Controversy between Science and Religion

Question:-

There is a battle, mainly in the USA, between Scientists who support the Theory of Evolution and Religious Fundamentalists who support Intelligent Design. One recent evangelical commentator posited the "legally proven beyond any doubt" proposition. In this particular regard, I was wondering how Muslims perceive the recent court decision in the USA over the contentious "Intelligent Design" case? See this Internet link (968,000 hits):- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=court+case+%22intelligent+design+%22&btnG=Search.

Does this "legally proven beyond any doubt" outcome have any implications for Islam or just fundamentalist evangelism? Do Muslim agree with the underhand tactics deployed by the "Intelligent Design" advocates? Does not their stance, in Islamic terms, reflect the unethical "the end justifies the means" premise?

Comment:-

I see confusion owing to ignorance and inadequate thinking.

As far as I see matters, Science is concerned with the physical aspect of the Created Universe. Religion is concerned with a much wider field that includes values and purposes, life, behaviour and action in adjustment to Reality.

Logic and Reason (which is wider) and both are a sub-set of thinking, which is a subset of living, are also concerned with the created world. These are subsets of Intelligence. Human beings are much more than this as they have perception, consciousness, conscience, motives, desires, imagination, various skills and capacities for action. As human beings are part of existence created from its materials and laws then existence as a whole possess these features. Sight is the power of the eye, but it is the person who has the eye that sees. There is a distinction between the Psychological and physical though they are inter-dependent.

As far the Legal system is concerned that refers to a third factor between the Psychological and the Physical, namely the Social sphere. This is concerned with social contracts, conditioning, traditions and organisations, though physical facts and reason also play their part.

The distinction between these three fields must be kept in mind, Failure to do this results in much confusion. It is this confusion that we now see in the USA.

From the Islamic point of view, we see that the Universe certainly contains order and design. We also see that intelligence exists in us and also in other things. We cannot, therefore, define intelligence in an anthropomorphic manner. It can be defined as the ability to adjust, adapt and find equilibrium.

Fundamentally, there is a Unity from which all things come by differentiation. This means that there is a System which has inter-dependent parts that are also system, each having parts that are systems and so on through the various levels or heavens and earths. The System is a whole that is more than the sum of the parts owing to the pattern or structure and the numerous interactions and feed back loops that create non-linear equations and uncertainty principles. The wholes create or affect the parts and the parts must adjust to the whole. Therefore, the impulse that comes from the fundamental whole passes down the levels producing effects.

Unlike Western Philosophy and science, there is no distinction in Islam between the physical and the mental or between them and the spiritual. There are only different kinds of phenomena that have these aspects to various degrees.

The Mechanical Determinist principle arises from this distinction. It is an assumption before facts are collected, interpreted, organised and processes, and it re-appears in the conclusions giving the false assumption that it has been proved. In fact, it has been assumed in order to avoid the notion of intelligence because its effects are unpredictable. And yet unpredictability remains and is then assumed under the name Chance or Random. In fact, Chance cannot be a Cause and simply refers to ignorance and inability to calculate.

However, in so far as science has the limited objective it can only pursue those objectives as far as it can, and modify the aims and its principles when necessity demands it. (Occam’s Razor which is also implied in Quran 7:71). In so far as all things are fundamentally connected and knowledge advances such a necessity will inevitably come to pass. This is a surer way of proceeding when only reason is used with the aid of technology that extends the senses. (Discoveries in Quantum Physics appear to have reached this point but its conclusions have not yet suffused through all the sciences.)

However, the human being is a much more sensitive instrument than those that have been invented and interacts with the world directly at much subtler levels. Reasoning can, of course, start only from something that is not rational, something assumed, understood or perceived, and it must lead to some conclusion that can be verified by perception. But perception requires interaction with the world, is much more restricted than interaction, and can be wrong. The ultimate test of truth is that it is self-consistent and leads to harmonious adjustment to Ultimate Reality, to what we call Allah.

For Islam the fundamental assumption is that Allah, the unitary origin of all Reality exists. The second assumption is that intelligence exists because Allah has created it. It includes consciousness (perception), conscience (the motivating force) and will (the power to adjust). This is because without it nothing can be known, nor is there any motive to know or any interaction by which knowledge is obtained. In other words there cannot be any science, and indeed any life without it, and Science itself is just one aspect of life. Intelligence is required to live, and obtaining knowledge is part of this. We have this intelligence because we are part of existence, made of its materials and interact with it. If the mind were to work differently from the way nature works it could not know it, but it could not work differently because it is part of it. When we acquire knowledge we absorb and increase intelligence, which enhances the ability to adjust to Reality.

The third assumption is that the contents of consciousness exist. This includes sensations, feelings and thoughts and they are also inter-dependent. It is these that give us the notions of matter (inertia, resistance), life (energy) and spirit (order, information, truth) respectively. They correspond to the aspects of Intelligence mentioned before and also give us the notions of facts, meaning and value. It also gives us three aspects or levels of knowledge, of experience, of reason and of inspiration.

It is necessary to understand that Knowledge requires:- (a) Degrees of Intelligence (b) Certain fundamental notions that conform to the nature of the mind and are inherent. (c) Motives that direct attention and determine seeking, selecting, interpreting and organising data. These flow from inherent drives and their channelling through experience namely the self-preservation, reproductive, the social and the self-extensive. (d) Experience in the environment based on sense perception. (e) Certain social and cultural conditions that provide stimuli, conceptual systems and frameworks in which things are perceived. (f) A set of activities and skills by which interaction with the environment takes place which determines the kind of data available. (g) Processing of data by comparison, association, analysis, and synthesis. The raw sense data goes through several levels;- sensation, perception, conception, ideation, systematisation, integration, assimilation. (h) Inspiration or revelation when suddenly data falls into a pattern, a self-consistent system that feels satisfying because it is consistent with inherent factors. This may be regarded as something arising into normally restricted consciousness from the much wider unconscious mind which is in interaction with the rest of existence.

Science tends to base itself mainly on the sense of sight and often indirectly through instruments or various dials on them. In fact, there are many more senses than those that are generally recognised. We can classify them as follows:-

(a) The outer senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. These can be subdivided. For instance sight includes colours, intensities, shapes, patterns. Touch includes the sense of pressure, texture and temperature.

(b) The middle or physiological senses - balance, orientation, movement, the kinaesthetic muscle sense that gives us the idea of weight, various physical sensations, the sense of physical well being, pain and pleasure, sense of warmth or cold.

(c) The inner senses - thought, feeling (desire, emotion, sympathy, empathy), willing (intending, volitional efforts), sense of self, sense of order and consistency, meaning, inspiration.

A distinction can be made between four levels of knowledge:- (a) Type 1 - Knowing Of X - Having information. E.g. we know that the moon exists. (b) Type 2 - Knowing About X - Passive and Impersonal. E.g. Scientific knowledge, which may consist of a set of facts. (c) Type 3 - Knowing X - Interactive knowledge. E.g. knowing ones spouse and children. (d) Gnosis - Knowledge of Identification. E.g. Empathy, the ability to see oneself in place of the other and experience the same. There are degrees of this.

Other things that are sometimes included here are such things as a sense of Beauty, Justice, Goodness, Truth etc. But these are regarded as Attributes of Allah and therefore, as fundamental Categories of Perception.

Question:-

You say that science is based on the unproved assumption of Determinism, that Religion is based on the assumption of Intelligence, and you seem to indicate that as they are assumptions both are equally valid ways of explaining the phenomenon of the Universe. I can see how the religious assumption arose, but how did the scientific assumption of Determinism arise?

Answer:-

I did not say that both assumptions are valid in Science - Science and religion have different purposes as I have pointed out and therefore, different assumptions and methods. My argument is that Knowledge requires intelligence and that it is acquired by man from the same source as the rest of nature because he is part of it, made of its laws and materials and developed by interaction with it. He understands it because it, nature, conforms to the same principles as does man's intelligence. Instead of explaining Evolution by “Random Mutation and Natural Selection” as Science does, we could see things as Learning and Adaptation through “Variation and Selection”. This can be seen as an example of Intelligence. There is variation so that as conditions change there are always some individuals that are better adapted. Evolution is increasing adaptability to more general levels of reality through learning. This way of looking at things has greater significance for human life. We should see things in terms of significance for human life because we have arisen by the principles that have assured our evolution. This can be regarded as an Islamic interpretation of the Anthropic Principle.

Science on the other hand begins after a distinction is made between mind and matter, between the subject and the object, and thereafter, science concentrates attention on matter and ignores the mind, though no real knowledge is possible without interaction between them. (There is reason to believe that this is about to change owing to discoveries in quantum Physics.) When intelligence of the mind is ignored then matter is regarded as inert and Determinism is assumed. This is connected with how the mind works.

Consider Newton's Laws of motion on which all science depends. According to the first law no change can take place unless an external force acts to cause a change. It is assumed that fundamentally things remain the same. In other words the phenomena of the Universe require the pre-existence of something that is not the Universe but external to it. According to the Second Law of Motion, the change in motion in an object is proportional to the force acting on it. But we can ask: How do we know that there is a force? The answer is that we can measure it by the change in motion. This is, of course a vicious circle. The assumption has determined the conclusion. This determinism also shows itself in Logical arguments that take the form:- C is A, A is B, Therefore, C is B. This is valid only if the terms do not change but are always the same and have the same relationship with each other.

This is connected with the fact that human beings are not aware of things that are uniform, but that a stimulus is required to arouse consciousness. This stimulus refers to a contrast between something A and its background X. This is the beginning of the Relative World. Thereafter other things arising from X are seen as different from A or arising as different parts of A. Knowledge refers to this World of Relativity. The stimulus not only arouses consciousness but also activates for a purpose. This opposition constitutes a problem which requires a solution. The solution consists of a reconciliation that will restore the original unity or harmony, by removing the opposition. An explanation has just this function.

In other words, there is an Epistemological Assumption that there is originally an Absolute from which the Relative World derives and into which it must return. It is also a fundamental Phenomenological or Metaphysical Truth on which the Epistemological Assumption is based. Note also that the stimulus (the problem, the contrast, the relativity) has three psychological aspects - perception, motive and action. These are ignored in science, but are the foundations in Religion.

"Verily, we are Allah's and, verily, to Him is our return." Quran 2:157

"Unto Allah do all cases return." Quran 2:210

"Seek they other than Allah's religion? When to Him surrenders whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and unto Him shall they return!" Quran 3:83

Question:-

Is it not true that Islam places emphasis on knowledge? How then can Muslims oppose science? Is it not true that science came into the West from Islam?

Answer:-

Muslims do not and cannot oppose science, but they can and must see its limitations. It is a human effort to expand knowledge through the faculties they have. These have limitations and need to be expanded. It is an obligation for Muslims to seek knowledge and expand their faculties. But Islam abhors speculation and requires knowledge through experience. (Quran 17:37, 14:19, 53:28, 20:14, 26:83, 34:46, 10:37, 10:90). Science differs from Philosophy in that gathers facts through observation and experiments and when it constructs theories it tests them by observation and experiment. That is, it asks Nature, made by God, questions and abides by its answers.

In Islam Science is justified by the following :-

The Quran directs our attention to the processes and rhythms of Nature. (3:190 etc). The Quran is itself called "naught else than a reminder to creation." (68:52). The notion of unity underlying diversity. (2:163, 2:213, 4:171, 5:73, 10:19, 11:118, 54:50). The inter-dependence of things.(because of order and unity) The Lawfulness of the Universe. (13:15, 14:19 30:30 etc.). The Universality of truth. ( 39:5, 46:3). The Stages of development (13:38 10:5 etc.). Objectivity - the need to submit to truth and to Allah who is the real.(4:171, 5:77, 6:93, 7:169, 2:42,149,213, 3:17,71 etc.). The need to search for and apply knowledge. (6:123 etc.). The need to observe and think. The need to discuss and reach a consensus.(3:159, 42:38, 65:6). The need to write down or record.(68:1, 3:181, 10:21, 19:79, 21:94, 23:62, 29:48, 36:12, 69:19). The need to test and abide by the judgement of nature rather than follow our own opinions and desires. (10:37 etc.). The need for proof. ( 17:36, 6:106 etc.). Not to accept heresay and tradition.( 2:170). The idea of measuring.(54:49, 65:3, 6:152, 11:85, 12:59-60,88, 22:74). The importance of language or conceptual systems.(33:70, 14:4, 4:9, 7:169, 16:116, 44:58). Skepticism - Not to attribute anything to Allah which is untrue or for which we have no evidence. (10:18 etc.) We may also call this the principle of uncertainty as encapsulated in the word, "Inshallah".

Even Occam's Razor - i.e. discouraging the unnecessary invenntion of concepts and names can be justified by verses such as the following:-

"He said: Already have fallen upon you from your Lord terror and wrath; do you wrangle with me about names, which you and your fathers have named yourselves, for which Allah sent down no warrant. Then wait expectant, lo! I, too, am of those waiting with you." Quran 7:71

Scientists tell us that Occam’s Razor prevents science from admitting the concept of God because everything can be explained through natural laws. But the Islamic concept of Allah does not require any proof. It is a necessary assumption underlying thought and everything else. Allah is the fundamental Reality, the origin of all things including matter, energy, order, natural laws, life and consciousness. These things do exist and are potentialities in existence and much else that has not yet been actualised exists as potentialities. Allah is an all-comprehensive term.

Question:-

Is it not true that the nature of science has changed and is changing? I am thinking of the results of sub-atomic particle and quantum research. Is it not now thought that, at least at that level, the intentions, choices and effects of the human mind have to be taken into consideration?

Answer:-

Whereas there is some truth in this, the fact is that the significance of these results has not been widely appreciated and it has not made much impact on the rest of Physics or Biology or Psychology or any of the other sciences.

But it has been known by Psychologists for some time that what we see depends on where our attention is directed and on our actions which elicit reactions from the environment, and that our attention is directed by our interests, motives, purposes and values which are affected by the Society, its technological, economic, political and cultural conditions. Human minds can suppress, distort and invent. There are real experiences, suggestions, partial perception, vague impressions, illusions, delusions and hallucinations. They are prone to habits of thought, expectations, desires, addictions, obsessions, phobias, superstitions and prejudices. There are hypnotic states of various degrees in which people can see what is not there, or not see what is. They can be fascinated or hypnotised by objects, events, institutions and persons that narrow down consciousness so that they are controlled by the thing to which the attachment is formed.

The direction of Science, for instance, depends on its organisation and funding, which is driven by commercial and political interests. Technologies, the kind of instruments that are invented affect the progress of science. Today scientific progress depends on computers. Things like mechanisation influence and are influenced by scientific notions. The Universe was once thought of as resembling a mechanical clock. Later with the coming of steam engines the Universe was thought of as being governed by Thermodynamical laws. To day it is Einstein's Relativity theory that gives us quite a different view of the Universe. The invention of computers changed the view of the Universe again. This kind of thing will undoubtedly continue as science progresses and changes. Science is done by scientists who are human and have human limitations in intelligence, consciousness and motive. Their ambitions, desires, fantasies, prejudices also affect what they see or do unless they have the pure motive to seek the truth or are detached, not personally involved, and therefore, indifferent with low empathy and insight. Fortunately they can be corrected by others, though all scientists in a field are trained in the same way, in the same environment and accept the same conceptual system.

Science can be variously defined as a particular methodology or as a body of a particular kind of knowledge or as a set of concepts. Scientific knowledge certainly depends on the kind of concepts used and how the terms are defined, explicitly or implicitly. These are usually narrow and rigid, distinguished from each other, so that it tends to compartmentalise reality and there is seldom an understanding of degrees. The conceptual system is, therefore, artificial and unlike the real world where things are inter-dependent and tend to merge into one another without borders. Consider the way scientists think about intelligence, life, energy, matter and order. For instance, it is supposed that the sun and the earth are not alive but dead inert objects when, in fact, they contain complex parts and processes and interactions as in any other creature and there is much complexity in the electrical and chemical activity in these as there is in the human brain. It is not necessary that the concepts should be everywhere the same. It is perfectly possible to have different kinds of sciences based on different concepts and methodologies.

There is, in fact, no static thing as science. What was called science today is not the same thing as that which was called science in the past and, no doubt, it will not be the same as what is called science in the future. The word science really also refers to a restricted kind of knowledge. We could say that Islam is concerned mainly with knowledge which is a wider area than science.

Today Science has reached a new frontier owing to Quantum research and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It is now evident that:-

(a) All things in the Universe are inter-related and that there is an underlying Unity which the Islamic notion of Tauhid affirms.

(b) It is also gradually becoming clear that the whole is more than the sum of the parts owing to the patterns and that the parts are dependent on each other and on the whole.

(c) The Uncertainty Principle affirms that at the fundamental level things are not subject to the kind of Determinism scientists supposed in the past.

(d) In so far as the fundamental units, of which the Universe is composed, are like waves in space-time and bundles of probability they are not material but collapse into particles when they interact. It is not mass or energy that is fundamental, but order or structures in space-time that might be multi-dimensional. Phenomena can be better explained in terms of Information.

(e) Instead of speaking about Parallel Universes, a better way of understanding Reality may be that there is a World of Potentialities underlying the Actual or Experienced World. The Actual world is a small part of Reality, like a surface of a sphere or like an Island in a vast sea.

(f) Though the interaction between things shows a direction of development in time as well as in order, the existence of matter and anti-matter, of electrons as well as positrons shows that causation is as much from past to future as from future to past. This gives Purpose a meaning.

(g) It is also clear that the nature of what we see is not independent of human behaviour. Whereas Descartes created the distinction between subjective and objective, the observing mind and the observed object, mind and matter, the knower and the known, he ignored the third factor, the interaction between them, the experience, the knowing. This needs to be rectified.

(h) An Anthropic Principle is recognised in Science which recognises that the laws of the Universe are such that intelligent conscious human beings have arisen that can understand the workings of the Universe. According to this Principle no theories should be acceptable that prevent the arising of such conscious beings. In fact, knowledge itself evolves and has consequences in driving evolution.

All this is implicit in Islam. But all this also has implications for human behaviour, both factual and ethical, but this has not yet been explored in conventional science.

----------<O>----------

Contents