewontin also support Marxism.
According to them, Darwinism and Marxism mean very much the same thing. Both theories depend upon a common philosophical premise: dialectical materialism. While Marx applied dialectical materialism to history, Darwin applied it to nature. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, the event which is interpreted as "The abolition of Communism" by the world, was, according to these scientists, nothing more than a mere "collapse of a flawed interpretation of Marxism." A Marxist understanding of politics will exist so long as dialectical materialism exists.
Today, things have taken a much different course: According to Marx, a society needs to go through particular phases. It should first experience capitalism, then proceed to socialism and ultimately to communism. However, Russia and other communist regimes of the 20th century have experienced a leap from agrarian society to socialism, leaving out the intermediate capitalist stage, which is the reason for the failure of these regimes, according to Marxists. By their recent embrace of capitalism, these countries have become ripe for the "capitalist stage" foreseen by Marx. This would lay the ground for the ultimate arrival of an even stronger and permanent socialist regime. This interpretation is the one adopted by those who still have faith in Marxism in our day.
Communism was the bloodiest ideology that caused more than 120 milion innocent deaths in the 20th century. It was a nightmare which promised equality and justice, but which brought only bloodshed, death, torture and fear.
Consequently, those who think communism has been relegated to the trash heaps of history with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, and thus is no longer a threat to world peace, are on the wrong tack. Communism is the political theory of dialectical materialism, and it will exist as long as dialectical materialism exists. If a philosophy persists in a society, then it only remains for the "appropriate ground to appear" for this philosophy to become politically effective. If dialectical materialism exists forcefully and extensively, then communism, which is its political dimension, may well become an effective power when appropriate conditions arise. The fact remains that today, communists hold considerable power, even in European countries. Communist parties in France and Italy are still powerful; they are all doing well at the ballot box. In the former Eastern Bloc countries, on the other hand, there still exist the former communist cadres commanding socialist parties, and they are increasing their share of the vote. An international economic crisis may well open the way to these socialist parties, pushing the countries in question to communist-ruled regimes.
nations into terrible crises, conflicts and wars, and inflicted horrendous disasters on the world. It bears a significant part of the responsibility for much of the suffering and crises that mankind is still experiencing.
Russia: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back!
The situation in Russia is even more striking. By the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the regime has been steered towards fascism rather than democracy. Yeltsin, who raised strong objections to the Duma (The Russian Parliament) when he was in power, had a fascist personality and management style. Today, his legacy is kept alive by his successor, Putin.
After 1991, almost no changes occurred in the Russian political regime and culture. The main change, however, was in the economy and social structure. A "savage capitalism," similar to the one experienced in England during the 19th century, holds sway over Russia today. The weakening of the central authority of the state gave rise to the stepping in of the mafia, which forms a sort of "feudal structure" in the country. That is to say, the current structure of Russia, from the Marxist perspective, is a structure of "pre-communism." This is how communists, who enjoy high shares of the vote in Russia, and, what is more, who are influential in the state mechanism, evaluate the current situation in Russia. A potential international crisis, which might well shake the credibility of liberal economy and democracy, can any time easily change this communist theory into reality and establish another communist regime in Russia.
In fact, another stealthy tactic of communism emerges here: Communists, in their own way, make arrangements to put the disrupted historical sequence of events (the transition from capitalism to communism) right. For this reason, they delivered the Russian people into the hands of the Mafia and set the stage for classical capitalism to flourish. This system, devised to impoverish the Russian people, compelled the public to say, "There is no other way out than communism."
On the other hand, communism continues to exist in secret. The cadres of today are the legacy of former communists. These people, deeply imbued with Marx's dialectic materialism, have never abandoned their dreams for the communist cause. Being true communists, they are implementing and advocating capitalism at present.
Behind the scenes, however, communism is actually in power in Russia. In the hands of the ardent communist cadre, the capitalist lifestyle becomes a tool to impoverish the public and make conditions wretched for them. Meanwhile, a policy of the instilling of irreligiousness and immorality is kept alive. Such tactics and inspirations ensure moral deprivation and a society distant to the existence of God, which make people more liable to embrace communism.
The power held by Russian communists, who still march with posters of Stalin or Lenin in their hands, must not be belittled or ignored. Communists see the collapse of the USSR in 1991 as a temporary withdrawal on the way to their ultimate aim, as foreseen by Lenin in his book One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (1904). In this book, Lenin presents his views as follows:
One step forward, two steps back... It happens in the lives of individuals, and it happens in the history of nations and in the development of parties. It would be the most criminal cowardice to doubt even for a moment the inevitable and complete triumph of the principles of revolutionary Social-Democracy, of proletarian organisation and Party discipline.2
Russia's Communist leader Stalin, widely regarded as the bloodiest dictator in the history of the world, took over the fields of the peasants in the name of the policy of collectivization which was intended to do away with private property. All the Russian villagers' crops were collected by armed officials. As a result there was a terrible famine. Millions of women, children, and the elderly who could find nothing to eat ended their lives writhing in hunger. The death toll in the Caucasus alone was 1 million.
Conclusion
In our day, communism has put the "one step forward, two steps back" tactic into practice and has taken a step backwards. For this reason, communists carry out their activities in various countries under the guise of different names, spreading the message that communism is no longer a threat to the world. Nonetheless, the concept of "fight" inherent in dialectical materialism, under all conditions, turns communism into an endless "source of bloodshed" for all humanity. No matter under which guise or label it is presented, it can bring nothing but cruelty and misery to mankind, since it considers dialectical struggle as an inherent law of history.
The measure which should be taken against this danger is to "dry up the marsh," in which it thrives. Trying to squash individual mosquitoes, that is, the advocates of communism, one by one would be quite inadequate to the task of drying up the entire marsh. As long as the marsh remains, mosquitoes will keep on proliferating.
Which method will ensure a complete removal of the problem?
Darwin's theory of evolution is the common basis upon which Marxists, Marxist-Leninists, Maoists and advocates of other versions of communism—and even of fascism—rest. This theory, in the words of Marx, is "the basis of all natural sciences" from the perspective of communism. From the point of view of materialist teaching, Engels considered Darwin equivalent to Marx.
Without Darwinism, there exists no communism. Consequently, the only true antidote against communism, which cost more than 100 million lives in the 20th century, and which is still stealthily trying to get organised and build up strength, is the ideological and scientific refutation of Darwinism. When it is revealed that Darwinism is a collapsed theory in terms of science, that living things did not come into existence by evolution but were flawlessly created by God, then neither Marx, nor Lenin, nor Mao and nor any militants, who shed blood or prepare to do so from the inspiration they receive from the posters of those leaders which hang on their walls, will remain in the world.
The removal of the deceit of Darwinism will bring about the end of "source of bloodshed" such as communism while making people turn to God, our true Creator and Lord, and live by the morals revealed by Him.
Crusaders, Templars and
Freemasonry
Freemasonry was officially established and recognized in England in the 18th century but actually, the roots of the organization reach back to the Crusades in the 12th century. At the focal point of this old story is an order of crusaders called the Knights of the Temple or the Templars, for short.
No matter how much many people may believe that the Crusades were a product of Christian faith, they were basically wars undertaken for material gain. In a period when Europe was experiencing great poverty and misery, the comfort and wealth of the East, especially of the Muslim Middle East, attracted Europeans. This motivation took on a religious appearance decorated with the symbols of Christianity but actually the idea of the Crusades was born out of a desire for worldly gain. This was the reason for the sudden change among Christians from their former pacifist policies in earlier periods of their history to a tendency towards military aggression.
The initiator of the Crusades was Pope Urban II. He summoned the Council of Clermont in 1095 in which the former Christian doctrine of pacifism was changed. A holy war was announced that was to wrest the holy lands from the hands of the Muslims. Afterwards, a huge army of Crusaders was formed composed both of professional soldiers and tens of thousands of ordinary people.
Historians think that this venture of Urban II was prompted by his desire to eclipse the candidacy of a rival for the papacy. European kings, princes, aristocrats and others greeted the Pope's call with excitement but their intentions were basically worldly. "The French knights wanted more land. Italian merchants hoped to expand trade in Middle Eastern ports... Large numbers of poor people joined the expeditions simply to escape the hardships of their normal lives."1 Along the way, this greedy mass killed many Muslims and even Jews just hoping to find gold and jewels. The crusaders even cut open the stomachs of those they had killed to find gold and precious stones that the victims may have swallowed before they died. The material greed of the crusaders was so great that they did not hesitate to sack the Christian city of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the 6th Crusade during which they stripped off the gold leaf from the Christian frescoes in Hagia Sophia.
So, this band called Crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099 after burning and looting many places and putting many Muslims to the sword. After a long siege of five weeks, the city fell and the Crusaders entered. As one historian put it, "They killed all the Saracens and the Turks they found... whether male of female.2 One of the Crusaders, Raymund of Aguiles, wrote these words in praise of this savagery:
Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted ... in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.3
The Crusaders reached
Jerusalem in 1099 after
burning and looting
many places and putting
many Muslims to the
sword.
Jerusalem in 1099 after
burning and looting
many places and putting
many Muslims to the
sword.
According to the same historical source, the number of Muslims pitilessly slaughtered was 40,000.4 The crusaders made Jerusalem their capital and founded a Latin Kingdom stretching from the borders of Palestine to Antioch.
Later, the crusaders began a struggle to hold their position in the Middle East. In order to sustain the state they had founded, they had to organize it. To do this, they established military orders, which had never existed before. Members of these orders came from Europe to Palestine and lived in a kind of monastery where they received military training to fight against Muslims.
One of these orders was different from the others. It underwent a change that would influence the course of history. This order was the Templars.
From the Templars to Freemasonry
The Templars, or, their full name, The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, was formed in 1118, that is 20 years after the crusaders took Jerusalem. The founders of the order were two Frenchmen, Hugh de Payens and Godfrey de St. Omer. At first there were 9 members but the order steadily grew. The reason that they called themselves after the temple of Solomon was that the place they chose as a base was the temple mount where this ruined temple had been located. At the same time, this place was where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stood.
The Templars had called themselves "poor soldiers", but within a short time they became wealthy. Christian pilgrims coming from Europe to Palestine were completely under the control of this order which became very rich on the money collected from the pilgrims. In addition, for the first time they set up a cheque-bond system similar to that of a bank. According to the BBC commentators, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, they established a kind of Medieval capitalism and led the way to modern banking by their management of interest.5
The Templars were the ones mainly responsible for the crusaders' attacks against and murder of Muslims. For this reason, the great Islamic commander Saladin, who defeated the crusaders' army in 1187 in the Battle of Hattin and afterwards rescued Jerusalem, put the Templars to death for the murders they had committed even though he had pardoned a large number of Christians. Although they lost Jerusalem and suffered heavy losses, the Templars continued to exist. And despite the continual diminution of the Christian presence in Palestine, they increased their power in Europe and, first in France, and then on other countries, they became a state within a state.
There is no doubt that this political power made European monarchs uncomfortable. But there was another aspect of the Templars that also made the clergy uneasy: the order had gradually broken its ties with Christian faith and while in Jerusalem, they adopted a number of strange mystical doctrines. There were also rumors that they were organizing strange rites to express these doctrines.
Finally, in 1307, the French king Philip the Fair and Pope Clement V jointly decided to arrest the members of the order. Some of them managed to escape but most of them were caught. Afterwards, a long period of interrogation and trial began and many of them admitted that they were actually heretical, that they had rejected the Christian faith and insulted Jesus in their masses. Finally, the leaders of the Templars who were called "grand masters", beginning with the most important of them, Jacques de Molay, were executed in 1314 by the order of the Church and the King. The majority of them were put into prison, the order dispersed and officially disappeared. But although the order "officially" ceased to exist, it did not mean that it had actually disappeared. During the main arrest in 1307, some Templars escaped and managed to cover their tracks. According to a thesis based on various historical documentation, a significant number of these escaped Templars took refuge in the single kingdom in Europe that did not recognize the authority of the Catholic Church in the 14th century—Scotland. There they reorganized under the protection of the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce. A while later, they found a good method of camouflage to allow them to continue their existence: they infiltrated the oldest guild in the medieval British Isles—the wall builders' lodge.6
The wall builders' lodge changed its name at the beginning of the modern era and called itself the "Masonic lodge". (The dictionary defines the term "mason" as a master wall builder.) The Scottish Rite is the oldest branch of Masonry and goes back to the beginning of the 14th century to those Templars who took refuge in Scotland. And the names given to the highest degrees in Scottish Rite are titles that were given to knights in the order of Templars centuries earlier. It is still the same today.
In short, the Templars did not disappear and their philosophy, beliefs and rituals still continue under the roof of Freemasonry. This thesis has many historical proofs and is accepted today by a large number of Western historians whether they are Freemasons or not.
The thesis that the roots of Freemasonry go back to the Templars is often pointed out in magazines published by Turkish Masonry for its own members. On this topic the Freemasons are very open. One of these magazines is called Mimar Sinan which describes the relationship between the Order of Templars and Masonry in these words:
In 1312, when the French king, under pressure from the Church, closed the Order of Templars and gave their possessions to the Knights of St. John, the activities of the Templars ceased. The great majority of the Templars took refuge in Masonic lodges that were operating in Europe at that time… Scottish Masons, who inherited the Templars' heritage, gave it back to France many years later and established there the basis of the rite known as the Scottish Rite.7
Again, the Mimar Sinan magazine gives much information about the relationship between the Templars and Freemasonry. In an article entitled "Templars and Freemasons", it says that "the rituals for the initiation ceremony of the Order of Templars are similar to those of present-day Masonry."8 According to the same article, "just as in Masonry, the members of the Order of Templars called each other 'brother'."9 Towards the end of the article we read,
The Order of Templars and the Masonic organization have influenced each other to a noticeable extent. Even the rituals of the corporations are so similar as to have been copied from the Templars… To summarize, as we said at the beginning of this essay, we can say that the starting point of Masonry's royal art and initiatic-esoteric line was the Templars and its end point is Freemasonry.10
The Impact of the Crusade
Philosophy to Our Day
It is clear that the roots of Masonry stretch back to the Order of Templars and the Masons have adopted the philosophy of this order, which was established by the Crusaders. While considering the impact of Crusaders to our day, we need to remember this point and the far-reaching influences of Masonry on the world. The aims of Masonry are explained by one of the most well-known Turkish Freemasons Selami Isindag in his book Masonluktan Esinlenmeler (Masonic Inspirations):
According to Freemasonry, it is necessary to rid people of a character inspired by metaphysical divine sources, and instead establish a character based on the love of man, which is free from relativity. In its basic ethical principles, Masonry considers the inclinations of man, his needs, satisfactions, the laws and order of social life, consciousness (conscience), freedom of speech and thought and finally, the entire plan of nature, and therefore aims to establish and develop values centered around man in all societies.11
This is the final purpose of Masonry: to eradicate religion and to establish a humanist and godless world where the concept of "man" will be held sacred; where people will deny God Who created them, and take themselves as "idols".
For this reason, it is essential to protect the society from this disaster by shattering the godless suggestions of Masonry and thus save the faith of people. What we have to do is tell people about the existence of God and the values of religion by supporting them with the facts revealed by science. When Muslims undertake this responsibility, by the will of God, this verse will come true: "Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through it and it vanishes clean away!" (Qur'an, 21:18)
When this is realized, the representatives of the evil will "vanish clean away" and the 21st century will be the age of Islamic values rather than the evil's alliance as they presume.
